Metro Boomin released his “Heroes and Villians” album on Dec. 2, and it certainly lived up to the hype. 

The album contains 15 songs, with a run time of 48 minutes; each song features a superstar artist performing to the beats produced by Metro. Some notable features include The Weeknd and 21 Savage. The album is part of a trilogy, with the original album in the trilogy, Not All Heroes Wear Capes, being released 4 years ago in 2018. The 3rd album’s release date is unknown but will be released in the coming years. 

Metro is one of rap’s best producers, known for his collaborations with artists such as Lil Uzi Vert, Travis Scott, Migos, and many more. He began his career in 2009 as a 15-year-old, relocating to Atlanta in 2011 to work more extensively with artists such as Future, 21 Savage, and Gucci Mane. He’s worked with countless artists since then and has continued the pattern of working with the best of the best. 

He showcases this in Heroes and Villains, with his impressive lineup of artists; John Legend, Future, Chris Brown, Don Toliver, Travis Scott, 21 Savage, Young Nudy, Young Thug, The Weeknd, ASAP Rocky, Takeoff, Gunna, and Mustafa the Poet. 

The album does well to bring out the strengths of each feature, both lyrically and with the instrumentals throughout. An example of this lies in the song Too Many Nights, featuring Don Toliver and Future. The large array of instrumentals throughout the song makes it flow extremely well, and Don Toliver and Future’s voices and verses mesh phenomenally. The combination of these two and their strengths adding to each other makes the song special and proves Metro’s undeniable talent as a producer. 

Metro also makes use of samples from an array of sources throughout the album, whether it be a beat or a quote. An example of this is his sample of Anthony Starr as Homelander from the show The Boys on Amazon Prime, which he uses at the end of his song On Time. “I’m done. I am done apologizing, I am done being persecuted for my strength. You people should be thanking Christ that I am who and what I am, because you need me. You need me to save you, you do. I am the only one who possibly can. You’re not the real heroes; I’m the real hero.”

Metro does a great job making this album different and unique, whether it be with his instrumentals, features, or combinations of artists. The album quickly flew to #1 on the billboards, and as of Dec 20, it is still at #3. This album showcased Metro’s undeniable talent as a producer, and also brought out some hit songs at the same time.