''The Senior'' is the fourth studio album by American singer

Ginuwine Elgin Baylor Lumpkin (born October 15, 1970), better known by his stage name Ginuwine, is an American Contemporary R&B, R&B singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. He began his career as a member of Swing Mob in the early 1990s. Signing to Epic R ...

. It was released in the United States on April 8, 2003, via

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America Sony Corporation of America (SONAM, also known as SCA), is the American arm of the Japanese conglomerate Sony Group ...

. The album was primarily produced by

Bryan-Michael Cox Bryan-Michael Paul Cox (born December 1, 1977) is an American record producer and songwriter who is notable for his work with artists such as Usher, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, and Toni Braxton. Among his most notable productions are "Be Wit ...

, with additional production from

Scott Storch Scott Spencer Storch (born December 16, 1973) is an American record producer and songwriter. He started off as a keyboardist for the group the Roots. Early life Storch was born on Long Island, New York. He was raised in South Florida and Phila ...

R. Kelly Robert Sylvester Kelly (born January 8, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and sex offender convicted of racketeering and multiple sex offenses. During his recording career, Kelly sold over 75 million records worldwi ...

, and Joe Little III. The album debuted at 6 on the US ''Billboard'' 200 with first-week sales of 122,000 copies and was certified Gold by the

Recording Industry Association of America 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 ...

(RIAA). Three singles were released from the album with all of them appearing on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100: "Hell Yeah" peaking at No. 17, "

In Those Jeans "In Those Jeans" a song by United States, American singer Ginuwine. It was written by Harvey "The Rook" Hester along with the singer for his fourth studio album ''The Senior'' (2003), while production was helmed by Jerry "Juke" Vines, featuring co- ...

" peaking at No. 8, and "Love You More" peaking at No. 78. In an interview with ''

106 & Park ''106 & Park'' is an American hip hop and R&B music video show, set up in a countdown format, that was broadcast on weekdays at 6:00 pm ET/5:00 pm CT on BET; it aired on a one-day delay on BET International. It was the network's highest- rated ...

'', Ginuwine said that

Missy Elliott Melissa Arnette Elliott (born July 1, 1971), better known as Missy Elliott or Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliot, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. She embarked on her music career with R&B girl group Sista in the earl ...

and Tweet were among the producers for the album, however their contributions never made the final cut.

Critical reception

''The Senior'' received generally favorable reviews from music critics, averaging a 60 out of a 100 among averaged reviews on

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 ...

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 ...

editor John Bush wrote the album "finds the R&B jack-of-all-trades attempting to get in on the game with tracks that mine urban lingo for potential hit combinations ..As before, Ginuwine rises above most of his dozens of imitators in the contemporary R&B realm, with a set of productions that fit his voice perfectly and rate as slightly edgier than the norm." ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

''s Craig Seymour found that "on the finest tracks of his fourth set, R&B balladeer Ginuwine delivers cliched slow jams with convincing emotion. But too much of the album skews toward the dance floor rather than the bedroom, with Ginuwine’s vocals lost in a routine groove. He calls this ''The Senior'', but it’s sophomoric, at best." ''

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 producti ...

'' magazine remarked that "not much has changed for Ginuwine since his debut. He's still racing

to see who can sing the ladies out of their panties first."

Commercial performance

''The Senior'' debuted and peaked at number six on the US ''Billboard'' 200, selling 122,000 copies in its first week, a little shy of the 152,000 copies Ginuwine's 2001 album '' The Life'' had debuted with. On ''Billboard''s component charts, it became his first album to top the

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated J ...

chart. ''The Senior'' was eventually certified gold by the

(RIAA) for the shipment of over 500,000 copies in the United States. By November 2005, the album had sold over 863,000 units, according to

Nielsen Soundscan Luminate (formerly Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen Music Products, and MRC Data) is a provider of music sales data. Established by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett in 1991, data is collected weekly and made available every Sunday (for albums sales) and eve ...

Track listing

Notes * denotes additional producer * denotes co-producer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Senior, The 2003 albums Albums produced by Bryan-Michael Cox Albums produced by Scott Storch Albums produced by R. Kelly Albums produced by Troy Taylor (record producer) Ginuwine albums Epic Records albums