Future X Metro Boomin’ – We Don’t Trust You

By: Gavin Montgomery

Modern day rock-stars Future and Metro Boomin’ are no strangers when it comes to collaborating with one another and creating music that propels their names and their likeness towards the top of the charts seemingly every time. In fact, their first collaboration came all the way back in 2013, with “Maison Margiela”, a track I particularly remember being a fan of way back in 6th grade. Even still, despite numerous Future features on Metro Boomin’ projects, and numerous production credits from Metro Boomin on some of Futures biggest hits, the two have never created a full length project together, nor have they ever coincided with one another in such a manner as they have here on We Don’t Trust You.

 

We Don’t Trust You, to put it bluntly, is both Future and Metro Boomin’ doing as they both do best – with smooth and timeless flows from Future as he flaunts his money, girls, and lifestyle, and extremely well constructed, mesmerizing production from Metro. With this, the album opens up in the title track, and features these two great attributes first hand. On the title track, Metro employs these soft keys behind these drowned out drums, which creates a very mellow beat. This is particularly interesting, as Future’s albums historically have always opened up with hard and loud booming production – but don’t worry, that will come on this tape eventually.

 

Moving forward, the title track transitions effortlessly to track two in Young Metro, which sonically employs a darker tone to its production. When future hops in, he carries the momentum Metro set up with the instrumental wonderfully, and his flows bring even more energy outwards. This track also see’s one of the very few features across this project with The Weeknd providing some background vocals that tie the track together nicely, although his contribution is minimal. Onwards however, the next track Ice Attack provides more spacey and mellow production that Future is able to simply float over as he raps. Yet, this spacey and mellow production doesn’t last long, as a minute into the track, Metro hits us with a beat switch, showing us how much time and effort he puts into constructing his instrumentals.

 

Track four see’s what I would call this album’s first “Banger” in Type Sh*t. As soon as the track begins, Metro entrances the listener with these repetitive clock banging noises that play themselves very well over a more sadistic sound. Future himself wastes no time as well, jumping in the track immediately with a flow that is bound to get stuck in the head of the listener instantly. While albeit a little repetitive in it of itself, the bridge that comes in a minute into the track saves the song from becoming stale quickly. The bridge, performed by Travis Scott provides a well needed additional angle to the song, yet once it’s done, the momentum of the track picks up once again very quickly with a feature from none other than Playboi Carti. Carti, however, does not employ his usual high pitched “baby voice” on this track, as we see him get a little more creative with his vocals and rap with a dark raspy voice instead. Infact, it’s such an unexpected change up that I did not even realize that it was Carti rapping the first time I heard the song. Each artist on Type Sh*t successfully did their thing, and backed by fantastic production from Metro, I can confidently call Type Sh*t one of the most memorable and fun songs on the album.

 

After an admittedly forgettable track in Claustrophobic (due to it’s extremely repetitive nature and lack of any sort of charisma that the previous four tracks all had), we see the albums biggest song and lead single in Like That featuring Kendrick Lamar of all people. Confidently, I can say that this is Metro Boomin’s most well constructed beat across the entire album. Instantly, the track begins with these consecutive synths that grab hold of the listener and force them to pay attention – we are only 5 seconds into the song and you already feel the need to stick around to see what is about to happen. When Future hops in, he employs his “whistle” flow which allows him to glide over the beat perfectly. The track has energy oozing out of it through and through, and Metro Boomin’s use of Eazy E’s iconic “He once was a thug from around the way” sample (a line famously sampled often in Hip-Hop), shows that he is not messing around on this track – and neither is Kendrick Lamar. Kendrick begins his verse with nothing but intensity, moving the momentum up an entirely another notch from what Future had previously set it at. The ardency that Kendrick utilizes is something that we have not seen on a feature from him since his iconic “CONTROL” verse back in 2013, and he does not hold back. Firstly, Kendrick’s flow is perfect, as he doesn’t do too much nor too little with it, he simply lets the lyrics and content of his verse speak for itself. To begin his verse, Kendrick directly calls out some of his biggest contemporaries in J.Cole and Drake, saying that the “Big Three” (Kendrick, J.Cole, and Drake) is irrelevant, and that “It’s just big me”. Additionally, he continues on by addressing the song in which the “Big Three” was first brought up, in Drake’s “First Person Shooter” from last year. Kendrick then utilizes some playful wordplay as he continues to diss Drake, saying that his best work is a “light pack”, and comparing himself to Prince (due to his more immediate effect on the industry and influence) and comparing Drake to Michael Jackson (in the sense that Drake is more focused with hitmaking rather than the culture of hip-hop). With this single verse, and Kendrick displaying his hunger through his decision to not hold back on his contemporaries, has created an entire discourse of recent disses among the rap game, all revolving around Drake vs Kendrick – and with as great of a verse as it is, I feel as if it detracts itself from the larger picture of the great Future and Metro Boomin album that stands before us. With that however, the track Like That is nothing short of a standout, and likely is the best track on this project for numerous reasons.

 

After a monster of a song in Like That, we return to your regularly scheduled programming per say with the next two songs in Slimed In and Magic Don Juan – which are two songs that are again, somewhat forgettable, yet still see great effort from both Future and Metro Boomin. Next however, we see Future, Metro and Travis Scott team up once again in Cinderella, a track that creates a very dreamy and mellow atmosphere through its sonic decisions. Both Travis Scott and Future have flow styles that play very nicely with one another, and their collaboration here is seamless.

 

After yet another fantastic collaborative track, we see Runnin Outta Time which continues on with the drowned out and mellow production of the previous song, yet that all changes once we arrive at Fried. The production on this song sounds very 2015 Drake-esque, which simply means that the track is full of energy. Next on Ain’t No Love, Metro utilizes some light piano keys that play themselves well with the darker tone of the track. On this track, we see Future go into “Tunnel vision” per say, as he continuously keeps rapping and rapping with a cadence that does not let up.

 

Continuing on from the slew of exclusively Metro X Future songs, we see the track’s last feature in Rick Ross with Everyday Hustle. One thing I particularly liked about this track is how it opened up with a very Kanye-esque chipmunk sample, which is a great refresher after the more trap-leaning production that has been present on the album thus far. Rick Ross comes in with a great feature, and the raspiness and depth of his voice creates a great parallel with Futures, while also providing some great contrast from future with his more lyrical delivery and style. Rick Ross has always been a great feature artist, and his performance here only furthers that fact.

 

To round out this rollercoaster of an album, we see the final four songs in GTA, Seen it all, WTFYM, and the bonus track of Where my twin @. To begin, GTA see’s Metro Boomin return to his dark and gritty trap production roots, as Future capitalizes on this sound with his menacing delivery. One thing you have to give credit to Future for is his ability to make his voice fit the production of any track that he may find himself on. Beyond that however, GTA isn’t anything too special, and the same can be said for the track Seen it all. One thing I do enjoy about this

track is Future flows, but beyond that, it sounds like a Future song we have heard before. WTFYM experiences similar pitfalls. With that being said however, the album’s closer track in Where my twin @ does NOT sound like a song Future has delivered to us before. The production on this track can only be described as “Sparkling” and if you were to listen to the track, you would know what I mean. I appreciate seeing Future trying new things on this song, and enjoy its more upbeat sound.

 

All in all WE DON’T TRUST YOU is a great listen, and serves as a reminder as to why both Future and Metro Boomin’ have remained as socially relevant as they have been for so many years. While the tracklist can oftentimes become repetitive in sonic nature and production, the standouts from this album are just that, standouts – and for good reason too. Future and Metro Boomin’ have been frequent collaborators for some time now, yet WE DON’T TRUST YOU showcases how these two bring the best out of each other.

 

FAVORITE SONGS: LIKE THAT, TYPE SH*T, Fried, Slimed In, Young Metro

Rating: 7.6/10