Teflon Don

Album: Mixtape Pluto (2024)
Charted: 72 21
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Songfacts®:

  • Future's 2024 mixtape Mixtape Pluto kicks off with the high-energy track "Teflon Don." It's quintessential Future: hard-hitting trap beats paired with lyrics that dive into wealth, power, street cred and drug references.
  • The title nods to John Gotti, the notorious mob boss who somehow managed to avoid jail time for years. He earned the nickname "Teflon Don" because nothing seemed to stick to him - like the nonstick Teflon material used in cookware. Future draws parallels to Gotti in the way he lives above the law, confidently navigating the streets and the justice system.
  • This isn't the first time Future has compared himself to Gotti, having previously done so in 2013 on "Karate Chop," where he boasted he's "living like John Gotti." He's in good company, too - Rick Ross dropped an album called Teflon Don back in 2010, proving that mobster imagery never really goes out of style in rap circles.
  • Southside, the trap beatmaker who was pretty much synonymous with Future's sound in the mid-2010s, produced the track alongside London on da Track, the hitmaker behind hits for the likes of Drake ("Sneakin") and Ariana Grande ("Positions"). Add to that a roster of additional producers: MoXart Beatz, AyoPeeb (also known as Peeb), FBG Goat, Desro, and Topp.
  • Let's talk about the NSFW music video. Future's no stranger to inflammatory imagery, but this one is especially provocative. It shows stock cars covered in blown-up drug info labels for Suboxone and Narcan - the very drugs used to treat opioid addiction - racing around while blown-up black-and-white photos of nude women from vintage gentlemen's magazines wrap around other vehicles. It's a visual mashup of prescription drug culture and old-school nudity.

    Ironically, despite the drug references, Future has made it clear in interviews that he's left that part of his life behind. But he hasn't stopped rapping about it. Why? Because his fans have come to expect it. So, while Future might be clean, his music is still riding high on the substance abuse imagery he's known for.
  • Mixtape Pluto debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200. This was Future's third chart-topping album in a six-month period, following his two joint projects with Metro Boomin - We Don't Trust You and We Still Don't Trust You - making him the first rapper to achieve this feat.

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