''The DEFinition'' is the tenth

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

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing ...

LL Cool J James Todd Smith (born January 14, 1968), known professionally as LL Cool J (short for Ladies Love Cool James), is an American rapper and actor. He is one of the earliest rappers to achieve commercial success, alongside fellow new school hip ho ...

, released on August 31, 2004, by

Def Jam Recordings Def Jam Recordings (also simply known as Def Jam) is an American multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It is based in Manhattan, New York City, specializing predominantly in hip hop, contemporary R&B, soul and pop. The l ...

. Largely produced by

Timbaland Timothy Zachery Mosley (born March 10, 1972), known professionally as Timbaland, is an American record producer and rapper. Born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia, he is widely acclaimed for his distinctive production work and "stuttering" rhythm ...

, with several tracks produced by N.O. Joe,

Teddy Riley Edward Theodore Riley (born October 8, 1967) is an American record producer, singer, and songwriter credited with the creation of the R&B and hip-hop fusion genre, new jack swing. Musical artists who utilized Riley's production and songwri ...

, and

7 Aurelius Marcus Vest, known by his stage names Channel 7 and 7 Aurelius, is an American musician, record producer, rapper and songwriter. Life and career Vest learned how to play drums at a Pentecostal church growing up. His career started with Rap-A-L ...

, the album peaked at number 4 on the US ''Billboard'' 200 and spawned two

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s: " Headsprung" and "

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". It was

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by the

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for selling over 500,000 copies.

Critical reception

''The DEFinition'' received a mild reception 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, saying that it was better than 2002's '' 10'' because of

's production. 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 critics, the album received an

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score of 66, based on 9 reviews. Steve 'Flash' Juon of ''RapReviews'' called ''The DEFinition'' LL's "TRUE tenth album," praising its change in sound from New York to Southern by Timbaland, balancing out the bangers and slow songs well and LL for still keeping his lyrical content up to date, concluding that "this new album proves he doesn't have to give up acting to keep rapping."

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 ...

's David Jeffries said that the album had more energy than ''10'' because of Timbaland's take on the southern sound and finding a balance between braggadocious rap and lovers rap. Gavin Edwards 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 ...

'' also praised the production for updating LL's sound along with his lyrics, saying that "on the eleventh record of his amazingly consistent twenty-year career, LL Cool J has as much swaggering presence as ever." Nick Southall of ''

Stylus Magazine ''Stylus Magazine'' was an American online music and film magazine, launched in 2002 and co-founded by Todd L. Burns. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog. Addi ...

'' was mixed about the album, saying that he enjoyed the love jams better than the Timbaland bangers which were merely passable, concluding that "there's a distinct lack of personality, meaning that LL Cool J's eleventh long player is merely good, and his reputation (and bank balance) will be neither tarnished nor expanded."

Chart performance

''The DEFinition'' debuted and peaked at number four on the US ''Billboard'' 200 in the week of September 18, 2004, selling 173,000 copies in its first week of release. This marked LL Cool J's biggest first week sales yet, surpassing the opening sales of previous album ''10'', which bowed with 154,000 copies. ''The DEFinition'' was certified gold by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

(RIAA) on October 5, 2004. By February 2006, it had sold 747,000 copies in the United States, according to

Nielsen SoundScan Luminate Data, LLC (formerly MRC Data and P-MRC Data) is a provider of music and entertainment data. Established as a joint-venture in 2020, it brought together Nielsen Music, Alpha Data (formerly BuzzAngle Music) and Variety Business Intellige ...

Track listing

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes. Notes * signifies a co-producer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Definition, The 2004 albums LL Cool J albums Def Jam Recordings albums Albums produced by Timbaland Albums produced by Teddy Riley Albums produced by Dame Grease Albums produced by N.O. Joe