There was a lot riding on this mixtape.

In a year of polarizing rap figures dominating the airwaves, new GOOD Music signee Desiigner has been one of the most controversial. The 19-year-old Brooklyn native’s platinum debut single “Panda” reached number one on the Billboard Chart, making him one of only nineteen rappers to ever do so. Aside from his appearances on Kanye’s Life of Pablo and feature on a Jim Jones song, prior to this Sunday (June 26), “Panda” was Desiigner’s second song ever (after “Zombie Walk“). The release of New English on Tidal was the rapper’s first chance to really showcase his abilities.

It’s been easy to dismiss Desiigner as a Future-knockoff, after ninety percent of the discussion of “Panda” was about how similar the two artists sound, but the mere fact that Pusha T and Kanye West signed a wild-eyed teenager with two songs under his belt and a penchant for dabbing indicated that Desiigner had something more to offer. Coupled with his addition to the XXL Freshman Class roster, and the stellar thirty-second “freestyle” he did for XXL, hopes have been high that the young artist will escape the copycat stigma and tread his own ground. Unfortunately, New English is anything but original.

On his debut, Desiigner sounds startlingly like Future. Songs like “Shooters” and “Jet” sound even more like replicas of Future’s style than Panda does, which is exactly the kind of thing Desiigner should have tried to avoid. The really strange moments on the mixtape, however, are the parts where Desiigner doesn’t sound like Future at all: bizarrely, he seems to be able to mimic the style of Chicago rapper and fellow XXL Freshman G Herbo. “Make It Out” sounds surprisingly like Herbo’s “Watch Me Ball“, and the six-minute “Da Day” switches so abruptly from Herbo’s style on the verses to Future’s on the chorus that it sounds like two totally separate artists. It’s important to remember, however, another GOOD Music signee who was similarly accused of being a “rap chameleon” and simply riding off of other rapper’s vocal styles: Travis Scott has faced these accusations for a long time, seemingly sounding like Kanye West in one song and Swae Lee in another. From last year’s excellent Rodeo  and all of the other singles he’s released since, however, Travis Scott has proven himself to be one of the most interesting voices in the game, and hopefully Desiigner can follow suit.

New English doesn’t sound like a complete project; it sounds like a mixtape, with snippets of presumably forthcoming songs such as Shooters and Monstas & Villains mixed in with weird piano interludes that offer the only respite from his relentless barrage of ad-libs and shouted repetitions. GOOD Music president Pusha T comes through, as one of only two features, with a dope verse, referencing everything from Nobu to Beyoncé and bragging about signing Desiigner to the label. Highlights include Caliber, which capitalises on the repetitive trap style of Panda; and Overnight, an oddly introspective track detailing his meteoric rise to fame

As a project, New English isn’t great, and it seems to confirm all of the fears about Desiigner’s destiny as a one-hit-wonder riding off Future’s fame, but I’m determined to remain hopeful. Desiigner is an incredibly interesting figure, and it’s exciting to see such a young up-and-comer dab everywhere from the BET Awards to Vogue commercials. Clips from Mike Dean’s periscope account the producer (known for being one of Kanye’s right-hand collaborators) working on a full version of the Timmy-Timmy-Timmy-Turner XXL Freestyle. If Desiigner can keep things interesting, and not let this mixtape define his sound going forward, we may still be looking at one of the most interesting young artists in the game.