Early Wednesday morning, Metro Boomin had something on his mind. He saw on Twitter that Atlantic Records was looking for "new Atlanta producers making fire," and felt the need to warn the beatmaking community of what he saw as a scam. "PSA to producers everywhere," he wrote. "Don't let Atlantic Records steal your soul. Looking out for you because they didn't look out for us."
Hours later, after that initial message attracted some media attention, the producer clarified that he wasn't talking about the label as a whole. Rather, he was speaking specifically about APG, a related set of businesses (Artist Partner Group and Artist Publishing Group) whose goal is to "further the careers of the next generation of superstar songwriters, producers and musicians." In particular, he warned people away from APG founder and CEO Mike Caren.
He called the company, which searches for up-and-coming talent primarily via YouTube, vultures.
He quote-tweeted Mike Will Made-It, who claimed that Caren had heard his soon-to-be-ubiquitous catalog back in 2012 and thought it was worthless.
Metro also revealed a bit of a personal history with Caren, saying that APG had tried to recruit him when he was a teenager, but that he quickly saw they weren't worth messing with. "They basically just want to slave you and steal your music to make hits," he explained.
Metro also shared criticism of Caren from other people who had similar complaints.
Metro ended his criticisms of Caren and APG by saying that the experience only encouraged him to start his own label.
Caren has not responded yet to Metro's criticisms. Initial attempts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful.