''Repentance'' is the ninth studio album by

Esham Esham is an American rapper from Detroit, Michigan. Esham released his debut studio album, '' Boomin' Words from Hell'', in 1989. Since then, he has gone on to release 15 studio albums in total and is best known as a representative of the hip ...

. Released in 2003, it is his first album of new material to be released on

Psychopathic Records Psychopathic Records is an American independent record label headquartered in Farmington Hills, Michigan. The label is most associated with the hip hop music subgenres horrorcore and rap rock. The label was founded in 1991 by Alex Abbiss and hip ...

, and his second album on the label overall, after the compilation '' Acid Rain''.

Lyrics and music

Because much of Smith's most well-known material had contained lyrics that were

Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as Devil in Christianity, the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an non-physical entity, entity in the Abrahamic religions ...

ic in nature, he had long been accused of Satanism and had long attempted to shed such perceptions. ''Repentance'' was produced as an attempt to "set the ..record straight" and leave his former "Unholy" stage persona behind him. The album was originally announced under the title ''Redemption''. The song "Woo Woo Woo Woo" was released as a single, and a music video for the song was filmed by Roy Knyrim. In both instances, the song is identified as "Woo Woo Woo", even though it is referred to as "Woo Woo Woo Woo" on the album itself, and in the chorus. Although the video aired in rotation on

BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los ...

and

MTV 2 MTV2 (formerly M2) is an American pay television channel owned by the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. The channel launched initially as an all-music video service, once the original MTV had started to shift its programm ...

, Esham decided to direct his own music videos because he disliked the way this video turned out.

Reception

''Repentance'' peaked at #9 on the Top Heatseekers chart, #10 on the Top Independent Albums chart, and #71 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. In his review of the album, Allrovi's Jason Birchmeier wrote that "''Repentance'' is a small step forward for Esham. He seems very confident here, comfortable with himself as an artist" and that "when he pulls everything together ..he makes some of the best music of his long, fruitful, yet largely unacknowledged career." (All songs written by

except tracks 6, 8 and 14, which were written by Puwal)

Track listing

Personnel

*Esham - performer *Mike Puwal. - guitar

Production

*Producer: Esham *Engineers: Esham, Fritz "the Cat" Van Kosky, Mike P. *Mixing: Esham, Fritz "the Cat" Van Kosky, Mike P. *Arranger: Esham

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Singles

References

{{Authority control 2003 albums Albums produced by Esham Esham albums Psychopathic Records albums