''Only Built for Infinity Links'' is the only studio album by American hip hop duo Unc & Phew, consisting of

Quavo Quavious Keyate Marshall (born April 2, 1991), better known by his stage name Quavo (), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the frontman of the now-defunct hip hop group Migos. Formed with his nep ...

and

Takeoff Takeoff is the phase of flight in which an aerospace vehicle leaves the ground and becomes airborne. For aircraft traveling vertically, this is known as liftoff. For aircraft that take off horizontally, this usually involves starting with a tr ...

. It was released through

Quality Control Music Quality Control Music, LLC (also known as Quality Control or QC) is an American hip hop record label founded by Kevin "Coach K" Lee ( COO) and Pierre "P" Thomas (CEO) in March 2013. The label's releases were distributed through Universal Music Gr ...

and

Motown Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. Founded by Berry Gordy, Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, it was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau ...

on October 7, 2022. The album contains guest appearances from

Mustard Mustard may refer to: Food and plants * Mustard (condiment), a paste or sauce made from mustard seeds used as a condiment * Mustard plant, one of several plants, having seeds that are used for the condiment ** Mustard seed, small, round seeds of ...

YoungBoy Never Broke Again Kentrell DeSean Gaulden (born October 20, 1999), known professionally as YoungBoy Never Broke Again or NBA YoungBoy, is an American rapper. From Louisiana, United States, Gaulden released eight independent mixtapes and garnered a regional foll ...

Young Thug Jeffery Lamar Williams II (born August 16, 1991), known professionally as Young Thug, is an American rapper. Known for his eccentric vocal style and fashion, he is considered an influential figure in modern hip hop music, hip hop and trap music ...

, Gunna,

Summer Walker Summer Marjani Walker (born April 11, 1996) is an American R&B singer-songwriter. Born and raised in Atlanta, she signed with the local record label Love Renaissance, an imprint of Interscope Records in late 2017. The following year, she relea ...

, Birdman, and

Gucci Mane Radric Delantic Davis (born February 12, 1980), known professionally as Gucci Mane, is an American rapper. He is credited, along with fellow Atlanta-based rappers T.I. and Jeezy, with pioneering the hip hop subgenre trap music for mainstream a ...

. It was the last project released in Takeoff's lifetime as he was shot and killed just 25 days after the album's release on November 1, 2022.

Background

Quavo and Takeoff worked on the album over a two-year period and "modeled elements of the cover art" on

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer and record producer. One of the most prominent figures in hip-hop, he is known for his varying musical style and polarizing cultural and political commentary. After ...

and

Jay-Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American Rapping, rapper, businessman, and record executive. Rooted in East Coast hip-hop, he was named Billboard and Vibe's 50 Greatest Rappers of All Time, the ...

's collaboration for ''

Watch the Throne ''Watch the Throne'' is a collaborative studio album by American rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West. It was released on August 8, 2011, by Roc-A-Fella Records, Roc Nation, and Def Jam Recordings. Prior to its release, Jay-Z and West had collaborated ...

'' (2011) as well as

Outkast Outkast (sometimes written as OutKast) was an American hip-hop duo formed in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1992, consisting of Big Boi (Antwan Patton) and André 3000 (André Benjamin, formerly known as Dré). Widely regarded as one of the greatest an ...

’s album

Stankonia ''Stankonia'' is the fourth studio album by the American hip hop duo Outkast, released on October 31, 2000, by LaFace Records and Arista Records. The album was recorded in the duo's recently purchased Atlanta recording facility Stankonia Studios, ...

(2000). The title is a reference to

Raekwon Corey Woods (born January 12, 1970), better known by his stage name Raekwon ( ), is an American rapper. He rose to prominence as a founding member of the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan, which achieved mainstream success following the release of the ...

's 1995 debut album '' Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...'', with Takeoff claiming that Raekwon approved of the title, as well as a reference to the "unbreakable bond" that Quavo and Takeoff have as uncle and nephew, respectively. The album was notably made without input from

Offset Offset or Off-Set may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Off-Set", a song by T.I. and Young Thug from the '' Furious 7: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack'' * ''Offset'' (EP), a 2018 EP by singer Kim Chung-ha * ''Offset'' (film), a 200 ...

Migos Migos () were an American hip hop group founded in Lawrenceville, Georgia, in 2008. The group was composed of rapper Quavo, his nephew Takeoff, and their "cousin" friend Offset. Quavo is from Athens, Georgia, while Offset and Takeoff were bo ...

despite no formal split of the trio; Quavo also stated in an interview that he would like to see his and Takeoff's career "as a duo".

Critical reception

''Only Built for Infinity Links'' received positive reviews from critics. At

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 Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Science * Normalization process theory, a sociological theory of the implementation of new technologies or innovations * Normalization model, used in ...

rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 70, based on six reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

praised the album, writing that the duo "delivers the unfazable personality and triplet flows that made their group famous." Robin Murray of '' Clash'' praised the album's variety and the two artists' creativity, describing it as "packed with highlights" and calling it a "record that blazes with life". Similarly, ''

HipHopDX ''HipHopDX'' is an online magazine of Hip hop music, hip hop music criticism and news. ''HipHopDX'' has over 3.5M monthly readers, the website encompassing hip hop news, interviews, music, and reviews. The website's founder and CEO is Sharath C ...

''s Peter Berry wrote, "Offset or no Offset, Quavo and Takeoff's stylistic DNA holds steady. It's home-grown. It's theirs, and it's as potent as ever."

Commercial performance

''Only Built for Infinity Links'' debuted at number seven on the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart, earning 33,000

album-equivalent unit The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, often shortened to just unit, is a sales metric in the music industry that defines the number of streaming media, songs streamed and music download, songs downloaded equal to one Record sales, tradi ...

s (including 2,500 copies in pure album sales) in its first week. The album also accumulated a total of 41.1 million on-demand streams of the album's songs.

Track listing

Personnel

Performers *

– rap vocals *

– rap vocals (track 6) *

DJ Durel Daryl McPherson, known as DJ Durel, is an American record producer, recording engineer, and DJ from Cleveland, Ohio. He was the official DJ of American hip-hop group Migos. Career In late 2017, '' Control the Streets, Vol. 1'', a compilation a ...

– keyboards (7–10, 12, 15, 16, 18),

programming Program (American English; also Commonwealth English in terms of computer programming and related activities) or programme (Commonwealth English in all other meanings), programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program m ...

(7, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 18) * Gunna – rap vocals (8) *

– rap vocals (8) *

– vocals (11) * Birdman – rap vocals (15) Technical * Colin Leonard – mastering * Larry Anthony – mastering (15, 16) * DJ Durel – mixing (1–17),

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

(all tracks) * Quavo – mixing (1–17) * Mike Dean – mixing (18)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Takeoff 2022 albums Quavo albums Takeoff (rapper) albums Albums produced by DJ Durel Albums produced by Mustard (record producer) Albums produced by Mars (record producer) Albums produced by Mike Dean (record producer) Albums produced by Murda Beatz Albums produced by Zaytoven Quality Control Music albums Motown albums Capitol Records albums