In 2011, Ebonie Ward was preparing for the grand opening of her boutique, Fly Kix ATL, a men’s clothing store in Atlanta’s Castleberry Hill district that would soon become a stomping ground for high-fashion sneaker heads and up-and-coming rappers such as Kendrick Lamar and Nipsey Hussle.
She knew she needed the perfect artist for the launch, so she reached out to a close friend of a rapper she had recently seen at a local showcase. The burgeoning artist, Future, had no Billboard Hot 100 hits to his name — just a commanding, charismatic presence that pierced her core the first time she saw him onstage.
Future accepted the offer and performed at the grand opening, where he also met Ward for the first time and was immediately intrigued by her determination. “She had a different kind of drive,” says Future, who hired her to be his assistant shortly after. “[She] had a will just to get everything done by any means necessary. She always sees ahead of the curve.”
“I think he is the most talented individual on the planet,” says Ward, who began managing Future alongside his longtime manager, Anthony Saleh, in 2017. “When you see somebody who’s so passionate, diligent and hardworking, it just ignites something inside of you that you don’t even understand that you possess. You meet somebody who’s constantly able to help you evolve on every level of your life, just with his level of dedication. It’s really a beautiful thing.”
Today, Future, 38, and Ward are true partners. Having started as his assistant over 10 years ago, her elevation to manager (Saleh stepped down from his role last year) is a beacon of hope for Black women across the music industry striving upward. Not only has she helped fortify Future’s legacy as one of the genre’s most beloved acts, but under her tutelage, another client of hers, Gunna, scored his second Billboard 200 No. 1 album with DS4Ever in January and continues to notch musical successes.
At Future’s Billboard cover shoot, his and Ward’s playful rapport is on full display. Ward exudes the command of a sports coach, directing her team as they help pick her star player’s outfits, giving him tips on perfecting his next pose.
“She don’t just manage my music; she manages me,” says Future, as Ward nods alongside him. “I might call her for some small sh-t, the biggest sh-t [or] some crazy sh-t. My whole life is in her hands. So it’s different, but I trust her that much. I’m like, ‘Damn. I have somebody in my life I could trust [and] I feel safe with. I always wanted that.”
Adds Ward: “When you work with somebody who’s such a workhorse, it gives you a different drive and level of passion with what you do because if he’s in the studio all night, how can I not be up at 5 o’clock [in the morning]? One of us has to pick up where the other person left off. I think that’s what makes our connection so amazing.”
King Pluto sat down with Billboard‘s Carl Lamarre for a candid reflection on his career and the ongoing string of drama involving a few of his children’s mothers.
“If I was married, at home with my kids, man, it’d be way different. That’s a life I never lived,” Future said. “It’s something you dream about. That’s one of my dreams. It’s easy for other people, but for me, it’s just like, man, this rock star lifestyle, it don’t gel well.”
He continued: “For even creating music, I just feel like I’m missing out on something if I don’t make the music a certain kind of way. I really dedicated my entire life to my fans. I dedicated my entire life to my music. Everything that I love, everything that I got, I put it in music. And the outcome is yet to be determined, still to this day.”
When asked if he thinks fame and a happy marriage can be a successful pair-up, the Dirty Sprite hitmaker said he believed it can be possible.
“I feel like I can have both,” he said. “When the time’s right, it’ll happen. It ain’t nothing that I’m really chasing. But I do dream of it, and I do want it. I swear I’d probably pick the wrong girl or something, if I was just chasing it. You never know how certain things happen with relationships and with love and getting married and being under the same roof as your kids and you got other kids that are not living with you.”
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