While the world wants to see blood (as J. Cole put it), Metro Boomin and Future want to see it burn.
Sharing the second album of their dual-collaborative opus, WE STILL DON’T TRUST YOU, on Friday (April 12), Metro and Future have seemingly recruited everyone and anyone to come at their No. 1 opp: Drake. The record is already expected to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling between 150,000 and 175,000 first-week units.
Featuring The Weeknd, A$AP Rocky and even J. Cole, whose verse on the second half of “Red Leather” lent fans to believe he “switched sides,” the 25-track behemoth is littered with grandiose sounds, near-flawless production, sneak disses and outright jabs that stoke the fire of this sizzling rap beef.
Here’s our top 5 takeaways from Future and Metro Boomin’s new album:
Favorite tracks: “Nights Like This,” “Show Of Hands,” “All To Myself,” “Drink N Dance,” “Beat It”
It’s not a Big 3, It’s a Fantastic 4
Kendrick Lamar’s brazen “Like That” diss instantly sent shockwaves to the heart of hip-hop. While it’s been a few weeks since WE DON’T TRUST YOU dropped, Dot’s “Motherf**k the Big 3, it’s just big me” bar freshly blares throughout the ecosystem of the rap world. Discourse about Rap’s Big 3 (Drake, J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar) waged more war online after J. Cole’s surprise mixtape MIGHT DELETE LATER, where he clapped back at K-Dot on the explosive yet sub-par “7 Minute Drill.” However, Cole was quick to retract these statements and bowed out of the beef entirely, knowing that something “nuclear” was on the way between Drake and Kendrick, per Joe Budden. Fans even went as far as substituting other rappers in place of J. Cole after his apology… Now, enter Future.
To me, the purpose of WE [STILL] DON’T TRUST YOU proves to proclaim Future’s status as a Big 3 frontrunner — and rightfully so. On “#1 (Intro),” a sound-bite from Charlamage Tha God asserts Future’s undisputed influence and inclusion in the “The Big 3,” saying it’s a “fantastic four” and that the Atlanta legend ranks atop the list. “I can find a million Future clones all over the world… It’s not a big 3, it’s a fantastic 4, and Future is in that. He might be 3, he might be 2… he might even be 1,” C Tha God said. “I don’t think there is any rapper that has influenced culture and music more than Future over the last decade. People want to be Future, people want to sound like Future.”
Artists like Juice WRLD, Young Thug, Playboi Carti, 21 Savage and countless others have been open about their inspirations from Future. From cult classics like DS2, Pluto 3D, Monster to HNDRXX, The WIZRD, High Off Life and the GRAMMY-winning I Never Liked You, Future is more than deserving of a place on hip-hop’s modern Mount Rushmore. I’m sure many listeners would side with Future after the firepower unleashed on both records.
The Weeknd refused to sell his soul
Drake and The Weeknd’s tumultuous relationship spans back to their respective come-ups in 2010-12, as the former vetted Abel as one of the first potential signees to his OVO Sound label. Contributing heavily to Drake’s sophomore studio album Take Care, which is still revered as his “greatest” alongside Nothing Was The Same, The Weeknd’s affiliation with OVO ended abruptly after it was revealed that tracks like “The Ride,” “Shot For Me,” “Crew Love” and others were originally Abel’s. In 2012, The Weeknd signed with Republic Records, as rumors began to swirl that a rift occurred between the beloved OVOXO duo. Nevertheless, Drake and The Weeknd always kept it cordial, appearing in public together, hopping on each other’s mixtapes (Kiss Land) and remixes (Drake’s “Tell Your Friends”) etc. But it was clear Abel was morphing into a bigger superstar than Drake could imagine — rivaling him in the years that followed.
In a 2015 interview with Rolling Stone, The Weeknd calls Drake “my closest friend in the industry at that time,” but he went on to note how much music he gave away to him during that time period. “I gave up almost half of my album. It’s hard. I will always be thankful—if it wasn’t for the light he shined on me, who knows where I’d be. And everything happens for a reason,” he said. “You never know what I would say if this success wasn’t in front of me now.”
Now, Drake and The Weeknd’s paths to eternal superstardom couldn’t be more opposite. While Drake stays tapped in with the youth, aligning himself with younger, culturally relevant artists like Sexyy Red, Central Cee, Yeat etc. and drops at least once a year, The Weeknd’s work on HBO’s The Idol, new trilogy of albums and an iconic Super Bowl performance (that touted arguably the biggest song of the 2020s “Blinding Lights”), his verse on Metro and Future’s “All To Myself” revels in the fact that he wouldn’t be where he is today without hopping off Drake’s wave. “They could never diss my brothers, baby… When they got leaks in they operation. I thank God that I never signed my life away,” he sings, referencing the songs he gave to Drake and is admittedly thankful that he didn’t stick around to see how things played out. I’m just praying for PARTYNEXTDOOR. “Trust Issues” never hit THIS hard.
A$AP Rocky hit it first..?
A$AP Rocky may have turned in his best feature verse in YEARS, but there’s problems with his appearance on “Show Of Hands.” Granted, Flacko comes with an energy unheard on his recent singles (“RIOT,” “Shittin Me,” “DMB“), directing this tenacity with spite aimed at the 6 God. “I smashed before you birthed son, Flacko hit it first son. Still don’t trust you, always us, never them,” he raps. “Heard you dropped your latest sh*t. Funny how it just came and went.” These bars appear to be directed at Drake, stemming from his previous relationship with Rihanna back in 2015-16, so is Rocky saying he was with Rihanna before Drake? Or simply just flexing he’s wifed the woman Drizzy openly pined for years for.
It’s an unclear and rather confusing line, and even more confusing in regards to how Rocky says For All The Dogs “came and went.” The album debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200, as Drake just wrapped the second leg of his nationwide IAAB arena tour, which featured supporting acts like J. Cole, Lil Durk, Lil Wayne, Sexyy Red and more. The album is still in rotation, and despite your fandom towards Rocky or Drake, this evidently fell flat in what the A$AP rapper was trying to convey. Rocky’s last studio album was TESTING, which dropped over six years ago in 2017. “F*ck keepin’ this sh*t hip-hop, I wanna see a f*ck n**** bleed out.” A swing and miss from Rocky in my book.
‘HNDRXX’ Future makes return
For those waiting on the triumphant comeback of R&B Future (like myself), he’s all over WSDTY. From tracks like the woozy “Drink N Dance,” the infectiously hypnotic “Right 4 You,” “All To Myself,” “Nights Like This,” and most importantly “This Sunday,” Future is at his best from bended knee, begging for forgiveness and longing for the love he lost through his player ways. HNDRXX is widely regarded as one of Future’s most polished bodies of work, and for me, it’s a timeless classic that I still run back to this day.
Interestingly, “This Sunday” eerily sounds like Drake’s 2016 track “Feel No Ways.” Originally a leak from 2015, Drake interpolated the chorus for the VIEWS highlight, as Future sneakily implies his influence over the OVO boss once more. After all, there’d be no “Jumpman” and “Diamonds Dancing” without Future, and Pluto seems to remember this more than anyone — holding Drizzy accountable with the official release of “This Sunday.”
Metro Boomin is the producer of our generation
It’s undeniable in what Metro Boomin has accomplished in his decade-long career, but let’s look back at just the last few years of his catalog. Not only counting the 42 songs created with Future for their WE DON’T TRUST YOU saga, the albums have already etched themselves as classics in Metro’s discography — on the sole fact that it’s reignited hip-hop at its core. Bringing battle and beef to the forefront of the game (admittedly when it was quiet for too long) not only was a risk, but paid handsomely in Metro’s favor. This has been long bubbling behind the scenes it seems; bringing it to the booth was the only way to make a stand.
Amid WSDTY, Metro has collaborative albums with JID, Don Toliver and more in the vault, not to mention his recent work with Playboi Carti (“Type Sh*t”) and Travis Scott (“Cinderella”). This run, stemming from the wild success of HEROES & VILLAINS and curation of the ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE soundtrack, has been hallmarked by hip-hop heads; Metro’s influence cannot be touched, understated or overlooked for the rest of his life.
The iconic Future tag rings true now more than ever: If Young Metro don’t trust you, I’m gon’ shoot you. Metro is someone you definitely want on your side.
Listen to ‘WE STILL DON’T TRUST YOU’ below!