''Double Up'' is the eighth

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 American singer-songwriter R. Kelly. It was released by

Jive Records Jive Records (later stylized as JIVE Records) was a British-American independent record label founded by Clive Calder in 1981 as a subsidiary of the Zomba Group of Companies, Zomba Group. In the US, the label had offices in New York City and Chic ...

on May 29, 2007 in the United States, with distribution handled by

Zomba Label Group RCA/Jive Label Group (sometimes stylized as RCA/JIVE Label Group) was an American record label group, owned by Sony Music Entertainment and representing the merger of the RCA Music Group and JIVE Label Group. The umbrella group was formed in 200 ...

. The album features the contributions with

guest appearance The term guest appearance generally denotes the appearance of a guest in an artistic or pop-culture setting. The guests themselves (referred to as guest artists, featured artists, guest stars, or guest fighters, depending on context), are disting ...

s and also 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 stat ...

s, which was handled by R. Kelly, along with

Swizz Beatz Kasseem Daoud Dean (born September 13, 1978), known professionally as Swizz Beatz, is an American rapper and record producer. Born and raised in the Bronx borough of New York City, Dean embarked on his musical career as a DJ in 1994. At the age ...

, The Runners,

Snoop Dogg Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. ( ; born October 20, 1971), better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg), is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Rooted in West Coast hip-hop, he is widely regarded as one of t ...

, Khao,

Nelly Cornell Iral Haynes Jr. (born November 2, 1974), better known by his stage name Nelly, is an American rapper, singer, and actor. He grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and embarked on his musical career in 1993 as a member of the Midwest hip hop g ...

Chamillionaire Hakeem Temidayo Seriki (born November 28, 1979), better known by his stage name Chamillionaire (), is an American rapper. He began his career in Houston's hip hop scene in the late 1990s. He was briefly signed with the local record label Swishah ...

and

Polow da Don Jamal Fincher Jones (born October 15, 1977 or 1978), known professionally as Polow da Don, is an American record producer from Atlanta, Georgia. He began his career as a recording artist in the late 1990s, leaving college to pursue a career with ...

. Its lead single, his remix to "I'm a Flirt", which features guest vocals from American rapper

T.I. Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. (born September 25, 1980), known professionally as T.I. or Tip, is an American rapper and singer raised in Atlanta, Georgia. Harris is credited as a pioneer of the hip hop subgenre trap music, along with fellow Georgi ...

and American recording artist

T-Pain Faheem Rashad Najm (born September 30, 1984), known professionally as T-Pain, is an American singer and rapper. He is known for popularizing creative use of Auto-Tune pitch correction, often used with extreme parameter settings to create electro ...

; attaining the prominence of the success on the ''Billboard'' Top 40 charts, while it peaked at number one on the US Top Hot Rap Tracks chart. ''Double Up'' is Kelly's final studio album to top the ''Billboard'' 200.

Background

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

, R. Kelly has a video of him speaking out about his state on his success and his thoughts of collaborating with artists, such

Young Jeezy Jay Wayne Jenkins (born September 28, 1977), known by his stage name Jeezy (or Young Jeezy), is an American rapper. He is credited, alongside fellow Georgia-based rappers T.I. and Gucci Mane, with pioneering the hip hop subgenre trap music fo ...

and

Ludacris Christopher Brian Bridges (born September 11, 1977), known professionally as Ludacris (, spoken as "ludicrous" in American English), is an American rapper and songwriter. Born in Champaign, Illinois, Ludacris moved to Atlanta, Georgia, at age ...

, he thought, "why not put some of that magic on my album?" He stated that 70 percent of the record will be uptempo but he assured fans that "there will be some slow jams on there."

Promotion and release

Prior to the album's release, three songs were leaked onto the Internet: second single " Same Girl", which features Usher; "Rise Up", a song which only appeared on some releases, a tribute to the victims of the

Virginia Tech massacre The Virginia Tech shooting was a spree shooting that occurred on Monday, April 16, 2007, comprising two attacks on the campus of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

in April 2007; also making an early appearance was a song titled "Blow It Up", at first supposed to be featured on the album but absent from the final track listing, mainly due to the inappropriate mood it would have created because of the presence of the Virginia Tech shooting tribute song "Rise Up". " Rock Star", which features

and

Kid Rock Robert James Ritchie (born January 17, 1971), known professionally as Kid Rock, is an American musician, singer, rapper, and songwriter. After establishing himself in the Music of Detroit#Hip-hop, Detroit hip-hop scene, he broke through into m ...

, was released as the album's third single on September 4. A video for the song " Real Talk" was also made directly on

. On May 25, 2007, four days before the album's release, the explicit version of the album became available for purchase on

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

. The edited version became available on May 29, 2007, with a bonus track version available a day later.

Chart performance

The album debuted at number one on the US ''Billboard'' 200, with first-week sales of 386,000 copies, making this his sixth and final album in his career to debut at number-one. To date, the album has sold 1,200,000 copies in the United States. On June 3, 2007 it entered 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 ...

at #10.

Track listing

Samples credits * "Double Up" samples "Iceberg" performed by Tweet Notes * There are different

versions of ''Double Up''. Some features the track "Ringtone", as track 19; instead of 20 as on the physical version of the album. Other versions have "I Like Love" or the video for " I'm a Flirt" as bonus features. * On all versions (digital and CD) of ''Double Up'', " I'm a Flirt" is presented in its censored form while the other songs are not. * On most international versions of the album, the song "Rise Up" is omitted in favor of the aforementioned bonus tracks. The song "Rise Up" was reportedly intended predominantly for North American listeners because it is about the

, something that some non-North American fans of R. Kelly may be unfamiliar with. * The extended version of the song "Get Dirty" with an extended verse by Chamillionaire was released on R. Kelly's

MySpace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

page.

Chart positions

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

'R. Kelly Previews New Album On The Phone''Album Credits At The Vault, Dubcc.com''R Kelly's ''Double Up'' Review' R Kelly Forums The R. Kelly Double Up Official Website
* {{Authority control 2007 albums R. Kelly albums Jive Records albums Albums produced by R. Kelly Albums produced by Polow da Don Albums produced by the Runners