Future and Metro Boomin want all the smoke.
The Atlanta producer-and-rapper duo dropped their first joint album, “We Don’t Trust You,” and across 17 tracks, the highly-anticipated LP lives up to every vengeful meaning of its name. It’s the first of a two-part project. The second volume, which is currently unnamed, will be released on April 12.
From a surprise appearance by Kendrick Lamar to Future effortlessly unleashing his lyrics of deceit and cynicism over Metro Boomin trap beats as if his life depended on it, here are key takeaways from “We Don’t Trust You.”
The album starts with an alleged diss
“We Don’t Trust You” opens with the searing title track that masterfully samples the Undisputed Truth’s 1971 song “Smiling Faces Sometimes.” The album title and title track reference Metro Boomin’s producer tag where Future warns, “If young Metro don’t trust you, I’m gon’ shoot you.” And the opening track is the quintessential embodiment of that message.
For nearly four minutes, Future rhymes about having more clarity after getting rid of fake friends. He seems to take a jab at one fake friend in particular when he raps: “You a [expletive] number one fan, dog/Sneak dissin’, I don’t understand, dog/ Pillow talkin’, actin’ like a fed, dog/I don’t need another fake friend, dog.”
Although Future didn’t name the fake friend in question, fans online have conjectured that the alleged target is Drake. One example to support the theory is Future constantly using the word “dog” in the song’s lyrics, which could reference the Canadian rapper’s recent album “For All the Dogs.” Another, more notable, piece of evidence for the theory is Metro Boomin and Drake’s rumored beef. It’s not clear what started the rift between the pair, but talks of the beef started when Metro Boomin deleted a post from his X account last year about Drake and 21 Savage’s joint album “Her Loss” getting more awards than Metro Boomin’s “Heroes & Villains.”
From there, the pair have made subliminal disses against each other on social media.
Regardless of what’s really happening, the first track of “We Don’t Trust You,” is a thrilling opening chapter to Future and Metro Boomin’s spree of their distrust of the rap game.
A few surprise appearances
Although “We Don’t Trust You” isn’t loaded with collaborations, Kendrick Lamar, Rick Ross, Playboi Carti, Travis Scott, The Weeknd and Young Thug show up. Young Thug’s only contribution on “Slimed In” is this line: “I’m just on some slime [expletive], I’m back on that slime stuff/You know what I’m sayin?/I don’t care nothin’ ‘bout this superstardom [expletive], you know?/That’s on God.” Atlanta-based hitmakers like Zaytoven and Southside are among the other producers on the album.
Kendrick Lamar dissed Drake and J.Cole
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
Remember those surprise appearances I mentioned earlier? Well, Kendrick Lamar wasn’t only a surprise guest on the album, but he also made a very surprising and very bold diss against Drake and J. Cole over a Three 6 Mafia beat. In case you missed it, here’s a piece of his verse on “Like That”:
[Expletive] sneak dissin’, first person shooter, I hope they came with three switches...[Expletive] the big three, [expletive], it’s just big me...”
The rivalry between J. Cole, Drake and Kendrick Lamar traces back to over a decade ago, when the three of them were primed to be rap’s next superstars. On Drake’s 2023 song “First Person Shooter,” which features J. Cole and is one of the tracks on his album “For All the Dogs,” the latter emcee references this rivalry with the line: “Love when they argue the hardest MC/Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me?/We the big three like we started a league, but right now, I feel like Muhammad Ali.”
With Lamar’s new verse, he made it clear that, for him, there is no big three. In typical Kendrick Lamar fashion, the rap titan used his guest spot as a state of the union address where he affirms his lone supremacy in the rap game. He likens himself to Prince, a rather private superstar who “outlived Mike Jack,” aka Michael Jackson, the hyper-visible hitmaker with whom Drake is tied for most no. 1 songs.
Future and Metro Boomin are at the height of their powers
Throughout “We Don’t Trust You,” Future and Metro Boomin make a convincing case for why they’re individually the best rapper and best producer right now. And together, their talents become fully explosive. “Everyday Hustle,” which features Rick Ross, finds Future seamlessly adapting to a crisp Metro Boomin beat switch. “Fried (She a Vibe)” and “WTFYM” features Future viciously rhyming about debauchery and his lavish lifestyle like he’s revisiting his 2015 prime with his classic “DS2.” It pairs exceedingly well with the hazy, electronic trap beats of Metro Boomin, making the music sound like a match made in Atlanta hip-hop heaven.
What’s next?
On “We Don’t Trust You,” shots were fired. Will Drake or J. Cole respond to the diss? Is this the start of another classic rap beef? The second installment of Future and Metro Boomin’s collaboration will drop on April 12. The project has yet to be named. But the first chapter introduced a charming, unforgiving journey into the minds of rap’s biggest characters, leaving hopes high for the sequel.
