''Powerballin 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 the rapper

Chingy Howard Earl Bailey Jr. (born March 9, 1980), known professionally as Chingy, is an American rapper. Chingy grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and began rapping in his late teens. He toured as an opening act with Nelly in the summer of 2002 and then ...

, released on November 16, 2004, through

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

and Chingy's Slot-A-Lot label. The album entered the ''Billboard'' 200 at number 172 with first week sales of 7,000 copies in the US, but then climbed to number 10 with another 120,000 copies sold in the following week. It has since been certified

Platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platinu ...

by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

for shipping over a million copies in the US. The song "I Do" was used in the video game '' Need for Speed: Underground 2''.

Critical reception

''Powerballin'' received mixed reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

who noted at Chingy's attempt to replicate the success he had with ''

Jackpot Jackpot or Jackpot! may refer to: * A prize, such as a progressive jackpot * Gardena jackpots, a poker variant * Jackpot, Nevada, a community on the Nevada–Idaho state border Comics * Jackpot (comics), several comic book characters * ''Jack ...

''. 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 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 59, based on 9 reviews. Toshitaka Kondo of ''

Vibe ''Vibe'' is an American music and entertainment magazine founded by producers David Salzman and Quincy Jones. The publication predominantly features R&B and hip hop music artists, actors and other entertainers. After shutting down productio ...

'' said that despite the middling lyrical content, he commended the instrumental flourishes and contributions of the featured artists found throughout the record, concluding with, "When it's all on the table, ''Powerballin'' is more solid than spectacular, but either way, Chingy proves he's a safe bet." Steve Jones of ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'' found the guest artists on the album helpful in recreating Chingy's ''Jackpot'' formula, highlighting R. Kelly and Janet Jackson's contributions as stand outs, concluding that "he's found just the ticket for staying in the rotation at radio."

Soren Baker Soren Baker is an American journalist who has spent his career covering hip-hop. Best known for his six years as one of the main editors of The Source, Baker has had more than 3,500 articles published in such publications as The New York Times, ...

, writing for the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', praised the production for being energetic and Chingy's lyrical content showing creativity and technical ability, saying that he "improves on and refines his successful sonic and thematic formula in an album more consistent and satisfying than its predecessor." ''

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 ...

'' contributor Rashaun Hall said that despite more R&B-flavored tracks like "Leave wit Me" and "Don't Worry" showing more diversity in the track listing, he found too much familiarity with the album's content of excessive parties, women and luxury talk.

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 databas ...

writer Andy Kellman noted how the record sounds like a rushed version of ''Jackpot'', criticizing the lyrical content and its hooks for being mediocre, and the lacklustre delivery of the guest artists, concluding that "In Chingy's case, a subpar 2004 follow-up would surely fare better commercially than a polished 2006 follow-up." Writing for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'',

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 (state), New York, Caramanica received his ba ...

also found the album doing little to be different from its predecessor, despite Chingy's charisma delivering on half of the track listing, concluding that "''Powerballin'' serves as a wink behind which there's nothing hidden. It's just a wink, ma."

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2004 albums Chingy albums Capitol Records albums Albums produced by David Banner Albums produced by Raphael Saadiq