Future’s ‘Mixtape Pluto’ Leaves Fans With Questions

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Travis Scott finally secured the No. 1 spot for Days Before Rodeo on the Billboard 200 albums chart after a heated battle with Sabrina Carpenter. In other news:

• Billboard Hot 100 📈

• There’s been drama surrounding MIXTAPE PLUTO 👀

• Metro Boomin is taking a new approach to the Drake and K. Dot beef 🤔

• Industry Insights 🔎

Billboard Hot 100

The above chart shows Billboard’s Hot 100 ranking for this week. The Hot 100 ranks songs based on streaming activity, radio airplay audience impressions, and sales data—all measured by Luminate.

Kendrick’s “Not Like Us” maintains its spot from the week before while “Million Dollar Baby” takes a slight drop. The Weeknd and Playboi Carti make it to the top 20 this week with their new singles. “All Red“ becomes Carti’s highest charting solo debut on the chart, opening at #15.

Future’s ‘Mixtape Pluto’ Has Carti Fans Confused

On September 20, Future finally returned to his mixtape bag and dropped the highly-anticipated MIXTAPE PLUTO. With 17 tracks total, fans got what they had been waiting for. However, there were two things that hip-hop heads took issue with once they got through their first full listen.

No features is crazy

The mixtape was initially rumored to have features from Travis Scott on “SOUTH OF FRANCE” and Gunna on “TOLD MY,” but the official tracklist released before the album had no features. At first, this got fans even more excited, assuming the features would be revealed with the release. September 20th came and went, though, and Future was the only voice heard.

While Travis Scott hasn’t responded to the change, Gunna seemingly did on his Instagram Stories.

There has been some notable tension between the two rappers in the past, with Future posting and then deleting his support for Gunna’s single “Prada Dem” allegedly due to Gunna’s involvement in the YSL trial. The post does seem to show, though, that Gunna has no hard feelings about the sudden change. The group that may have a harder time believing that something isn’t up is Playboi Carti’s ride-or-die fanbase.

Future and Carti are going BAND4BAND

When Carti dropped his new single “ALL RED” on September 13, social media was full of Future comparisons. Now, it seems that Future is attempting to do his best impression of “King Vamp.”

Future’s new song, “PLUTOSKI,” has sparked multiple comparisons to Carti because of its vocal manipulations that make the lyrics impossible to understand at times.

“In the song ‘Plutoski’ Pluto starts speaking cartinese. he also disses drake kinda? this song is just so goofy. Kinda funny how future started speaking like carti and carti is speaking like future,” X user Val said in a September 22 post. 

Others online though see the drama as the two rappers simply giving each other their flowers.

“Maybe these two respect each other as 2 major Atlanta artists and each was paying homage to the other… that’s what art is,” X user __dicarlostreet said in a September 20 post.

Nevertheless, MIXTAPE PLUTO has gotten more support than hate from those who have been waiting for Future to get back into his 56 Nights bag. It’s projected to sell between 120K and 135K for first-week sales, making it a contender for Billboard’s No. 1 album spot.

Metro Boomin Talks Drake and Kendrick Beef at Forbes Summit

Easily one of the biggest moments in rap this year was K. Dot demolishing Drake in their civil war to emerge victorious, proving his opponent is “Not Like Us.” From fans debating online to big names in the rap game like J. Cole ducking the smoke, everyone had an opinion. One of the biggest people to give their two cents (and make their comeback) was Metro Boomin. 

Not only was he featured on “Like That” (the song that was “the shot heard ‘round the world”), but he cemented his hate of Drake even more with the BBL Drizzy Challenge. Now, Metro Boomin broke down his POV while attending a panel at this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit.

Is Metro Boomin flip-flopping?

During the panel, Forbes reporter Matt Craig asked Metro Boomin about how diplomacy plays a role in his job as a producer. From there, Metro shared his thoughts and reflected on his role in the beef (without mentioning Kendrick or Drake’s names). 

Stating that he has “love and respect” for everyone he has worked with, he said that “the competition is great for the game … Hip-hop has always been more of a competitive genre, even if just keeping it on music. And it’s not serious how everybody tries to make it. Because also with hip-hop, there’s a lot of ego involved. You’re supposed to feel like you’re the best. Everybody from the highest to the lowest guy, you’re supposed to at least feel like you’re the best.”

He continued by referencing Jay-Z and Nas’ iconic beef back in the late 90s and early 2000s that got so messy that Jay-Z’s mom had to step in.

“Back in the day, Jay-Z and Nas went at it but I was a fan of both of ‘em … Most people were. And it’s like, okay. It’s okay. It’s not like I hate this side, I hate this side. The internet just makes it a little too wild now. But I feel like it’s good for the game and as far as me being diplomatic, it’s just entertainment at the end of the day … I just wanna see everybody do the best and continue to help push this forward because we’re all here to deposit in and uplift this genre and push it forward…”

However, fans online saw Metro Boomin taking a somewhat peaceful stance as backtracking on the vicious beats and comments he had about Drizzy in the past.

Others though saw it as Metro understanding the environment that he was in and trying to be mature and professional. 

“Metro understands time and place. And he’s right. The beef got as big as it did cuz of stans,” X user ladidaix said in a September 23 post. 

It will be interesting regardless to see if Drake from his Texas cosplay compound, K. Dot, or any other influential names in the rap game have anything to say after Metro’s newest interview.

• Tay Keith makes a big promise. On his 28th birthday, he pledged two million dollars to support the fights against schizophrenia and ovarian cancer.

• TDE and Warner Records have added a new artist to their roster. Alt-pop singer Alemeda is officially the third female act to be signed to TDE as of September 20th.

• Even more surprising news from Team Diddy. Luminate confirmed that there has been an 18.3% increase in his streaming numbers the week of his arrest compared to the previous week.