Happy Birthday, Future: 10 Essential Future Tracks

Today was Future's 33rd birthday. As he begins his 34th lap around the sun, let us revisit 10 of the finest tracks he has made over the course of his illustrious career. It is a testament to the depth of his catalogue that the only fair way to select ten songs is to pick one song from each of his projects. So that's what we did -- from Pluto through EVOL, plus "Commas" to round it out.

The most enduring single from Pluto, "Turn on the Lights" augured Future's incredible crossover potential. The song peaked at #2 on the US R&B/hiphop chart, still Future's best performance on that chart to date. It also features an aqueous pop sound that Mike Will Made-It would later revisit on SremmLife 2.

Mike WiLL's garbage disposal bass is the hottest bass sound this side of Ginuwine's "Pony." I imagine Future's initial reaction upon hearing the "Move that Dope" beat for the first time was comparable to Jay Z's reaction to hearing Timbaland's "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" beat for the first time.

The subtext of "Codeine Crazy," and much of Future's best music from Monster onward, is misery. Even "celebrating like the championship" every day and indulging in every conceivable material luxury cannot heal his post-Ciara heartbreak.

Future may not be a member of the 3 Commas club, but the galloping piano and unforgettable chorus of "Commas" has surely provided to the soundtrack to the rain-making of over $1 billion.

On "Lay Up," Future takes a page out of the Ty Dolla $ign playbook by treating a song as an exploration of all the uses of one juicy keyword -- in this case "Lay Up," a double entrendre that stands for the ease with which Future beds women.

Here's what we wrote about "March Madness" in our list of 2015's Hottest Beats: "Rarely has a beat captured the essence of what the rapper is trying to say as it does on 'March Madness.' Tarentino’s loping synth and swerving drums perfectly convey the image of Future fleeing Magic City on a Monday, 'driving the foreign like it was a Chevy,' going nowhere at 110 MPH. Soon to recreate Grant Wood's 1936 painting 'Death on Ridge Road.'"

If Mike WiLL's "Move That Dope" features the hottest bass sound this side of Ginuwine's "Pony," "I Serve The Base" may feature the hottest bass sound this side of "Move that Dope." It is the death march of the Mumakil.

"Live From The Gutter" is far from the most popular song on WATTBA, but is entirely indebted to Future's aesthetic and not remotely indebted to Drake's native aesthetic. Though the song references Future's upbringing in the Kirkwood section of Atlanta, it could just as easily refer to the present, when lean is his last refuge.

Future's willingness to confront his drug addiction is what makes him a great artist, and "Perkys Calling" is his latest cry for help.

Future rarely contextualizes his life in the broader black struggle, but when he does, it yields satisfying results. While his "All these cops shooting niggas, tragic, I'm the one that's living lavish" line on "March Madness" is a twinge of guilt, he less apologetic on "Low Life": "They stereotyping,' 'cause they know a nigga keep ten rifles."