56 Nights, the widely-revered collaborative mixtape between Future and DJ Esco, has officially been released to all digital streaming platforms, just a couple weeks following the fifth anniversary of its original release in March 2015. The project, produced almost entirely by trap mainstay Southside, was directly inspired by Esco’s unexpected 56-night stint in a Dubai prison during a birthday trip gone wrong
[Stream/download HERE – via Freebandz/Epic Records]
What 56 Nights lacks in volume, it compensates for with impact. Amongst its original 10 tracks reside “Trap N****s,” which was subsequently released on DS2, and “March Madness,” two of the most beloved records in Future’s catalog. “Trap” would go on to receive bonus track placement on Future’s the double-platinum DS2, and a Gold certification from the RIAA.
“March Madness” reached perhaps an even higher peak, becoming a rallying cry throughout the digital hip hop community as it took police brutality to task in the early days of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. “All these cops killing n****s, [it’s] tragic,” wails Future on the song’s grief-stricken chorus.
56 Nights is recognized as the third mixtape in Future’s unofficial ‘return to Atlanta’ trilogy (Monster, Beast Mode, 56 Nights), released over the course of five months from 2014 to 2015. The success of Monster and Beast Mode—the latter of which sprung its own DSP debut last week—made a quick-succession Future project almost inevitable in the spring of 2015. Coupled with the post-jail creative energy that DJ Esco admits fueled his curation of the mixtape, 56 Nights was as fitting a way as ever to not only close the mixtape trilogy, but whet the world’s appetite.
DS2, one of the most anticipated sequels of the 2010s, would unexpectedly be announced and released just four months later.
On a fateful day in November 2014, DJ Esco was arrested by Dubai police after landing in Abu Dhabi for a show from Amsterdam, where he was celebrating his birthday with friends. Police allegedly detected weed on his person, and told Esco that he could be detained for a “couple of days” while the matter was sorted. In a first-person recollection published to The Fader in January 2015, Esco clarified what happened next.
“Then they take me to the jail cell and I never came back out.”
Future continues to feed the streets…
Even while they’re closed.
Stay safe, everyone.