Apollo Kids (album)
Encyclopedia
Apollo Kids is the ninth studio album
by American rapper and Wu-Tang Clan
-member Ghostface Killah
, released on December 21, 2010 on Def Jam Recordings
. The album's first single "2getha Baby" was released on November 8, 2010.
Guests on the album include several Wu-Tang members and affiliates, as well as Redman, Black Thought
, Busta Rhymes
, Joell Ortiz
, and Game
, among others. Apollo Kids is the follow-up to Ghostface's R&B
-oriented Ghostdini: Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City
(2009) and serves as a return to the characteristic "Wu-Tang Sound".
chart, with first-week sales of 13,000 copies in the United States. It also entered at number 28 on Billboard
s R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and at number 10 on its Rap Albums
chart. The album moved up to number 120 on the Billboard 200 in its second week.
, which assigns a normalized
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
score of 84, based on 17 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim". Allmusic writer David Jeffries gave it four out of five stars and called it "a return to the grimey soul and stream-of-consciousness street flow of the man’s best work". The A.V. Club
s Nathan Rabin gave Apollo Kids an A- rating and stated "The disc’s tightness, cohesion, and quality are even more surprising: Ghostface hasn’t sounded this hungry or focused since Fishscale
[...] At its best, Ghostface’s music is about raw, visceral emotion and unfiltered rage". Steve Juon of RapReviews praised his "boastful lyrics, strong personality and impeccable delivery". Brandon Soderberg of Spin
called the album "Forty-plus minutes of gritty, soul-sampling beats soundtracking bizarro street tales". Boston Phoenix
writer Michael C. Walsh gave the album three-and-a-half out of four stars and complimented its "gritty, tip-of-the-tongue, soul-sampling", writing that "Ghost emblazes every beat with a fire that hasn't burned this widespread since 2006's Fishscale". Entertainment Weekly
s Simon Vozick-Levinson viewed it as a timeless addition to Ghostface's catalogue and complimented its "jittery pulp fiction and zany free-associative zingers over scratchy soul, funk, and rock samples". ARTISTdirect
's Rick Florino gave the album five out of five stars and wrote that Ghostface "squeezes out some of the most engaging, enthralling, and epic raps that New York City has ever produced".
David Amidon of PopMatters
stated "it feels like a work of boundless energy", but commented that "Apollo Kids is, essentially, the safest and most accessible album yet from Ghostface Killah, often hinting at the associative insanity he’s capable of without ever fully taking us there". Pitchfork Media
's Ian Cohen noted a "lack of any sort of organizational principle" and commented that "basically arbitrary sequencing never allows too much momentum to build", but commended Ghostface's "harried intensity" and stated "he's still an incredibly ostentatious lyricist, just one that's easier to parse". Rolling Stone
writer Jonah Weiner stated "On track after track, he blows dust off some dirty-soul loop, with boasts as inspired as ever [...] and street-crime storytelling as vivid as ever". Steve Jones of USA Today
gave the album three-and-a-half out of four stars and found it reminiscent of hip hop music's "gloriously gritty past", writing that Ghostface "unleashes a torrent of typically vivid verses over vintage soul samples that also help recall rap's roots". Los Angeles Times
writer Jeff Weiss commended Ghostface's "straightforward boasts" and commented that he "hews closely to the bloody-nostril boom-bap the Wu-Tang Clan pioneered a decade ago". Slant Magazine
's Huw Jones complimented the album's "back-to-basics approach" and called it "a compact release that celebrates the staples of vintage rap music and, more specifically, vintage Wu".
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by American rapper and Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
The Wu-Tang Clan is a hip-hop group from Staten Island that consists of RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa, and the late Ol' Dirty Bastard. They are frequently joined by fellow childhood friend Cappadonna, a quasi member of the group...
-member Ghostface Killah
Ghostface Killah
Dennis Coles , better known by his stage name Ghostface Killah, is an American rapper and prominent member of the Wu-Tang Clan. After the group achieved breakthrough success in the aftermath of Enter the Wu-Tang , the members went on to pursue solo careers to varying levels of success...
, released on December 21, 2010 on Def Jam Recordings
Def Jam Recordings
Def Jam Recordings is an American record label, focused primarily on hip hop and urban music, owned by Universal Music Group, and operates as a part of The Island Def Jam Motown Music Group...
. The album's first single "2getha Baby" was released on November 8, 2010.
Guests on the album include several Wu-Tang members and affiliates, as well as Redman, Black Thought
Black Thought
Tariq Trotter , better known as Black Thought, is an American hip-hop artist who is the lead MC of the Philadelphia-based hip hop group The Roots and occasional actor...
, Busta Rhymes
Busta Rhymes
Trevor Tahiem Smith, Jr., better known by his stage name Busta Rhymes ,Smith is an American rapper, producer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the alias Busta Rhymes after NFL wide receiver George "Buster" Rhymes...
, Joell Ortiz
Joell Ortiz
Joell Ortiz is an American rapper from Brooklyn, New York, and a member of the group Slaughterhouse.-Biography:Joell Ortiz was born to Puerto Rican parents. Ortiz grew up in the Cooper Park Houses in the East Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York formerly signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath...
, and Game
The Game (rapper)
Jayceon Terrell Taylor , better known by his stage name Game, formerly The Game, is an American rapper and actor. As a member of G-Unit, he rose to fame in 2005 with the success of his debut album, The Documentary, which earned him two Grammy Award nominations...
, among others. Apollo Kids is the follow-up to Ghostface's R&B
Contemporary R&B
Contemporary R&B is a music genre that combines elements of hip hop, soul, R&B and funk.Although the abbreviation “R&B” originates from traditional rhythm and blues music, today the term R&B is most often used to describe a style of African American music originating after the demise of disco in...
-oriented Ghostdini: Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City
Ghostdini: Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City
Ghostdini: Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City is the eighth studio album by American rapper and Wu-Tang Clan-member Ghostface Killah, released September 29, 2009 on Def Jam Recordings in the United States. He first announced the album in a May 2008 interview, describing it as an R&B-inspired album,...
(2009) and serves as a return to the characteristic "Wu-Tang Sound".
Commercial performance
The album debuted at number 128 on the US Billboard 200Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart, with first-week sales of 13,000 copies in the United States. It also entered at number 28 on Billboard
Billboard charts
The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...
s R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and at number 10 on its Rap Albums
Top Rap Albums
Top Rap Albums is a record chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks Rap and hip-hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart began publication for the week of November 13, 2004....
chart. The album moved up to number 120 on the Billboard 200 in its second week.
Critical response
Apollo Kids received general acclaim from music critics. At MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalized
Standard score
In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score of 84, based on 17 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim". Allmusic writer David Jeffries gave it four out of five stars and called it "a return to the grimey soul and stream-of-consciousness street flow of the man’s best work". The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
s Nathan Rabin gave Apollo Kids an A- rating and stated "The disc’s tightness, cohesion, and quality are even more surprising: Ghostface hasn’t sounded this hungry or focused since Fishscale
Fishscale
FishScale is the fifth studio album by American rapper and Wu-Tang Clan member Ghostface Killah, released March 28, 2006 on Def Jam in the United States. The album features guest appearances from every member of the Wu-Tang Clan, as well as Ghostface Killah's Theodore Unit...
[...] At its best, Ghostface’s music is about raw, visceral emotion and unfiltered rage". Steve Juon of RapReviews praised his "boastful lyrics, strong personality and impeccable delivery". Brandon Soderberg of Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
called the album "Forty-plus minutes of gritty, soul-sampling beats soundtracking bizarro street tales". Boston Phoenix
The Phoenix (newspaper)
The Phoenix is the name of several alternative weekly newspapers published in the United States by Phoenix Media/Communications Group of Boston, Massachusetts including the Boston Phoenix, the Providence Phoenix, the Portland Phoenix and the now-defunct Worcester Phoenix...
writer Michael C. Walsh gave the album three-and-a-half out of four stars and complimented its "gritty, tip-of-the-tongue, soul-sampling", writing that "Ghost emblazes every beat with a fire that hasn't burned this widespread since 2006's Fishscale". Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
s Simon Vozick-Levinson viewed it as a timeless addition to Ghostface's catalogue and complimented its "jittery pulp fiction and zany free-associative zingers over scratchy soul, funk, and rock samples". ARTISTdirect
ARTISTdirect
Founded in 1994, Artistdirect, Inc. is an online digital media entertainment company. It owns several websites including Artistdirect.com, UBL.com and the Artistdirect Network...
's Rick Florino gave the album five out of five stars and wrote that Ghostface "squeezes out some of the most engaging, enthralling, and epic raps that New York City has ever produced".
David Amidon of PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
stated "it feels like a work of boundless energy", but commented that "Apollo Kids is, essentially, the safest and most accessible album yet from Ghostface Killah, often hinting at the associative insanity he’s capable of without ever fully taking us there". Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
's Ian Cohen noted a "lack of any sort of organizational principle" and commented that "basically arbitrary sequencing never allows too much momentum to build", but commended Ghostface's "harried intensity" and stated "he's still an incredibly ostentatious lyricist, just one that's easier to parse". Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
writer Jonah Weiner stated "On track after track, he blows dust off some dirty-soul loop, with boasts as inspired as ever [...] and street-crime storytelling as vivid as ever". Steve Jones of USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
gave the album three-and-a-half out of four stars and found it reminiscent of hip hop music's "gloriously gritty past", writing that Ghostface "unleashes a torrent of typically vivid verses over vintage soul samples that also help recall rap's roots". Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
writer Jeff Weiss commended Ghostface's "straightforward boasts" and commented that he "hews closely to the bloody-nostril boom-bap the Wu-Tang Clan pioneered a decade ago". Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...
's Huw Jones complimented the album's "back-to-basics approach" and called it "a compact release that celebrates the staples of vintage rap music and, more specifically, vintage Wu".
Track listing
Sample credits- "Purified Thoughts" contains samples of "Am I a Good Man", written by Willie Clarke, originally performed by Them Two courtesy of The Numero Group.
- "Superstar" contains samples of the recording "He's a Superstar" as performed by Roy AyersRoy AyersRoy Ayers is an American funk, soul, and jazz composer and vibraphone player. Ayers began his career as a post-bop jazz artist, releasing several albums with Atlantic Records, before his tenure at Polydor Records beginning in the 1970s, during which he helped pioneer jazz-funk .- Biography :Ayers...
, written by Roy Ayers and Myrna Williams. - "Black Tequila" contains samples of the recording "Jogan Ban Gayiu" as performed by Asha Bhosle, written by Anand BakshiAnand BakshiAnand Bakshi was a popular Indian poet and lyricist.-Early days:Anand Bakshi was born in Rawalpindi, now in Pakistan, on 21 July 1930. His ancestors were from Kurree, near Rawalpindi, and had origins in Kashmir. His mother, Sumitra, died 1940, when he was 10...
and Pyarelal Laxmikant. - "2getha Baby" contains samples of "Together" performed by The IntrudersThe IntrudersThe Intruders were an American soul music group most popular in the 1960s and 1970s. As one of the first groups to have hit songs under the direction of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, they had a major influence on the development of Philadelphia soul....
, written by Kenneth Gamble and Leon HuffGamble and HuffKenneth Gamble and Leon A. Huff are an American songwriting and record production team who have written and produced over 170 gold and platinum records. They were pioneers of Philadelphia soul and the in-house creative team for the Philadelphia International record label...
. - "Starkology" contains excerpts from "Theme from Star Wars" performed by David MatthewsDavid Matthews (keyboardist)David Matthews is a keyboardist, pianist, and arranger, born in Sonora, Kentucky, United States.A graduate of the University of Cincinnati with a Bachelor's degree in composition, Matthews has composed television soundtracks as well as albums with the Manhattan Jazz Orchestra. He is the leader of...
, written by David Matthews. - "In tha Park" contains samples of the recording "I'm Alive" performed by Johnny Thunder, written by Tommy JamesTommy JamesTommy James is an American pop-rock musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer, best known as leader of the 1960s rock band Tommy James and the Shondells.-Early life and career:...
and Pete Lucia. - "How You Like Me Baby" contains samples of "Different Strokes", written by John A. Cameron and John Zachary, originally performed by Syl Johnson.
- "Street Bullies" contains samples of the recording "You Are Just a Living Doll" performed by J. J. Barnes, written by David L. Jordan.
- "Ghetto" contains samples of the recording "Woman of the Ghetto" as performed by Marlena Shaw, written by Richard Evans, R. Miller, and Marlena Shaw.
Personnel
Credits for Apollo Kids adapted from Allmusic.- Anthony "Acid" Caputo – engineer, mixing, producer
- Big Mizza – producer
- Leesa D. Brunson – A&R
- Sean C. – producer
- Munk Le Cinq – fonts
- Dennis Coles – A&R, executive producer
- Tony Dawsey – mastering
- Frank Dukes – mixing, producer
- Javon Greene – A&R
- Joe "Thelonius" Harley – bass, keyboards
- Patrick Hegarty – art direction
- Jake One – producer
- Scram Jones – producer
- Deborah Mannis-Gardner – sample clearance
- Chino Maurice – producer
- Leon Michels – organ
- Mike Caruso – A&R, executive producer, management
- Nick Movshon – drums
- Briana Perkins – marketing
- Antonio "L.A." Reid – executive producer
- Pete Rock – mixing, producer
- Lenny S. – A&R
- Supa Engineer "Dura" – mixing
- Doug Wilson – mixing
- Yakub – producer
- Kristen Yiengst – art coordinator
- Adam Zia – legal counsel
Charts
| Chart (2010-2011) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
120 |
| US Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999... |
28 |
| US Billboard Rap Albums Top Rap Albums Top Rap Albums is a record chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks Rap and hip-hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart began publication for the week of November 13, 2004.... |
10 |
External links
- Official page at Def JamDef Jam RecordingsDef Jam Recordings is an American record label, focused primarily on hip hop and urban music, owned by Universal Music Group, and operates as a part of The Island Def Jam Motown Music Group...
- Apollo Kids at MetacriticMetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...