''Insomnia'' is a collaborative

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by British rappers

Skepta Joseph Olaitan Adenuga Jr. (born 19 September 1982), known professionally as Skepta, is a British grime MC, rapper, record producer and DJ. Alongside his younger brother Jme, he briefly joined Roll Deep before they became founding members of ...

, Chip and

Young Adz D-Block Europe, often abbreviated to DBE, is a British hip hop collective consisting of Adam Nathaniel "Young Adz" Williams, and Ricky Earl "Dirtbike LB" Banton. Their name originated after being co-signed by Jadakiss, resulting in Jadakiss laun ...

, released on 27 March 2020 by SKC M29. The album features a guest appearance by Dirtbike LB of

D-Block Europe D-Block Europe, often abbreviated to DBE, is a British hip hop collective consisting of Adam Nathaniel "Young Adz" Williams, and Ricky Earl "Dirtbike LB" Banton. Their name originated after being co-signed by Jadakiss, resulting in Jadakiss lau ...

. It was promoted by the lead single, "

Waze Waze Mobile Ltd, (; ) doing business as Waze (), formerly FreeMap Israel, is a subsidiary company of Google that provides satellite navigation software on smartphones and other computers that support the Global Positioning System (GPS). In ad ...

Release and promotion

The album was announced by the three artists on 22 March 2020 via social media, alongside the option to pre-order. A music video for the lead single "

" was released on 25 March 2020. A second music video for the track "Mains" was released on 1 April 2020.

Commercial performance

"Insomnia" debuted at number three on the

UK Albums chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

. The entry marked Skepta's third Top 10 album, Chip's third Top 10 album, and a first for solo Young Adz (fourth including his work with

Critical reception

At review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, ''Insomnia'' received a weighted average score of 82, based on 6 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Aimee Cliff of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' wrote that ''Insomnia'' "feels calibrated for the current, strange cultural moment: it's immediately available, rides low at a tempo that's perfect for listening to while on lockdown in your house or car, and, with the title ''Insomnia'', tackles paranoid themes with the light relief of dark humour". Kyann-Sian Williams of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' concluded that "Overall, though, despite a couple of subpar verses, ''Insomnia'' is one for the books. The UK rap world has never seen three of the scene's most in-demand rappers surprisingly team up for an album. Here the best of north and south London have come together and paved the way for others to follow suit". Joe Hale of '' Clash'' complimented the album's production and the chemistry between the three artists: "The three work well as a collective: Chip provides the cut-throat and fresh bars, Adz comes with the melody and Skepta is free to experiment throughout. The beats stand up too, consonantly switching patterns and breaks and bringing the best out of each artist".

Track listing

Notes * "Insomnia Interlude" features additional vocals by Litty Brity and Greatness Dex. * "High Road" features additional vocals by M.O. Thompson. Sample credits * "St Tropez" contains samples of " Paper Planes", written by Maya Arulpragasam, Wesley Pentz,

Topper Headon Nicholas Bowen "Topper" Headon (born 30 May 1955) is an English drummer and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the drummer of punk rock band the Clash. Headon was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the rest of the Clash in 2003. ...

, Mick Jones,

Paul Simonon Paul Gustave Simonon (; born 15 December 1955) is an English musician and artist best known as the bassist for the Clash. More recent work includes his involvement in the supergroup the Good, the Bad & the Queen and playing on the Gorillaz alb ...

and

Joe Strummer John Graham Mellor (21 August 1952 – 22 December 2002), known professionally as Joe Strummer, was a British musician. He was the co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist, and lead vocalist of punk rock band the Clash, formed in 1976. The Clash' ...

, and performed by M.I.A.

Charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2020 collaborative albums Skepta albums Chipmunk (rapper) albums Albums produced by Skepta Albums produced by Cardo (record producer)