''Blackout! 2'' is the second

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American hip hop duo

Method Man & Redman Method Man & Redman (also referred to as Meth & Red, Red & Mef, John Blaze and Funk Doc or Funk Doctor Spock and Johnny Blaze) are an American hip hop duo, composed of East Coast rappers Method Man (of Wu-Tang Clan) and Redman (of Def Squad). ...

. It was their first collaborative album in eight years. The album was released on May 19, 2009 under

Def Jam Def Jam Recordings (also simply known as Def Jam) is an American multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It is based in Manhattan, New York City, specializing predominantly in hip hop, contemporary R&B, soul and pop. The ...

. It debuted at #7 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200 and at #64 on the French Album Charts. The album has sold 178,608 copies in the United States by December 12, 2010, according to SoundScan.

Background

''Blackout! 2'' was announced in 2007 by Redman and was originally scheduled for release in 2008, but its release was pushed back a number of times due to numerous reasons. It was finally released on May 19, 2009. It was released on the same days as

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...

's sixth studio album ''

Relapse In internal medicine, relapse or recidivism is a recurrence of a past (typically medical) condition. For example, multiple sclerosis and malaria often exhibit peaks of activity and sometimes very long periods of dormancy, followed by relapse or r ...

'' and

Busta Rhymes Trevor George Smith Jr. (born May 20, 1972), known professionally as Busta Rhymes, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the moniker Busta Rhymes, after NFL and CFL wide receiver ...

's eighth studio album ''

Back on My B.S. ''Back on My B.S.'' is the eighth studio album by American rapper Busta Rhymes. It was released on May 19, 2009 through Flipmode and Universal Motown. Background The album was originally going to be called ''Before Hell Freezes Over'', but went ...

''. After touring on the Still High Tour with

Termanology Daniel Carrillo (born October 8, 1982), better known by his stage name Termanology, is an American rapper and record producer. He first gained major attention with the 2006 single "Watch How It Go Down". A solo album, '' Politics as Usual'', was ...

The Alchemist An alchemist is a person who practices alchemy. Alchemist or Alchemyst may also refer to: Books and stories * ''The Alchemist'' (novel), the translated title of a 1988 allegorical novel by Paulo Coelho * ''The Alchemist'' (play), a play by Ben ...

Havoc High Altitude Venus Operational Concept (HAVOC) is a set of crewed NASA mission concepts to the planet Venus. All human portions of the missions would be conducted from lighter-than-air craft or from orbit. Background Venus is a planet with a ru ...

(from

Mobb Deep Mobb Deep was an American hip hop duo from New York City. The duo consisted of rappers Prodigy and Havoc. They are considered to be among the principal progenitors of hardcore East Coast hip hopEdwards, Paul, 2009, ''How to Rap: The Art & Scien ...

), and

Evidence Evidence for a proposition is what supports this proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the supported proposition is true. What role evidence plays and how it is conceived varies from field to field. In epistemology, evidenc ...

, Redman and

Method Man Clifford Smith, Jr. (born March 2, 1971), better known by his stage name Method Man, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is known as a member of the East Coast hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan. He is also half of t ...

finished and set the release date for their highly anticipated sequel. Method Man stated the reasons for the delay: Giving his take on the delay, Redman stated:

Music

Recording and production

The album features production from

Pete Rock Peter O. Phillips (born June 21, 1970), better known by his stage name Pete Rock, is an American record producer, DJ and rapping, rapper. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time, and is often mentioned alongs ...

and

Erick Sermon Erick Sermon (born November 25, 1968) is an American rapper, musician, and record producer. He is best known as one-third—alongside PMD & DJ Scratch—of 1980s/1990s hip hop group EPMD and for his production work. Career Sermon started profe ...

, as

and Redman promise to satisfy patient fans. The track " A Yo" that was leaked in March is included on the album. Also the track "City Lights" featuring

Bun B Bernard James Freeman (born March 19, 1973), known professionally as Bun B, is an American rapper. He is best known as one half of the southern rap duo UGK (UnderGround Kingz), a group he formed in 1987 alongside Pimp C. Aside from his work with ...

leaked over the internet on March 24, 2009.

Wu-Tang Clan Wu-Tang Clan is an American hip hop group formed in Staten Island, New York City, in 1992. Its original members include RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, and Masta Killa. Close affili ...

members

Raekwon Corey Woods (born January 12, 1970), better known by his stage name Raekwon The Chef, or simply Raekwon (), is an American rapper. He rose to prominence as a founding member of the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan, which achieved mainstream success ...

and

Ghostface Killah Dennis Coles (born May 9, 1970), better known by his stage name Ghostface Killah, is an American rapper and a member of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan. After the group achieved breakthrough success in the aftermath of ''Enter the Wu-Tang (36 C ...

appear on the album, as well as

Def Squad Def Squad is an American rap supergroup consisting of Erick Sermon, Redman, Keith Murray, Hurricane G, and Jamal. Before officially forming as a group to release an album in 1998, they had each been featured on tracks by each other. The Def ...

members

, and

Keith Murray Keith Omar Murray (born May 29, 1974) is an American rapper from New York. Murray grew up on Carleton Ave, in Central Islip, which is located on the South Shore of Long Island in Suffolk County. Murray was a known member of a local rap collec ...

. Redman stated about the album's production process to MTV:

Release and promotion

''Blackout! 2'' was released 10 years after the '' Blackout!'' album, which was placed at the top of a lot of 1999's best album lists.

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

explained how the two lyricists work so well together: Method Man and Redman have shot music videos for their singles " A Yo" and " Mrs. International". They also shot a video for the song "How Bout Dat" featuring Ready Roc and Streetlife as a video only single and was released online on September 20, 2009. There was also a fan made video for the song "Dis Is 4 All My Smokers" and was released on May 13, 2009. The song City Lights featuring

was released as an only radio single. At

Best Buy Best Buy Co. Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was rebra ...

, both Blackout! and Blackout! 2 are sold together in a boxed set celebrating the 10th anniversary of Blackout.

Lights Out (Blackout 10 Year Reunion) Mixtape

As promotion for the new album,

put a "Ten Year Reunion" mixtape. Featuring several, well-known older songs from the original Blackout! album, it also includes new songs like "Four Minutes to Lock Down" with

and

, "Dangerous Mcees," etc. It also featured new singles like "City Lights" with Bun B and " A Yo" with

Saukrates Karl Amani Wailoo (born March 6, 1978), better known by his stage name Saukrates (; "Socrates"), is a Canadian rapper, singer, and record producer. He is the co-founder of Capitol Hill Music, and lead singer of the hip-hop/ R&B group Big Black L ...

. The mixtape was hosted by

DJ Green Lantern James Christopher D'Agostino (born July 7, 1975), professionally known as DJ Green Lantern, is an American hip hop DJ and producer from Rochester, New York. In 2002, D'Agostino was signed by American rapper Eminem, to become the official DJ for S ...

Reception

Commercial performance

''Blackout! 2'' was released on May 19, 2009. It debuted at number #7 on the ''Billboard'' 200, at number 2 on the

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated J ...

, at number 2 on the

Top Rap Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated Jan ...

and digital in charted number 7 on the Digital Albums charts selling 63,000 copies its first week. The album also charted number 10 on

Canadian Albums The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Monday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen SoundScan, and published every Tuesday by ''Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding i ...

. The album fell 11 spots to number 18 on the billboard chart in its second week with sales of 20,000 copies. In its third week the album fell 12 spots landing on number 30 selling 14,000 that week. On its fourth week the album fell 18 spots landing on number 48 with sales of 10,000 copies. The album fell 32 spots it had landed on number 70 selling 7,700 copies in its fifth week.
. HipHopDX. Retrieved on 2009-06-21. The album has sold 178,608 copies in the United States by December 12, 2010, according to SoundScan.

Critical response

Reviews of the album were generally positive. It has a score of 79 out of an overall score of 100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Allmusic.com gave it a four out of five stars stating that: HiphopDX.com gave the album a 3.5 stars out of 5, stating that: Vibe gave a favorable review, stating that: Billboard also gave it a favorable review which stated: IGN.com gave the album an 8/10 stated that: XXL gave the album a mixed review, giving the album a grade of L out of XXL, stating that:

Track listing

Samples

BO2 (Intro) * "Magic Mona" performed by

Phyllis Hyman Phyllis Linda Hyman (July 6, 1949 – June 30, 1995) was an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Hyman is best known for her music during the late 1970s through the early 1990s, some of her most notable songs were "You Know How to Love Me" ...

A-Yo * "Magic Mona" performed by

City Lights * "One Day" as performed by

UGK UGK (short for Underground Kingz) was an American hip hop duo from Port Arthur, Texas, formed in 1987, by Chad "Pimp C" Butler and Bernard "Bun B" Freeman. They released their first major-label album, ''Too Hard to Swallow'', in 1992, followe ...

Fathers Day * "Walking Down Lonely Street" performed by

Joe Simon Joseph Henry Simon (October 11, 1913 – December 14, 2011) was an American comic book writer, artist, editor, and publisher. Simon created or co-created many important characters in the 1930s–1940s Golden Age of Comic Books and served as the ...

Mrs. International * "Here I Am" performed by

The Blue Notes The Blue Notes were a South African jazz sextet, whose definitive line-up featured Chris McGregor on piano, Mongezi Feza on trumpet, Dudu Pukwana on alto saxophone, Nikele Moyake on tenor saxophone, Johnny Dyani on bass, and Louis Moholo-Moho ...

*"Call Me" performed by Tweet Dis is 4 All My Smokers * "Ain't No Sunshine" as performed by Nancy Wilson Four Minutes to Lock Down * "Echo Park" as performed by

Brooklyn Bridge The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/ suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River ...

Charts history

Album chart positions

Singles chart positions

References

External links

*
Blackout! 2
' at

Release history
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

Album Review
at

About.com Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, l ...

Album Review
at '' XXL'' {{Authority control Albums produced by Buckwild Albums produced by Pete Rock Albums produced by Erick Sermon Albums produced by Havoc (musician) Albums produced by Rockwilder Albums produced by DJ Scratch Albums produced by Bink (record producer) Def Jam Recordings albums Method Man albums Redman (rapper) albums 2009 albums Sequel albums Collaborative albums