''Young Money: Rise of an Empire'' is the second

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 supergroup

Young Money Entertainment Young Money Entertainment is an American record label founded by rapper Lil Wayne in 2005. It was launched as an imprint of Cash Money Records — a joint venture colloquially branded as Young Money Cash Money Billionaires (abbreviated as YMCMB ...

. The album was released on March 11, 2014, by Young Money Entertainment,

Cash Money Records Cash Money Records is an American record label founded in 1991 by brothers Ronald "Slim" Williams and Birdman (rapper), Bryan "Baby" Williams. The label gained prominence in the late 1990s for having signed and released albums for New Orleans– ...

and

Republic Records Republic Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). Based in New York City, it was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially ...

. ''Rise of an Empire''s recording process took place from 2013 to 2014. It contains contributions from several Young Money recording artists including,

Lil Wayne Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. (born September27, 1982), known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. He is often regarded as one of the most influential hip hop artists of his generation, as well as one of the greatest rappers of all ...

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 ...

Nicki Minaj Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj ( ), is a Trinidadian rapper, singer, and songwriter. Regarded as the "Queen of Rap" and one of the most influential rappers of all time, she is noted for her ...

Tyga Micheal Ray StevensonMicheal Ray Stevenson

Christina Milian Christina Milian ( , Flores; born September 26, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Following a number of minor television and film roles in the late nineties, Milian made her recording debut on American rapper Ja Rule's 20 ...

Shanell Shanell Lynn Woodgett (born November 15, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter from Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. She is best known for her guest appearance on Lil Wayne's 2009 single "Prom Queen (Lil Wayne song), Prom Queen", which pe ...

Mack Maine Jermaine Anthony Preyan (born January 15, 1982), better known by his stage name Mack Maine, is an American record executive, songwriter, and rapper from New Orleans, Louisiana. He was named president of Lil Wayne's record label Young Money Enter ...

Jae Millz Jarvis Antonio Mills (born September 11, 1983), better known by his stage name Jae Millz, is an American rapper from Harlem, New York. He is best known for his performances on Young Money Entertainment's 2009 singles "BedRock" and " Every Girl, ...

Cory Gunz Peter Cory Pankey, Jr. (born June 22, 1987), better known by his stage name Cory Gunz, is an American rapper from the Bronx, New York City.Jessica Koslow, "Interview: Cory Gunz: Youngest In Charge," February 1, 2005, found aHipHopDx website Acc ...

Gudda Gudda Carl Eugene Lilly Jr. (born March 11, 1983), better known by his stage name Gudda Gudda, is an American rapper from New Orleans, Louisiana. He performed on Young Money Entertainment's 2009 single "BedRock", which peaked at number two on the ''B ...

Lil Twist Christopher Lynn Moore (born January 11, 1993), better known by his stage name Lil Twist, is an American rapper from Dallas, Texas. He signed to Lil Wayne's Young Money Entertainment, an imprint of Republic Records in 2010.

Chanel West Coast Chelsea Chanel Dudley (born September 1, 1988), better known by her stage name Chanel West Coast, is an American television personality, music artist and actress. She came to prominence in pop culture for her roles in MTV's ''Rob Dyrdek's Fantas ...

and

PJ Morton P.J. Morton (born Paul Sylvester Morton Jr.; March 29, 1981) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. Since 2012, he has been the keyboardist for the pop band Maroon 5. Morton originally joined the band as a touring mem ...

, among others. The album was produced by 40, The Runners,

Hit-Boy Chauncey Alexander Hollis Jr. (born May 21, 1987), known professionally as Hit-Boy, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He first signed with fellow producer Polow da Don in 2007 as in-house production staff for his l ...

, Detail,

Lee on the Beats Anthony Leedel Norris (born February 11, 1990) is an American hip hop record producer and songwriter, professionally known as Lee on the Beats. Lee has produced for artists such as Lil Wayne, DJ Khaled, Kid Ink, Ace Hood, French Montana, Rick Ross ...

Lex Luger Lawrence Wendell Pfohl (born June 2, 1958), better known by the ring name Lex Luger, is an American retired Professional wrestling, professional wrestler, bodybuilder, and gridiron football player. He is best known for his work with Jim Crocke ...

, Aaron O'Brien, and

Sonny Digital Sonny Corey Uwaezuoke (born March 5, 1991), better known by his stage name Sonny Digital, is an American record producer, rapper, and DJ.

, among others. It also features additional guest appearances from YG,

Meek Mill Robert Rihmeek Williams (born May 6, 1987), known professionally as Meek Mill, is an American rapper. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he embarked on his career as a battle rapper, and later formed a short-lived rap group the Blo ...

Yo Gotti Mario Sentell Giden Mims (born May 19, 1981), known professionally as Yo Gotti, is an American rapper, singer, and record executive. Rooted in Memphis rap, he released five independent albums—''Youngsta's on a Come Up'' (1996), ''From da Dope ...

and Birdman. The album was supported by the singles; " We Alright" featuring Lil Wayne, Birdman and

Euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

, "Senile" featuring Tyga, Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne, "

Trophies A trophy is a tangible, decorative item used to remind of a specific achievement, serving as recognition or evidence of merit. Trophies are most commonly awarded for sporting events, ranging from youth sports to professional level athletics. Add ...

" featuring Drake and " Lookin Ass" featuring Nicki Minaj. The album was met with generally mixed reviews from

music critic '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of m ...

s. It debuted at number seven on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart, with first-week sales of 32,000 copies in the United States.

Background

On January 22, 2014,

's COO Cortez Bryant sent out a press release announcing the second Young Money studio album titled ''Young Money: Rise of an Empire'', and revealing that it would be released on March 11, 2014. It was also reported that

Tyga Micheal Ray StevensonMicheal Ray Stevenson

, and

would be featured on the album. In the release it stated,

"'' We Are Young Money'' helped launch the careers of our first generation of acts with Drake, Nicki Minaj, and Tyga. Even though we've been honored with accolades as a company, our hunger hasn't diminished or dwindled. We're hungrier than ever, and we're still building. That goes hand-in-hand with the title ''Young Money: Rise Of An Empire''. We're not going anywhere. We don't plan on stopping— ever. Our goal is the expansion of this empire with the next generation of kings and queens ruling."

On January 26, 2014, Birdman told

Sway Calloway Jonathan Ahmad Calloway (born July 3, 1971), known as Sway, is an American radio personality, journalist and former rapper known for hosting music, news, and culture programming. He was an on-air reporter and host for MTV News and occasional non- ...

MTV News MTV News was the news production division of MTV. The service was available in the US with localized versions on MTV's global network and an online news team. In 2016, MTV refreshed the MTV News brand to compete with the likes of BuzzFeed and ...

that every artist signed to Young Money would be featured on the album including Lil Chuckee,

Austin Mahone Austin Harris Mahone (;) is an American singer. Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, he gained initial recognition performing covers of pop songs on YouTube. He was discovered by record producers Rocco Did It Again! and Mike Blumstein in 20 ...

and

Paris Hilton Paris Whitney Hilton (born February 17, 1981) is an American media personality, businesswoman, and socialite. Hilton was born in New York City and raised there partially; shuttling between Los Angeles and New York City; she is a great-grandda ...

among others already revealed. The album's cover artwork was revealed on February 15, 2014. The ominous red image displays a moon and clouds with a castle in the distance. On February 22, 2014, the album's track listing was announced, revealing appearances on the final version of the album from Lil Wayne, Drake, Nicki Minaj,

, Tyga,

, Christina Milan, Gudda Gudda, Lil Twist,

, Euro and

Flow Flow may refer to: Science and technology * Fluid flow, the motion of a gas or liquid * Flow (geomorphology), a type of mass wasting or slope movement in geomorphology * Flow (mathematics), a group action of the real numbers on a set * Flow (psyc ...

. It revealed additional guest appearances outside of Young Money from YG,

and Birdman.

Singles

On January 22, 2014, Young Money released the album's first single " We Alright", featuring Lil Wayne, Birdman and the label's newest signee Euro. The

Colin Tilley Colin Tilley (born June 27, 1988) is an American filmmaker, music video director, and television commercial director. Tilley is the CEO and owner of Boy in the Castle Productions. He has directed more than 300 music videos. Tilley directed, pr ...

-directed music video was released on February 15, 2014. The video features cameo appearances from multiple members of Young Money. "Senile" originally started as a single for

Tyga Micheal Ray StevensonMicheal Ray Stevenson

, who then got

featured on it, then Lil Wayne. Due to Tyga's fourth studio album not coming out till later in the year, they just decided to release it as a single for the compilation album. On February 10, 2014, Tyga revealed the cover artwork for the D.A. Doman-produced "Senile". He also said that the single would be released on February 17, 2014, however it would be pushed back slightly. Then on February 24, 2014, the song was premiered online as a

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 ...

. On April 13, 2014, the music video was released for "Senile". On February 27, 2014, "

" featuring Drake and " Lookin Ass" featuring Nicki Minaj were released as the second and third official singles. Then on March 4, 2014, "Trophies" was serviced to

rhythmic contemporary Rhythmic contemporary, also known as Rhythmic Top 20, Rhythmic Top 30, Rhythmic Top 40, Rhythmic CHR or rhythmic crossover, is a primarily American music-radio format that includes a mix of EDM, upbeat rhythmic pop, hip-hop and upbeat R&B hit ...

radio in the United States. "Lookin Ass" was then serviced to

urban contemporary Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contemporary r ...

radio in the United States on March 11, 2014.

Critical reception

''Young Money: Rise of an Empire'' was met with generally mixed reviews from

s. 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 critics, 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 55, based on 8 reviews, indicating "generally mixed reviews". Melanie Sims of the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

said, "Lil Wayne isn't just the founder of Young Money Cash Money Billionaires, he's the rap squad's captain, too. And on "''Rise of an Empire''," Weezy plays his role well, anchoring a winning compilation from the camp, and making up for last year's lackluster ''

I Am Not a Human Being II ''I Am Not a Human Being II'' is the tenth studio album by American Rapping, rapper Lil Wayne. It was released on March 26, 2013, by Young Money Entertainment, Cash Money Records and Republic Records. Recording sessions took place during 2006 to ...

''." In closing she said "though Wayne, Drake and Minaj are the star players, their bench-warmers keep it hot." David Jeffries 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 ...

stated, "Call it a wobbly when it comes to quality, or a showcase for the young that's stolen by the old, but it's best to consider it a simple roster-promoting label compilation that just happens to come with an EP or so worth of fire." Sheldon Pearce of '' XXL'' said, "''Rise Of An Empire'' is muddled by mid-level talent. The stars shine brightly but their presence is spotty at best. The rest of the roster just doesn't produce in their absence. While We Are Young Money was a semblance of roughly disjointed but mildly enjoyable posse cuts loaded with artists willing to just make their presence felt, ''Rise Of An Empire'' feels almost entirely like an album pitching stand-ins as the next wave of world conquering MCs to no avail." However, he praised Lil Wayne, Drake and Nicki Minaj's appearances and the Lil Twist, Tyga and YG collaboration "One Time". Carrie Battan of

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music magazine founded in 1996 by Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis. It originally covered Alternative rock, alternative and independent music, and expanded to cover genres includin ...

gave the album a 4.9 out of 10, saying "A DVD released along with the deluxe edition of Nicki Minaj's last album pictures her alongside Wayne, presenting him with a brand new car for his birthday and faithfully referring to him as the President. She and Drake clearly remember the days when they were lucky to have Young Money. ''Rise of an Empire'' paints a different picture, one that emphasizes exactly how lucky Young Money is to still have them." Mike Powell 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 ...

'' gave the album two and a half stars out of five, saying "Contractually, Drake and Minaj are here; artistically, they've moved on. And the label's flagship genius, Lil Wayne, is ostentatiously bored: "Have my cake and eat it, too/I want a bakery." That's so half-ass, it's almost funny." Jordan Sowunmi of ''

Now Now most commonly refers to the present time. Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to: Organizations * Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization * National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization * Na ...

'' gave the album two out of five stars, saying "The album is bogged down in missteps like Tyga, Lil' Twist and YG's limp One Time and uninspired strip club anthem Back It Up. Wayne, who's been on autopilot the last few years, is spotty again here, delivering a characteristically apathetic verse on the Christina Millian co-starring Video Model, sounding like a man trying to capture the flirty magic of his earlier pop features, but falling painfully short." ''

Complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...

'' named it the twenty-sixth best album of the first half of 2014. Writing for them, Lauren Nostro said, "Intro posse cut "We Alright" bangs, as does "Trophies" and "Lookin Ass." Add strong YG and Meek Mill features, plus a tremendous effort from Wayne on "Moment," and you've got an unlikely success"

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number 7 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart, with first-week sales of 32,000 copies in the United States. In its second week, the album dropped to number 36 on the chart, selling 11,000 more copies. In its third week, the album sold 6,000 more copies. In its fourth week, the album sold 5,100 more copies bringing its total album sales to 53,000 copies.

Track listing

; Notes * "Hittin Like" featuring Shanell and Chanel West Coast is only featured on the physical edition of the album.

Personnel

Album credits adapted from

. * Chris Athens – mastering *Joshua Berkman – A&R * Michael Brady – A&R * Birdman – featured artist * Sandy Brummels – art direction * Cortez Bryant – executive producer * Sean Buchanan – mixing assistant, recording assistant * Noel Cadastre – engineer, mixing assistant * Noel "Gadget" Campbell – mixing * Dwayne Carter – executive producer * Chanel West Coast – featured artist * Ariel Chobaz – engineer, mixing * Kemion Johnel Cooks – producer * Aubry "Big Juice" Delaine – mixing * Detail – mixing, producer * Sonny Digital – producer * David D.A. Doman – producer * Drake – featured artist * Euro – featured artist * Steve Fisher – engineer * Flow – featured artist * Goe – engineer * Gudda Gudda – featured artist * Cory Gunz – featured artist * Hagler – producer * Hit Boy – producer * Jess Jackson – engineer, mixing, producer * Brandon Jones – engineer * Lee on the Beats – producer * Edward "Jewfro" Lidow – engineer * Lil' Twist – featured artist * Lil Wayne – featured artist * Lex Luger – producer * Mack Maine – executive producer, featured artist * Fabian Marasciullo – mixing * Jae Millz – featured artist * Nicki Minaj – featured artist * PJ Morton – featured artist, producer * Aaron O'Brien – producer * The Olympicks – producer * Omega – producer * Jermaine Preyan – A&R * Andy Rodriguez – engineer, recording assistant * The Runners – producer * Fareed Salamah – engineer * Shanell – featured artist * Noah Shebib – engineer, mixing, producer * Olivia Smith – art direction, package design * Joe Spix – hand lettering * Evan Stewart – recording assistant * S-X – producer *Jeffrey Tanner – mixing assistant *Tyga – featured artist *B. Wicker – composer *Bryan Williams – composer *Bryan "Baby Birdman" Williams – executive producer *Ronald "Slim Tha Don" Williams – executive producer *Shanell Woodgett – composer *YG – featured artist *Young Money – primary artist

Chart positions

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Authority control 2014 compilation albums Record label compilation albums Young Money Entertainment compilation albums Cash Money Records compilation albums Republic Records compilation albums Lil Wayne albums Drake (musician) albums Nicki Minaj albums Tyga albums Albums produced by Detail (record producer) Albums produced by Hit-Boy Albums produced by Lex Luger Albums produced by Noah "40" Shebib Albums produced by Sonny Digital Albums produced by the Runners Christina Milian albums