''Mail on Sunday'' is the debut studio album by American hip hop recording artist

Flo Rida Tramar Lacel Dillard (born September 16, 1979), better known by his stage name Flo Rida (, ), is an American rapper and singer. His 2007 breakout single " Low" was number one for 10 weeks in the United States and broke the record for digital dow ...

, and was released on March 18, 2008 under

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

, and

Poe Boy Entertainment Poe Boy Music Group (formerly Poe Boy Entertainment) is an American record label, founded in 1999 by Elric "E-Class" Prince, the label's founder and CEO. President of Poe Boy Music Group Elvin "Big Chuck" Prince, CEO of Hiram Music Group & CEO of ...

. It spawned three singles; the first, "

Low Low or LOW or lows, may refer to: People * Low (surname), listing people surnamed Low Places * Low, Quebec, Canada * Low, Utah, United States * Lo Wu station (MTR code LOW), Hong Kong; a rail station * Salzburg Airport (ICAO airport code: LO ...

" was number one on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 for 10 weeks. The second, and third singles, "

Elevator An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...

", and " In the Ayer", were successful as well, being top 20 hits. "Roll" featuring

Sean Kingston Kisean Paul Anderson (born February 3, 1990), better known by his stage name Sean Kingston, is an American-Jamaican singer and rapper. He is known for his hit songs " Beautiful Girls", "Fire Burning", " Take You There", and his collaboration wit ...

was not an official single, but it managed to peak at number 59 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and number 43 on the

Canadian Hot 100 The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. The Canadian Hot 100 was launched on the issue dated March 31, 2007, and is currently the standard record chart in Canada; a n ...

due to digital sales in both countries.

Music

T-Pain, who laced the first single, is only one of the many featured guests throughout the album.

Timbaland Timothy Zachery Mosley (born March 10, 1972), known professionally as Timbaland, is an American record producer, rapper, singer, songwriter, and record executive. He has received widespread acclaim for his innovative production work and distinc ...

, who produced the second single "

", is also featured on the track.

Rick Ross William Leonard Roberts II (born January 28, 1976), known professionally as Rick Ross, is an American rapper. Prior to releasing his debut single, "Hustlin'", in 2006, Ross was the subject of a bidding war, receiving offers from Sean Combs, D ...

, and

Trey Songz Tremaine Aldon Neverson (born November 28, 1984), known professionally as Trey Songz, is an American R&B singer and rapper. His debut album, '' I Gotta Make It'', was released in 2005 through Atlantic Records. His follow-up album, ''Trey Day'', ...

made appearances as well.Danica Dow (February 23, 2008)
SOHH Exclusive: Flo Rida Goes "Postal" on Debut, Collaborates w/ Will.i.am, Lil' Wayne
. ''SOHH''. Accessed February 24, 2008.

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), ...

has also been added to the list with assistance by young Memphian, Jamil Smith, while

appears on the

J. R. Rotem Jonathan Reuven Rotem is a South African-born record producer, songwriter and music publisher. Biography Early life Rotem was born in South Africa to Jewish Israeli immigrant parents. He moved to Canada at the age of two and to Moraga, Cal ...

-produced "Roll" the concept was created, and co-written by Compton rapper Spitfiya, from The Bullets Production Team, Various other guests include Birdman, Brisco. The third single is " In the Ayer" featuring

will.i.am William James Adams Jr. (born March 15, 1975), known professionally as will.i.am (pronounced "Will-I-am"), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is the founding and lead member of the musical group Black Eyed Peas. ...

. The fourth single was scheduled to be "Money Right" featuring Brisco, and

, but was canceled due to the release of his upcoming second studio album

R.O.O.T.S. ''R.O.O.T.S.'' (short for ''Route of Overcoming the Struggle'') is the second studio album by American rapper Flo Rida. It was released on March 24, 2009, by Poe Boy Entertainment and Atlantic Records.T-Pain, "I Bet", his collaboration with

Trina Katrina Laverne Taylor (born December 3, 1978), known professionally as Trina, is an American rapper. She rose to prominence in 1998 with her appearance on the Trick Daddy single "Nann Nigga". Trina has been described by '' XXL'' as "the most ...

, named "Bout It" and as well as his second collaboration with

named "OG", all three didn't make the final track list, but were recorded. As for production,

DJ Montay Montay Desmond Humphrey (born December 4, 1978), known professionally as DJ Montay, is an American disc jockey, Diamond certified, Grammy Award-nominated record producer and songwriter, who has worked with artists such as Flo Rida, T-Pain, Akon, ...

, and

all provided tracks for ''Mail on Sunday'', among others.

Critical reception

''Mail on Sunday'' garnered mixed reviews from

music critic ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of mus ...

s. At

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 ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 54, based on 12 reviews. Steve 'Flash' Juon of ''RapReviews'' praised the album for containing great production and tracks that are potential singles but found the artist on said album lacking in identity, concluding with, "When you try to come up with positive comparisons to other artists, you realize just how derivative Flo Rida is. He's a little bit

Twista Carl Terrell Mitchell (born November 27, 1973), better known by his stage name Twista (formerly Tung Twista), is an American rapper and record producer. He is best known for his Chopper (rap), chopper style of rapping and for once holding the t ...

, a little bit

Trick Daddy Maurice Samuel Young (born September 27, 1974), better known by his stage name Trick Daddy, is an American rapper from Miami's Liberty City (Miami), Liberty City. Early life Trick Daddy was born on September 27, 1974, at Jackson Memorial Hospita ...

, and a whole lot

Nelly Cornell Iral Haynes Jr. (born November 2, 1974), better known by his stage name Nelly, is an American rapper, singer, actor and entrepreneur. He embarked on his music career with the hip hop group St. Lunatics in 1993 and signed to Universal ...

. None of those things are negative, but the fact he can't distinguish himself from any of them isn't a positive. I'd like to see Flo Rida convince me why he's special with his next album - until then he's just another MC with a well produced album who came out of a cookie cutter hitmaking mold." Joseph Barracato of ''

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 ...

'' also praised the production for having "ferocious beats" and "infectious hooks," and gave credit to Flo Rida for delivering female anatomy metaphors in a creative way. ''Billboard'' writer Jeff Vrabel said that, "Flo Rida's flow is an engaging/ringy-dingy/he-sounds-like-Nelly thing. But his hooks can be rock-solid ("Ack Like You Know") and his interest in gleaming synthesizerism (opener "American Superstar" comes into "

Tubular Bells Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillon, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the sound of church bells within a ...

" territory, really) helps set him off from the legions of rappers clawing over each other to break out of the South."

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 ...

's Andy Kellman said that, "Though Flo Rida has his own identity – for all the tough talk and the automotives fixation, he does come off as big-hearted, and he could just as easily make an R&B album – and covers more bases than what is typical from other mainstream-yet-street rap albums of 2007 and 2008, he's not nearly as distinctive as any of his predecessors."

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

graded the album as a "dud", indicating "a bad record whose details rarely merit further thought." ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

''s

Christian Hoard Christian David Hoard is an American music journalist and music editor for ''Rolling Stone''. A 2000 graduate of the University of Michigan, he began his career as a music journalist writing for the ''Michigan Daily''. He later moved to New York Ci ...

found the album trying hard to replicate the success of "Low" but found the tracks to be "generic pop rap" and both the production and vocal delivery "standard-issue." Wilson McBee of

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 ...

criticized the record's tired use of party tracks, phoned in contributions, and misogynistic lyrical content, concluding that "unless he can once again catch the coattails of T-Pain or some other hit-magnet, odds are that he’ll be beginning his descent back into anonymity very soon."

Sales

''Mail on Sunday'' debuted at number four on the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart, selling 86,000 copies in its first week. As of May, 2009, the album has sold 390,000 copies in the US.Week Ending May 17, 2009: Three Days Is Plenty For Green Day
Yahoo Music Blog (written by Paul Grein): Retrieved May 20, 2009 It has been certified silver for sales in the UK."British certification for ''Mail on Sunday''"

British Phonographic Industry British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is the British recorded music industry's Trade association. It runs the BRIT Awards, the Classic BRIT Awards, National Album Day, is home to the Mercury Prize, and co-owns the Official Charts Company with th ...

. 18 July 2008. Retrieved 13 February 2009.

Track listing

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes. Sample credits * "Still Missin'" contains elements of "

Jazzy Belle "Jazzy Belle" is the third and last single from hip hop duo Outkast's second studio album, ''ATLiens''. It was released as a remix single and it peaked at #52 on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The song is the only single from the a ...

", written by

André Benjamin André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew, and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries. It is a variation o ...

, Patrick Brown,

Ray Murray Raymond Lee Murray (October 12, 1917 – April 9, 2003) was an American professional baseball player and manager. A catcher, he appeared in 250 games played over all or parts of six seasons for the Cleveland Indians (1948; 1950–1951), Philade ...

Antwan Patton Antwan André Patton (born February 1, 1975), better known by his stage name Big Boi, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer and actor. He is best known for being a member of the southern hip hop duo Outkast alongside André 3000. ...

, and

Rico Wade Organized Noize is an American production team from Atlanta, Georgia composed of Rico Wade, Ray Murray and Sleepy Brown. History Among the hit records they have worked on include TLC's "Waterfalls", En Vogue's "Don't Let Go (Love)", and Luda ...

. * "In the Ayer" contains interpolations from "Jam the Box", written by Tony Butler. * "Me & U" contains samples and elements from the

Roger Roger is a given name, usually masculine, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", "honour") and ', ' ( ...

recording "Emotions", written by

David Gamson David Gamson is an American keyboardist/musician (also a producer, songwriter, arranger, engineer). Originally hailing from New York, he has worked with, among others, Kesha, Kelly Clarkson, Jessie J, Adam Lambert, Chaka Khan, Charli XCX, Meshell ...

and

Roger Troutman Roger Troutman (November 29, 1951 – April 25, 1999), also known as Roger, was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, multi-instrumentalist and the founder of the band Zapp who helped spearhead the funk movement and heavily influenc ...

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Certifications

Year-end charts

References

External links

“Act Like You Know…” - Review of Flo Rida's Mail on Sunday
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mail On Sunday (Album) 2008 debut albums Albums produced by DJ Frank E Albums produced by J. R. Rotem Albums produced by Honorable C.N.O.T.E. Albums produced by Kane Beatz Albums produced by Timbaland Albums produced by will.i.am Albums produced by Hit-Boy Albums produced by Fatboi Flo Rida albums Atlantic Records albums

Music

Critical reception

Sales

Track listing

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Certifications

Year-end charts

See also

References

External links