Editor’s Note: This article contains expletives that do not reflect the views of The Fordham Ram. The inclusion of such language is done so in the form of a song title, and therefore cannot be omitted without sacrificing the content of the piece. 

The first voice heard on “Savage Mode II” is not 21 Savage, nor is it Metro Boomin. It’s not any of Metro’s iconic producer tags either, though they do make appearances throughout the album. Instead, 21 and Metro opted to take a page out of the “March of the Penguins” playbook and enlisted Morgan Freeman for narration. Though his tone is decidedly more ominous here than it was when he described the emperor penguins’ journey across Antarctica in 2005, it is equally effective. His introduction to the album is as a perfect segue between the original “Savage Mode” and its newly-released sequel, setting the stage for a project that cements both 21 Savage and Metro Boomin’s respective legacies in the trap canon.

The first “Savage Mode,” released independently in 2016, catapulted 21 Savage into rap’s mainstream and served as a continuation of Metro Boomin’s legendary production discography. Their 2017 collaboration with Migos’ Offset, “Without Warning,” further solidified the chemistry between 21 and Metro and marked the second seminal trap project released by the duo in as many years. It’s no surprise, then, that fans were eager to hear the second installment of “Savage Mode,” and the hype surrounding the album only increased after a Freeman-narrated trailer dropped days before the release. When the album was finally released, it was immediately clear that “Savage Mode II” was a level up from its predecessor and is one of the year’s best rap releases.

Following Freeman’s intro, “Savage Mode II” descends immediately into the dark underworld that only Savage and Metro together can create with “Runnin” and “Glock in My Lap,” on which Metro collaborates with fellow producers Southside and Honorable C.N.O.T.E. to create a beat that can only be described as murderous. 21 navigates between the song’s haunting piano and twisted string melodies with sinister finesse, showcasing his growth since “Savage Mode”’s first iteration while staying true to what made him successful in the first place.

The duo then deviate from their tried-and-true murder rap for the bouncier, Drake-featuring “Mr. Right Now,” which might as well be titled “We Tried to Make a TikTok Song and Failed Miserably.” The song is the album’s only true weak point, with 21 Savage woefully unable to pull off lines like “Slip and slide like a waterfall / You need some TLC, we can creep if you want” and Drake providing a guest verse that sees him lay down a questionable SZA bar (which she has since cleared up) and nothing of substance. The song is ultimately a corny detour that has no place on an album which, without it, sounds like the soundtrack to a “Friday the 13th” movie set in Atlanta.

Thankfully, the duo return from the misstep with the album’s strongest three track run. “Rich N—- S—” features a Young Thug verse that would be the best guest feature on the album if it weren’t for Freeman. Both “Slidin” and “Many Men” find Metro crafting some of his best beats in recent years, while 21 finds new flows to wax poetic about making “an opp do the Running Man.” By the end of the first half of the album, it’s clear that in making “Savage Mode II,” 21 and Metro sought to extract the essence of its predecessor and make it more cinematic while retaining the dark atmosphere that made the original so successful.

The album is cut in half by Morgan Freeman describing the difference between a snitch and a rat, in an interlude that sounds like it should be the backdrop to a trailer for Martin Scorcese’s “The Departed”: “The difference is at least a snitch is human, but a rat is a f—– rat, period.” Hearing Freeman say this pulls the listener deeper into the SMCU (Savage Mode Cinematic Universe) before the album’s back half begins with the Young Nudy-assisted “Snitches & Rats.”

As “Savage Mode II” continues, 21 finds time to revisit his vulnerable side, as he did on his critically acclaimed 2018 release “i am > i was.” “RIP Luv” finds Savage lamenting about a past love that left him scarred, reminiscing solemnly about how the relationship’s “foundation crumbled and the roof burned” while also coming to terms with his own flaws (“I ain’t perfect, I was slidin’ like an earthworm, loco”). The reflective “Said N Done” sees 21 look back on his rise to fame and sigh at the betrayals he’s faced during it, wondering out loud who will be with him at the end. Metro’s instrumentals on these two tracks are dark, but not as cutting as the majority of the album’s production.

Before getting in touch with their softer side, though, the duo provides more of the theatrical trap that makes “Savage Mode II” so strong. On “My Dawg,” 21 references his 2019 run-in with ICE over Metro’s iconic snare drums spliced with a funereal piano melody that could make Freddy Krueger shudder. The next track, “Steppin on N——,” pays homage to ’80s/’90s West Coast rap in a notable departure from the album’s general sound; however, unlike “Mr. Right Now,” it works this time. 21 Savage finds flows that evoke Easy-E while Metro’s sample of Rodney O and Joe Cooley’s “Nobody Disses Me” provides a synthy backdrop for 21 to rap about, for brevity’s sake, “Steppin on N——.” On “No Opp Left Behind,” 21 explores the paranoia that underscores all of his music, singing on the chorus that “loose lips sink ships” and declaring that those who talk to cops get cut off. By the time the album reaches “RIP Luv” and “Said N Done,” they are a nice change of pace from the bloodlust most of “Savage Mode II” exudes.

“Savage Mode II” might not reinvent the trap wheel, but it is nonetheless a landmark project for both 21 Savage and Metro Boomin. For the former, it is a demonstration of his improved rapping ability, as he weaves in and out of pockets and flows that are nowhere to be found on “Savage Mode.”  His lyrical ability is upgraded too, and there is no producer more capable of allowing Savage to flex his skills than Metro, who has proven once again that he is one of rap’s most talented producers, in case anyone was still in doubt. The duo took the grim, ominous ethos of “Savage Mode” and reinvented it successfully to create a project that is more cinematic and expansive than its predecessor without losing any of the dark atmosphere that signifies their partnership. Both 21 Savage and Metro Boomin are in peak form, and they’ve given fans an excellent project to listen to until the hypothetical, but hopefully Morgan-Freeman-narrated “Savage Mode III.”