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Metro Boomin

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Source: Taylor Hill / Getty
To many Hip-Hoppers, Metro Boomin seems like Future’s exclusive producer but the man has blessed a few other rappers with some hard hitting head knockin’ production and in his latest offering recruits some of his peers to spit on his latest offering.

Linking up with 21 Savage and Mustafa for the black-and-white visuals to “Walk Em Down (Don’t Kill Civilians),” 21 Savage and company hit The A and walk through the streets as if none of them had a record deal and show just how real life can get when you’re living the life forreal with nothing to lose and just a little to gain.

Back in The Chi, G Herbo shows just how good the life he’s carved out for himself has gotten and in his clip to “My Soul,” G shows us how he gets ready for a show as he polishes off his ice in his fancy apartment before blazing some trees in his truck while on the way to rock his adoring crowd.
Check out the rest of today’s drops including work from Dave East and araabMUZIK, Drag-On, and more.
METRO BOOMIN, 21 SAVAGE & MUSTAFA – “WALK EM DOWN”

G HERBO – “MY SOUL”

DAVE EAST & ARAABMUZIK – “BET MY LIFE”

DRAG-ON – “INTUITION”

ROCKY ROCK & MACK 10 FT. GUTTALANE LOW – “REALLY OUTSIDE”

GRAFH FT. 38 SPESH – “ROCK, PAPER, SISSORS”

DUSTY LOCANE – “MASTERPIECE”

DDG – “HANDLING BUSINESS FREESTYLE”

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Metro Boomin is currently facing a lawsuit from a woman who claims that the producer allegedly raped and impregnated her in 2016 after meeting him on a chance meeting in Las Vegas. According to the attorney for Metro Boomin, this is nothing more than a money grab for the accuser.
TMZ first reported about the lawsuit filed against Metro Boomin and the details are as follows. According to the filing, the woman says that she met Metro in Las Vegas while on a getaway vacation following the passing of her 9-month-old son.

According to the documents, a woman named Vanessa LeMaistre claims that she hung out with Metro at his recording studio in Los Angeles and said she allegedly saw the producer downing codeine. From what we understand of the report, LeMaistre says she was at the studio in September 2016 and took Xanax and a shot of alcohol but later said she lost consciousness.
LeMaistre added in her claim that when she awoke, she was in a bed with Metro allegedly raping her along with performing other sexual acts. LeMaistre says she passed out once more and was inside a Beverly Hills hotel room but didn’t remember how she managed to get inside the establishment. LeMaistre says she discovered that she was pregnant after the assault and said that Metro was the father but terminated the pregnancy in November 2016.
In an update to TMZ’s initial report, Metro Boomin’s attorney offered a statement on the lawsuit.
From TMZ:
According to Metro Boomin’s (real name Leland Wayne) lawyer Lawrence Hinkle II of Sanders Roberts LLP tells TMZ … “This is a pure shakedown. These are false accusations. Mr. Wayne refused to pay her months ago, and he refuses to pay her now. Mr. Wayne will defend himself in court. He will file a claim for malicious prosecution once he prevails.”
Metro Boomin has yet to respond publicly beyond this statement.

Photo: Getty

On May 24, Sexyy Red and Drake teamed up on the track “U My Everything.” And in a surprise — Drake’s beef with Kendrick Lamar had seemingly ended — the track samples “BBL Drizzy” (originally created using AI by King Willonius, then remixed by Metro Boomin) during the Toronto rapper’s verse. 
It’s another unexpected twist for what many are calling the first-ever AI-generated hit, “BBL Drizzy.” Though Metro Boomin’s remix went viral, his version never appeared on streaming services. “U My Everything” does, making it  the first time an AI-generated sample has appeared on an official release — and posing new legal questions in the process. Most importantly: Does an artist need to clear a song with an AI-generated sample?

Trending on Billboard

“This sample is very, very novel,” says Donald Woodard, a partner at the Atlanta-based music law firm Carter Woodard. “There’s nothing like it.” Woodard became the legal representative for Willonius, the comedian and AI enthusiast who generated the original “BBL Drizzy,” after the track went viral and has been helping Willonius navigate the complicated, fast-moving business of viral music. Woodard says music publishers have already expressed interest in signing Willonius for his track, but so far, the comedian/creator is still only exploring the possibility.

Willonius told Billboard that it was “very important” to him to hire the right lawyer as his opportunities mounted. “I wanted a lawyer that understood the landscape and understood how historic this moment is,” he says. “I’ve talked to lawyers who didn’t really understand AI, but I mean, all of us are figuring it out right now.”

Working off recent guidance from the U.S. Copyright Office, Woodard says that the master recording of “BBL Drizzy” is considered “public domain,” meaning anyone can use it royalty-free and it is not protected by copyright, since Willonius created the master using AI music generator Udio. But because Willonius did write the lyrics to “BBL Drizzy,” copyright law says he should be credited and paid for the “U My Everything” sample on the publishing side. “We are focused on the human portion that we can control,” says Woodard. “You only need to clear the human side of it, which is the publishing.”

In hip-hop, it is customary to split the publishing ownership and royalties 50/50: One half is expected to go to the producer, the other is for the lyricists (who are also often the artists, too). “U My Everything” was produced by Tay Keith, Luh Ron, and Jake Fridkis, so it is likely that those three producers split that half of publishing in some fashion. The other half is what Willonius could be eligible for, along with other lyricists Drake and Sexyy Red. Woodard says the splits were solidified “post-release” on Tuesday, May 28, but declined to specify what percentage split Willonius will take home of the publishing. “I will say though,” Woodard says, cracking a smile. “He’s happy.”

Upon the release of “U My Everything,” Willonius was not listed as a songwriter on Spotify or Genius, both of which list detailed credits but can contain errors. It turns out the reason for the omission was simple: the deal wasn’t done yet. “We hammered out this deal in the 24th hour,” jokes Woodard, who adds that he was unaware that “U My Everything” sampled “BBL Drizzy” until the day of its release. “That’s just how it goes sometimes.”

It is relatively common for sample clearance negotiations to drag on long after the release of songs. Some rare cases, like Travis Scott’s epic “Sicko Mode,” which credits about 30 writers due to a myriad of samples, can take years. Willonius tells Billboard when he got the news about the “U My Everything” release, he was “about to enter a meditation retreat” in Chicago and let his lawyer “handle the business.”

This sample clearance process poses another question: should Metro Boomin be credited, too? According to Metro’s lawyer, Uwonda Carter, who is also a partner at Carter Woodard, the simple answer is no. She adds that Metro is not pursuing any ownership or royalties for “U My Everything.”

“Somehow people attach Metro to the original version of ‘BBL Drizzy,’ but he didn’t create it,” Carter says. “As long as [Drake and Sexyy Red] are only using the original version [of “BBL Drizzy”], that’s the only thing that needs to be cleared,” she continues, adding that Metro is not the type of creative “who encroaches upon work that someone else does.”

When Metro’s remix dropped on May 5, Carter says she spoke with the producer, his manager and his label, Republic Records, to discuss how they could officially release the song and capitalize on its grassroots success, but then they ultimately decided against doing a proper release. “Interestingly, the label’s position was if [Metro’s] going to exploit this song, put it up on DSPs, it’s going to need to be cleared, but nobody knew what that clearance would look like because it was obviously AI.”

She adds, “Metro decided that he wasn’t going to exploit the record because trying to clear it was going to be the Wild, Wild West.” In the end, however, the release of “U My Everything” still threw Carter Woodard into that copyright wilderness, forcing them to find a solution for their other client, Willonius.

In the future, the two lawyers predict that AI could make their producer clients’ jobs a lot easier, now that there is a precedent for getting AI-generated masters royalty-free. “It’ll be cheaper,” says Carter. “Yes, cleaner and cheaper,” says Woodard.

Carter does acknowledge that while AI sampling could help some producers with licensing woes, it could hurt others, particularly the “relatively new” phenomenon of “loop producers.” “I don’t want to minimize what they do,” she says, “but I think they have the most to be concerned about [with AI].” Carter notes that using a producer’s loops can cost 5% to 10% from the producer’s side of publishing or more. “I think that, at least in the near future, producers will start using AI sampling and AI-generated records so they could potentially bypass the loop producers.”

Songwriter-turned-publishing executive Evan Bogart previously told Billboard he feels AI could never replace “nostalgic” samples (like “First Class” by Jack Harlow’s use of “Glamorous” by Fergie or “Big Energy” by Latto’s “Fantasy” by Mariah Carey), where the old song imbues the new one with greater meaning. But he said he could foresee it being a digital alternative to crate digging for obscure samples to chop up and manipulate beyond recognition.

Though the “U My Everything” complications are over — and set a new precedent for the nascent field of AI sampling in the process — the legal complications with “BBL Drizzy” will continue for Woodard and his client. Now, they are trying to get the original song back on Spotify after it was flagged for takedown. “Some guy in Australia went in and said that he made it, not me,” says Willonius. A representative for Spotify confirms to Billboard that the takedown of “BBL Drizzy” was due to a copyright claim. “He said he made that song and put it on SoundCloud 12 years ago, and I’m like, ‘How was that possible? Nobody was even saying [BBL] 12 years ago,’” Willonius says. (Udio has previously confirmed to Billboard that its backend data shows Willonius made the song on its platform).   

“I’m in conversations with them to try to resolve the matter,” says Woodard, but “unfortunately, the process to deal with these sorts of issues is not easy. Spotify requires the parties to reach a resolution and inform Spotify once this has happened.” 

Though there is precedent for other “public domain” music being disqualified from earning royalties, so far, given how new this all is, there is no Spotify policy that would bar an AI-generated song from earning royalties. These songs are also allowed to stay up on the platform as long as the AI songs do not conflict with Spotify’s platform rules, says a representative from Spotify.

Despite the challenges “BBL Drizzy” has posed, Woodard says it’s remarkable, after 25 years in practice as a music attorney, that he is part of setting a precedent for something so new. “The law is still being developed and the guidelines are still being developed,” Woodard says. “It’s exciting that our firm is involved in the conversation, but we are learning as we go.”

This story is included in Billboard‘s new music technology newsletter, Machine Learnings. To subscribe to this and other Billboard newsletters, click here.

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Source: @champagnepapi / Instagram
Drake may be done participating in rap beef for the foreseeable future but that isn’t keeping the King of The North from having a little fun with the remnantes of his latest war.

In the midst of Drake’s battle with half of the Hip-Hop game (we’re exaggerating of course), Metro Boomin dropped a free “BBL Drizzy” instrumental for the heck of it and offered up a bag to whoever was able to flip it the best. Well, it seems like challenge was accepted and after multiple artists gave it a try (most of them dissing Drake of course), Drake and Sexyy Red have decided to give it a try and just dropped a collabo cut, “U My Everything” over the Metro Boomin instrumental.

With everything that’s gone down over the past few weeks you can tell Drake took it all in stride and is embracing the hate as he’s dropping bars like “Why you love me still a mystery/Me and this surgeon got history/I changed a lot of girls lives for real, they need a new body they hittin’ me/Hey! BBL Drizzy, they want a new body they ask me for it.”
Lowkey clever on his part.
Check out “U My Everything” below and let us know who you think flipped the “BBL Drizzy” beat the best in the comments section.
[embedded content]

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Soulja Boy has never been one to shy away from confrontation, and his well-established combativeness was on display on social media recently after warring with Metro Boomin over a 12-year-old tweet. After a barrage of below-the-belt insults, Soulja Boy has walked back the jabs towards Metro Boomin and says he’ll enter into therapy.
The entire debacle took place this past Mother’s Day (May 12) after Soulja Boy came across a tweet from Metro Boomin that he posted in 2012 which read, “My phone rings to come to the studio with Jeezy. Yours rings to send Soulja Boy a pack of beats. Sit down.”

It should be noted that Metro was 18 at the time and X, formerly Twitter, used to be the wild west when it came to flagrant tweets. However, Big Draco’s reaction to Young Metro was deemed over the top by some and even prompted 21 Savage to come to Metro’s defense.
“You was tryna send me beats too p*ssy ass boy,” Soulja wrote in a now-deleted tweet, which he followed up with a tweet referencing Metro’s mother, who was murdered by her husband. 21 Savage witnessed the insult and had some exchanges with the “Crank That” rapper.
“Speaking on a n*gga mama like sh*t a game you gone sh*t on yourself when I see you boy,” 21 wrote on X.
After some days, Soulja realized the error of his ways and posted a reply on X sharing his remorse over the exchanges.
“I apologize to @MetroBoomin for over reacting over an old tweet. Condolences to his mom. I’m going to seek therapy and anger management. I’m done responding to hate, new or old,” Soulja Boy wrote.
No word yet if he and 21 Savage have patched it up.

Photo: Getty

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Source: Jerritt Clark / Getty / 21 Savage
21 Savage became the target of Soulja Boy’s fury while trying to defuse the beef between Drake and producer Metro Boomin.
Kendrick Lamar wasn’t the only person Drake had an issue with; there was also tension with Metro Boomin, leading the Canadian rapper to send shots at him on diss tracks “Push Ups” and “Family Matters.” 

In response, Metro Boomin, who isn’t a lyricist, went into his producing bag, supplying the internet with a free “BBL Drizzy” beat for them to rap to. He offered the person with the best verse $10K and a free beat.
21 Savage, who collaborates with both of them, told fans during an Instagram Live session that he believed both Drizzy and Metro could move past the beef.

While all of this was happening, fans began digging up old problematic tweets from Metro Boomin, leading to “Metro Groomin” trending. Among the old tweets was some apparent shade at Hip-Hop pioneer Soulja Boy.
In the 2012 tweet, Metro wrote, “My phone rings to come to the studio with Jeezy. Yours rings to send Soulja Boy a pack of beats. Sit down.”
Of course, Soulja Boy doesn’t let anything slide. He warned the producer to take down the post and kept a 2013 receipt in the form of a Metro in his DMs, attempting to send him music.

From there, it was on with Soulja Boy hopping on X, formerly Twitter, with some very disrespectful jabs about Metro’s deceased mother on Mother’s Day.
21 Savage Stood Up For Metro Boomin
Things got interesting when 21 Savage stood up  for his friend, typing “or what?” in response to Big Draco warning Metro Boomin, “He got 24 hours to delete that tweet.”

The two would tweet back and forth on social media about where they initially came from.
No music has come from this, but this is one of those beefs where we don’t need them running to the booth.
They can just let this disagreement fizzle out.
Hip-Hop is on some real spicy energy going into Summer 2024 sheesh.

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Source: Bernard Smalls / @PhotosByBeanz
Kendrick Lamar’s verbal war with Drake is boosting his streaming catalog numbers and whittling his rival’s own down.
According to reports, the heated battle between Kendrick Lamar and Drake is carrying over to streaming as the former’s catalog is outpacing the other. The battle between Kendrick Lamar and Drake saw Lamar issue four tracks beginning with “Euphoria” which entered the Billboard Hot 100 charts at number 11 and garnered 27.6 million audio demand streams from May 3 to May 6 according to Luminate. “Not Like Us”, the infectious and scathing diss track that’s now become a club anthem, had 21.1 million streams since its debut on May 4, with the incisive “Meet The Grahams” earning 8.8 million streams so far. “6:16 in L.A.”, the second of the tracks, hasn’t hit streaming platforms yet. This also includes Kendrick Lamar taking the number one streaming status in Drake’s home country of Canada, standing at number one on Apple Music’s Top 100 chart as well as Spotify’s Daily Top Songs Canada chart.

Going further, removing the diss tracks only highlights how many listeners are tuning in to hear Kendrick Lamar’s music. During that same four-day period, his discography attained 50.62 million streams, showing a 49% increase from the same period the previous week. In comparison, Drake’s overall catalog streaming numbers took a hit once his response tracks, “Family Matters” and “The Heart Part 6” were removed from the equation – the data shows the streams at 100.7 million from May 3-6 as opposed to 105.9 million from Apr. 26-29. That represents a 4.9% drop.
While Drake can be okay with the fact that his overall streaming numbers still outpace Kendrick Lamar’s with twice as many, the recent hit has reflected a distinct turn against the Toronto superstar. Other streaming numbers that stand out are tied to the rise of “BBL Drizzy,” a song that producer Metro Boomin used for an instrumental to fire back at Drake after the rapper called him out in response to the “Like That” track with Future and Kendrick Lamar that he appeared on. R&B legends Teddy Pendergrass and Al Green also saw an uptick in their streaming numbers as a result of the feud, with the former’s “You’re My Latest, Greatest Inspiration” hit from 1981 saw a boost of 76% in streams from Apr. 26-29 (76,000) to May 3-6 (134,000) due to it being sampled in “Euphoria”. Green’s “What A Wonderful Thing Love Is” from 1972 saw a 283% rise in streams after its usage in “6:16 In L.A.”.

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Metro Boomin is currently in hot water after old tweets from the producer surfaced that some fans believe showcase signs of grooming young women. This comes amid the ongoing beef and allegations Kendrick Lamar aimed in the direction of Drake.
As most recall, Metro Boomin, 30, is seen as part of the genesis of the current iteration of the beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar after the Compton star dropped his blistering “Like That” verse on the WE DON’T TRUST YOU album with Future and the producer. In.  the weeks since the track’s release where shots were taken at Drake and J. Cole, several songs have been exchanged but none more explosive than “Euphoria.”
On “Euphoria,” K-Dot alleges that Drake has a propensity for dating younger women and doubles down on these claims on the following songs, the spooky “Meet The Grahams,” and the catchy “Not Like Us.”
Metro Boomin has been somewhat cheering for K-Dot (and Drizzy’s demise) from the sidelines, especially any bars taking digs at Drake’s character. However, tweets from the producer seem to put him in the same alleged boat with fans accusing him of grooming.

That was just one of several tweets that fans online found and in fairness of reporting, many of the users are in clear support of Drake. Still, a tweet from 2014 from Metro reads “She might be but she ready” so he would’ve been 20 years old at the time.
On a now-deleted tweet that Metro posted just today (May 7), he mistakenly said that he would have been 15 when he made one of those tweets and that was perhaps true but it seems like his team is going on a wild deleting spree to clean up his timeline.
As it stands, fans online are blown away by the tweets from Metro Boomin. Check out the reactions below.

Photo: Getty

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Source: Julia Beverly / Getty
It seems Rap’s Infinity War is not ending anytime soon. Metro Boomin has upped the ante and has created a “BBL Drizzy” beat giveaway challenge.

As reported by HipHopDX, the producer is not backing down from Drake. Last week, the 6 God took shots at the St. Louis, Missouri, native on his latest “Family Matters” diss track. “I mean it’s true a n****a slimed me for my AP / Just like how Metro n****a slimed him for his main squeeze / Out here begging for attention, n****a, say please.” To which the “Thought It Was a Drought” composer responded with a contest that asks up and coming talent to add themselves to the fray. “Best verse over this gets a free beat just upload your song and hashtag #bbldrizzybeatgiveaway,” Metro posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

The URL in the social media post takes you to Metro Boomin’s SoundCloud page where an instrumental is on auto play. This track utilizes a sample of comedian King Willonius’ viral parody song for the hook and bridge. Metro Boomin sped it up and added some drums; the result is a beat reminiscent of The Diplomats’ sound during their iconic Diplomatic Immunity run. Needless to say the track quickly went viral with thousands of rappers and singers using the beat to record their own diss song against Drake.

Earlier today (May 6) Metro Boomin returned to social media announcing an update to #bbldrizzybeatgiveaway challenge. “winner gets $10k and a beat runner up gets a beat as well” he wrote. 

In a reply to a DJ Akademiks Instagram post Drake responded to the challenge typing “You just cheffed a beat about my ass?” in the comments section.

It is unclear how or when the “BBL Drizzy” beat giveaway challenge winners will be chosen.

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Drake is taking more shots than the height of the COVID-19 vaccine run after catching some bars from Kendrick Lamar earlier this month. On Future and Metro Boomin‘s latest project, WE STILL DON’T TRUST YOU, The Weeknd and A$AP Rocky delivered additional jabs and uppercuts in the direction of Drake.
If it wasn’t clear before, Drake certainly appears to be in an all-out war with several heavy hitters in the industry. As mentioned above, K-Dot didn’t hold back on his feature verse on “Like That” from Future and Metro Boomin’s WE DON’T TRUST YOU album.
The Canadian superstar was targeted once again on the follow-up WE STILL DON’T TRUST YOU by his fellow countryman The Weeknd on the track “All To Myself” which doesn’t name Drizzy but certainly seems to be about him.
“These n*ggas always yappin’, yeah/ I promise that I got your back/ Ooh, look at how we movin’, baby/ They could never diss my brothers, baby/ When they got leaks in they operation/ I thank God that I never signed my life away/ And we never do the big talk/ They shooters makin’ TikToks/ Got us laughin’ in the Lambo.”
The lyrics seem to point to the fact The Weeknd never signed to Drake’s OVO Sound label despite being from the same city. The latter portion of the verse seems to be aimed at OVO Sound artist Baka Not Nice.
A$AP Rocky, who probably owed Drake a few more bars than he’s already given him, appears to get at the For All The Dogs star on the track, “Show Of Hands.”
“N*ggas swear they bitch the baddest, I just bagged the worst one/ N*ggas in they feelings over women, what, you hurt or somethin’?/ I smashed before you birthed son, Flacko hit it first, son,” Rocky said, appearing to suggest he slept with the mother of Drake’s child before he did.
Adding to all of this, J. Cole, who was swept in the Rap Royal Rumble but backed out during the Dreamville Festival, is featured on the track “Red Leather” which some fans are looking at sideways.
On X, formerly Twitter, the fans are breaking down the bars while connecting the dots. Check out the reactions below.

Photo: Joseph Okpako / Getty