Songs About Girls is the thirdstudio album by American musicianwill.i.am, known from his work withThe Black Eyed Peas. The original title of the album wasKeep the Beeper. The album was released on September 19, 2007. The first single released from the album was a club track titled "I Got It from My Mama" which debuted on theBillboard Hot 100 at #93 on August 17, 2007.[9] will.i.am enlisted guest appearances fromCheryl andSnoop Dogg. The album was recorded by Pardraic Kerin and will.i.am, and mixed byDylan Dresdow.
The album has been described by will.i.am as semi-autobiographical conceptual album "where all the songs could tell a story of falling in love, falling out of love, trying to get back in love, destructing love and destroying love and then starting a new situation. That journey is what makes this unique."[10] The album is partially based on a seven-year relationship that will.i.am experienced and the infidelities and the break-up of that relationship.[11] According to will.i.am's video on MySpace TV, he considersSongs About Girls to be his debut album, with his first two being production compilations.
Caryn Ganz ofRolling Stone remarked "ThoughSnoop Dogg makes a cameo and Will breaks into more than a few nimble rhymes, Songs About Girls isn't a hip-hop record, but a pop R&B album of mellow head-nodders that veer between chilled-out soul and lite-electro funk."[4] While Tom Jones of theBBC called Songs About Girls a "soulless record", which "wore thin very quickly" and is "far too long."[2] John Bush ofAllmusic praised the album saying, "Boasting the best album-length production of the year, will.i.am's Songs About Girls is a tour de force of next-generation contemporary R&B...Recorded everywhere fromRio toThe Record Plant, Songs About Girls percolates with more innovation, enthusiasm, and excitement than contemporary work byPharrell,Kanye West,Mark Ronson, or anyone else remotely in the same league."[1]
will.i.am revealed on the CanadianMTV e2 show that the album would feature collaborations with:Slick Rick,Ice Cube,Q-Tip,Common,Snoop Dogg,Too Short,Busta Rhymes andLudacris.[12] Unfortunately, the only collaboration that made the final cut is the Snoop Dogg collaboration.Kat Graham sings in "I Got It from My Mama", "One More Chance" and "The Donque Song" but she is not credited. will.i.am also recorded a song with American R&B singerJustin Timberlake on a song called: "Going Crazy" - though never made the final album cut.[13]
In September 2006, will.i.am became the head of marketing of the online music distribution company Musicane.[14] Musicane allows artists to directly sell their songs to the public without a record company overseeing the distribution of the album.[15] will.i.am has stated that he intends forSongs About Girls to be an infinitely expandable collection of songs that are distributed through Musicane and other online music services.[11] According to will.i.am; "If I have an album filled with songs about girls, what happens if tomorrow I write another song about a girl?", he explains. "So something that started off just with 15 songs, in the next ten years could have 100 songs. Having 12 songs on a record? That day is done".[11]
Despite Will's success withThe Black Eyed Peas and as a producer for numerous other artists, the album was not a commercial success. It debuted at #38 on theBillboard 200 with sales of just 21,000 copies according toNielsen SoundScan.[16] This was significantly less than The Black Eyed Peas'Elephunk (#14) andMonkey Business (#2) and alsoFergie's solo effortThe Dutchess (#2). The album leaked to the Internet on September 19, 2007. The album debuted on the AustralianARIA Albums Chart on October 1, 2007 at number 58 with sales of 870 copies.[17] The album was released onArgentina on October 5, 2007. The album went Gold in Poland three days before its release. "Dynamite Interlude" has no writing or production credits.
^Powers, Ann (24 September 2007). "ALBUM REVIEW; Female objectification? Nah, he's just havin' fun!; The Black Eyed Peas auteur does stylish bubblegum pop better than almost anyone".Los Angeles Times. p. E.8.ProQuest422197236.
^HARRISON, SHANE; MCCALL, MICHAEL; MARINO, NICK; MURRAY, SONIA (27 March 2007). "JUST OUT / MUSIC".The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. p. E.2.ProQuest337406248.
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