I was listening to an Apple Music playlist just the other day, catered to Metro Boomin. I partially enjoy reading descriptions Apple provides for each playlist. However, I was struck by the Metro Boomin accolades which Apple provided. The first sentence considered Metro Boomin beats as 'surreal, vaguely dystopian soundscapes', furthermore crediting rappers like Future, Drake and Travis Scott.
The concluding sentence included keywords such as 'hazy and glitchy' to describe the finishing touches on his beats. Give or take from Apple's description, can Metro Boomin's beats fall under the Afrofuturism genre?
The primary focus of Afrofuturism gathers a self-realization through a political means. Afrofuturism is predominately expressed through art, music, film and literature. It was a term officially coined in the mid-1990s, although there were black actors and musicians who were pioneers of such artistic movement. To prevent any pseudo-intellectual statements, Afrofuturism can generally comfort the idea of a setting or feel for the tone in a futuristic setting.
You can't discredit modern producers who are paving their success in the rap game with similar dystopian-like beats. Metro Boomin tends to create alliances with rappers such as Future and Young Thug who are considered as 'complimenting instruments' for any beat production Metro Boomin lays out. Each instrumental is weaved together to create a different genre under trap music, including samples the 22-year-old, put his personal touches. It makes sense to specifically pair his production to artists who are necessarily known for idiosyncratic styles that coincidentally create a futuristic aura through cliché trap lyrics.
How does Metro Boomin fall into the Afrofuturism realm regardless of the overall content in his musical background? It could be considered controversially genius to introduce Metro Boomin into the Afrofuturism category. We've heard of the ideology through afro-futurism in music through artist such as Erykah Badu, Outkast, Timbaland, Missy Elliott, Kendrick to name a few. Particularly, those artists have a similarity of the black progression. However, Metro's beats reiterate the visual ideas older generations of Afrofuturist artists upheld for the millennial. The difference between Metro Boomin, with the association of Young Thug, Future and occasionally Drake, is the complete opposite: journalism of the present rather than progression.
The idea that documenting the present rather than the future still falls under such an enriched black genre, with the help of Metro Boomin. With hip-hop being dominated by trap music, and producers similar and/or affiliated with Metro created different sub-genres under the trap, respectively. Speaking of, the dynamic duo between DJ Esco and Metro Boomin collaborations for rapper Future's hit songs creates the dynamic of bringing the diary of the gutter to science-fiction.
Documenting daily thoughts and lifestyles of a (t)rap artist is something that would've made mainstream a bit shaky a few years ago. However, these thoughts are storied themselves from the unspoken side of the black community. Another identity is unmasked through personal anecdotes from a parallel perspective of typical black politics. The advantage of both cultures is the utilization of artistic expression on the behalf of raising awareness to political and social ideas in the black community. It breaks the dehumanizing image of the gutter by showing a different perspective of artistic abilities that rap artists and producers possess.
Yet, something holds back from giving rappers complete credit, particularly giving Metro Boomin the door to the Afrofuturism culture. It all ties back to Apple Music's description. Metro Boomin' is the finishing touch to anecdotes expressed in the studio. Although Metro is known to collaborate with current top artists, he portrays a different futuristic story within their lyrics. Metro Boomin fuses the definition of dystopia with the seemingly unpleasant stories expressed by the rappers. Overall, the songs display an social idea through the futuristic idea of trapping possibly existing in the year 3020.
The Apple playlist brought presented an epiphany. Furthermore, I realized the direction rap was heading in. Myself, along with many black millennials, will agree with this direction towards the predominate boom in the far futuristic culture. Metro Boomin utilized his creative process and passion for music towards creating a humanized side of the not-so-serene politics in the black community. Metro Boomin' produced stories are ones that will simply go down in the books, just check his discography.
