“WE DON’T TRUST YOU” – Future & Metro Boomin

Album: WE DON’T TRUST YOU

Artist: Future & Metro Boomin

Year: 2024

Genre: Trap

Grade: B

Future fatigue is real. The prolific Houston trapper, who drowns his depressions in purple Sprite, who mumbles his braggadocios in autotuned mantras, who pioneered the entire sound of 2020s hip hop, has collaborated with famed producer Metro Boomin (his distinct “If young Metro don’t trust you, I’m gonna shoot you” tagline performed by Future himself) to deliver what is now his ninth studio album in 12 years.

On paper, WE DON’T TRUST YOU is a partnership made in trap house heaven, with two of the genre’s most influential artists merging their similar signature sounds together for 16 tracks over 60 minutes. But therein lies the all-too-common issue with latter-day Future: his sound, however catchy and charismatic, doesn’t hold up for that long.

Future’s last four albums have all stretched past the 60-minute mark, with only one — the experimental and contemplative HNDRXX — maintaining interest throughout its mammoth runtime. I long for the days of DS2, when his hypnotic sound was distilled to 44 minutes of nonstop bangers, misogyny be damned. The supersized nature of We Don’t Trust You packs most of the best songs toward the beginning, and the album runs out of steam and imagination by the time we get to the halfway mark.

Don’t get me wrong, though — there are still some quality songs on this album, and Future is still a quality artist. It’s just that he’s clearly been coasting ever since his 2015 trapsterpiece DS2 (in much the same way that ex-cohort Drake has been on autopilot ever since What a Time to Be Alive). We Don’t Trust You is more of the same old, same old.

Nevertheless, the collab delivers a few solid hooks throughout the first six songs, with the highlights being Metro Boomin’s tendency to switch up the beat halfway through the track (the bifurcated structure of “Ice Attack” hits hard) and the guest verses from Travis Scott, Playboi Carti, The Weeknd and Kendrick Lamar (the latter takes a sharp shot at Drake and J. Cole on “Like That”). Along the way, Metro’s dark production — filled with spacey keyboards and deep sub bass — is some of the best backing music that Future has ever worked with.

But it all grows repetitive after track six. Fans of Future and trap music will undoubtedly enjoy the album for what it is: another uneven collection from a good rapper who shows no signs of slowing down…but also shows no signs of ambition. With We Don’t Trust You, you know what you’re getting.

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