Why Are Future & Metro Boomin Canceling Tour Dates This Summer?

Each summer, we anticipate the biggest tours to come to our city. However, it seems that for a few artists, the demand isn’t high enough. Apparently, that’s the case for Future and Metro Boomin, who are coming off of the release of two joint projects, We Don’t Trust You and We Still Don’t Trust You. The first boasts the hit single, “Like That” ft. Kendrick Lamar and sparked a wild feud between Drake and basically, everyone else who appeared on either of the projects.

Both Metro and Future have strong collaborators within trap music for the better part of the decade. Their combined stardom would’ve presumably been a shoo-in for sold-out crowds worldwide. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. According to Journal Sentinal, the two have officially nixed their August 2nd show in Milwaukee, along with several other dates, from the We Trust You tour. Here’s what we know so far.

Fiserv Forum released a statement late Wednesday afternoon confirming the cancellation of the Milwaukee concert. “Future’s concert scheduled for August 2 at Fiserv Forum has been canceled. If you purchased your ticket from the Fiserv Forum box office or online via Ticketmaster, refunds will be automatically processed and returned within 30 days,” the statement read. Unfortunately, no additional information was provided regarding the reasons behind this decision.

Interestingly, the canceled Milwaukee concert was scheduled for the night before Future and Metro Boomin’s planned performance at Lollapalooza, the mega music festival in Chicago. According to the tour’s website, the Lollapalooza show is still on. This suggests that the artists are selective about which performances to cancel. If this were a one-off cancellation, perhaps, we’d be able to chalk it up to some sort of prior engagement or travel conflicts related to the two shows. However, Milwaukee isn’t the only city impacted by the recent decisions. 

Several other tour dates have been reportedly marked as canceled. These include an August 6 concert in Nashville and an August 10 show in Columbus, Ohio. Moreover, it appears that the two were also expected to perform at New Orleans’ Smoothie King Center (Aug. 20), but the show no longer appears on Ticketmaster, Live Nation, and the venue’s website. Other dates that have reportedly been canceled are Tulsa, OK (Aug. 25). The tour, initially announced in April, was set to cover 26 stops across North America, starting in Kansas City, Missouri, on July 30. 

Thus far, there isn’t any particular reason that’s been provided to the public. In recent weeks, there have been some rumors that they haven’t been able to move enough tickets in certain markets. There have been a few whispers that both Canadian dates in Toronto and Vancouver may have been impacted by initially gained steam surrounding the pair of Canadian dates in Toronto and Vancouver – largely connected to their ongoing feud with Drake. However, both of these shows seem to be still on their itinerary for this summer. 

Ultimately, there hasn’t been any concrete data available that would suggest either Metro Boomin or Future aren’t selling tickets. Still, that wouldn’t necessarily be shocking as it’s been difficult for plenty of major-name artists to book full-blown tours as of late. Even outside of hip-hop, bands like Black Keys and even superstars like Jennifer Lopez have pulled out of cross-country treks. Though J. Lo’s team said she wanted to spend more time with the family, the announcement arrived on the heels of reports of poor sales. Black Keys, on the other hand, canceled their arena tour with promises to reschedule dates in smaller venues. 

Despite having two consecutive albums reach the top of the Billboard 200 within a month and a half of each other – not to mention a chart-topping single – Future and Metro Boomin’s recent cancellations put a spotlight on the conversation surrounding the disconnect between the streaming world and hard ticket sales. This conversation has become more prominent, especially as we witness streaming giants fail to fill out arenas. Still, Future and Metro are much more than two artists who’ve grown popular on Spotify and Apple Music; they are pivotal forces who’ve transcended hip-hop in many ways. However, with inflation hitting hard and the cost of concert tickets running deep, the canceled tour dates probably aren’t related to a shift in cultural relevance but rather, the financial crisis impact millions of people. We’ll keep you posted on anymore updates surrounding their upcoming tour.