Not All Heroes Wear Capes is the album Metro Boomin wanted us all to be waiting for. Just seven months ago, Metro announced his retirement from hip hop via an Instagram post. However, the retirement was short lived as billboards started appearing in New York City that read “METRO BOOMIN’ MISSING PERSONS.” Then, Not All Heroes Wear Capes finally dropped, packed with features from artists like Gucci Mane, Travis Scott, 21 Savage, Gunna, Young Thug, and Swae Lee. Not All Heroes Wear Capes is Metro Boomin’s debut studio album after becoming infamous for playing a huge role in productions like Future’s DS2 with “Mask Off” and of course, Migos’ “Bad and Boujee.”
Not All Heroes Wear Capes gives out a dark, villainous feel with each track. Metro Boomin’s flow is relatively low–key, but still pumps out the beats you want to hear. Throughout the album, Metro plays around with instrumentals, samples, and different beats depending on the artist on that track. In “Overdue,” Metro switches up the beat with faded out, syncopated rhythms featuring Travis Scott. It’s catchy in a way that makes you want to play it on a loop for Travis’s smooth layover, if not for the kicked–back groundwork of a track Metro lays out. He’s unafraid of bringing in old samples, weaving them in between songs. “10 Freaky Girls,” begins with a sample of Kashif’s 1984 song “Are You the Woman.” Twenty seconds in, 21 Savage’s infamous monotonous tone cuts in and a haunting aggressive track takes over. Even individual songs are packed within the album. “No More” overlays Travis Scott, Kodak Black, and 21 Savage, with each alternating the intoxicating chorus: “I just pour ’til I can’t pour no more.” The outro is a sample from 24–Carat Black’s “Synopsis One In The Ghetto God Save The World.”
If he’s not messing around with samples, he deviates to refined instrumentals. “Space Cadet” lives up to this name as it begins with a melodic line of pointed, sci–fi sounding beeps that end up enforcing the track throughout the song. It’s faster paced than most of the album, with Gunna taking the lead over a playful, yet eerie backdrop. It’s one of the more instrumentally heavy tracks along with “Don’t Come Out the House” featuring 21 Savage, which has hard hitting variations of the same chord played on the keyboard. Metro knows how to bring the best out of 21 Savage, putting him on a track with a stiffer, louder beat. 21 Savage alternates between a hoarse whisper and a menacing tone. Not All Heroes Wear Capes ends with “No Complaints,” a bonus track featuring Drake and Offset, which starts off rather slowly and becomes quickly repetitive. However, it ends up sounding more like Drake accompanying Offset, rather than a collaboration between the two.
Even though Not All Heroes Wear Capes does feel a little varied and messy at times, it shows that Metro Boomin is unafraid of experimenting even as an artist who has already reached unsurmounted peaks in his career. Metro is definitely not retiring, in fact it sounds like he’s just getting started.
