“Without Warning” is the surprise collaborative project released the day before Halloween from three of the most popular trap artists in mainstream hip-hop: 21 Savage, Offset of Migos, and producer Metro Boomin. The trio comes together on this project synergistically, with a great deal of help from Metro Boomin’s approach to beat making.

 

From the start, the eerie tower bells of the opening track, “Ghostface Killers,” and the equally ominous crackling “automatics in the trunk” that accompany it, instantly communicate a first impression darker than prior releases from either 21 Savage or Offset. This seasonal spookiness is more blatant in tracks like “My Choppa Hate N****s” and “Nightmare,” as Offset paints himself on the latter as “Freddy Kruger, give ’em a nightmare” with Boomin’s echoic organ in the background.

21 Savage, on the other hand, struggles lyrically to cultivate the same kind of ferocious swagger that infuses nearly all of Offset’s glib performances on this record. A moment of particular note is, “Ric Flair Drip,” where Offset’s confidence oozes from lines like “so do not test me, yeugh” where he breaks from his usual focused and deliberate (bordering on monotone) tonal consistency.

 

Metro’s understanding of beat making carries much of this album. Metro understands the balance that must be struck between audio tracks, making sure songs like “Rap Saved Me” don’t have a layered bass spectacle that’s hindered by too much going on in the rest of the composition. It’s almost as if there’s an imperceptible Overton Window that Metro moves towards the lower end of the sound spectrum while the upper two thirds of the sound are kept sparse – something which is especially important for artists like 21 and Offset, who feature ad-libs as a key aspect of their verse design.

There are moments in numerous songs’ introducing melodies where Metro Boomin seems willing to experiment exclusively with percussion, the best of which begins “Run Up the Racks.” It’s an incredibly focusing sequence that shows a lot of potential for later stages of his career.

 

Unfortunately, 21 Savage is the weakest link in the trio’s otherwise unbreakable communion. Savage delivers spotty hooks and verses on “Mad Stalkers,” and expresses laughable claims as “rap savior” on “Rap Saved Me.” He redeems himself with a few decent moments, like how he has “hurricane Irma on my wrist, n****, flooded out,” but then has much more captivating bars on other songs. By far, 21’s showcase moment on the album is on “Still Serving” where within his braggadocio he includes an ad-lib that completely changes the line’s meaning: “I ain’t never been no b**** (21), and I stand up when I piss (on God).” Just passively listening, “on God,” sounds like an oath that what he says his true, showing an element of fear and respect for some sort of higher power, but the full line reads, “I stand up when I piss on God,” which is a much more surreptitious message.

 

This album is chiefly an appreciated step in the evolution of mainstream rap, proving a greater potential variety to the instrumentals that support the pervasive triplet flow. Metro Boomin merges horrorcore trap with Offset and 21 Savage to foster a dark and untamed lupinity that resembles the visual aesthetic of the open-mouthed Doberman on the album’s cover.

Experimenting with various sonic elements, Metro is expanding upon an already impressive resume, while Offset is proving to be the most stand-out rapper in Migos. Some tracks, like “Darth Vader” (and others that push the four-minute-mark), reveal a more well-rounded song configuration than audiences have come to expect from hit song powerhouses. A configuration that has better developed verses and choruses, and sometimes an outro as deft as the one that closes the album. It almost appears that mainstream hip-hop may be changing course, down an unpaved road that could at any time and “Without Warning” prove just to be a temporary detour.