''Longterm Mentality'' is the debut

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 A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...

Ab-Soul Herbert Anthony Stevens IV (born February 23, 1987), better known by his stage name Ab-Soul, is an American rapper, singer and songwriter. Raised in Carson, California, he signed to indie record label Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) in 2007, where ...

. It was released on April 5, 2011, by

Top Dawg Entertainment Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) is an American independent record label founded in 2004, by CEO Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith. Terrence "Punch" Henderson is president of the label. There are currently eleven artists signed to the label: the label's f ...

(TDE), exclusively to digital retailers, serving as Ab-Soul's debut retail release. 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

Jhené Aiko Jhené Aiko Efuru Chilombo (; born March 16, 1988) is an American singer who embarked on her music career contributing vocals and appearing in several music videos for R&B group B2K. In an effort to promote Aiko and cultivate a following for he ...

Schoolboy Q Quincy Matthew Hanley (born October 26, 1986), better known by his stage name Schoolboy Q (stylized as ScHoolboy Q), is an American rapper. In 2009, Hanley signed to Carson-based independent record label Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) and in late ...

Kendrick Lamar Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (born June 17, 1987) is an American rapper and songwriter. Known for his Progressive rap, progressive musical styles and Social consciousness, socially conscious songwriting, he is often considered one of the most infl ...

Punch Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pun ...

, Alori Joh, JaVonté,

MURS Murs may refer to: People * Marc Athanase Parfait Œillet des Murs (1804-1878), French ornithologist * Olly Murs (born 1984), English singer-songwriter * Murs (rapper) (born 1978), American rapper Places * Murs, Indre, France * Murs, Vaucluse, Fr ...

BJ the Chicago Kid Bryan James Sledge (born November 23, 1984), better known by his stage name BJ the Chicago Kid (or simply BJ), is an American singer and songwriter from Chicago, Illinois. Sledge is best known for frequently collaborating with Top Dawg Entertainm ...

and Pat Brown, with the

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

from American hip hop

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

s such as

Tae Beast Digi+Phonics is an African American hip hop production team, composed of California-based record producers Tae Beast, Sounwave, Dave Free and Willie B. They currently serve as the main in-house producers for Carson-based record label, Top Dawg ...

, Ayiro,

Sounwave Mark Anthony Spears, known professionally as Sounwave, is an American hip-hop producer and songwriter from Compton, California, and an original member of the Californian hip-hop label Top Dawg Entertainment. Sounwave has worked on every Kendrick ...

, AAyhasis, Context, Alexis Carrington and Tommy Black. Upon its release, the album was highly acclaimed by music critics.

Background

Preceded by the

mixtape A mixtape (alternatively mix-tape, mix tape or mixed tape) is a compilation of music, typically from multiple sources, recorded onto a medium. With origins in the 1980s, the term normally describes a homemade compilation of music onto a cassette ...

s such as ''Longterm: The Mixtape'' (2009) and ''Longterm 2: Lifestyles of the Broke and Almost Famous'' (2010), Ab-Soul stated ''Longterm Mentality'' is not the third installment in his ''Longterm'' series. In July 2010, in an interview with ''

Complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...

'', Stevens claimed the series would have four installments, "When I did the first ''Longterm'' I knew that there would be four of them. When I did the first one. So there will be four of them: ''Longterm 1, 2, 3, and 4''. So right now we're at two. You'll have to wait for the next one. That's for the next Ab-Soul interview." In August 2011, in an interview with BlowHipHopTV, Ab-Soul explained in spite of the fact that ''Longterm Mentality'' is not a part of the series, all three projects paint a picture of his personal life and growth. While speaking with BlowHipHopTV, the

Black Hippy Black Hippy is an American hip hop supergroupsample 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 "Time", as performed by Morning, Noon & Night. * "#LTM" contains a sample of " Breathe (Jazz version)", as performed by

Télépopmusik Télépopmusik is a French electronic music trio, composed of Fabrice Dumont (bassist of the pop band Autour de Lucie), Stephan Haeri (also known as "2 square" for his solo projects), and Christophe Hetier (also known as "DJ Antipop"). History ...

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2011 debut albums Top Dawg Entertainment albums Ab-Soul albums Albums produced by Sounwave Albums produced by Tae Beast