Album: 21 Savage & Metro Boomin – SAVAGE MODE II
The impending arrival of 21 Savage’s SAVAGE MODE II was announced with a trailer directed by Gibson Hazard and narrated by Morgan Freeman. The takeaway, aside from the fact that Savage and collaborator Metro Boomin were emerging together from separate and presumably unrelated periods of inactivity, is that the project was much more than just two pals hanging out. With SAVAGE MODE II, the pair have effectively reached back to the era when 21 Savage wanted nothing more than to let rap fans know he was a “Real Ni**a” with “No Heart.” SAVAGE MODE II follows 2017’s Without Warning—also featuring Offset—as the third collaboration between the pair, the first being 2016’s Savage Mode. Savage and Metro would go on to become exponentially more successful in the years following, but SAVAGE MODE II songs like “Glock in My Lap,” “Brand New Draco,” and “No Opp Left Behind” effectively recreate the us-against-the-world energy of the original. Elsewhere on the project, Savage is every bit the rap superstar we know in collaboration with Drake and Young Thug on “Mr. Right Now” and “Rich N***a Shit,” respectively. But whether he’s talking about “Snitches & Rats” (with Young Nudy) or opening up about a relationship gone sour on “RIP Luv,” 21 Savage sounds like he's at the top of his game while he’s back in the saddle with Metro. Or as Morgan Freeman puts it in the trailer, “When someone is in Savage Mode, they’re not to be fucked with.”