Metro Boomin & Future – WE STILL DON’T TRUST YOU (Album Review)

In their second collaborative project, just three weeks after the release of their first collaboration WE DON’T TRUST YOU, the duo released a project that again finds Metro Boomin lending his production expertise while Future offers a stylistic chance of an R&B/singsongy cadence this time around. Technically a dual disc release, the 25 song (1hr and 28min) album boasts an impressive roster of features including The Weeknd, Brownstone, Ty Dolly $ign, J. Cole, Lil Baby, and A$AP Rocky while the majority of the album is performed exclusively by Future himself.

With a mostly cohesive flow in sound with some variations in thematics, the duo seems to be effortlessly releasing track after track in two consecutive albums with 20+ songs, most of which charted on Billboard on the week of release. With variations in sound, style, and genre, the duo has shown in this companion piece of a project their talent and ability to appeal to the masses in this genre-swapping release.

While the previous album WE DON’T TRUST YOU quickly garnered attention for Kendrick Lamar’s diss verse from the track ‘Like That’ against J. Cole and Drake, the theme of diss tracks continues as both The Weeknd and A$AP Rocky offer verses aiming sights at Drake in the tracks ‘All to Myself’ and Show of Hands’ respectfully.

With The Weeknd coming to Metro Boomin’s defense while additionally being retrospectively happy for not signing to Drake’s label OVO to be a sideshow act in ‘All to Myself’, the diss is more cryptic and vague yet specific enough for fans to conclude as to who and what is being said exactly. For A$AP Rocky, the rapper sends shots to Drake by stating he, essentially, staked his claim to Rihanna before Drake’s brief infatuation with her and furthers his diss by throwing shade on the lackluster reception and success of Drake’s most recent album, For All The Dogs.

Outside of these disses, the remainder of the album highlights the typical tropes of women, wealth, sex, and complicated relationships in the typical Future lyrical delivery. Surprisingly though, Future shows moments of real depth, vulnerability, and earnestness in tracks such as ‘Nights Like This’, ‘Right 4 You’, ‘Mile High Memories’, ‘Beat It’, and ‘Always Be My Fault’.

These tracks in particular find Future exploring themes of betrayal in a relationship, devotion to his partner, substituting wealth for love, and reminiscing on previous relationships that still stick with him now. Between the exploration of the typical tropes combined with the explorative nature of Future’s vulnerability, the album is a mixed bag of themes that, while not always flowing together well, offer glimpses of real emotional depth and self-reflection that is refreshing for the genre and rapper.

In slight contrast to the previous album We Don’t Trust You, there is a slower tempo that lends more to the genres of Cloud Rap, Deep House, and Alternative-R&B due to Metro Boomin’s lighter touch on the instrumentals and Future’s singsong delivery. While there are some moments of Trap/Hardcore Hip Hop, especially on Disc 2 of the album (The final seven songs of the project), the album at its core is a Cloud Rap/Alternative-R&B fusion.

While the Trap-centric style of We Don’t Trust You was fun and straightforward, Future truly shines brighter on this release as his singsongy style matched with the genre/vibe carries better than the average sound of some of the generic Trap tracks off the previous release. For an album of this length and duration, it is a surprisingly quality release with only a few features to share the weight of the album with Future. While every single feature shines in its regard (Especially The Weeknd and A$AP Rocky), this is truly Future’s album to shine and showcase his ability on a large and freeing scale.

Rating/Good – ‘WE STILL DON’T TRUST YOU’ is an impressive companion piece to their previous collaboration ‘WE DON’T TRUST YOU’ which continues the momentum of diss verses, quality instrumentals, and length/duration. In a shift of style/genre that lends more to Cloud Rap/Alternative R&B, Future shines bright, especially in tracks that give him the space to offer vulnerable and earnest lyricism on a myriad of topics. Cohesive feeling in sound, the album is a bit of a mixed bag of thematics/tropes that can be disjointing but is elevated given some quality production, impressive vocals, and fresh features. While this album might not be accessible to the masses, fans of the genre and duo find there to be more than enough tracks to enjoy in this stacked release.

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