''12 Step Program'' (also stylized as 12SP) is the ninth album by the
People Under the Stairs
The term "the people" refers to the public or common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty. In contrast, a ...
. It is the second album entirely self-distributed using
Thes One
Christopher Cesar Portugal (born October 18, 1977), best known as Thes One, is an American rapper, record producer and sound engineer. He was one half of hip hop duo People Under the Stairs, alongside Double K (American musician), Double K servin ...
's artist-cooperative label, Piecelock 70, and it is also the group's shortest record to be marketed as a full-length album upon its release. (The group's fifth album, ''
...Or Stay Tuned'', while shorter, was initially marketed as an
EP.) ''12 Step Program'' is also the group's first album since their second album, ''
Question in the Form of an Answer'', that uses only samples and no live instrumentation.
Despite not having a physical release, the track "1 Up Til Sun Up" was the lead single from the album. A music video for the song was released on April 7, 2014, the same day that iTunes debuted the song and began accepting pre-orders for ''12 Step Program''.
Upon the album release, PUTS embarked on a North American tour in support of the album, with plans to visit other countries later in the year.
Recording
People Under the Stairs recorded most of the album in Los Angeles at their home studios in between tour dates in late 2013 and early 2014. On January 28, 2014, Thes One announced on social media that People Under the Stairs' ninth full-length album would be titled ''12 Step Program''.
Some of the final mixing work was performed in March while the group played festivals in Texas, including the Paste Untapped Indie Music & Beer Festival in Fort Worth and
SXSW
South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...
in Austin.
Release and reception
Recognizing the current dominance of digital music and the growing trend away from physical media, only a limited number of LP records, cassette tapes and compact discs were produced for ''12 Step Program''. The album itself has an orange and blue color scheme, which carried over to the double-record set, which includes one orange and one blue translucent vinyl and a large 24-page booklet, as well as the cassette tape (a first for PUTS), produced in translucent blue with orange lettering.
A week before the album's release on May 6, 2014, pre-orders for the physical copies were announced on the band's official website, and over the next 24 hours, the website's server crashed 4 times due to eager fans attempts to obtain the album. The earliest crashes even delayed the album's release for nearly half a day.
''12 Step Program'' debuted at #56 on the iTunes charts, #7 on the iTunes rap charts, #11 on the Billboard Heatseeker charts, and #33 on the Billboard R&B/Rap Album charts.
People Under The Stairs on the Billboard charts
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Album reviews have been positive. 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 ...
highly recommends the album and calls "every sample perfectly placed and every rhyme on point",
Track listing
All songs written by Christopher "Thes One" Portugal and Michael "Double K" Turner.
References
External links
Official People Under The Stairs Website
{{Authority control
People Under the Stairs albums
2014 albums