''Skrillex and Diplo Present Jack Ü'' is the only studio album by American DJ duo
Jack Ü
Jack Ü was an American DJ duo consisting of electronic music producers Skrillex and Diplo, formed in 2013. They released their first official single, " Take Ü There", featuring vocals from Kiesza, on September 17, 2014. On February 3, 2015, the ...
, individually known as
Skrillex
Sonny John Moore (born January 15, 1988), known professionally as Skrillex, is an American DJ and music producer. Growing up in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he joined the post-hardcore band From First to Last as the lead si ...
and
Diplo. It was released on February 27, 2015, by
Owsla
Owsla (stylized in all caps) is an American record label and creative collective. It was founded by Skrillex, Tim Smith, Kathryn Frazier, and Clayton Blaha in 2011. Skrillex announced the label on August 17, 2011. The label's first release was ...
and
Mad Decent
Mad Decent is an American record label founded by Diplo. The label has helped introduce Brazilian baile funk and Angolan kuduro to clubs around the world. Recently, it has popularized moombahton, a genre of electronic dance music created by D ...
, Skrillex and Diplo's respective labels. The album features collaborations with a range of artists including
Kiesza
Kiesa Rae Ellestad (born January 16, 1989), known professionally as Kiesza ( ), is a Canadian singer and multi-instrumentalist from Calgary.
In 2017, she was involved in a car accident in Toronto, suffering severe injuries that required her to ...
,
AlunaGeorge
AlunaGeorge are an English electronic music duo from London, consisting of singer-songwriter Aluna Francis and producer George Reid.
Career
2009: Formation
The duo first met in June 2009, when Reid remixed Francis' band My Toys Like Me's trac ...
,
2 Chainz
Tauheed K. Epps (born September 12, 1977), known professionally as 2 Chainz (or Tity Boi), is an American rapper. Born and raised in College Park, Georgia, he initially gained recognition as one-half of the Southern hip hop duo Playaz Circle, a ...
,
Missy Elliott and
Justin Bieber
Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Bieber is recognized for his genre-melding musicianship and has played an influential role in modern-day popular music. He was discovered by American record executive Scooter ...
. It also features the Trinidadian
soca artist
Bunji Garlin
Ian Antonio Alvarez (born July 14, 1978), better known by his stage name Bunji Garlin, is a Trinidadian ragga soca artist. He is also affectionately known as the Viking of Soca. His spouse is Fay-Ann Lyons.
Early life
Bunji was born on July 1 ...
. The album produced the internationally successful single "
Where Are Ü Now
"Where Are Ü Now" is a song produced by American EDM artists Skrillex and Diplo under their collaborative effort Jack Ü, with vocals from Canadian singer Justin Bieber. The song was released as the second single from the duo's debut studio alb ...
" featuring Justin Bieber.
The album won the
Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album
The Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards — a ceremony that was established in 1958 — to recording artists for quality albums in the dance music and electronica genres. Honors in several cate ...
and "Where Are Ü Now" won the
Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording
The Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Recording (formerly known as Best Dance Recording) is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists f ...
at the
58th Annual Grammy Awards
The 58th Annual Grammy Awards was held on February 15, 2016, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The ceremony recognizes the best recordings, compositions and artists of the eligibility year, which was from October 1, 2014, to September 30, 20 ...
.
Background
The first track to emerge from the duo was "
Take Ü There" featuring Canadian musician
Kiesza
Kiesa Rae Ellestad (born January 16, 1989), known professionally as Kiesza ( ), is a Canadian singer and multi-instrumentalist from Calgary.
In 2017, she was involved in a car accident in Toronto, suffering severe injuries that required her to ...
. In an interview with
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...
's
Zane Lowe
Alexander Zane Reid Lowe (born 7 August 1973) is a New Zealand radio DJ, live DJ, record producer, and television presenter.
After an early career in music creation, production and DJing, he moved to the UK in 1997. He came to prominence thro ...
,
Skrillex
Sonny John Moore (born January 15, 1988), known professionally as Skrillex, is an American DJ and music producer. Growing up in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he joined the post-hardcore band From First to Last as the lead si ...
explained that the making of this song had a unique process: He and Diplo were set to play a show in Ibiza when they saw Canadian pop singer Kiesza perform ahead of them. Impressed with her singing, they asked her to do the vocals for a song. They recorded her in their hotel room and finished the song in one night. During a set at Camp Question Mark of the
Burning Man festival (one of eight different sets they played over the course of the festival), the duo played "Take Ü There" along with an unreleased track titled "To Ü", of the electro and future bass genres, featuring vocals from
AlunaGeorge
AlunaGeorge are an English electronic music duo from London, consisting of singer-songwriter Aluna Francis and producer George Reid.
Career
2009: Formation
The duo first met in June 2009, when Reid remixed Francis' band My Toys Like Me's trac ...
. "Beat Steady Knockin'", which features vocals by New Orleans bounce artists Fly Boi Keno, was also played. It was later re-titled "Beats Knockin'" for the album's release.
In early 2015, Jack Ü played numerous unreleased tracks in a two-hour takeover mix on
BBC Radio 1Xtra. Tracks played included "Febreze" featuring 2 Chainz, "Jungle Bae", "Cumbia" featuring Maluca and a new collaboration with
Snails
A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gastro ...
entitled "Holla Out". "Febreze", "Jungle Bae" and "Holla Out" were all included on the album, while "Cumbia" featuring Maluca was excluded from the album. Skrillex has also mentioned that Jack Ü has "got five songs that we made that aren't even released, and we'll end up releasing in 2014". On February 27, 2015, Skrillex and Diplo released the album on iTunes. Alongside the previously revealed six tracks, the album's release included unannounced songs "Where Are Ü Now" featuring
Justin Bieber
Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Bieber is recognized for his genre-melding musicianship and has played an influential role in modern-day popular music. He was discovered by American record executive Scooter ...
, "Mind" featuring Kai and vocals from Skrillex, "Don't Do Drugs Just Take Some Jack Ü" and a remixed version of "Take Ü There" with
Missy Elliott.
Singles
"
Take Ü There" featuring
Kiesza
Kiesa Rae Ellestad (born January 16, 1989), known professionally as Kiesza ( ), is a Canadian singer and multi-instrumentalist from Calgary.
In 2017, she was involved in a car accident in Toronto, suffering severe injuries that required her to ...
was released as the lead single from the album on October 4, 2014, reaching number sixteen on the
UK Dance Chart
The UK Dance Singles Chart and the UK Dance Albums Chart are music charts compiled in the United Kingdom by the Official Charts Company from sales of songs in the dance music genre (e.g. house, trance, drum and bass, garage, synthpop) in record s ...
. "
Where Are Ü Now
"Where Are Ü Now" is a song produced by American EDM artists Skrillex and Diplo under their collaborative effort Jack Ü, with vocals from Canadian singer Justin Bieber. The song was released as the second single from the duo's debut studio alb ...
" was released as the second official single simultaneously with the album on February 27, 2015. The song is a collaboration with Canadian musician
Justin Bieber
Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Bieber is recognized for his genre-melding musicianship and has played an influential role in modern-day popular music. He was discovered by American record executive Scooter ...
. The track has so far reached number 8 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 and number 3 on the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
, becoming the duo's biggest hit on both charts thus far. Moreover, the song peaked at number three in Australia, currently the highest peak of the single worldwide. The song was hugely successful throughout Europe, reached the top-ten in Sweden and Finland, as well as the top-twenty in Norway, Czech Republic, Denmark and Slovakia. It has also charted in Bieber's native Canada, peaking at number 6. Although not released as an official single, "To Ü" was added to
BBC Radio 1Xtra's C-Playlist on March 23, 2015.
Critical reception
The album received positive reviews from music critics. 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 gives out a rating out of 100, the album received a score of 70 based on a number of 8 reviews, which says that they were "generally favorable reviews". Also, at ''
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 ...
'', which gives out a rating out of 5 stars to said criticised albums, the album received from the critic 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Commercial performance
Once the album was released to the public, it entered into the
''Billboard'' 200 chart, debuting at number 26, selling a rounded 14,000 copies in its first week of release.
On June 22, 2016, the album was certified gold by the
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for combined album sales, on-demand audio, video streams, track sales equivalent of 500,000.
Track listing
Sample credits
*"Holla Out" features a sample from "Train Sequence" by Geoffrey Sumner. It also features excerpt from an unreleased Skrillex track known as "Tabasco" and interpolates "
Headlines
The headline or heading is the text indicating the content or nature of the article below it, typically by providing a form of brief summary of its contents.
The large type ''front page headline'' did not come into use until the late 19th centur ...
" by
Drake
Drake may refer to:
Animals
* A male duck
People and fictional characters
* Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name
* Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* ...
.
Charts and certifications
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Release history
References
Jack Ü
Jack Ü was an American DJ duo consisting of electronic music producers Skrillex and Diplo, formed in 2013. They released their first official single, " Take Ü There", featuring vocals from Kiesza, on September 17, 2014. On February 3, 2015, the ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Skrillex and Diplo Present Jack U
2015 debut albums
Jack Ü albums
Albums produced by Diplo
Atlantic Records albums
Mad Decent albums
Owsla albums
Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronica Album