Mask Off

Album: Future (2017)
Charted: 22 5
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Songfacts®:

  • Future takes his "mask off" on this track, in which he shares openly about his drug use and addiction. He calls "it how it is."

    Percocets, molly, Percocets
    Percocets, molly, Percocets


    Future repeats throughout the chorus the names of the painkiller "Percocet," and the recreational drug "Molly" aka ecstasy. The drugs fuel his lifestyle even while he's cruising Biscayne Bay in Miami.
  • Metro Boomin's bass-heavy beat samples the hypnotic flute from "Prison Song" by Tommy Butler. The track is from the 1976 musical Selma, in which Butler paid tribute to the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
  • The song's sampled flute riff sparked a popular meme on social media. The "MaskOffChallenge" inspired musicians to film themselves playing the track with their instrument of choice. The trend saw violinists, cello players, pianists and flutists uploading videos of themselves replaying the flute riff in their own special way.
  • Kendrick Lamar hopped on the song's remix. The Compton MC previously worked with Future on Mike WiLL Made-It's 2014 song "Buy the World" and as a member of Black Hippy, he was part of a remix of Rocko's Future featuring hit "U.O.E.N.O. (You Ain't Even Know It)."
  • Future revealed in his 2019 Apple Music documentary The WIZRD that the song was released before its flute sample had been cleared.
  • The song featured in season 4 episode 4 of Cartoon Network's Rick and Morty during a scene where Rick listens to "Mask Off."
  • During the COVID-19 pandemic, the song experienced a resurgence. Future and his FreeWishes Foundation charitable organization launched the "Mask On" campaign to inspire people to wear masks to protect themselves against the virus and provided over 100,000 masks for medical workers and COVID patients.

Comments: 4

  • Lateefah from Missouri What does Rick James 33 chains mean
  • Makaveli from Zambiadamn! the future killd it.
  • A Guy Who Disagrees With John From South CarolinaSeriously? That’s what you took from that song? You decided it was about shooting someone? It’s a song about duality, mask on/mask off is a representation of that as well as being fake or being real. It’s more of a “started from the bottom” song, not some wild revenge fantasy.
  • John from South CarolinaHe's saying f--k it pulling a ski mask off and shooting someone. Molly percocet is what he's on while he's pulling the robbery. Chasing that check.
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