If you’ve not been paying attention, Metro Boomin has been the sound of the 2010s. His signature sound bites “if Metro don’t trust you, I’m gon’ shoot you,” “Metro Boomin want some more n—,” and the rather simple “Metro!” can be heard across many great tracks from artists like Drake, The Weeknd, Future, and even Post Malone. His style of trap and modern hip-hop production favoured clean drums and synths but has grown dirtier and deconstructed over the years as he has developed.
In the 2020s, Metro (real name Leland Wayne) has been more deliberate with his collaborations, choosing to develop his sound with 21 Savage on 2020’s Savage Mode 2, and 2024’s back to back Future releases We Don’t Trust You and We Still Don’t Trust You. Still, the biggest release of Metro’s career has been his 2022 album Heroes & Villains. With that album, he brought together all his past collaborators and friends in an Avengers-like coming together resulting in over 6.6 billion streams on Spotify alone. After this wildly successful release, it looks like Metro Boomin has chosen to return to influences and pay homage to his roots in Atlanta with the recent release of a late 2000s/early 2010s inspired mixtape, complete with a DJ host. The big question is: how does the sound go over in 2025?
A Futuristic Summa starts off with a skit like most recent Metro albums, with an assurance that everyone is ready to spend money at all the clothes stores and are pulling up in their latest spaceships (cars). After that, we quickly move into the first real song, ‘I Want It All,’ which details which brands we want specifically. The track is led by J Money, an unknown by modern Metro collaborator standards but has been releasing music on the grassroots level since their 2009 Gucci Mane-featuring release. J Money sings about several different brands over happy woodwind instruments and artificial trumpets and quickly establishes the formula for the album.
Metro Boomin was not lying when he said he was making an Atlanta rap mixtape. If the melody, repetition, and overall simplicity of the style does not activate your nostalgia, the next song probably won’t do anything for you either. The end of ‘I Want It All’ features another spoken skit that crosses into the next song, ‘They Wanna Have Fun’ where DJ Spinz establishes the hook repeating the phrase “Girls, they wanna have fun,” until Metro builds on his production. The vocals are flat but you have to remember that not everyone could afford to spend money on paying for trained or even amateur talented singers to come on their track, so many would just do it themselves.
The fourth track, ‘Butterflies (Right Now)’, is easily the best of the openers with longtime collaborator Quavo hopping on the track for a verse after a solid opening from new cast member Roscoe Dash. His verse and pre-chorus blend perfectly into the hook from uncredited vocalists Natalie Moran, Samantha Hernandez & Brianna Cody [taken from genius.com]. The result is a banger of a track that fits the summer vibe the double album is trying to create. Unfortunately, the next song ‘Take Me Thru Dere’ is a regression to repetitive simple lyrics, weak vocals, and unserious production. The album continues with this series of party-centric and head-bobbing tracks with varying success.
Returning to mixtape sensibilities has had resurgence in recent years and the commitment to authentic imitation of a bygone era is the most admirable aspect of A Futuristic Summa. However, 24 mostly run of the mill tracks spread across one hour and nineteen minutes and collected onto two discs is excessive and disappointing. Metro chose to delay the release of the album by two weeks after beginning to tease the release via Instagram, seemingly to add another longtime collaborator onto the tracklist, Future.
PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE
FUTURISTIC SUMMA NEXT WEEK@1future LETS GOOOOOO 🛸 pic.twitter.com/eReLGqmvLd
— Metro Boomin (@MetroBoomin) July 22, 2025
The album released on August 2 yet, at the time of writing on Monday 4th, official lyrics for several tracks like ‘Overly Trimm’ and ‘Slide’ are not available on Apple Music, where ‘U Deserve’ and ‘Don’t Stop Dancin’ don’t have lyrics to follow on Spotify. This disrespects the known talents of Lil Baby and Atlanta legend T.I. who are participating in Metro’s vision on those songs, and ultimately feels like final indication of what has felt like a messy and confused album rollout.
