“Hold That Heat” by Southside & Future (ft. Travis Scott)
In traditional ‘hood slang, “heat” or “heater” is most commonly used as a synonym for a gun. So even though Travis does appear to use to term “heat” in an alternate context at the end of the first verse, as for the chorus itself it is quite obvious, to those in the know, that he is indeed referring to firearms and being associated with “snipers”.
That established, this song features the type of braggadocio that listeners already know they’ll be treated to with such a collaboration. The main point of such tracks is basically to present everything the vocalists do as being happening, i.e. Future and Travis Scott living that life. So whereas Scott for instance states a preference for water over alcohol, Future of course has no qualms letting it be known that he favors hard intoxicants. But it’s like either way, the homeys are still poppin’, primarily because they’re living the hip-hop dreams of baggin’ b–ches, making money and rolling hard with their “heat”.
Summary
All in all, this is what we would consider a standard rap braggadocio. However, the song is made notable thanks to it being Scott’s first release since the 2021 Astroworld tragedy.
When was “Hold That Heat” released?
This track was co-produced by Southside, who does not serve as a vocalist therein. And it was he and Travis who originally put together the track in mid-to-late 2021. Since then there was what was known as the Astroworld Festival crowd crush, which occurred in November of 2021.
At said event 10 people died, under what many deem to be suspect circumstances, while Travis Scott was on stage. Moreover, the Astroworld Fest is (or at this point most likely was) an annual concert run by Scott himself. As such, Travis has been in the hot seat since. For instance, at one point, he was facing nearly 400 different lawsuits as a result (though they all have apparently been consolidated into one).
Thus this track (“Hold That Heat”), which Epic Records put out on 22 April 2022, marks Scott’s first new song since the said disaster.
Is this Future’s first collaboration with Travis Scott?
Future has teamed up with Scott numerous times throughout the years. The first time they appeared on a single together was on the 2014 remix of Hudson Mohawke’s song “Chimes”. But in terms of direct collaborations, the earliest of such seems to be Scott’s song 2015 outing “3500”, which featured Future as well as 2Chainz.
Credits for “Hold That Heat”
Besides for Southside, the other producer of this track is Mike Dean. And both are credited as songwriters alongside Future and Scott.
