The Future Is Now is the debut album from New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 hip hop

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 group Non Phixion

Non Phixion

Non Phixion was a New York-based hardcore hip-hop group.-History:In late 1994, MC Serch took his protege Sabac and teamed him up with DJ Eclipse and Ill Bill, thereby creating the group known as Non Phixion. Within six months Goretex, a childhood friend of Ill Bill, had joined the crew after...

, released in March 2002 on Uncle Howie Records

Uncle Howie Records

Uncle Howie Records is a record label owned by rapper Ill Bill, of Non Phixion. The label was named after Ill Bill's uncle, Howard "Howie" Tenenbaum. Uncle Howie Records started off in 1998 as simple in prints on Non Phixion's 12" singles and now includes acts as Non Phixion, Ill Bill, Sabac Red...

. The album garnered acclaim among critics and fans, and is considered to be an underground classic. A double disc Platinum Edition of the album was released in 2004, with the second disc featuring instrumental versions of the fourteen full-length tracks found on disc one. The Future Is Now features an all-star production lineup, including legends such as DJ Premier

DJ Premier

Christopher Edward Martin , better known by his stage name DJ Premier , is an American record producer and DJ, and was the instrumental half of the hip hop duo Gang Starr, together with emcee Guru...

, Pete Rock

Pete Rock

Peter Phillips , better known by his stage name Pete Rock, is an American record producer, DJ and rapper. He rose to prominence in the early 1990s as one half of the critically acclaimed group Pete Rock & CL Smooth...

 and Large Professor

Large Professor

Large Professor , also known as Large Pro and Xtra P, is a New York City-based hip hop record producer and emcee. He is also best known as a founding member of the influential underground hip hop group Main Source, and as a frequent collaborator with Nas...

, as well as group affiliate Necro

Necro

Ron Raphael Braunstein , better known under his stage-name Necro, is a Jewish-American rapper, producer and director from Brooklyn, New York...

, JuJu of The Beatnuts

The Beatnuts

The Beatnuts are a New York-based hip hop group and production duo from Queens, New York City. Its current members are JuJu and Psycho Les. JuJu is Dominican American from Corona and Psycho Les is a Colombian American from Jackson Heights...

, Dave One and T-Ray. The album features guest appearances from Necro, MF DOOM

MF Doom

Daniel Dumile is a hip hop artist who has taken on several stage names in his career, most notably MF DOOM, where the "MF" stands for metal face, and for tracks he has produced, metal fingers...

, The Beatnuts, Al Tariq, Marley Metal, Stephen Carpenter

Stephen Carpenter

Stephen Carpenter is an American musician known as the co-founder and lead guitarist of the alternative metal band Deftones. His guitar technique makes use of both ringing open strings and dissonant chord voicings, as well as stock power chords in polyrhythms...

 of Deftones

Deftones

Deftones are an American alternative metal band from Sacramento, California, founded in 1988. The band consists of Chino Moreno , Stephen Carpenter , Chi Cheng , Frank Delgado , and Abe Cunningham . Currently Sergio Vega is standing in on bass while Cheng recovers from a car accident...

, and Christian Olde Wolbers

Christian Olde Wolbers

Christian Olde Wolbers , is the guitarist of the metal band Arkaea. He is the former bassist and guitarist of the industrial metal band Fear Factory, and is now in Beowülf.-Biography:...

 and Raymond Herrera

Raymond Herrera

Raymond Herrera is the drummer for industrial metal band Arkaea. He is a former member of the industrial metal band Fear Factory and Mexican death metal band Brujeria.-Biography:Herrera has been an avid gamer all his life...

 of Fear Factory

Fear Factory

Fear Factory is an American industrial metal band. Formed in 1989, they have released seven full-length albums and a number of singles and remixes. Over the course of their career they have evolved from a succession of styles, as well as steadily pioneered a combination of the styles death metal,...

. The album's cover art was created by Mear One

Mear One

Mear One, born 1971 as Kalen Ockerman in Santa Cruz, California, is a Los Angeles-based artist, famously known for his often-political street graffiti art. Commonly referred to as the 'Michelangelo' of graffiti, Mear One is commonly associated with CBS and WCA crews...

.

The album was a minor underground hit, breaking into the top fifteen on Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

's Independent Albums and Heatseekers charts, and peaking at #65 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The album includes the singles "Black Helicopters", "Drug Music" b/w "If You Got Love" and "Rock Stars" b/w "The C.I.A. is Trying to Kill Me" . "Black Helicopters" was the only charting single from the album, peaking at #46 on the Hot Rap Singles chart.

Track listing

#	Title	Producer(s)	Performer (s)
1	"Futurama"	Necro	First verse: Ill Bill Second verse: Goretex Third verse: Ill Bill Chorus: Ill Bill
2	"Drug Music"	Large Professor	First verse: Ill Bill Second verse: Sabac Red Third verse: Goretex Chorus: Goretex Turntables: DJ Eclipse
3	"The C.I.A. is Trying to Kill Me"	Necro	First verse: Ill Bill Second verse: Sabac Red Third verse: Goretex Chorus: Ill Bill
4	"If You Got Love"	Pete Rock	First verse: Goretex, Ill Bill Second verse: Goretex Third verse: Ill Bill Chorus: Ill Bill, Pete Rock Turntables: Pete Rock
5	"There Is No Future"	Necro	First verse: Ill Bill Second verse: Necro Third verse: Goretex Fourth verse: Sabac Red Chorus: Ill Bill
6	"Uncle Howie"		Skit performed by: Uncle Howie
7	"Rock Stars"	DJ Premier	First verse: Goretex, Ill Bill Second verse: Sabac Red, Ill Bill Third verse: Goretex, Sabac Red Turntables: DJ Premier
8	"Say Goodbye to Yesterday"	Necro	First verse: Sabac Red Second verse: Goretex Chorus: Cenophia Mitchell
9	"Black Helicopters"	Necro	First verse: Ill Bill Second verse: Goretex Third verse: Sabac Red Chorus: Ill Bill
10	"Strange Universe"	Necro	First verse: Ill Bill Second verse: MF DOOM Third verse: Goretex
11	"Cult Leader"	Dave One	Performed by: Ill Bill Turntables: A-Trak
12	"It's Us"	Large Professor	First verse: Ill Bill Second verse: Goretex Third verse: Sabac Red Chorus: Ill Bill
13	"Suicide Bomb"	JuJu	First verse: Ill Bill Second verse: Juju Third verse: Marley Metal Fourth verse: Psycho Les Fifth verse: Moonshine Sixth verse: Goretex Seventh verse: Sabac Red Eighth verse: Al Tariq
14	"Where You Wanna Go"		Skit performed by: Uncle Howie
15	"We Are the Future"	Large Professor	First verse: Ill Bill Second verse: Goretex Third verse: Sabac Red Turntables: DJ Eclipse
16	"The C.I.A. is Still Trying to Kill Me"	T-Ray Necro	First verse: Ill Bill Second verse: Sabac Red Third verse: Goretex Chorus: Ill Bill Live instrumentation: Stephen Carpenter, Christian Olde Wolbers, Raymond Herrera

Samples Used

• "Futurama" contains samples of "Shad's Pursuit" by Horner
  Horner
  Horner is an English surname that derives from the Middle English word for the occupation horner, meaning either horn-worker, horn-maker, or even horn-blower.Horner refers to:*People named Horner**Billy Horner, English footballer and manager...
  
   (from the 1980 movie "Battle Beyond the Stars").
• "The C.I.A Is Still Trying to Kill Me" contains samples of "Preludio" by Osanna
  Osanna
  Osanna are an Italian psychedelic rock/progressive rock band.The group originated in the Vomero neighborhood of Naples with the union of Lino Vairetti , Danilo Rustici , Massimo Guarino , Lello Brandi , from the first line-up of the band Città Frontale, and Elio D'Anna , former member of the Showmen...
  
   (from the 1972 album "Milano Calibro 9").
• "Rock Stars" contains samples of "In The Hole" by The Bar-Kays (from the 1969 album "Gotta Groove").

Album

Chart (2002)	Peak position
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999...	65
Independent Albums Independent Albums The Billboard Independent Albums is a chart of the highest-selling independent music albums and extended plays in the United States, compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is used to list artists who are not signed to major labels...	14
Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers refers to either of two separate "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by Billboard Magazine: the Heatseekers Albums chart or the Heatseekers Songs chart. They were introduced by Billboard in 1993 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new and developing musical...	14

Singles

Year	Song	Hot Rap Singles
2000	"Black Helicopters"	46