Rapper Future’s take on relationships has been a constant in his music. While some fans love it, others have labeled him as toxic when it comes to how he treats women and his song lyrics, birthing the Future meme (also known as the Future Sending Exes Texts Meme, or Future Texting Meme).
As such, Future has always been a go-to symbol for toxicity when it comes to memes—and his love life and career has turned into an internet craze. Over the years, a number of memes have surfaced of the Atlanta rapper trying to win back an ex or inspire other men to take up his toxic ways.
Here’s everything you need to know about the various Future memes:
Future meme: What kinds of memes invoke Future?
One of the most popular memes invoking Future is the “Future Sending Ex’s Texts” meme (which The Daily Dot has written about previously.) The meme, birthed on X (formerly Twitter), features the rapper in a moment where he appears to be sending a text message.
The text is almost always an attempt at forcing someone to think of them under the guise of a wholesome message. People tend to use this meme around the holiday season especially, as that’s a popular time for toxic exes to attempt to rekindle.
"I know I'm the last person you want to talk to, but I still wanted to be the first to wish you a merry Christmas" pic.twitter.com/IU1Cmh8yFY
— a piece of bed (@Dee_Ar_Jay) December 25, 2019
"Did the kids stuff come from Amazon yet? I ordered it a week ago. Tell them I said Merry Christmas and daddy loves them. Wyd tonight" future toxic text. 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/Is3LBdevPe
— Bryan Patton (@BDPatton77) December 25, 2019
BEST THING TO HAPPEN THIS CHRISTMAS WAS THE TOXIC FUTURE TEXT MEMES 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/6LoHtZ5hYg
— BALLADS ☭ (@balladsmusic) December 26, 2019
Is that the only Future meme?
Of course not! Future also gave us the meme gift, back in 2018, around the phrase, “I’m good luv. Enjoy.” At the time, a woman Future was hanging out with put the rapper on blast after he supposedly promised to pay for her flight from Texas to California and then ghosted her after she said she didn’t want to have sex with him.
In a series of Facebook posts, the woman said that Future asked her to get some lingerie. When she declined and asked if she would still see him during her trip, Future responded: “I’m good luv. Enjoy.” The phrase took the internet by storm, and the rest was history.
How did the Future memes spread?
The “Future Sending Ex’s Texts” meme is arguably the most popular—and most used—meme invoking Future. According to Know Your Meme, it first gained notoriety during the 2019 Christmas season. On December 24, X user @eazyyyel (whose account is no longer active) posted the photo with the caption: “I know you don’t fwm at the moment, but Merry Merry Christmas. My lil cousins asked when they were going to see you again…crazy ain’t it lol. But I just wanted to see if you were good. Have a good day and tell everybody I said hey.” The post reportedly gained over 150 retweets and 560 likes.
How does Future feel about the internet calling him toxic?
Thankfully, he’s not taking the memes too seriously. In 2021, while headlining the HARD Summer Festival in California, Future took the time to assert his support for the memes poking fun at him and his toxic ways. According to one news outlet, the rapper read out one meme saying, “She got 100 dudes tryna be the solution. Stand out… Be the problem.”
The rapper also apparently referenced a separate—but still toxic—meme, where he encouraged men to be patient in relationships with their girlfriends to see if she has hotter friends. “Don’t rush into relationships,” reads the text overlay, above a photo of Future smoking. “Be friends first to see if she got hotter friends.”
If Future could change one thing about the memes, it’d be that he gets some sort of payment for his internet fame. “I like the memes but I’d love it if I got paid off of them,” he told Uproxx. “I should be able to get some money off of it… That’s the only thing I don’t like about the memes of me. I don’t get paid for them. But it’s free promotion, so it’s a win-win at the end of the day, because you want people to still be talking about you no matter what.”
But is Future really toxic?
That might depend on who you ask, but Future doesn’t seem to think he is. In an interview with GQ, Future opened up about being labeled as toxic and finding happiness within himself. For one, he said he doesn’t pay the “toxic” comments any mind.
“People have their own definition of what toxic is,” he said. “[These women] all were toxic to me. They just don’t want to admit it.”
He also said he wants to move beyond being the internet’s favorite toxic king. In the interview, the rapper said that fans expect a certain kind of “darkness” in his music which isn’t easy for him to do. “It can be a burden trying to relive those moments over and over,” he said in the interview. Later, Future said that “he wants to allow himself to grow.”
For marketing purposes (and probably clout, too) Future has used the memes to his advantage. But it’s also clear from his comments to GQ that he’s ready to move on from the “toxic king” label. It’s unclear if listeners will be able to move past their first—and probably second—impressions of the rapper. So, for now, save the meme and get your best toxic texts ready for the holiday season.