Among a posing group image, five rows of smiling young women and men in Estonian folk costumes, a man pushes his way forward and places a cap on his head before crossing his arms and signalling the start of Future’s 2017 hit song “Mask Off.”
At first, hearing this flute and drum phrase, one could think it’s a somber, driving folk tune. As dissected by YouTuber TRACKLIB, in reality it’s a sample used by Future and his producer Metro Boomin from “Prison Song,” composed by Tommy Butler for the 1976 stage production Selma, about Martin Luther King Jr. With the instrumental pitched down, it takes a few seconds to realize that this is an unorthodox combination.
Vignettes flash across the screen: men adjusting their waxed mustaches to the beat, two women’s hat ribbons fluttering in the wind, a circle of dancers casting a long shadow against the ground from above. It’s like something composed with a very deliberate foreground, middle ground, and background by a painter.
