The rapper Metro Boomin admits is ‘draining’ to work with: “The pickiest artist”
When you think about the most influential producers since the 2010s, Metro Boomin is up there with the best of them. He’s been behind some of the biggest hits of the past decade, helping to carve out a new generation of hip-hop and trap artists. The Atlanta producer has worked with everyone from Future to Juice WRLD to Kendrick Lamar, having the ability to piece together a range of different sounds. However, he finds one artist more draining than most.
Metro has formed a close relationship with 21 Savage since the early days of his career. They’ve teamed up on multiple albums, Savage Mode, Savage Mode II, and Without Warning, alongside Offset, while joining forces on their solo projects. Although they get the best out of each other musically, that doesn’t mean things are always easy.
The producer once sat down with Timbaland and opened up about getting artists to redo their vocals. On the same topic, he revealed that 21 is challenging to work with because he’s not easily pleased with beats in the studio. Given his attitude, Metro counters him with the same attitude, not accepting anything less than perfect with his vocals.
“As I get older, more and more,” he told Rolling Stone. “Me and [21] Savage get into that sometimes. It’s the same thing you said with you and Missy [Elliott]: He’s the pickiest artist I’ve ever worked with, with the beats. I’ll play this man 35 or 40 beats before he wants to get in the booth. And it can be draining: He’ll go, ‘Next one, next one, next one, next one.’ But in return, I’m like, ‘OK, you’ve gotta overly bring it on this one. I’m not taking any OK shit, n*gga.’”
He added, “He’s definitely my favourite to work with. We’ll get on each other’s nerves, go back and forth all the time. But at the end of the day, we make each other better. If I play him 20 beats and he’s not really feeling them, I’m going home and cooking up. You need that.”
21 and Metro released their last project, Savage Mode II, in 2020. The album featured Drake, Young Thug, and Young Nudy and reached number one on the Billboard 200, becoming their first chart-topping album. Legendary actor Morgan Freeman narrated the project and appeared on eight songs.
Metro admits that making music sometimes takes him a while due to his close attention to detail. On one hand, he’d like to release more albums, but on the other, he wants to make sure his songs are of the best quality, redoing them repeatedly.
“If it didn’t take me so long to finish songs, I’d put out albums more frequently,” he said. “I enjoy putting albums out, but I can’t until I feel like it’s ready. I’ll mix songs over and over, reconstruct them. Like I said earlier, I feel music more than I see it. You can listen forever. But you can feel when it’s done. We make songs for a long time. If we’re working on an album, we’ll record new songs along the way, but we’ll be mixing that shit all year.”