On March 22, 2024, producer Metro Boomin and artist Future dropped their long-awaited collaboration album ‘We Don’t Trust You,’ and then only 3 weeks later dropped a second collaboration album under the title of ‘We Still Don’t Trust You.’ Although not groundbreaking, both of these albums are exactly what you’d expect and want out of a Metro or Future album: they’re fun, artistic, and dynamic, but suffer from being unnecessarily long.
This pattern of dropping back-to-back albums is something Future has a history with. Back in 2017, Future dropped two classic trap albums, ‘FUTURE’ and ‘HNDRXX,’ less than a month apart. Both were monumental in shaping the trap sound that is common today and serve as a reason why Future is considered one of the most important figures in the past 20 years of rap. Metro also has a history of dropping multiple albums within a short period of time. In 2017 he dropped three albums in one year, ‘Perfect Timing’ with Nav, ‘Without Warning’ with 21 Savage and Offset, and ‘Double Or Nothing’ with Big Sean.
Both albums begin with a self-titled track, ‘We Don’t Trust You’ and ‘We Still Don’t Trust You,’ on both tracks, they set the tone and style of the albums perfectly. On the first introduction, we are hit with a heavy trap beat, with a basic trap-drum kit that works to the skills of Future perfectly and sets the vibe of the album perfectly. On the second intro, we are hit with a more artistic and pop blend of a trap beat that plays to the strengths of Future’s vocals and completely diverges from the stylistic choices of the first album.
Both albums are led by the high-quality production and consistency of Metro. Even on songs with incredible verses and big-name features, listeners are still forced to reflect on the beat and give credit to Metro’s technical ability. This is seen best on the song ‘Type Shit.’ The track, although loaded with massive figures in the genre (Travis Scott and Playboi Carti), is held together by Metro. He also stays prominent on the hit song, ‘Like That’, featuring some of Kendrick Lamar’s most confident lyrics in years.
Future isn’t overshadowed, though. Throughout both albums, Future lays high-quality verses, which is highlighted on the tracks ‘Young Metro’ and ‘GTA’ off the first album and on songs ‘Nobody Knows My Struggle’ and ‘Streets Made Me A King’ on the second. He is also given space to show off his versatility throughout the second album on songs like ‘Right 4 You’, ‘Drink N Dance’, and ‘Mile High Memories’.
However, the albums aren’t filled with all positives. On both albums there are a good amount of filler songs and skips, with tracks like ‘Claustrophobic’, ‘Magic Don Juan (Princess Diana)’, ‘Ice Attack’, ‘Ain’t No Love’, ‘This Sunday’, and ‘Gracious’. The need to keep both tracklists separate due to the different stylistic choices is understandable, however, that doesn’t mean overcompensation for making both tracklists long was needed, as it drags the albums out and stalls any momentum built up throughout them. Cutting these tracks out and keeping both of them as shorter albums, or releasing them as EPs, could’ve benefited the listening experience greatly and allowed for more listener retention throughout.
However, these downsides don’t take away from how good most of these songs were and how well Metro and Future performed on the albums. Neither of these albums will be my favorite album of the year, but they do go to show how dedicated and talented both of these musicians are, and why they deserve the respect that is given to their names.
