With nearly two decades of premier instrumentation under his belt, Metro Boomin has earned his stature as one of the most recognizable hip-hop producers in the world.
On Tuesday, the 30-year-old spoke at an event by the Brown University Lecture Board.
“I just love to make music. That’s all I want to do,” The Brown Daily Herald reported Metro Boomin said during his talk. “I’ve been like that since I started at 13.”
Being raised in St. Louis, Metro prides himself on having unbridled access to diverse inspiration due to his Midwest roots.
“Music is regional, especially back then before the internet,” he said. “There were so many songs popping in California, and other places like New York, that we probably never even heard of. But being in the Midwest, being in the middle of everything, we caught some of everything. That’s why I like making so many different types of music.”
Given his eclectic background, he explained that Atlanta was an attractive breeding ground for hip-hop artists, and that’s a large part of why he decided to move there during his young adult years.
“My mom used to drive me down to Atlanta every month just to go down there and work with (OJ da Juiceman) when I was still in tenth grade,” he said. “He introduced me to Gucci Mane, and me and Future made our first song together when I was probably in eleventh or twelfth grade.”
Upon moving to Atlanta, he enrolled in Morehouse College and immersed himself in the city’s hip-hop scene. After struggling to balance academics and his musical pursuits, he felt it was best to drop out and fully dedicate himself to music.
“Music was really where my heart was and where I wanted to pour everything into,” he said. “I didn’t want to put my mom and dad into debt on top of that so once I dropped out, I went 1,000% with the music, all day, every day.”
Since those days, Metro Boomin’s investment has paid off. Over his tenure, he has produced two studio albums, 2018 Not All Heroes Wear Capes and 2022 Heroes & Villains, alongside several collaborative albums.
His recent collaborative efforts, We Don’t Trust You and We Still Don’t Trust You alongside Future, dropped this year to rave reviews. In particular, the single “Like That,” which features an uncredited verse from Kendrick Lamar, peaked atop the Billboard Hot 100, giving Metro Boomin his first No. 1 single as a lead artist.
