''Hood Billionaire'' is the seventh
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 recording artist
Rick Ross
William Leonard Roberts II (born January 28, 1976), known professionally as Rick Ross, is an American rapper.
Prior to releasing his debut single, "Hustlin'", in 2006, Ross was the subject of a bidding war, receiving offers from Sean Combs, D ...
. The album was released through
Maybach Music Group
Maybach Music Group (; abbreviated MMG) is a record label imprint founded by American rapper Rick Ross. Maybach Music Group albums are distributed by Atlantic Records, a division of the Atlantic Records Group. Atlantic took over distribution fo ...
,
Def Jam Recordings
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 ...
and
Slip-n-Slide Records
Slip-N-Slide Records is an American record label, founded in 1994 by Ted Lucas.
History
Ted Lucas founded the label in 1994. Slip-n-Slide signed local rapper Trick Daddy Dollars in its early years; he debuted in 1997 with the locally popular albu ...
on November 24, 2014. The album features guest appearances from
Jay-Z
Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and founder of Manhattan-based conglomerate talent and entertainment agency Roc Nation. He is regarded as one of ...
,
Prodigy
Prodigy, Prodigies or The Prodigy may refer to:
* Child prodigy, a child who produces meaningful output to the level of an adult expert performer
** Chess prodigy, a child who can beat experienced adult players at chess
Arts, entertainment, and ...
,
French Montana
Karim Kharbouch (Arabic: æɾiːm χɑɾbuːʃ born November 9, 1984), better known by his stage name French Montana, is a Moroccan-American rapper. Born and raised in Morocco, he emigrated to the United States with his family when he was 13. ...
,
Project Pat
Patrick Earl Houston (born February 8, 1973), better known by his stage name Project Pat, is an American rapper from Memphis, Tennessee. He is the older brother of Juicy J, the co-founder of Three 6 Mafia.
Houston was formerly a member of hip h ...
,
Yo Gotti
Mario Sentell Giden Mims (born May 19, 1981), known professionally as Yo Gotti, is an American rapper, songwriter, and record executive. In 1996, Gotti released his debut album ''Youngsta's On a Come Up'' under the alias Lil Yo. He went on to re ...
,
Boosie Badazz
Torence Ivy Hatch (born November 14, 1982), better known by his stage name Boosie BadAzz or simply Boosie (formerly Lil Boosie), is an American rapper. Hatch began rapping in the 1990s as a member of the hip hop collective Concentration Camp, e ...
,
Big K.R.I.T.
Justin Lewis Scott (born August 26, 1986), better known by his stage name Big K.R.I.T. (a backronym for King Remembered in Time), is an American rapper and record producer. Born in Meridian, Mississippi, he started his musical career in 2005. Af ...
, Whole Slab,
R. Kelly
Robert Sylvester Kelly (born January 8, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and sex offender convicted of racketeering and multiple sex offenses.
During his recording career, Kelly sold over 75 million records worldwid ...
, and
Snoop Dogg
Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. (born October 20, 1971), known professionally as Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg and briefly Snoop Lion), is an American rapper. His fame dates back to 1992 when he featured on Dr. Dre's debut solo single, " ...
. The album was supported by the singles "Elvis Presley Blvd.", "Keep Doin' That (Rich Bitch)" and "Nickel Rock".
''Hood Billionaire'' is the second of two albums Ross released in 2014, being released eight months after ''
Mastermind
Mastermind, Master Mind or The Mastermind may refer to:
Fictional characters
* Mastermind (Jason Wyngarde), a fictional supervillain in Marvel Comics, a title also held by his daughters:
** Martinique Jason, the first daughter and successor of the ...
''.
Background
On September 15, 2014, he announced that his seventh studio album would be titled ''Hood Billionaire'' and set the release date for November 24, 2014. In an October 2014, interview with Power 105.1's The Breakfast Club, he spoke about why he wanted to release two albums in 2014, saying: "That’s how bosses do it, ya heard me? That cake so stacked up we ain’t even gotta do that. Then if we text Def Jam you know they’ll bring that bag…It was just something that I wanted to do when I recorded the music. If you go back and listen to my interviews speaking on ''Mastermind'' I was saying I felt like I made two albums because it was two different feelings. ''Mastermind'' was the type of album that I wanted to open up. I wanted it to have a rich feel to it…That throwback Puff feel mid-way through it. And this right here. Just certain energies. And this right here this my Geechi Liberace. This a gold ring on every finger. We holding the bottles in the sky letting the champagne run down our arm. So, it’s just that feel good record. A lot of 808s, real bass heavy. And it’s gon’ feel different to you. So, it's gonna feel like a full year from the boss."
Singles
On September 15, 2014, the music video for "Elvis Presley Blvd." featuring
Project Pat
Patrick Earl Houston (born February 8, 1973), better known by his stage name Project Pat, is an American rapper from Memphis, Tennessee. He is the older brother of Juicy J, the co-founder of Three 6 Mafia.
Houston was formerly a member of hip h ...
was released. On September 19, 2014, the album's first single "Elvis Presley Blvd." featuring Project Pat was released.
On October 6, 2014, the album's second single "Keep Doin' That (Rich Bitch)" featuring
R. Kelly
Robert Sylvester Kelly (born January 8, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and sex offender convicted of racketeering and multiple sex offenses.
During his recording career, Kelly sold over 75 million records worldwid ...
was released. In an October 2014, interview with Power 105.1's The Breakfast Club, he spoke about "Keep Doin' That (Rich Bitch)" saying: "My musical accruement is higher than a lot of other people, man. I’m a fan of the music, the writing skills, the creativity. And R. Kelly has flawlessly brought us dope records. That’s just speaking on the homie previous. This record we just did is most definitely a dope record, a feel good record. You know what I’m saying? Something the chicks gon’ be able to turn up to. Let the bosses lean on the wall a little bit. And just shine for you...It was just us sitting there thinking we wanted to bring that
eeling
Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stag ...
So, we actually used two different mansions for different shots. And we just did it big. The homie took it to that next level. I did my thing. Shout out to the city of Atlanta from
Jeezy
Jay Wayne Jenkins (born September 28, 1977), known by his stage name Jeezy (or Young Jeezy), is an American rapper. Signing to Def Jam Recordings in 2004, his major label debut, '' Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101'', was released the followin ...
, T.I. The list
sjust too many to name."
On October 26, 2014, the music video was released for "Keep Doin' That (Rich Bitch)" featuring R. Kelly. On October 30, 2014, the album's third single "If They Knew" featuring
K. Michelle
Kimberly Michelle Pate (born March 4, 1982) is an American singer, actress, and television personality. She is most known from VH1's '' Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta'' and after appearing as a regular cast member for two seasons on the reality televi ...
was released.
On November 4, 2014, the album's fourth single "Nickel Rock" featuring
Boosie Badazz
Torence Ivy Hatch (born November 14, 1982), better known by his stage name Boosie BadAzz or simply Boosie (formerly Lil Boosie), is an American rapper. Hatch began rapping in the 1990s as a member of the hip hop collective Concentration Camp, e ...
was released. On November 13, 2014, the music video was released for "Trap Luv" featuring
Yo Gotti
Mario Sentell Giden Mims (born May 19, 1981), known professionally as Yo Gotti, is an American rapper, songwriter, and record executive. In 1996, Gotti released his debut album ''Youngsta's On a Come Up'' under the alias Lil Yo. He went on to re ...
. On November 24, 2014, the music video was released for "If They Knew" featuring
K. Michelle
Kimberly Michelle Pate (born March 4, 1982) is an American singer, actress, and television personality. She is most known from VH1's '' Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta'' and after appearing as a regular cast member for two seasons on the reality televi ...
. On November 25, 2014, the music video was released for "Hood Billionaire". On December 31, 2014, the music video was released for "Nickel Rock" featuring
Lil Boosie
Torence Ivy Hatch (born November 14, 1982), better known by his stage name Boosie BadAzz or simply Boosie (formerly Lil Boosie), is an American rapper. Hatch began rapping in the 1990s as a member of the hip hop collective Concentration Camp, ev ...
. The music video for "Movin Bass" was released on March 6, 2015.
Jay-Z
Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and founder of Manhattan-based conglomerate talent and entertainment agency Roc Nation. He is regarded as one of ...
does not appear in the video. On April 6, 2015, the music video was released for "Phone Tap". On April 20, 2015, the music video for "Quintessential" featuring
Snoop Dogg
Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. (born October 20, 1971), known professionally as Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg and briefly Snoop Lion), is an American rapper. His fame dates back to 1992 when he featured on Dr. Dre's debut solo single, " ...
was released.
Critical reception
''Hood Billionaire'' 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 mus ...
s. At
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 ...
, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from 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 54, which indicates "mixed or average reviews ", based on 10 reviews.
Killian Young of
Consequence of Sound
''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook ...
said, "''Hood Billionaire'' is a half-baked testament to how difficult it is to make great records in rapid succession."
Andre Grant of
HipHopDX
''HipHopDX'' is an online magazine of hip hop music criticism and news. The website's current president and publisher is Sharath Cherian and the Head Of Content is Jerry L. Barrow. ''HipHopDX'' is the flagship publication of Cheri Media Group.
...
stated, "''Hood Billionaire'' is the second album of 2014 for Rick Ross. This stands in contrast to 2014s now well documented trajectory of A-listers holding back on their projects until 2015. Instead, Rozay is stepping out to the forefront with a project that is a diluted version of his initial 2014 offering ''Mastermind'', which itself lacked the mythic grandiosity of his previous works. In that way, ''Hood Billionaire'', offers itself as an example of good concepts that do not strike the chord they are meant to."
Calum Slingerland of ''
Exclaim!
''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...
'' said, "Some of the more intriguing moments on ''Hood Billionaire'' come when Ross steps out from the guise of the wealthy figurehead and waxes humble. The sparse "Phone Tap" tells a tale of drug dealing paranoia, while the Big K.R.I.T.-assisted "Brimstone" is a remorseful hymnal. These moments are still few and far between, and the rest of Ross' tales of pushing fall short of revealing whether his ascent to boss status is factual or purely fictional."
Meaghan Garvey of ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' stated, "Ross seems to be in the victory-lap phase of his career: ''Hood Billionaire'' lands in a dull gray area between feel-good retro rap (its first two singles are the Memphis homage "Elvis Presley Blvd" and the pleasant but forgettable jazz jangle of "Keep Doin' That
ich Bitch
Ich may refer to:
* Ich, a German pronoun meaning ''I'', also a Middle English form of ''I''
* The ego, one of the psychic apparatus defined in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche
* ''Ich'' (album), an album by German rapper Sido
* ...
) and Rozay greatest-hits karaoke that tries and fails to recapture the impact of his bulletproof ''Teflon Don'' bombast."
Commercial performance
The album debuted at number six on the
''Billboard'' 200 chart, with first-week sales of 74,444 copies in the United States.
It was a 50% decrease in sales from his previous studio album, ''
Mastermind
Mastermind, Master Mind or The Mastermind may refer to:
Fictional characters
* Mastermind (Jason Wyngarde), a fictional supervillain in Marvel Comics, a title also held by his daughters:
** Martinique Jason, the first daughter and successor of the ...
'', released eight months earlier that year, which sold 179,000 copies in its first week of sales. It was also the lowest first-week sales of Rick Ross' career, selling 69,033 copies shorter of its competitor, the
Shady Records
Shady Records is an American record label founded by rapper Eminem and his manager Paul Rosenberg, after the highly successful release of Eminem's ''The Slim Shady LP'' (1999).
Shady has seen negative times when being part of the unsuccessful i ...
compilation, ''
Shady XV
''Shady XV'' (stylized as ''SHADYXV'') is a hip hop compilation album performed by various artists of Shady Records. The double disc album was released on November 24, 2014, by Shady Records and Interscope Records. The album was released in honor ...
'', which was released that exact day and also debuted at number three.
In its second week, the album dropped to number 42 on the chart, selling 15,513 copies. In its third week, the album dropped to number 64 on the chart, selling 10,171 copies.
As of November 2015, the album has sold over 190,000 copies in the United States.
Track listing
;Notes
*
signifies a co-producer.
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Release history
References
{{Authority control
2014 albums
Rick Ross albums
Maybach Music Group albums
Def Jam Recordings albums
Albums produced by DJ Toomp
Albums produced by Timbaland
Albums produced by Lex Luger
Albums produced by Big K.R.I.T.
Albums produced by Metro Boomin