HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Twenty88'' (stylized as ''TWENTY88'') is the debut
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
hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...
duo Twenty88, composed of rapper
Big Sean Sean Michael Leonard Anderson (born March 25, 1988), known professionally as Big Sean, is an American rapper. He met Kanye West as a teenager, and signed with his record label GOOD Music, an imprint of Def Jam Recordings in 2007. He gained popul ...
and R&B singer-songwriter
Jhené Aiko Jhené Aiko Efuru Chilombo (; born March 16, 1988) is an American Contemporary R&B, R&B singer and rapper. Aiko embarked on her musical career in 2002, as a backing vocalist and music video performer for the R&B group B2K. She was signed by the ...
. It was released on April 1, 2016, 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 ...
, in a joint venture with both artists' imprint labels,
GOOD Music GOOD Music (often stylized as G.O.O.D. Music; a backronym for Getting Out Our Dreams) is an American independent record label founded by rapper Kanye West in 2004. The label entered an exclusive long-term worldwide music distribution, distributi ...
and
ARTium Recordings Ernest Dion Wilson (born June 23, 1971), known professionally as No I.D. (formerly Immenslope), is an American record producer, DJ and songwriter from Chicago, Illinois. He is known for his early work with Chicago-based rapper Common, as well a ...
. The album 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 American R&B group
K-Ci & JoJo K-Ci & JoJo is an American R&B duo, consisting of brothers Cedric "K-Ci" Hailey (born September 2, 1969) and Joel "JoJo" Hailey (born June 10, 1971). Natives of Charlotte, North Carolina, they are also the lead singers of the chart-topping R& ...
and record producer Detail. Production was handled by Detail himself, as well as KeY Wane, Tommy Brown, Sidney Swift, Cam O'bi,
Steve Lacy Steve Thomas Lacy-Moya (born May 23, 1998) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and record producer. He gained recognition as the guitarist of the alternative R&B band the Internet, which he joined in 2015. His self-produced debut EP, '' ...
,
Flippa Flippa is a private marketplace for buying and selling online businesses, based in Melbourne, Australia, and Austin, Texas, United States. It was founded in June 2009 by Mark Harbottle and Matt Mickiewicz. History Flippa was founded by Mark ...
and Jproof. ''Twenty88'' peaked at number five on the ''Billboard'' 200 and saw generally positive reviews from music critics and fans of both artists. On September 17, 2020, Big Sean revealed that a sequel album is "in the works". A track attributed to the project appeared on Sean's fifth album, ''
Detroit 2 ''Detroit 2'' is the fifth studio album by American rapper Big Sean, released through GOOD Music on September 4, 2020, with distribution handled by Def Jam Recordings. The album serves as a sequel to Sean's 2012 mixtape, ''Detroit''. It features ...
'' (2020).


Background

On March 28, 2016, Big Sean and Jhené Aiko announced that they were forming a duo, called Twenty88. The
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
singer and the
Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...
rapper previously collaborated on the songs " Beware" (with
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 ...
) from Sean's second album ''
Hall of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...
'' (2013), as well as "I Know" from Sean's third album ''
Dark Sky Paradise ''Dark Sky Paradise'' is the third studio album by American rapper Big Sean. It was released on February 24, 2015, by GOOD Music and Def Jam Recordings. The album features guest appearances from Drake, Kanye West, E-40, Chris Brown, Ty Dolla Sign, ...
'' (2015). According to a press release from Tidal, the album tells the story of the highs and lows of a relationship, with insights into conflict, memories, love, and sex. On March 29, Sean and Aiko appeared together on the cover of ''Flaunt'' to promote the album, ''Twenty88''. For the cover story, they talked about the origin of the duo Twenty88, and their vision for the album. Aiko stated: "Music now doesn't really cater to the feelings of a real relationship. It's all about trapping and bragging. I feel like this project is something that's needed right now. Especially a whole project is just good for people to see. That duality is a perfect combination. It's a 70's aesthetic, but we're in the future." They drew from various influences: Blaxploitation films,
James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...
, as well as '' Ex Machina''. In 2020, Sean talked about how the labels did not back the project despite the chemistry with Aiko and already popular songs they had together. Tidal essentially provided the backing for the project so that Sean and Aiko would not pay for it themselves.


Recording and production

On March 28, 2016, it was revealed that the album would feature the productions from Key Wane, Detail and Tommy Brown. Big Sean and Aiko explained what fans could expect on the project. According to
Uproxx Uproxx Studios (stylized as ''UPROXX'') is an American music, entertainment and popular culture website and content studio. It was founded in 2008 by Jarret Myer and Brian Brater. The website was acquired in 2014 by Woven Digital (which later ...
, the album conjures 90s R&B and 70s experimental rock and soul. It also mixes neo-soul, ambient beats, and trap drums courtesy of producers like Da Internz. As a whole, ''Twenty88'' is a departure from each artist's individual sounds. "It's a wide range. It gets turned up, then it gets melodic, then it gets vibed out. It touches all these things, but it sounds very cohesive. We've created another world. Both me and Sean are super into fantasy-driven movies and so combining stuff like robots and sex, that pretty much sums us up. Robots are sexy as shit. We've created these characters that are extensions of ourselves, it's highly sexual." In the interview with ''Flaunt'', it was revealed that
K-Ci & JoJo K-Ci & JoJo is an American R&B duo, consisting of brothers Cedric "K-Ci" Hailey (born September 2, 1969) and Joel "JoJo" Hailey (born June 10, 1971). Natives of Charlotte, North Carolina, they are also the lead singers of the chart-topping R& ...
would be featured on the song, "Two-Minute Warning". The magazine described the song as, "the most sexually explicit song" on the album.


Release and promotion

On March 27, 2016, Big Sean and Aiko created a
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
account for Twenty88 showing two videos promoting the album. The first clip shows both artists sitting in the backseat of a car, and the second shows Aiko being filmed by a robot while she is likely in the middle of sexual intercourse with Sean. Both of them changed their profile pictures to the same one shown on the account of Twenty88, an album cover that shows Sean's face next to that of Aiko, who is donning an orange wig. They also both edited their Twitter bios to say, "1/2 of Twenty88", suggesting that Aiko and Sean formed the duo. After posting the short videos, they tweeted a picture of the album cover and wrote, "4/1". That tweet was retweeted by both Sean and Aiko and said the album would be released on April 1, 2016. On March 31, the two made their television debut as Twenty88 on ''
Jimmy Kimmel Live! ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', sometimes shortened to ''JKL'', is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, and broadcast on ABC. The nightly hour-long show tapes and is based out of the Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywo ...
'', performing "Selfish". Tidal streamed the project exclusively for 72 hours starting on April 1, 2016. It was also available for purchase on
iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...
the same day, and shared on other streaming platforms on April 3. On April 4, 2016, the album was made available on Spotify and Apple Music. After the release of their debut album, on April 8, 2016, the duo released a short video, titled "Out of Love", exclusively on Tidal.


Critical reception

''Twenty88'' received positive reviews from music critics. The album received a score of 72/100 on Metacritic. Scott Glaysher 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, "''Twenty88'' is a pleasant surprise from two artists who are the top of their respective games. Their chemistry is unquestionable and the music derived from that unique harmony is constantly improving. Whether this is a complete one-off project or if they continue to make music under this duo moniker remains to be seen but for now, these eight songs will tide over the hopeless romantic in everyone." Patrick Lyons of ''HotNewHipHop'' said: "If everything else about these eight tracks was just as bad, it'd be easy to write off, but the true tragedy is that ''Twenty88'' seems like it could have been salvaged if Sean and Aiko just spent some more time writing. There are some truly intriguing concepts and song structures here, especially "Talk Show", where our two stars address each other like they're sitting on the couch of a relationship counseling show. Then there's the music itself. Flippa and frequent Sean collaborator Key Wane handle most of the production, and similarly to dvsn's Sept. 5th, they do an excellent job of updating classic R&B sounds into something sleek and modern. Sampling from sources as varied as Xscape, British DJ
Mat Zo Matan Zohar ( ; born 30 April 1990), better known by his stage name Mat Zo, is a British DJ and electronic music producer. Zohar released his debut album, '' Damage Control'', via the Anjunabeats and Astralwerks labels on 5 November 2013. His ...
, old jazz standard 'Sentimental Journey,' and an effortlessly breezy '70s soul deep cut, they do a much better job than the vocalists at deploying a bunch of disparate elements for the end goal of creating something thematically linked but episodic. Wane has been steadily building on a ''
Graduation A graduation is the awarding of a diploma by an educational institution. It may also refer to the ceremony that is associated with it, which can also be called Commencement speech, commencement, Congregation (university), congregation, Convocat ...
''-era Kanye sound for years now, and his work here is yet another marked improvement on his past discography; I had never heard of Flippa before this, but he's just as impressive. They both seem to have put a ton of time into flipping samples, constructing beats, and structuring songs, and it's disappointing when it doesn't feel like the people on the other side of the boards put in nearly as much work."


Commercial performance

''Twenty88'' debuted at number five on the US ''Billboard'' 200, selling 48,000 equivalent copies; it sold 40,000 copies in its first week, and boasted over 8 million streams. The album debuted at number one on the ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
''
Digital Albums The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, p ...
,
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip-hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Luminate. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated January 30, ...
,
Rap Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip-hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Luminate. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated January 30, ...
and
R&B Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip-hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Luminate. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated January 30, ...
.


Track listing

Notes * signifies a co-producer. Sample credits *"Deja Vu" contains a sample from "Softest Place On Earth" performed by Xscape *"Selfish" contains a sample from "Time On Your Side" performed by
Mat Zo Matan Zohar ( ; born 30 April 1990), better known by his stage name Mat Zo, is a British DJ and electronic music producer. Zohar released his debut album, '' Damage Control'', via the Anjunabeats and Astralwerks labels on 5 November 2013. His ...
. *"On the Way" contains a sample from " Sentimental Journey", written by Benjamin Homer, Les Brown and
Bud Green Bud Green (19 November 1897 – 2 January 1981) was an American lyricist especially of Broadway musicals and show tunes Early life and family Green was born Moses David Green in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and immigrated to the United Stat ...
and performed by Singers Unlimited *"Talk Show" contains a sample from "Love's Society" performed by The Natural Four. *"London Bridge" contains a sample from "It's Good To Be Here" performed by
Digable Planets Digable Planets () is an American hip hop trio formed in 1987. The trio is composed of rappers Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler, Mariana "Ladybug Mecca" Vieira, and Craig "Doodlebug" Irving. The group is notable for their contributions to the subgen ...
.


Charts


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


Release history


See also

* List of ''Billboard'' number-one R&B/Hip-Hop albums of 2016


References

{{Authority control 2016 debut albums GOOD Music albums Def Jam Recordings EPs Albums produced by Key Wane Albums produced by Da Internz Albums produced by Detail (record producer) Albums produced by Steve Lacy