''Insomnia'' is a collaborative

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 British rappers

Skepta Chief Joseph Olaitan Adenuga Jr. (born 19 September 1982), known professionally as Skepta, is a British-Nigerian grime MC, rapper and record producer. Alongside his younger brother Jme, he briefly joined Roll Deep before they became founding ...

, Chip and

Young Adz D-Block Europe, often abbreviated to DBE, is a British hip hop collective consisting of Adam Nathaniel "Young Adz" Williams, Ricky Earl "Dirtbike LB" Banton and Lil Pino from Lewisham, London. Their name is a reference to The Lox (also known as ...

, released on 27 March 2020 by SKC M29. The album features a guest appearance by Dirtbike LB of

D-Block Europe D-Block Europe, often abbreviated to DBE, is a British hip hop collective consisting of Adam Nathaniel "Young Adz" Williams, Ricky Earl "Dirtbike LB" Banton and Lil Pino from Lewisham, London. Their name is a reference to The Lox (also known as ...

. It was promoted by the lead single, " Waze".

Release and promotion

The album was announced by the three artists on 22 March 2020 via social media, alongside the option to pre-order. A music video for the lead single " Waze" was released on 25 March 2020. A second music video for the track "Mains" was released on 1 April 2020.

Commercial performance

"Insomnia" debuted at number three on the

UK Albums chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

. The entry marked Skepta's third Top 10 album, Chip's third Top 10 album, and a first for solo Young Adz (fourth including his work with

Critical reception

At review aggregator

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 mainstream publications, ''Insomnia'' received a weighted average score of 82, based on 6 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Aimee Cliff of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' wrote that ''Insomnia'' "feels calibrated for the current, strange cultural moment: it's immediately available, rides low at a tempo that's perfect for listening to while on lockdown in your house or car, and, with the title ''Insomnia'', tackles paranoid themes with the light relief of dark humour". Kyann-Sian Williams of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' concluded that "Overall, though, despite a couple of subpar verses, ''Insomnia'' is one for the books. The UK rap world has never seen three of the scene's most in-demand rappers surprisingly team up for an album. Here the best of north and south London have come together and paved the way for others to follow suit". Joe Hale of '' Clash'' complimented the album's production and the chemistry between the three artists: "The three work well as a collective: Chip provides the cut-throat and fresh bars, Adz comes with the melody and Skepta is free to experiment throughout. The beats stand up too, consonantly switching patterns and breaks and bringing the best out of each artist".

Track listing

Notes * "Insomnia Interlude" features additional vocals by Litty Brity and Greatness Dex. * "High Road" features additional vocals by M.O. Thompson. Sample credits * "St Tropez" contains samples of "

Paper Planes A paper plane (also known as a paper airplane in American English or paper aeroplane in British English) is a toy aircraft, usually a glider made out of single folded sheet of paper or paperboard. A simple nose-heavy paper plane, thrown like ...

", written by Maya Arulpragasam, Wesley Pentz,

Topper Headon Nicholas Bowen "Topper" Headon (born 30 May 1955) is an English drummer, best known as the drummer of punk rock band the Clash. Known for his instrumental contributions to the drumming world, Headon was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fam ...

, Mick Jones,

Paul Simonon Paul Gustave Simonon (; born 15 December 1955) is an English musician and artist best known as the bassist for the Clash. More recent work includes his involvement in the supergroup the Good, the Bad & the Queen and playing on the Gorillaz alb ...

and

Joe Strummer John Graham Mellor (21 August 1952 – 22 December 2002), known professionally as Joe Strummer, was a British singer, musician and songwriter. He was the co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist and co-lead vocalist of punk rock band the Clash, ...

, and performed by M.I.A.

Charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2020 albums Skepta albums Chipmunk (rapper) albums Collaborative albums Albums produced by Skepta Albums produced by Cardo (record producer)