''Trill OG'' is the third
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
Bun B
Bernard James Freeman (born March 19, 1973), known professionally as Bun B, is an American rapper. He is best known as one half of the Southern rap duo UGK (Underground Kingz), a group he formed in 1987 alongside Pimp C. Aside from his work wi ...
. The album was released on August 3, 2010, by II Trill Enterprises,
Rap-A-Lot Records and
Fontana Distribution
Fontana Distribution was a division of San Franciscobased Isolation Network (now owned by the Virgin Music Group unit of the Universal Music Group since 2019). A minority stake of the company was owned by Universal Music until Ingrooves acquired ...
. On August 4, 2010, ''
The Source The Source may refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Source'' (1918 film), 1918 American drama directed by George Melford
* ''The Source'' (1999 film), a 1999 documentary film about the Beat generation
* ''The Source'' (2002 film), a 2002 scienc ...
'' magazine gave ''Trill OG'' its rare 5 mic rating.
Conception
In 2009, Play, of production duo
Play-N-Skillz
Play-N-Skillz are a Latin/American record production/DJ group duo from Dallas, Texas, consisting of brothers Juan "Play" Salinas and Oscar "Skillz" Salinas. Their production has won several Grammys including the Grammy Award for Best Rap Perfor ...
, told
MTV Canada that a single on Bun's upcoming album would feature
2Pac
Tupac Amaru Shakur (; born Lesane Parish Crooks; June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor, regarded as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all tim ...
. In January 2010, Bun B told
MTV
MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
that the album was scheduled for an April 2010 release. Additionally, Bun confirmed a collaboration with "a hip hop legend and a cultural icon" on the same song, but did not elaborate. He later declared the icons to be
Tupac Shakur
Tupac Amaru Shakur (; born Lesane Parish Crooks; June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor, regarded as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all tim ...
and
Pimp C
Chad Lamont Butler (December 29, 1973 – December 4, 2007), better known by his stage name Pimp C, was an American rapper and record producer. He was best known for his work with Bun B as one half of the hip-hop duo Underground Kingz (UGK).
...
, along with
Trey Songz
Tremaine Aldon Neverson (born November 28, 1984), known professionally as Trey Songz, is an American Contemporary R&B, R&B singer and songwriter. After being discovered by record producer Troy Taylor (record producer), Troy Taylor in 2003, Songz ...
singing the chorus. The song, "Right Now", was released in the summer of 2010. Bun summarized, "Tupac verse is from the 90's Pimp C's from the 2000s and mine from 2010 and it sounds like we just stepped out the booth yesterday."
Reception
Commercial performance
The album debuted at number four on the US
''Billboard'' 200, selling 39,838 copies in its first week.
Critical response
''Trill O.G.'' received mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 59, based on 9 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews". However, Trill OG was the first album to receive a 5 Mic rating from
The Source Magazine The Source may refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Source'' (1918 film), 1918 American drama directed by George Melford
* ''The Source'' (1999 film), a 1999 documentary film about the Beat generation
* ''The Source'' (2002 film), a 2002 scienc ...
in five years, the last being
Lil' Kim
Kimberly Denise Jones (born July 11, 1974), Those giving 1974 include:
*
*
*
*
* better known by her stage name Lil' Kim, is an American rapper. She was born and raised in New York City and lived much of her adolescent life on the streets after ...
's ''
The Naked Truth''.
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, "In the end, fans are left with a pleasant closing to a respected series, and one of Hip Hop's most respected voices still outshining the vast majority of his peers."
''
XXL'' added, "The seasoned MC isn't exactly saying goodbye to rap. However, whenever he does decide to hang it up, Trill O.G. will surely go down as a testament to why Bun B is one of the trillest to ever do it."
David Amidon of
PopMatters
''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, ...
was more critical saying, "Ultimately, Bun ends up feeling like a bit of a guest on his own LP, similar to
Rick Ross
William Leonard Roberts II (born January 28, 1976), known professionally as Rick Ross, is an American rapper. An influential figure in modern Hip-hop, hip hop music, Rick Ross has become known for his "Wiktionary:booming, booming" vocal perfor ...
' ''
Teflon Don'' effort, and though Trill O.G. is full of quality-sounding music it simply fails to make any argument for its necessity to anyone but the most strident fans of Bun B's monolithic presence."
Tom Breihan 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 ...
shared a similar sentiment. "Throughout, (Bun B) works in the same weary and vaguely clumsy cadence, never bringing the ebulliently eloquent verve he brought to his best UGK verses. Instead he merely seems to dutifully plug away every time he touches a mic. It's tough to imagine how a rapper as great as Bun has managed to turn out an album as consistently turgid and leaden as this."
Singles
The album's lead single, "Countin' Money", which features
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 ...
&
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 ...
, was released on July 6, 2010. "Trillionaire", which features
T-Pain
Faheem Rashad Najm (born September 30, 1984), known professionally as T-Pain, is an American singer and rapper. He is known for popularizing creative use of Auto-Tune pitch correction, often used with extreme parameter settings to create electro ...
, was released on July 13, 2010, as the second single. The third single, "Just Like That", which features
Young Jeezy
Jay Wayne Jenkins (born September 28, 1977), known by his stage name Jeezy (or Young Jeezy), is an American rapper. He is credited, alongside fellow Georgia-based rappers T.I. and Gucci Mane, with pioneering the hip hop subgenre trap music fo ...
and
Diamond
Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of e ...
, was also released on July 13, 2010. The fourth single, "Put It Down", which features Drake was released in December 2010 and the music video was released on the internet December 22, 2010 via Bun B's
VEVO
Vevo LLC ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized in all caps until 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available ...
account.
Track listing
Credits adapted from album liner notes.
;Track notes
* signifies an additional producer
* "Chuuch!!!" features a chorus by Tekai Hicks, and additional background vocals by Erin Cortez and Marq Moody.
* "Lights, Camera, Action" features background vocals by Tekai Hicks.
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trill Og
2010 albums
Albums produced by Boi-1da
Albums produced by DJ Khalil
Albums produced by DJ Premier
Albums produced by Drumma Boy
Albums produced by J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League
Bun B albums
Sequel albums
Rap-A-Lot Records albums