''Guilt'' is the second
studio album from
Washington Heights, Manhattan
Washington Heights is a neighborhood in the uppermost part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the highest natural point on Manhattan by Continental Army troops to defe ...
rapper,
Mims.
The album was released on April 7, 2009. ''Guilt'' garnered a mixed reception from critics, debuted at number 53 on the
''Billboard'' 200 and spawned two
singles: "Move (If You Wanna)" and "Love Rollercoaster". The album sold 12,500 copies in the first week.
Singles
The first single for the album is "Move (If You Wanna)". Later, a video was shot for the single as a promotion for the album, revealing its title to be ''Guilt'', and premiered February 14, 2009.
Mims has stated that his song "Donkie Booty" featuring
Trey Songz
Tremaine Aldon Neverson (born November 28, 1984), known professionally as Trey Songz, is an American R&B singer and rapper. His debut album, '' I Gotta Make It'', was released in 2005 through Atlantic Records. His follow-up album, '' Trey Day'' ...
will not be on the album because it was leaked. Many other songs too leaked on Internet but it is not confirmed whether they were recorded for the album.
The song "Rock 'N Rollin'", produced by
Jim Jonsin
James Gregory Scheffer (born June 8, 1970), professionally known as Jim Jonsin, is an American record producer, songwriter, businessman and DJ from South Florida. Jonsin has collaborated with numerous artists, including Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland, ...
and featuring rapper
Tech N9ne
Aaron Dontez Yates (born November 8, 1971), better known by his stage name Tech N9ne (pronounced "tech nine"), is an American rapper. In 1999, he and business partner Travis O'Guin founded the record label Strange Music. He has sold over two ...
, sees the two rappers incorporate the names of several notable
rock band
A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two gui ...
s into their lyrics. Jake Paine of HipHopDX made a comparison, based on the concept, to
GZA's "Labels", which incorporated
hip hop imprints into its lyrics in a similar fashion.
The track "Love Rollercoaster" is also featured on
Letoya Luckett
LeToya Nicole Luckett (born March 11, 1981) is an American R&B singer and actress. She rose to fame in the late 1990s as a founding member of the R&B girl group Destiny's Child, one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. As a me ...
's second album, ''
Lady Love''.
Critical reception
''Guilt'' received generally mixed reviews 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 mu ...
s. At
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that 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 average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an
average
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...
score of 49, based on 7 reviews.
''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its co ...
'' editor
Jody Rosen
Jody Rosen (born June 21, 1969 in New York City) is an American journalist and author. He is a contributing writer for ''The New York Times Magazine''.
Career Journalism
Rosen served as critic-at-large for '' T: The New York Times Style Magaz ...
commented about the record: "Mims has good taste in beats. But this album seems just... superfluous. As for the single "Move (If You Wanna)": not "Hot."
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...
's David Jeffries found the highlights to be "empty-headed club tracks" that aren't prevalent throughout the track listing, concluding that "While ''Guilt'' may be a bad title for a pop-rap album so slick and shallow, the completely ludicrous I Am Hip Hop's Savior was the original plan, suggesting that this project was misguided since early development."
Andrew Rennie of ''
NOW
Now most commonly refers
to the present time.
Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to:
Organizations
* Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization
* National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization
* Now ...
'' noted how throughout the album, Mims borrows styles from fellow contemporaries like
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 ...
and
Kanye West
Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer.
Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...
. Rennie later added that "
ere are a couple of moments of idiosyncrasy here, particularly on the title track and "On & On", but ''Guilt''s formulaic approach makes it easy to pass on the whole album. Instead, head over to your favourite download site and cherry-pick the radio bangers."
Margeaux Watson of ''
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 cult ...
'' simply said in her review, "The rapper behind 2007’s party anthem 'This Is Why I’m Hot' returns with more heat for the dance floor."
Steve 'Flash' Juon of ''RapReviews'' said that despite the two singles and the rest of the tracks showing variety in tone and style, he felt that either Mims "or his record label may have overestimated how interested people would be in his sound after a two year layoff." He concluded that "Any number of things might have changed the outlook here - more big name guests, more outside producers, better marketing or even making "Love Rollercoaster" the lead single instead of the followup. Whatever the answer, people in 2009 will be left asking the question why he's NOT as opposed to why he's HOT."
Writing for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'',
Jon Caramanica
Jon Caramanica (born 1975) is an American journalist and pop music critic who writes for ''The New York Times''. He is also known for writing about hip hop music.
Biography
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Caramanica received his bachelor's degree f ...
gave credit to Mims' "ear for clever production" and self-awareness of his limited appeal but found his lyrical skills lacking and said that 'Move (If You Wanna)' "has made him a one-hit wonder two times over. It’s an unfortunate identity, but an identity all the same."
Commercial performance
The album debuted at number 53 on the
''Billboard'' 200, selling 12,400 copies in its first week.
Track listing
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guilt (Album)
Mims (rapper) albums
2009 albums
Capitol Records albums
Albums produced by Da Internz
Albums produced by Jim Jonsin