Songs About Girls

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Songs About Girls
Studio album by will.i.am
Released September 25, 2007
Recorded 2006–07
Genre Hip hop, pop rap, electronic
Length 60:00
Label will.i.am, Interscope
Producer will.i.am, Polow da Don, Fernando Garibay, Paper-Boy
will.i.am chronology

Must B 21
(2003)		 Songs About Girls
(2007)		 #willpower
(2013)
Singles from Songs About Girls
  1. "I Got It from My Mama"
    Released: September 24, 2007
  2. "Heartbreaker"
    Released: May 5, 2008
  3. "One More Chance"
    Released: August 18, 2008
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]
BBC (unfavorable)[2]
Entertainment Weekly (C-)[3]
Rolling Stone [4]
Slant [5]
Sputnikmusic [6]
Yahoo! Music [7]

Songs About Girls is the third studio album by American artist will.i.am, known from his work with The Black Eyed Peas. The original title of the album was "Keep the Beeper". The album was released on September 25, 2007.[8] The first single released from the album was a club track titled "I Got It from My Mama" which debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at #93 on the 17th of August 2007.[9] The album was recorded by Pardraic Kerin and will.i.am, and mixed by Dylan "3-D" Dresdow.

Background

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."[8] 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.[10] According to will.i.am's video on MySpace TV, he considers Songs About Girls to be his debut album, with his first two being production compilations.

Collaborations

will.i.am revealed on the Canadian MTV e2 show that the album would feature collaborations with: Slick Rick, Ice Cube, Q-Tip, Common, Snoop Dogg, Too Short, Busta Rhymes and Ludacris.[11] 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. Cheryl Cole also sang backing vocals for the single version of "Heartbreaker". will.i.am also recorded a song with American R&B singer Justin Timberlake on a song called: "Going Crazy" - though never made the final album cut.[12] Also, "Fly Girl" was originally a collaboration with Michael Jackson, but the version featuring Jackson did not make the final album cut.

Album release

In September 2006, will.i.am became the head of marketing of the online music distribution company Musicane.[13] Musicane allows artists to directly sell their songs to the public without a record company overseeing the distribution of the album.[14] will.i.am has stated that he intends for Songs About Girls to be an infinitely expandable collection of songs that are distributed through Musicane and other online music services.[10] 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".[10]

Despite Will's success with The Black Eyed Peas and as a producer for numerous other artists, the album flopped. It debuted at a disappointing #38 on the Billboard 200 with sales of just 21,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan.[15] This was significantly less than The Black Eyed Peas' Elephunk (#14) and Monkey Business (#2) and also Fergie's solo effort The Dutchess (#2). The album leaked to the Internet on September 19, 2007. The album debuted on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart on October 1, 2007 at number 58 with sales of 870 copies.[16] The album was released on Argentina on October 5, 2007. The album went Gold in Poland three days before its release. "Dynamite Interlude" has no writing or production credits.

Track listing

No. TitleWriter(s)Producer(s) Length
1. "Over"  William Adams, Jeffrey Lynnewill.i.am 4:00
2. "Heartbreaker"  Adamswill.i.am 5:27
3. "I Got It from My Mama"  Adams, Jean-Luc Drion, Dominique Régiacortewill.i.am 4:01
4. "She's a Star"  Adams, Jamal JonesPolow da Don 3:47
5. "Get Your Money"  Adams, Patrick Bodmer, Booka Shade, Philipp Jungwill.i.am 5:24
6. "The Donque Song" (featuring Snoop Dogg)Adams, Fernando Garibay, Calvin Broaduswill.i.am, Garibay 4:29
7. "Impatient" (featuring Dante Santiago)Adams, Keith Harris, Josh Lopez, Caleb Speirwill.i.am 4:17
8. "One More Chance"  Adams, Fernando Garibaywill.i.am, Garibay 4:24
9. "Invisible"  Adams, George Pajon Jr., Mike McHenry, Jean Baptiste, Joshua Klasic Singleton for The Bullets Production Team, Speirwill.i.am, Paper Boy. 3:56
10. "Fantastic"  Adams, Berry Gordy, Alphonso Mizell, Fredrick Perren, Deke Richardswill.i.am 3:25
11. "Fly Girl"  Adams, George Pajon Jr., Keith Harriswill.i.am 4:46
12. "Dynamite" (Interlude)Adamswill.i.am 1:19
13. "Ain't It Pretty"  Adams, Jamal Joneswill.i.am, Polow da Don 4:35
14. "Make It Funky"  Adamswill.i.am 3:59
15. "S.O.S. (Mother Nature)"  Adams, Paul Simon, Phil Ramonewill.i.am 4:17
Samples credits
[18]

Charts and certifications

Charts

Chart (2007) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[ 1] 58
French Albums (SNEP)[ 1] 89
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[ 1] 27
Russian Albums (2M)[19] 7
UK Albums (OCC)[ 1] 68
US Billboard 200[ 1] 38
US Top Rap Albums (Billboard)[ 1] 9
US Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums (Billboard)[ 1] 14

Certifications

Region Certification Sales/shipments
Poland (ZPAV)[20] Gold 10,000*

xunspecified figures based on certification alone

References

  1. ↑ Allmusic review
  2. ↑ BBC review
  3. ↑ Entertainment Weekly review
  4. ↑ Rolling Stone review
  5. ↑ Slant review
  6. ↑ Sputnikmusic review
  7. ↑ Yahoo! Music UK review
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "will.i.am Has Love On The Brain For Solo Debut". Billboard.com. Retrieved 2007-08-19. 
  9. ↑ "I Got It from My Mama". Billboard.com. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-08-19. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Batey, Angus (August 10, 2007). "Peas in our time". Times Online (London). Retrieved 2007-08-19. 
  11. ↑ "MTV e2: will.i.am". MTV.ca. Retrieved 2007-08-19. 
  12. ↑
  13. ↑ "Will.i.am joins musicane as head of marketing". Remix Mag. Retrieved 2007-02-24. 
  14. ↑ "Musicane Announces Launch of the DRM-free will.i.am On-Line Music Store". top40-charts.com. Retrieved 2007-08-19. 
  15. ↑ Katie Hasty, "Rascal Flatts Races To No. 1 In Debut-Heavy Week", Billboard.com, October 3, 2007
  16. ↑ Cashmere, Paul, (October 1, 2007). "Foo Fighters Slaughter Competition for Number 1 Spot". Undercover Media Pty Ltd. Retrieved November 16, 2007.
  17. ↑ Will I Am CD | eBay
  18. ↑ Songs About Girls (CD liner notes). will.i.am. Interscope Records. 2007.
  19. ↑ "will.i.am - Songs About Girls chart peaks". Music Square. Retrieved November 16, 2007.
  20. ↑ "Polish album certifications – will.i.am – Songs About Girls" (in Polish). Polish Producers of Audio and Video (ZPAV). 

External links

will.i.am
Studio albums
Singles
Featured singles
Other songs
Films
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