Heroes & Villains is the second solo showcase from Metro Boomin — third if you happen to depend his spectacular 2013 mixtape, 19 & Boomin. It finds the St. Louis-to-Atlanta musician cementing himself as one in all a handful of rap superproducers to emerge prior to now decade. Followers will debate whether or not it’s an indication of real inventive innovation or simply that he’s an even bigger model than ATL Jacob, Wheezy, Murda Beatz, and numerous different aficionados who’re higher identified to Genius than most people. Success settles a number of arguments: His 2018 debut, Not All Heroes Put on Capes, topped the Billboard charts.
As a helpmate to Atlanta stars like Future (“Masks Off”), 21 Savage (“X”), and Migos (“Dangerous & Boujee”), Metro Boomin earned a repute for shiny synths and skittering percussion programmed into inhumanly difficult results. His use of loopy “drums” distinguishes his work from the vibe-y, computerized washes that outline a lot of up to date mainstream rap. He is aware of methods to elicit good vocal performances: Travis Scott, Drake, and even Publish Malone have recorded a few of their strongest work with him. Heroes & Villains signifies his rising ambition. The album arrives with a six-minute brief movie that resembles Matt Reeves’ The Batman, together with Lakeith Stanfield as a maniacal villain driving a flame-spewing hearth truck, and Morgan Freeman in his acquainted “God” function as philosophical adviser to the hero Younger Metro.
Freeman additionally provides his distinct vocal timbre to Heroes & Villains itself. That’s him intoning initially of “On Time,” “You realize what they are saying. If Younger Metro don’t belief you, motherfucker, you higher run.” (Metro first utilized Freeman on 2020’s Savage Mode II, a pairing between himself and 21 Savage.) “On Time” additionally provides a platform to John Legend in raise-the-rafters mode as he wails, “They pray for the day that I lose it/However God gave me the ability to make use of it.” There are similarities between Metro’s Heroes & Villains and DJ Khaled’s far weaker album GOD DID from earlier this yr. Each share an ethos of “blessings” manifested in generational wealth, a prosperity gospel that Kanye West perfected in his aughts and early 2010s discography. Certainly, Jay-Z’s memorable line about residing “lengthy sufficient to see your self develop into a villain” from West’s “So Appalled” circulates via “Superhero (Heroes & Villains).”
It could be incorrect to imagine that Metro is signaling tacit assist for the troubled, horrifyingly antisemitic West. (He co-produced one in all West’s final nice singles, 2016’s “Father Stretch My Fingers, Pt. 1”) Heroes & Villains is just a DC Prolonged Universe-style motion spectacular filled with mock-operatic pretensions, all the best way right down to a clip of Homelander’s voice from Amazon TV collection The Boys on “Superhero (Heroes & Villains).” Nonetheless, educational theorists will discover deeper themes in the event that they hear intently sufficient. Illicit substances evoke ache and pleasure, as Travis Scott reveals on “Raindrops (Insane).” “Tablet pop the ache/This purple rain,” he harmonizes, including, “I combine up the jazz, I rhythm and blues it.” Future echoes E-40 and the Click on’s traditional character Captain Save a Ho on “I Can’t Save You (Interlude).” Ladies’s voices are nearly nonexistent, though male descriptions of their our bodies are plentiful. The Weeknd and 21 Savage’s impressed “Creepin’” cowl of Mario Winans’ R&B hit “I Don’t Wanna Know” could supply a momentary oasis of emotional sensitivity. However it’s not sufficient.
Nonetheless, Heroes & Villains is entertaining sufficient as a person’s, man’s, man’s world. It’s higher conceptualized and executed than Solely Heroes Put on Capes, even when 21 Savage can’t fairly match the ASMR pleasures of that album’s “Don’t Come Out the Home.” As an alternative, he grumbles on “Niagara Falls,” “Mike Vick, quantity 7, I’m a canine,” a humorous reference to the NFL star’s calamitous Atlanta taking part in days.
The album nearer, Gunna’s “All of the Cash,” inadvertently turns right into a stark reminder of how mainstream rap stays in disaster. Gunna and Younger Thug are at the moment in jail on RICO costs, with a trial scheduled for subsequent yr. Migos co-founder Takeoff, who seems on “Really feel the Fiyaaaah,” was murdered on Nov. 1. 21 Savage continues to be coping with his immigration case. Scott continues to climate the authorized fallout from his disastrous 2021 Astroworld competition.
As Gunna murmurs, “This time round, we would like all the cash,” it sounds heartbreaking. Regardless of Metro’s noble intentions, there are better, villainous forces on the earth that simply can’t be purchased off.
