''Student of the Game'' is the sixth

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

N.O.R.E. Victor James Santiago Jr. (born September 6, 1977), better known by his stage names Noreaga and later N.O.R.E., is an American rapper. Born and raised in Queens, New York, Santiago first rose to prominence as one half of the East Coast hip hop du ...

(a.k.a. P.A.P.I). The album was released on April 16, 2013, under Militainment Business, Conglomerate and

E1 Music MNRK Music Group (pronounced "monarch", formerly known as Koch Records and eOne Music) is a New York City-based independent record label and music management company. It was formed in 2009 from the music assets of Koch Entertainment, which had b ...

. The album features

guest appearance In show business, a guest appearance is the participation of an outsider performer (such as a musician or actor) in an event such as a music record or concert, show, etc., when the performer does not belong to the regular band, cast, or other p ...

s from

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. ...

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, al ...

Lil Wayne Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. (born September 27, 1982), known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record executive. His career began in 1995, at the age of 12, when he was signed by rapper Birdman (rapper), ...

Pusha T Terrence LeVarr Thornton (born May 13, 1977), better known by his stage name Pusha T, is an American rapper, songwriter and record executive. He rose to prominence as one-half of the hip hop duo Clipse, which was mainly active from 1994 to 20 ...

Pharrell Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973) is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter. Alongside close colleague Chad Hugo, he formed the hip hop and R&B production duo the Neptunes in the early 1990s, with whom he ...

Pete Rock Peter O. Phillips (born June 21, 1970), better known by his stage name Pete Rock, is an American record producer, DJ and rapping, rapper. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time, and is often mentioned alongs ...

Havoc High Altitude Venus Operational Concept (HAVOC) is a set of crewed NASA mission concepts to the planet Venus. All human portions of the missions would be conducted from lighter-than-air craft or from orbit. Background Venus is a planet with a r ...

Jeremih Jeremy Phillip Felton (born July 17, 1987), known professionally as Jeremih ( ), is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. In 2009, he signed a record deal with Def Jam Recordings. Jeremih's commercial debut single, "Birthday Sex", ...

, Mick Jones,

Large Professor William Paul Mitchell (born March 21, 1972), better known by the stage name of Large Professor (also Extra P. and Large Pro), is an American rapper and record producer. Based in New York City, he is known as a founding member of the underground ...

Swizz Beatz Kasseem Daoud Dean (born September 13, 1978), known professionally as Swizz Beatz, is an American record producer, rapper, disc jockey (DJ) and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, Dean embarked on his musical career as a DJ. At the ag ...

Raekwon Corey Woods (born January 12, 1970), better known by his stage name Raekwon The Chef, or simply Raekwon (), is an American rapper. He rose to prominence as a founding member of the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan, which achieved mainstream success ...

Tech N9ne Aaron Dontez Yates (born November 8, 1971), better known by his stage name Tech N9ne (pronounced "tech nine"), is an American rapper. In 1999, he and business partner Travis O'Guin founded the record label Strange Music. He has sold over two m ...

Busta Rhymes Trevor George Smith Jr. (born May 20, 1972), known professionally as Busta Rhymes, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the moniker Busta Rhymes, after NFL and CFL wide receiver ...

and Scarface among others.

Background

The album was originally titled ''N.O.R.E. Pt. 2: Born Again'' (the album was intended to be a sequel to Noreaga's debut album ''

''). However, the title was later changed to ''S.U.P.E.R.T.H.U.G.'', referencing his 1998 hit single "

Superthug "Superthug" is a song by New York City rapper N.O.R.E. (a.k.a. Noreaga) with background vocals from Tammy Lucas during the song's hook. It was released as the second single from his debut solo album, '' N.O.R.E.''. At the time, it became Noreaga' ...

". However, N.O.R.E. later announced that he had changed the title to ''Student of the Game'', on the advice of the film company producing the movie ''Super Thug'', which he intended to premiere following the release of the album, as the film would contain no music from the album. Mentioned guest appearances on the album included

Pharrell Williams Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973) is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter. Alongside close colleague Chad Hugo, he formed the hip hop and R&B production duo the Neptunes in the early 1990s, with whom he ...

(who N.O.R.E. hasn't worked with since his 2002 album

God's Favorite ''God's Favorite'' is a play by Neil Simon, loosely based on the Biblical Book of Job. It was produced on Broadway in 1974. Production Produced by Emanuel Azenberg, the play opened on Broadway at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on December 11, 1974 ...

Cory Gunz Peter Cory Pankey, Jr. (born June 22, 1987), better known by his stage name Cory Gunz, is an American rapper from The Bronx, New York City.Jessica Koslow, "Interview: Cory Gunz: Youngest In Charge," February 1, 2005, found aHipHopDx website Acc ...

, and he also expressed wanting to work with

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, on a

Just Blaze Justin Gregory Smith (born January 8, 1978), known professionally as Just Blaze, is an American hip hop record producer and DJ. Born in Paterson, New Jersey, Blaze attended Rutgers University for three years before dropping out to pursue his m ...

beat on the album, in which Just Blaze responded to, and gladly accepted.

Singles

The first promotional single from the album was "Nutcracker". The song credits Flavor Flav as a feature on the song, but his part is a sample from

Public Enemy "Public enemy" is a term which was first widely used in the United States in the 1930s to describe individuals whose activities were seen as criminal and extremely damaging to society, though the phrase had been used for centuries to describe p ...

's song "Can't Do Nuttin' for Ya, Man", but he appears in the music video. The promo single "Finito", featuring

and

, was released on June 13, 2011. On September 17, 2011, the music video for "Finito" featuring Pharrell Williams and Lil Wayne was released. On January 5, 2013, the first official single "Tadow" featuring

and

was released. On January 5, 2013, the song "Built Pyramids" featuring

was released. On January 6, 2013, the music video was released for "Tadow" featuring French Montana, Pusha T and 2 Chainz. On February 25, 2013, the second single "Fowl Niggaz" was released. On March 17, 2013, the music video for "Built Pyramids" featuring Large Professor was released. The third single "The Problem (Lawwddd)" featuring

was released on March 25, 2013. On April 15, 2013, the music video was released for "Dreaming" featuring

and

¡Mayday! ¡Mayday! (stylized in all caps as ¡MAYD∀Y!) is an American hip hop group from Miami, Florida. The group comprises rappers Bernardo "Bernz" Garcia and Ben "Wrekonize" Miller, along with producer and percussionist Andrews "NonMS" Mujica. Unti ...

. On June 11, 2013, the music video for "The Problem (Lawwwddd)" featuring Pharrell was released.

Reception

Commercial performance

''Student of the Game'' debuted at number 116 on the ''Billboard'' 200 selling 4,100 copies in its first week of release.

Critical response

''Student of the Game'' received mixed reviews from music critics. Bruce Smith 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. ...

gave the album three out of five stars, saying "N.O.R.E tries to recreate “Banned From T.V.” with “Faces of Death.” The features of Raekwon, French Montana, Busta Rhymes and Swizz Beatz can’t match the original lineup of Nature, Big Punisher, Styles and Jadakiss. The beat composed by Jahlil Beats doesn’t give off the epic feel Swizz did on the original. ''Student of the Game'' has its moments, but they are few and far between, lost amongst filler, comical skits, and some very poor attempts of to keep up with what is popular now. N.O.R.E doesn’t have to prove anything to anyone, and his attempts to do so drag this album down."

Track listing

;Sample credits * "Faces of Death" contains a

sample Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of s ...

of "

Banned from T.V. "Banned from T.V." is a song by American rapper N.O.R.E., Noreaga, released as the third single from his debut studio album ''N.O.R.E. (album), N.O.R.E.'' (1998). The song, Hip hop production, produced by then up-and-coming record producer Swizz ...

", as performed by Noreaga and produced by Swizz Beatz.

References

{{Authority control 2013 albums N.O.R.E. albums Albums produced by Pharrell Williams Albums produced by Scram Jones Albums produced by Pete Rock Albums produced by Large Professor Albums produced by Jahlil Beats