''Everybody Looking'' is the ninth studio album by American rapper

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 released on July 22, 2016, by GUWOP Enterprises, RBC Records and

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

. The album serves as Gucci's first studio release while out of prison since '' The Return of Mr. Zone 6'' (2011). It features

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 from

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals and creatures * A male duck * Drake (mythology), a term related to and often synonymous with dragon People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family ...

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

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 ...

, while the majority of the album's production was provided by Gucci Mane's longtime collaborators such as

Mike Will Made It Michael Len Williams II (born March 23, 1989), known professionally as Mike Will Made It (often stylized as Mike WiLL Made-It) or simply Mike Will, is an American record producer. He is best known for producing trap beats for several Southern hi ...

and

Zaytoven Xavier Lamar Dotson (born January 12, 1980), known professionally as Zaytoven, is an American record producer from Atlanta, Georgia. He has released collaborative projects with artists including Gucci Mane, Usher, Future, Young Dolph, Mig ...

, among others. ''Everybody Looking'' received generally positive reviews from critics and debuted at number two on the US ''Billboard'' 200, and becoming Gucci Mane's highest-charting album.

Background

In June 2016, the album was announced, following Gucci Mane's release from prison in May 2016. Recording sessions for the entire album took place in under six days.

Promotion

On July 12, 2016, Gucci Mane released the album's

promotional single A promotional recording, promo, or plug copy is an audio or video recording distributed free, usually in order to promote a recording that is or soon will be commercially available. Promos are normally sent directly to broadcasters, such as mu ...

, "Multi Millionaire Laflare". The album's intro track, "No Sleep", was released on July 15, 2016, the music video for the song was released on July 18. The album's

lead single A lead single (or first single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. A similar term, "debut ...

, " 1st Day Out tha Feds", was released on May 27, 2016. The song was produced by

. The album's second single, " Back on Road" with

, was released on June 4, 2016. The song was produced by Murda Beatz. The album's third single, "All My Children", was released on June 24, 2016. The song was produced by

Drumma Boy Christopher James Gholson (born August 11, 1983), better known by his stage name Drumma Boy (or Drummer Boy), is an American record producer and rapper. Early life Born in Memphis, Tennessee, and raised in Cordova, Tennessee, he was exposed to ...

Critical reception

''Everybody Looking'' was met with generally positive reviews. 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 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 72, based on 13 reviews. Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 6.6 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus. Neil Z. Yeung of

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 ...

gave a positive review, stating "''Everybody Looking'' is one of the best examples of Gucci Mane's contributions to rap in his highly prolific catalog". Narsimha Chintaluri of ''

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 ...

'' said, "Mike WiLL Made-It and Zaytoven construct a cinematic backdrop, but Gucci's execution is a bit wanting. Regardless, it's a clear step in the right direction, a completely different beast than the b-side littered mixtapes he's sanctioned from behind bars over the past three years, and begs for repeat listens". Christina Lee of ''

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

'' said, "''Everybody Looking'', Gucci's ninth album and first after a two-year stay in federal prison, is a compelling left turn, the sound of a veteran innovator reclaiming his territory not with larger-than-life charisma and off-the-wall imagery but fresh intimidation tactics". Julian Benbow of ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

'' wrote: "There's less party and more perspective. He sees the troubles he went through before prison for what they are." David Drake of ''

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'' stated, "It will please fans looking for Another Gucci Mane mixtape. Everyone else will likely find it a bit spotty. Certain songs fall into familiar—now six- or seven-year-old—formulas. His vocals, no doubt out of practice, sound a bit rusty. But most of all, it just feels unfinished, rushed". In a mixed review, ''

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 ...

''s Lanre Bakare stated: "As usual, he's at his best when things get a little weird." Michael G. Barilleaux of ''RapReviews'' said, "While the beats are relatively mediocre and not at all unusual for this brand of hip hop, they do a decent job matching the dark picture Gucci paints. Unfortunately, that picture is more of a rough sketch as Gucci steers more toward unrefined flows and bland, mechanically arching vocals rather than a more thought out approach". In another mixed review, Damien Morris of ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'' said, "The eerie emotional electricity and forensic detail of the single "1st Day Out tha Feds" dissipates across 14 songs that desperately lack variety and humour, and choruses that aren't just Gucci grimly repeating the song's title".

Commercial performance

''Everybody Looking'' debuted at number two on the US ''Billboard'' 200 with 68,000

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, 43,000 of which were pure album sales.

Track listing

Notes * signifies a co-producer

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes. Performers *

– primary artist *

– featured artist *

– featured artist Production *

– producer *

– producer * Murda Beatz – producer *Myles Harris – producer *

Boi-1da Matthew Jehu Samuels (born October 12, 1986), known professionally as Boi-1da (a play on Boy Wonder) is a Canadian record producer and songwriter based in Toronto, Ontario. He is an in-house producer for Drake's OVO Sound label and has prod ...

– producer * Southside – producer *Will-A-Fool – producer *

– producer *Pluss – co-producer *Marz – co-producer *

Swae Lee Khalif Malik Ibn Shaman Brown (born June 7, 1993), known professionally as Swae Lee, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. Known for his wide vocal range and genre-bending, Lee first saw mainstream recognition as one half of the Mississ ...

– co-producer Technical *Kori Anders – mixing *Harley Arsenal – recording assistant *Chris Athens – mastering *Noel Cadastre – recording *Noel "Gadget" Campbell – mixing *Noah Goldstein – recording assistant *Aaron Holton – arranger *The Sauce – recording, mixing *Jaycen Joshua – mixing *Dave Kutch – mastering *Greg Moffet – recording assistant * 40 – recording, mixing assistant *Sean Paine – recording *Peter "Zlender" Vickers – mixing assistant *Mike Will Made It – mixing Additional personnel *Jonathan Mannion – photography *Shun Melson – styling direction *Virgilio Tzaj – art direction, design

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control Gucci Mane albums 2016 albums Albums produced by Mike Will Made It Albums produced by Zaytoven Albums produced by Drumma Boy Albums produced by Murda Beatz Albums produced by Southside (record producer) Atlantic Records albums