It's Everyone vs. Drake on Future & Metro Boomin's 'We Still Don't Trust You'

The last 3 weeks of rap have been pure chaos. J. Cole’s switching teams on some Kevin Durant type shit, hopping on Future & Metro Boomin’s We Still Don’t Trust You for a surprise feature. In other news today:

• Song streams & revenue 💰️ 

• It’s everyone vs. Drake on Future & Metro Boomin’s ‘WSDTY’ 🥩 

• We’re never getting a new A$AP Rocky or Rihanna album 🙁 

• Vince Staples says Big 3 beef is a distraction from deeper issues 🤔 

• New Music Friday releases 💿️ 

• Industry Insights 📈 

Song Streams & Revenue

It’s a new week and a new song revenue chart. As reported by Hits Daily Double, which tracks streaming revenue week over week, the above chart reflects the streaming period from March 29 to April 4.

“Like That” notched another week at #1 on the Hot 100 and pulled in $195K from 42M streams. Ye and Ty Dolla’s “Carnival” is still going strong with $85K from 18M streams.

It’s Everyone vs. Drake on Future & Metro Boomin’s ‘We Still Don’t Trust You’

The wait for Future and Metro Boomin’s official collab album(s) was worth it. They went in the vault and released music they’d been hoarding for years. 25 new songs, features from The Weeknd, A$AP Rocky, J. Cole (??), and Lil Baby arrived with We Still Don’t Trust You.

Less than an hour after the album was released, the internet began dissecting the multiple sneak disses that appeared to be towards Drake. A$AP Rocky got a shot off, The Weeknd weighed in, and J. Cole really doesn’t want any smoke. Is this Drake’s reckoning?

Find every potential diss below.

On “All to Myself,” The Weeknd’s reference to leaks in an operation may refer to Drake, whose team has been suspected of leaking songs, including Drake’s unreleased verse on “Trance,” after Metro Boomin didn’t include it on Heroes & Villains. 

In 2010, Drake was credited with bolstering The Weeknd’s underground success by sharing his songs on the OVO blog. In 2011, The Weeknd contributed songwriting and singing to Take Care, but despite Drake’s efforts to sign him, he went with Republic Records in 2012. 

There was speculation Drake was unhappy with The Weeknd’s decision not to sign to OVO. Drake’s X account still has the subtweet, “You won’t get away with just a thank you..you owe me a favor” from 2012.

There’s a lyric that precedes A$AP’s diss highlighted on X. “N*ggas in they feelings over women, what, you hurt or somethin’? / I smash before you birthed son, Flacko hit it first son.” In 2018, when news of Drake’s kid became public (courtesy of Pusha T) it was revealed that A$AP had previously dated Sophie Brussaux, the mother of Drake’s son.

A user on X said, “J. Cole the first rapper to ever get a post-diss clarity.” His verse admits that when beef heats up and shots start popping off, he runs. So, to recap, he dropped a Kendrick diss, apologized within 48 hours, and then hopped on Metro and Future’s album before the end of the week to clarify.

We’re Never Getting a New A$AP Rocky or Rihanna Album

“I’m otw,” “I fell asleep,” and A$AP Rocky and Rihanna are releasing an album, are three statements you should know better than to believe. The couple that once dominated the 2010s with their individual music has pivoted to establishing a legacy by way of reproduction rather than discography.

In a new interview with Interview magazine, Rihanna offered more proof that the “coming soon” statement should be applied to their growing family and not their music. How many more kids does Rihanna want? “As many as god wants me to have.”

“I would go for more than two. I would try for my girl. But of course, if it’s another boy, it’s another boy,” she elaborated. Mother nature appears to be on the couple’s side, with their first son, RZA, being born in May 2022 and their second son, Riot, born in August 2023.

‘Don’t Be Dumb’

A$AP’s first official statement about his follow-up to 2018’s Testing came in a 2021 cover story with GQ. It was also the first time he publicly commented on his relationship with Rihanna and almost prophetically said he was ready to be a father.

At the time, his album was still called All Smiles, and he told GQ it was 90% done. Further updates have trickled in each year—Metro Boomin on production, the official name is Don’t Be Dumb—along with singles like, “D.M.B.,” “RIOT,” and “Shittin’ Me.” 

If the last three years have taught us anything, we’ll get A$AP and Rihanna’s third child before GTA 6, but Don’t Be Dumb—we’ll get GTA 6 before the new A$AP Rocky and Rihanna albums.

Vince Staples Says Big 3 Beef Is a Distraction From Deeper Issues

One person who is not weighing in on the rap civil war or J. Cole’s apology to Kendrick is Vince Staples. He has a bigger issue with streaming platforms capitalizing on the beef and thinks it’s a distraction from the reform the music industry needs. 

A few days after Kendrick Lamar’s “Like That” diss track from Future and Metro Boomin’s new album unleashed hell online, Spotify jumped in on the conversation. Billboards went up that read, “Hip-hop is a competitive sport.”

Airing his grievances on The Joe Budden Podcast, Vince highlighted the inequality between artists, labels, and streaming services. James Blake and Ye have also been vocal about streaming not properly paying artists and labels wanting a bigger cut of profits. 

“We have every songwriter that we’ve ever had in Hip Hop music complaining about their publishing splits, but we kind of don’t pay attention to that,” Vince said, referring to the online discourse.

“But once n-ggas get mad, the whole internet is activated, and we got billboards from streamers talking about, ‘Hip Hop is a sport,’ but we ain’t never seen a billboard from a streamer that said, ‘Give that n-gga his publishing back.”

“Why are we at war with the n-gga that’s making a song and not the motherfucker who owns the whole thing? We don’t say their name at all. We quiet when they do some fuck shit,” Vince concluded.

Will this be more effective at ending the war than J. Cole’s peace over beef speech? Probably not—rap fans will be rap fans—but it’s food for thought.

New Music Friday

Future & Metro Boomin is the only correct answer to “who gets first listen?” Here’s all the music you can listen to now—categorized by 💿️ for albums and 🎶 for singles:

• 💿️ We Still Don’t Trust You by Future, Metro Boomin

• 💿️ B4DaRAVEN by Summrs

• 💿️ 11:11 (Deluxe) by Chris Brown

• 💿️ Code of Silence by Eldorado Red

• 🎶 “Overseas” by Ken Carson

• 🎶 “L o s e M y M i n d” by PARTYNEXTDOOR

• 🎶 “I Know” by wolfacejoeyy

• 🎶 “Let’s Go (Remix)” by Key Glock, Young Dolph

• 🎶 “SNA!” by Chow Lee

• 🎶 “Sl*t Me Out 2” by NLE Choppa

• 🎶 “Titanic” by Dom Corleo

• Spotify plans to let subscribers speed up songs to compete with TikTok. Music rightsholders would be paid for user-edited versions of their tracks.

• Goldin is auctioning off hip-hop memorabilia from Tupac, Biggie, and Eazy-E. Including items inscribed with the late rappers’ rare signatures.

• Nicki Minaj’s ‘Pink Friday 2’ tour becomes the highest-grossing ever for a female rapper. Some individual stops on the tour have grossed over $2 million.

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