''Unexpected Arrival'' 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 rapper

Diggy Simmons Daniel Dwayne "Diggy" Simmons III (born March 21, 1995) is an American rapper, singer and actor from Queens, New York City. The fourth child of Run-DMC's Joseph "Rev. Run" Simmons, he began his recording career in 2009 and signed with Atlantic ...

. It was released on March 20, 2012, by

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 ...

. Recording sessions took place from 2010 to 2011, at various locations, while the production on the album was handled by Da Internz, Osinachi Nwaneri, Pop & Oak,

Happy Perez Nathan "Happy" Perez is an American record producer, audio engineer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He was first credited on Young Bleed's debut album '' All I Have in This World, Are... My Balls and My Word'' in 1998. He co-wrote and pro ...

, and

Soundz Kenneth Charles Coby (born August 1, 1983), known professionally as Soundz, is an American record producer from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He has been credited with production work on commercially successful recordings in hip hop and R&B, often in co ...

, among others. ''Unexpected Arrival'' was supported by five

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

s; including three official (" Copy, Paste", " Do It Like You" and "4 Letter Word") and two promotional singles ("88" and "Two Up"). Upon the release, the album received generally positive 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. The album debuted at number 13 on the US ''Billboard'' 200. On June 22, 2013, the album has sold 89,750 copies in the United States.

Critical reception

Upon its release, ''Unexpected Arrival'' received generally positive reviews from

s. Christian Mordi of '' XXL'' praised the album's production and Diggy's lyrical skills for coming off more like a seasoned veteran saying, "Unlike many young artists, Diggy stays away from a lot of catchy, jingle-esque hooks and songs about trends on this project. Clearly the young MC wants to be taken seriously by casual and hardcore fans alike."

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 ...

editor David Jeffries also praised the album for its production and Diggy's accessibility as a rapper concluding that, "Kid-tested and parent-approved, this well-done debut makes hating on Diggy as ridiculous as it sounds." Edwin Ortiz 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 ...

'' was mixed about Diggy's talent as an emcee, singling out his age and limited view on the world for the subpar content. He concluded that, "To Diggy's credit, ''Unexpected Arrival'' plays to his adolescent strengths without hindering his opportunity to build upon his brand as an adult." Brandon Soderberg of ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

'' gave credit to some of the tracks, singling out "Unforgivable Blackness" for being "a sophisticated song that actually tries to confront iggySimmons’ lack of street cred," but found the rest of the album hollow and generic and followed a formula to market an underdog rapper, saying that, "''Unexpected Arrival'' feels like the end of the rap album. The musical narrative is executed so effectively, hitting all the requisite marks, but it doesn’t matter in the least."

Track listing

;Sample credits * "88" contains a sample from " Dance (A$$)" performed by

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 ...

. * "Do It Like You" contains a sample from "Theme From the Planets", written and performed by

Dexter Wansel Dexter Gilman Wansel (born August 22, 1950) is an American R&B/jazz fusion artist, singer, arranger, musician, composer, conductor, synthesist and A&R director. Early life Dexter Wansel began as an errand boy backstage at the Uptown Theater i ...

Personnel

Credits for ''Unexpected Arrival'' adapted from

. * John Armstrong – engineer * Paul Bailey – engineer * Shawn Barron – A&R * Carlos Centel Battey – composer * Steven Andre Battey – composer * Cynthia Biggs – composer * Nick Bilardello – art direction, design * The Jackie Boyz – vocals * Tanisha Broadwater – production coordination * Mike Caren – A&R * Shawn Carter – composer * Kenneth Coby – composer * Clarence Coffee, Jr. – composer, vocals * Brian Cohen – composer * Da Internz – producer * Dernst "D'Mile" Emile – additional production, composer, executive producer, producer * Laurie Dobbins – management * Lanre Gaba – A&R * Chris Galland – assistant * Jesus Garnica – assistant * Chris Gehringer – mastering * Dionne Harper – marketing * Patrick Hoelck – photography * Sam Hook – composer, vocals * Israel – engineer * Alexander Izquierdo – composer * Keith James – composer * Jaycen Joshua – mixing * Brandon Jones – keyboards * Eben "Critical" Jones – engineer * Nasir Jones – composer * Perry Jones – composer * John "J-Banga" Kercy – mixing * Cara Lewis – booking * Chris Lighty – management * Chris Llewellyn – composer * Daniel Luttrell – vocals * Jacob Luttrell – composer * Bei Maejor – composer * Connie Makita – illustrations * Manny Marroquin – mixing * John Maultsby – composer * Donnie Meadows – production coordination * Latoya Murray-Berry – stylist * Nathan Perez – composer * Osinachi Nwaneri – composer, producer * Happy Perez – Producer * Jayson Phillips – composer * Peter O. Phillips – composer * The Rockstars – guitar, keyboards, producer * Matthew Samuels – composer * Diggy Simmons – executive producer, composer * Skylar – engineer * Lonnie Liston Smith – composer * Soundz – producer * Dexter Wansel – composer *

Pop Wansel Andrew "Pop" Wansel (born April 27, 1988) is an American songwriter and record producer from Philadelphia. The son of Philadelphia soul musician Dexter Wansel, Pop grew up in the music industry and began writing and producing his own music at t ...

– composer, instrumentation, producer * David A. Willis – Composer * Cathryn Marie - publicist

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Authority control 2012 debut albums Atlantic Records albums Albums produced by Happy Perez Diggy Simmons albums