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Metro Boomin and NAV have both publicly voiced their opinions on what trends are ruining music right now.
During an X exchange on Saturday (Nov. 25), the Perfect Timing collaborators agreed that artists being “fake mysterious” is what might be watering down the industry. The short discussion sparked when the Heroes & Villains producer announced his plans to start uploading music to his YouTube again, like “back in the days.” The PSA urged the “Turks” rapper to respond.
“About to start uploading regularly to my YouTube again like back in the days.. what type of videos do you guys want? (I don’t like the word content, it’s annoying now),” Metro warned his fans, as NAV replied to the post with, “Finally a musician who ain’t trying to be mysterious and sh*t.”
From there, the St. Louis beatmaster responded, “The fake mysterious sh*t with artists is ruining the game!! Everybody too cool.”
Social media immediately joined in on the conversation.
Although neither musician named anyone in particular that they felt were being “mysterious,” that didn’t stop social media users from speculating. X users began naming artists that they felt Metro and NAV could be referring to, including Playboi Carti, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, DJ Khaled, and more. Some even called out Metro for once being “mysterious” himself.
“Yo @playboicarti metro talking about you,” replied one user as another also said, “@playboicarti i hope you paying attention.” A third user commented, “is that why you haven’t collabed with carti recently.” Elsewhere, responses included, “@djkhaled metro talking about you,” “Drake?,” and “Lool u digging Kendrick?” However, Metro nor NAV responded to any of the commentary.
One person took a dig at Metro, saying, “He used to be one of the MOST mysterious so I’m glad he’s coming out of that phase honestly.” Another replied to NAV, “After 10+ years of being mysterious LMAO. That’s hilarious. Don’t get me wrong I love metro, but he could go stream Fortnite for the rest of his life and all of his fans would still stick around.”
He continued, “Easy to show every piece of you when you have no one criticizing and many people waiting to support any endeavor you pursue. You really should stay ‘finally a successful industry musician who ain’t trying to be mysterious.’”
Some artists have received both praise and scrutiny for being rather mysterious when it comes to their music. Beyoncé, Frank Ocean, and even André 3000, who just released his debut solo album New Blue Sun, have all caught heat in the past for not being transparent about music.
In an April episode of Joe Budden’s podcast, the rapper-turned media voice called out Ocean, who he dubbed a “scammer.” Budden spoke on Ocean for eluding his Def Jam contract, not being clear about his music, headlining and then canceling his set at Coachella, and for simply not being fair to his fans and other artists.
“He’s a scammer for the way he got out of his [Def Jam] Universal contract,” Budden started. “He’ll always wear the scammer tag for me. That f**ked up a lot of artists, he didn’t care. Lost a lot of artist revenue streams, took Apple out the game, he didn’t care.”
Speaking of the Coachella cancelation and refusing to let fans know if new music was on the way, he added, “Everybody is here for your stupid a** who ain’t put out music in ages, and you can’t even confirm if there’s new music coming?! The arrogance of these ni**as, yo.”
The Blonde artist reportedly showed up to 2023 Coachella an hour late, leaving fans with a 90-minute lackluster set. Following the first weekend’s show, Ocean explained his reasoning for canceling his second performance. Ocean reportedly had an injury that occurred on festival grounds ahead of the first weekend “due to two fractures and a sprain in his left leg.”
He claimed that he was advised by medical professionals not to take the stage, although many did not buy his reasoning.
