''Cyborg'' 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 French
hip hop artist
Nekfeu
Ken Samaras (, ; born 3 April 1990), better known by his stage name Nekfeu (), is a French rapper, actor and record producer. He is also a member of the bands L'entourage and 1995. He started his career as a member of $-Crew, with childhood fr ...
. Released on December 2, 2016 by Seine Zoo,
the album entered the French Albums Chart at number 3, peaking at number 1.
''Cyborg'' was released without any prior promotion or
singles
Singles are people not in a committed relationship.
Singles may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series
* ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe
* ''Singles'' ...
, with ''
Les Inrocks
''Les Inrockuptibles'' () is a French cultural magazine. Started as a monthly magazine in 1986, it became weekly in 1995. Now it is a monthly again, since 2021. In the beginning, rock music was the magazine's primary focus, though every issue inc ...
'' branding it a "surprise album".
On its first day of release on
Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...
, the album broke the French record for most album streams within 24 hours;
within its first two weeks of release (on all platforms), the album was
certified
Certification is the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestation or confirmation of certain characteristics of a ...
platinum in France with over 100,000 sales.
Background
After releasing his debut studio album ''
Feu'' in June 2015, Nekfeu embarked on the Feu Tour towards the end of the year to further promote his album. In June 2016, one of his groups, S-Crew, released a studio album entitled ''Destins liés''.
On December 1, 2016, during the final concert of the Feu Tour at the
AccorHotels Arena
Accor Arena (originally known as Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, and previously as AccorHotels Arena; also known as Bercy in competitions where commercial names are prohibited, such as in the Olympic Games) is an indoor sports arena and concer ...
in
Bercy
Bercy () is a neighbourhood in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, the city's 47th administrative neighbourhood.
History
Some of the oldest vestiges of human occupation in Paris were found on the territory of Bercy, dating from the late Neolithic ...
, Nekfeu announced the release of ''Cyborg'' as a "surprise album", having had no promotion or singles released prior to release.
Reception
Critical reception
''Cyborg'' was received with widespread acclaim from
music critic
''The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of mus ...
s. ''Music Feelings'' called the album "quite genuine," adding that it is "tied together, coherent and above all quite well produced." ''Hip-Hop Infos France'' gave the album a score of 15 out of 20, commenting that ''Cyborg'' "brings a breath of fresh air to French rap, which has been going round in circles for too many months."
''Raplume'' gave the album a rave review, stating: "After the huge success and the quality of ''Feu'', Nek's first album, he had to set the bar very high for himself and that is clearly what he did with ''Cyborg''."
A reviewer from ''Culturovore'', known simply as "Vincent", also liked the album, saying: "Since
he release of ''Feu''it has to be said, Nekfeu wasn't for me an honest rapper whose full potential I had yet to determine
€¦I decided to let myself try
istening to ''Cyborg''and 60 minutes later, my image of Ken Samaras' work changed a lot." They also commented that "the instrumentals fall in quality on the last three songs but voilà , we definitely have the French rap album of the year."
Rémi Tschanz of ''Aficia'' commented that Nekfeu "balances his technique, his multi-syllabic creativity, his figures of speech. We are far from the atmosphere of his first album." ''VraiRapFrançais'' heaped further praise on the album, saying: "Technically, it is still as impressive
s ''Feu'' even more so because the context of the lyrics make the alliterations even more beautiful. Lyrically, Nekfeu proves that he is one of the best lyricists at the moment and that is set to last."
''L'info tout court'' remarked that the album "stands out for its lack of melodies (except for the Clara Luciani feature on the melancholy "Avant tu riais"), and its cold and metallic atmosphere."
Commercial performance
In its first week, ''Cyborg'' was only made available online, selling 18,000 copies via
digital download as well as a further 24,000 copies via
streaming
Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...
, coming to a total of 42,000 copies sold in the first week.
Two weeks after release, ''Cyborg'' was certified platinum with 106,000 copies sold, including 38,000 physical sales, 22,000 digital sales and 44,000 streams.
The album remained top of the
iTunes
iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...
Top Albums chart in France for three consecutive weeks after release.
Track listing
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Release history
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cyborg
2016 albums
Nekfeu albums
French-language albums
Seine Zoo albums
Polydor Records albums