''Universal Mind Control'' is the eighth
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 rapper
Common
Common may refer to:
Places
* Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
* Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts
* Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts
* Clapham Common, originally com ...
. Originally scheduled to be released on June 24, 2008 under the name ''Invincible Summer'', the release date was pushed back to September 30, 2008 due to Common's acting gig in the film ''
Wanted''.
[ HipHopDX.com">Common Readies "Universal Mind Control" For July Release , Hip Hop News > HipHopDX.com]
/ref> However, on September 10, 2008, it was announced that the title would be changed to ''Universal Mind Control'' and the release date was set for November 11, 2008. Later, the release was pushed back to December 9, 2008.
The album's first single, titled "Universal Mind Control
''Universal Mind Control'' is the eighth studio album by American rapper Common. Originally scheduled to be released on June 24, 2008 under the name ''Invincible Summer'', the release date was pushed back to September 30, 2008 due to Common's ac ...
", was officially released on July 1, 2008 via the US iTunes Store
The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...
as part of the '' Announcement EP'' (sold as "Universal Mind Control-EP" in the UK). The ''Announcement EP'' included an additional track titled "Announcement". The album features executive production and extensive creative involvement from The Neptunes
The Neptunes are an American songwriting and production duo composed of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, formed in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 1992. Williams often provides additional vocals on records and appears in the duo's music videos, ...
, namely 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 ...
. The album is Common's third and final project released under Geffen Records
Geffen Records is an American record label established by David Geffen and owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M Records imprint.
Founded in 1980, Geffen Records has been a part of Interscope Geffen A&M since 1999 and h ...
and Kanye West
Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer.
Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...
's record label GOOD Music
GOOD Music (also known simply as GOOD, stylized as G.O.O.D. Music; a backronym for Getting Out Our Dreams) is an American record label founded by rapper Kanye West in 2004. The label signed an exclusive long-term worldwide label agreement with t ...
, as well as his final album to feature any involvement from West.
The video for "Universal Mind Control" was filmed in September by director Hype Williams
Harold Williams (born August 1, 1970) is an American music video director, film director, film producer, and screenwriter.
Early life
Williams was born in Queens, New York. He is of mixed African-American and Honduran descent. He attended Adel ...
. The album was sold for 79 points (roughly $.99) on Zune Marketplace
Zune is a discontinued media management software for Microsoft Windows that functions as a full media player application with a library, an interface to the Zune Marketplace, and as a media streaming server. The software is used to sync with all ...
to help promote the album. In 2010, the album was nominated for a Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
for Best Rap Album
The Grammy Award for Best Rap Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums with rapping at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Honors in several categories ...
but lost to the Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...
album ''Relapse''.
Reception
''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 ...
'' magazine has described the sound as " electro-tinged" and "techno
Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...
-inspired."[ The album has largely divided critics and fans, with Pitchfork awarding just 2.8 out of 10, yet '']The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' gave it 4 stars of out 5; ''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 ...
'' gave it three-and-a-half out of four stars; ''Spin
Spin or spinning most often refers to:
* Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning
* Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis
* Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...
'' gave it seven out of ten; and '' XXL'' gave it three out of five stars. 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 ...
, the score aggregator, calculated a score of 53 out of 100, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
''Uncut
Uncut may refer to:
* ''Uncut'' (film), a 1997 Canadian docudrama film by John Greyson about censorship
* ''Uncut'' (magazine), a monthly British magazine with a focus on music, which began publishing in May 1997
* '' BET: Uncut'', a Black Enter ...
'' gave it a score of four out of five stars and said, "Tough and determinedly sexed-up, here you'll find talk of beefs, booty and bitches, rather than brotherhood. Producers Neptunes and OutKast's Mr DJ oversee this exercise in alluringly modern hip hop." ''The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' gave it a C+ and said, "Common stops trying to save the world and uplift the human spirit, and gets in touch with his inner freak, with results that are often more bewildering than sexy." '' Paste'' gave it a score of 5.3 out of 10 and said, "Common's inability to sound sincere about a man he spent two years championing is the most telling part of this consciously shallow caricature of hip-hop's dregs." ''Slant Magazine
''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...
'' gave it a score of two stars out of five and said that although the album "represents a serious step backward from the successes of his recent projects with Kanye, it would be remiss to say the album is the death knell for Common's career or that he has fallen off in any significant way." Canadian magazine ''Now
Now most commonly refers
to the present time.
Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to:
Organizations
* Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization
* National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization
* Now ...
'' also gave it a score of two out of five and said it had "no shortage of sick beats, but Common’s decision to dumb down his rhymes to a rude and rudimentary level comes off horribly crass at best and at worst downright embarrassing."
Commercial performance
In its first week, Universal Mind Control sold 81,663 in the United States.
As of December 31, 2008, the album has sold 211,781.
Track listing
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Release history
References
External links
*
MTV.com on "Universal Mind Control"
{{Authority control
2008 albums
Albums produced by the Neptunes
Common (rapper) albums
Geffen Records albums
GOOD Music albums