Billboard Explains: Metro Boomin’s Journey on the Charts

Metro Boomin’s dark synths and bouncy 808s have laid the foundation for Atlanta to remain a dominant force in rap’s mainstream throughout the last decade. The super producer reunited with Future on Friday (April 12) to deliver their second joint project of the year with the double-disc We Still Don’t Trust You.

Billboard looks back at Young Metro’s rise from emerging producer to scorching commercial titan. Metro Boomin fittingly made his Billboard Hot 100 debut thanks to producing Future’s “Honest,” which reached No. 55 in 2013.

The St. Louis native climbed the Hot 100’s apex in 2017 for his production on Migos and Lil Uzi Vert’s slippery “Bad & Boujee” anthem that took the hip-hop world by storm.

He would strike chart gold again when hitting No. 1 with The Weeknd’s “Heartless” in 2019, and most recently with an assist from Kendrick Lamar’s atomic bomb on the rap game as heard on We Don’t Trust You‘s “Like That” in March, which gave Metro his first No. 1 hit as a billed artist.

Metro Boomin has produced 16 top 10 hits on the Hot 100 to date, and that number could rise once tallies come in from We Still Don’t Trust You.

The 30-year-old is no stranger to collaborating with artists, which has helped him post seven top 10s on the Billboard 200, including Double or Nothing with Big Sean, Savage Mode II alongside 21 Savage and his Heroes & Villains album. The latter soared to No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and helmed the top spot for 18 weeks on the Top Rap Albums chart, the third most of any in the chart’s history.

Metro Boomin and Future’s We Don’t Trust You album debuted atop the Billboard 200 with 251,000 total album-equivalent units in the week ending March 28, per Luminate. Seventeen of the album’s songs hit the Hot 100 in their first week of eligibility, and the Atlanta duo occupied half of the chart’s top 10.

The book isn’t anywhere close to being written for Young Metro, who will likely continue his ascension in 2024 with another album promised for later this year.

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Michael Saponara

Billboard