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In December 2023, Metro Boomin expressed dissatisfaction with how the 2024 awards show season dismissed his HEROES & VILLAINS LP as the best hip-hop full-length of that timespan. While this relates to his current Drake beef, it displays an important principle. People need to push for quality and quantity, earned success, and a genuine approach to making resonant art. It’s this philosophy that Metro Boomin and Future’s new collaborative album WE DON’T TRUST YOU champions above all else.

Here, the iconic trap duo reunites for a whole project for the first time… at least officially. They’ve both been instrumental to each other’s rise in rap’s top tier, and few pairings are as revered, complimentary, or rewarding in the genre’s mainstream today. While this first of two albums from them is not a perfect attempt, it does showcase a lot of focus, new approaches, intent-driven artistry, and most importantly, a lot of bangers.

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Do We Trust Future?

For the most part, Future is carrying the lyrical load and largely lives up to that responsibility. His vocal tone and inflections are as buttery and rich as the sensational cheesecake he loves, and the infectiousness of this delivery hasn’t lost its luster over his legendary decade-plus-long run. Whether it’s menacing croons on “GTA,” aggressive barks on “WTFYM,” or the heartfelt and dynamic melancholy on the bonus cut “Where My Twin @,” the Atlanta MC’s able to highlight his versatility here.

Future offers some great switch-ups in his flow to keep his verses riveting. WE DON’T TRUST YOU find him skating over the title track, “Young Metro,” “Runnin Outta Time,” “Fiend (She A Vibe),” and many more. Sadly, on other songs, the 40-year-old fails to keep up these acrobatics. While passionate and fast verses carry “Ain’t No Love,” despite stagnant flows, these repetitive lyrical performance patterns can’t bring “Slimed In” above a background mood listen.

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Do We Trust Metro Boomin?

But every single beat on here ends better than how it started, and that’s meant as high praise. Through a lot of well-balanced and progressive structural arrangements, Metro Boomin continues his penchant for making simple yet subtly evolutionary records. There’s the chilling calmness of “Cinderella,” the bombastic and expertly put-together Eazy-E and Rodney O homages on “Like That,” the incredible beat switch and sample flips on “Everyday Hustle“… the list goes on. With woodwinds, horns, strings, electric guitar solos, organs, vocal samples, and probably a lot more, he makes unassuming pianos, synths, and drum patterns loom large.

However, Metro Boomin’s beats can sometimes have a hollow impact on arrival. Take “Ice Attack,” a song whose familiar piano beat becomes all but forgotten once the second (and much better) instrumental sampling La Chat’s “Yeah, I Rob” switches in. There are only so many melodic layers you can pile up song after song before you start noticing a pattern, albeit a very well-executed one that often reaches Metro’s past highs. There are also some small mixing miscalculations like Future’s muffled vocals kickstarting “Magic Don Juan (Princess Diana)” and the overpowering hi-hats in its second half.

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Why Are Future & Metro Boomin Distrusting On Here?

Those are just small details in the face of the thematic focuses of WE DON’T TRUST YOU, but let’s make one thing clear: this isn’t revolutionary Future writing. Success, loyalty, the streets, lack of romantic satisfaction, wealth, weapons, and the weary reflections of a women-and-party-loving lifestyle of a global superstar surround the “Ridin Strikers” spitter. Regardless, his high-quality performances make this well-treaded ground grow gardens of standout bars throughout, despite some dead-on-arrival moments.

WE DON’T TRUST YOU narrates an unquenchable ambition and luxury fueled by paranoia on “Claustrophobic,” odes to hard work and pain on “Seen It All,” and so much more. But these themes seem more deliberate than ever, emphasizing distrust in the rap game at large. They’re losing faith in its authenticity, skill level, work ethic, loyalty, and significantly, the competition. Of course, there are a few other people on this project that cemented this idea.

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Who Do Future & Metro Boomin Trust On This Album?

The Weeknd’s background vocals stun, Travis Scott moves through “Cinderella” like smoke with earworm flows, and he and Playboi Carti are a fantastic tag team on “Type S**t.” Some short vocals from Young Thug appear, and Rick Ross asserts his way through impressive rhyme schemes. Perhaps the most significant guest to name is Prodigy, the late Mobb Deep legend whose “corny rappers” rant from decades ago narrates many songs here through vocal samples (plus sampling Mobb’s “Quiet Storm”).

P’s words, plus Kendrick Lamar’s earth-shattering feature on “Like That,” represent the narrative of beef that currently dominates much of WE DON’T TRUST YOU‘s reception. This album never lets you forget its pressure-stressing theme and provides amazing hip-hop to represent two collaborators who’ve built a strong trust through a decade-plus run of consistency. Hendrix is as consumed by his vices as he is compelled to seek them out to authentically live the lifestyle that lyrically leads to both pain and prosperity.

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How Does WE DON’T TRUST YOU Flow Together?

Like every great trap album that came before WE DON’T TRUST YOU, this makes for a fulfilling push and pull. A few smooth transitions between distinct and unique songs make this album flow quite seamlessly. Southside, Boi-1da, Mike Dean, Wheezy, Alan Ritter, Honorable C.N.O.T.E., Zaytoven, and more help shape this run behind the board. It’s not quite varied or thematically versatile enough to escape occasional fatigue and recycling, but for its contemporary appeal, it certainly succeeds.

To no one’s surprise, the sheer chemistry between Future and Metro Boomin defines WE DON’T TRUST YOU. There is always something up to standard, and maybe even exceeding it, to latch onto with each new cut, whether beat or verse-wise. In addition, this project still retains the darkness, ethereal intoxication, and grittiness associated with their collaborative history. For classic and newer fans, there’s a lot to love.

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Metro & Pluto Pick A Side

WE DON’T TRUST YOU is, in many ways, exactly what we expected. It feels like a throwback to 2014-2016 on many occasions in the best way, although some beats evoke past projects like HEROES & VILLAINS almost too much. The album falters in its artists’ occasional lack of consistency or idiosyncrasy, and in being what we predicted and have heard for years. This aside, their loyalty to their sound does not replace their will to make it the best it can be, every single time.

This resulted in rap’s next big beef, one that WE DON’T TRUST YOU might not outshine right now, but will likely outlast due to its many highlights and the overall album experience. But what Metro Boomin and Future want is for the genre’s mainstream to take itself seriously among the best that the culture has to offer. On that metric, there are a few areas in which this project could’ve done better. Yet based on these songs, its upcoming sequel will not fall victim to complacency.

Read More: Metro Boomin Details His & Future’s Recording Process

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