''x Infinity'', (pronounced ''Times Infinity'') is the fourth studio album 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 ...

spoken word Spoken word is an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a 20th-century continuation of an oral tradition, ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetic ...

artist and author

George Watsky George Virden Watsky (born September 15, 1986) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, poet, author, and illustrator. Watsky broke out as a rapper with his viral video "Pale kid raps fast" in 2011, which featured his tradem ...

, released on August 19, 2016. The album was recorded at Seahorse Studios in Los Angeles, Grand St. Recording in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, and Aqua Vibea in

Hadley, Massachusetts Hadley (, ) is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,325 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The area around the Hampshire and Mountain Farms ...

. The album, executive produced by

Russell Simmons Russell Wendell Simmons (born October 4, 1957) is an American entrepreneur, writer and record executive. He co-founded the hip-hop label Def Jam Recordings, and created the clothing fashion lines Phat Farm, Argyleculture, and Tantris. He has p ...

– who Watsky previously connected with as a guest on Season 6 of Simmons' HBO series '' Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry'' – was produced by Kush Mody and features additional production from Anderson .Paak and drumming by

Josh Dun Joshua William Dun (born June 18, 1988) is an American musician. He is best known as the drummer of the musical duo Twenty One Pilots, alongside Tyler Joseph, but he has collaborated with other artists as well. His band has been nominated for ...

Twenty One Pilots Twenty One Pilots is an American musical duo from Columbus, Ohio. Initially a band, the group was formed in 2009 by lead vocalist Tyler Joseph along with Nick Thomas and Chris Salih, who both left in 2011. Since their departure, the line-up h ...

, among other collaborations. Unlike Watsky's previous album, All You Can Do, which was almost entirely produced by .Paak, the album contains only one song, Midnight Heart, that features production from him.

accompanies Watsky on the drums in Track 13, ''Midnight Heart.''

Background

On Twitter, Watsky described the album's thesis statement as a message "that embracing our insignificance in the vastness of time & space frees us to be joyful." He stated in another tweet that the album was his first in 2 years.

Release

The lead single, ''Stick to Your Guns'' featuring

Julia Nunes Julia Nunes (born January 3, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter from Fairport, New York. Her career has progressed online through her videos of pop songs on YouTube, in which she sings harmony with herself and plays acoustic instruments, pr ...

, was released on July 1, 2016, as a free download on Watsky's

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...

page. A week later, the second single, ''Tiny Glowing Screens, Pt. 3'', was released alongside the announcement of the album. An accompanying music video was released on YouTube. On August 18, 2016, the day before the album's scheduled release, lyric annotation site

Genius Genius is a characteristic of original and exceptional insight in the performance of some art or endeavor that surpasses expectations, sets new standards for the future, establishes better methods of operation, or remains outside the capabiliti ...

premiered the song ''Don't Be Nice'', along with the lyrics for the entire album. This is not the first time Watsky premiered music right before the album through Genius; a similar promotion was done for the release of '' Cardboard Castles'' and '' All You Can Do''.

Reception

x Infinity was met with positive reviews. Andy Kellman 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 ...

gave the album a three and a half out of five stars, adding that "Ultimately, this is his brightest, most accomplished release yet." SputnikMusic user RedHotRedd gave the album a similar score, saying "It seems as though Watsky really wanted ''x Infinity'' to be his best effort, and it most certainly was."

Background

Release

Reception

Track listing

Charts

References