A few months ago, producer Metro Boomin and Atlanta rapper Future announced that they were releasing two albums together, which instantly generated a lot of hype. I love Metro; he’s one of the best producers in the game right now, and has pioneered a lot of the modern rap genre, especially in the trap area with artists like Travis Scott, 21 Savage, and, of course, Future. I’m not all too familiar with Future’s work, but what I’ve heard is great, and he’s commonly seen as one of the best rappers of the generation, if not of all time. The two have already worked together many times, and both have made several collaboration albums with other artists, so this is a match made in heaven. Aside from a few tracks, the reception of these projects has been surprisingly middling; I enjoyed both a lot, and assumed others would do the same. I do have some problems with both, which I will discuss, but overall, I found both to be very enjoyable and well-made albums, with some instant classic tracks sprinkled throughout.

We Don’t Trust You (8/10)

Favorite Tracks: ‘Young Metro’, ‘Ice Attack’, ‘Like That’, ‘Cinderella’, ‘Everyday Hustle’

Discussion surrounding this album has been impossible to avoid since its release, almost primarily for one reason, which we’ll get to. Before covering the elephant in the room, I’d like to first cover the rest of the album; while many seem to have found it somewhat mediocre, I thoroughly enjoyed this first Metro and Future Collaboration, and I’d probably put it in Metro’s top three albums. Metro continues to prove himself as one of the best producers currently working, and a staple name in the trap genre; I still find it pretty crazy that a producer is in the 25 most popular artists in the world on Spotify. He shows off some of his best beats yet, following fairly close to the style of his previous works Not All Heroes Wear Capes and Heroes & Villains, while still differing from them a decent amount. He knows how to pull great performances out of the artists he collaborates with, and it’s pretty rare that he misses on anything. If there’s one criticism I had to place upon him, it’s that his music can get slightly repetitive when listening to the albums in one sitting; I find myself having to relisten to his albums to remember a good few songs, and sometimes find myself thinking that a song or two could have been cut after finishing one. Not to say they’re bad songs by any means, but they can start to blend together here and there. This issue does apply to We Don’t Trust You, but like usual, this issue was fixed with a second listen, and pushed it above Savage Mode 2 for my third favorite Metro project.

As for Future, he delivers some truly great performances throughout the album- like I said, he’s admittedly a bit of a blind spot for me, but I have loved everything I’ve heard. Out of all of the artists that Metro has worked with, I think he might be the best fit; of course, Metro’s beats have great chemistry with frequent collaborators like 21 Savage, Travis Scott, and A$AP Rocky, but Future’s style just fits so well with Metro’s. The way he delivers lines really compliments Metro’s beats, and they’ve made a good few classics together, like ‘Superhero’, ‘X’, and ‘Too Many Nights’. The features present throughout We Don’t Trust You offer a lot of variety, and always elevate the tracks they appear on. The Weeknd’s verse on ‘Young Metro’ is one of his best of the past couple years, and Rick Ross on ‘Everyday Hustle’ was a great surprise that I really wasn’t expecting. Travis makes two appearances, and they’re some of the better songs on the album, specifically ‘Cinderella’. I do like ‘Type Sh*t’ too, but I’m not the biggest Playboi Carti fan, so his verse does drag it down a bit for me- even though it is one of the better Carti verses I’ve heard recently. I really don’t think there’s a single bad verse on the whole album, and the whole thing just feels very well put together. I don’t feel like anything could have been left out after sitting with it for awhile, and the tracks that I like less are still solid songs.

Alright, I can’t hold it back any longer: ‘Like That’ is the best track on this album, one of Metro’s best beats of all time, one of the best Kendrick features of all time, and my song of the year up to this point. This one song is the main reason the album is still being talked about so much almost a month after its release; it’s started the biggest rap beef in years, and being along for the ride from the start has been so enjoyable to watch. Kendrick Lamar is my favorite rapper, so seeing him on this after having gone silent since Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers got me ridiculously excited. When he comes out of hiding, it’s always for something incredible, and I have not been able to stop listening to ‘Like That’ since it came out. It’s such a layered diss track, taking many nuanced shots at J. Cole and Drake that I’m still finding meaning in its bars every now and then. I don’t want to undersell Future in this song by only talking about Kendrick, as his verse is among his best on the album too, but I simply cannot contain my continued excitement about Kendrick’s appearance. Everybody has been nonstop speculating about who’s going to make the next move, and what that move is going to be, and watching it all unfold has gotten me excited about the music it could create. Cole already made his response, but it was obvious his heart wasn’t in it, and even removed his diss track off streaming services; we’re all really waiting to see what Drake does. A track of his was leaked last weekend, but I’m holding back all judgments until he decides to officially release it. I think it would be hilarious if someone brought out Pusha T on a future Drake diss, but we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

We Still Don’t Trust You (7/10)

Favorite tracks: ‘We Still Don’t Trust You’, ‘Nights Like This’, ‘Beat It’, ‘Red Leather’, ‘Show of Hands’

This second release is still fairly new, debuting last Thursday, but people have already seemed to stop talking about it online; the general consensus is that this was a miss, but I cannot agree with that. Sure, I prefer the first, but there’s still a lot to like here; it takes a more relaxed approach to both Metro and Future’s style, featuring a lot of synths and more chill verses. It can get very repetitive at times, and is most definitely a little too long, but I still thoroughly enjoyed We Still Don’t Trust You. It’s a new direction for both artists, and I respect the attempt at something new; while it’s not as good as a lot of Metro albums, it’s a great opportunity for him to experiment with new styles, and some really great tracks came from it. The opening track, ‘We Still Don’t Trust You’, is one of their best songs in awhile, and lets you know right away that this isn’t going to be a typical Metro or Future release. Unfortunately, problems start to arise when you get further into the tracklist, and everything begins to blend together a little bit. I like almost everything here, and some standout tracks like ‘Out Of My Hands’, ‘All To Myself’, and ‘Beat It’ break up the monotony. And that’s not to say that any of the songs are necessarily bad, but it’s easy for the album to just all mold together into one similar-sounding song when you’re listening to it. I haven’t given the project a full second listen since it’s very lengthy, but I’ve listened to it on shuffle quite a bit, and I still find myself getting some tracks confused with others.

Despite these issues, I still found the album to be overall enjoyable; Future is great and fits this new direction for Metro quite well, and once again, the feature game is elite. They’re pretty few and far between, but those present are all great. The Weeknd pops up a few good times, and always elevates whatever track he’s on; the beats are perfect for him, and a lot of the album almost feels like a Weeknd project. The J. Cole feature was very unexpected, since some of the shots taken on ‘Like That’ were also directed at him; as I already mentioned, his response was not good, so it’s nice to see him get a great, normal verse on the track ‘Red Leather’, which is easily my favorite of the album. It’s the real standout in my opinion, and easily the most unique of the whole thing, and maybe the most of either projects. Metro has never really made a song like ‘Red Leather’, and I’m excited to see what direction he goes in after this album and that song. Now, what I didn’t know before We Still Don’t Trust You‘s release is that it’s actually a double album, with a bonus mixtape thrown in at the end. I honestly do prefer the second part to the first, as it’s a bit of a return to the normal Metro style; not to say I didn’t enjoy the first, but the change of pace at the end was very welcome. Of this bonus tape, ‘Show of Hands’ is easily my favorite, with an incredible A$AP Rocky feature; it’s always great to see him on any song. The bonus disc is just a lot of fun, with some great, hype tracks to back up the more conventional rapping. I do think that this album provides a great combination of two styles; while I may prefer the first, the mixing of relaxed beats and the Metro we’re used to at the end did make for a pretty entertaining listen.