"Hercules"

This week an Atlanta Cold War crept in, then thawed, between the city’s three most important delegates: Young Thug, Future, and 22-year-old wunderkind producer Metro Boomin. Thug bristled at Metro’s tweets cautioning rappers against prolificacy for its own sake—subs that were probably not intended for Thug, perhaps the only non-Future rapper to sustain this kind of hot streak recently. Future got involved. Shit got dark. If Twitter is to be believed (which, LOL), Metro and Thugger have worked it out, and through their reconciliation comes a gift: "Hercules", the latest in the duo’s near-perfect run. But life is cruel and unpredictable, so let us take this opportunity to celebrate Metro Thuggin before it's too late.

Metro and Thug's earliest collaboration was 2013's "Some More", a cornerstone in Metro’s still-fledgling career. It’s the source of his now iconic "Metro Boomin want some more" tag, spoken by Thugger himself. I’m not saying Metro wouldn’t have seen the same glorious trajectory had he stuck with his original drop—"This beat is so, so Metro"—but I’m definitely not NOT saying that. Either way, both were in transitional phases then: Metro riding high off his two biggest beats yet (Future's "Karate Chop" and "Honest"), Thug having hit newfound critical acclaim with his 1017 Thug tape and gearing up to release his game-changing singles "Stoner" and "Danny Glover".

But "The Blanguage" was when everything changed. The duo’s first collaboration officially billed as Metro Thuggin, it was the best thing either had done to date when it dropped in March 2014. Frankly, it still might be: there is no Barter 6 without "The Blanguage". Thug shapeshifts from a cantaloupe to a young Frankie Muniz to Atlanta’s most haunting balladeer; Metro fanutes a decent Drake concept into baroque trap-noir. It was the point each artist officially pivoted towards their final forms, and easily one of the best rap songs of the 2010s.

The Metro Thuggin mixtape was supposed to drop that same year; it still hasn’t. But each song released from the project—to my count, five total—has lived up to expectations. There was "Speed Racer", a chirpy, poignant ode to radical apathy ("I don’t give a damn if you care, I’m an astronaut!"). "Warrior" was pure, howling id. "Free Gucci" and "Cash Talk" simply have to be heard to be believed, featuring some of Metro's wildest productions in a year overrunning with them.

And now there is "Hercules", a track Thug's been teasing for a bit now, with what is perhaps his most straightforwardly catchy hook all year: "Hercu-Hercules!" It sounds simple, but say it. It feels good. Say it a few more times! Thug seizes Drake's "Jumpman" flow as though it were his own, and it is now. "I'm full but I'm still hungry!" he cries, a claim I do not doubt in the slightest. Were it released in any official capacity (paging 300? Is this thing on?), it could easily be Thug's best single of the year. Instead, it's tossed off as a free download like it’s nothing, because Thug can do whatever he wants.