No one would make a better choice to helm the soundtrack to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse than Metro Boomin, the trap whiz with albums like Not All Heroes Wear Capes and Heroes & Villains in his discography. Part of a recent renaissance for blockbuster soundtracks (Kendrick Lamar and Beyoncé respectively curated the music for Black Panther and The Lion King of late), this latest lends new meaning to the term “spider verse,” with plenty of web-slinging bars from Offset, A$AP Rocky, 21 Savage, Future and an equally superpowered cast of melodic rappers of the moment.

Post Malone and Swae Lee’s “Sunflower,” the musical centerpiece of 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, recently scored an 18x platinum certification—the highest-selling single in RIAA history. No surprise then that Swae Lee returns for this sonic sequel, alongside Lil Wayne and Offset on “Annihilate,” and “Calling,” a collab with Nav and A Boogie wit da Hoodie. Wisely, grand orchestrator Metro Boomin takes no obvious stabs at capturing another lightning-in-a-bottle pop moment like “Sunflower.” Laying a synth-filled backdrop of melodious hip-hop from some of the genre’s trendiest artists for Brooklyn’s urban wall crawler sounds like its own reward. 

Maybe not since Prince released the Batman soundtrack have superheroics sounded so cool. Snatches of dialogue snipped from the film reveal some of the same drama wrapped up in the artists’ lyrics here: finding your own true north while fighting internal battles (“Calling”); both homesickness (“Home”) and lovesickness (“Link Up”). AC/DC and the Ramones seemed like dated choices for Peter Parker’s misadventures in 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home. But Metro Boomin’s music for the teenage, Afro-Latino Spidey of this film sounds super apropos in the high school halls of Brooklyn Visions Academy. The original version of “Silk & Cologne,” by Ei8ht and Offset, appeared months ago in a Fortnite lobby—which sounds about right.

The one outlier might be Nas. A hip-hop elder statesman of 49, he crashes the party right as it ends with the closer, “Nas Morales.” His verses—hardly as singable or chant-like as the rest of his co-stars’ — definitely come closest to the hip-hop heavy soundtracks of his 1990s heyday. Maybe Nas’s appearance represents the wisdom accrued by our titular hero as he ultimately learns (one mo’ time) that with great power comes great responsibility. From the fire-emoji sounds of this solid soundtrack, Metro Boomin learned the lesson well.

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