All-Amerikkkan Badass (stylized as ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$) is the second studio album by American rapper Joey Badass. It was released on April 7, 2017, through Pro Era Records and Cinematic Music Group. The album features guest appearances from Schoolboy Q, J. Cole, Kirk Knight, Meechy Darko, Styles P, and Chronixx. Production of the album was handled executively by Joey Badass himself and Jonny Shipes, along with 1-900 as an associate producer. Production contributions also came from Pro Era members Kirk Knight and Chuck Strangers, as well as industry producers such as DJ Khalil and Statik Selektah.
All-Amerikkkan Badass was supported by three singles: "Devastated", "Land of the Free" and "Temptation". The album received generally positive reviews from critics and debuted at number five on the US Billboard 200.
Background and release
In an interview with Tampa Bay radio station WiLD 94.1, Joey Badass spoke on the creation of the album: This new project is very powerful. That's the best thing I can say about it: it's very strong music. It's like hella vegetables. It's hella good for you, and it's almost my hesitance with it: the fact that it's so good for you, because these kids these days want candy. 'Devastated' is almost like the organic candy because the message is still good for you.
Joey Badass revealed the importance of the release date during an interview with Angie Martinez, relating April 7 to late friend and Pro Era founder Capital Steez: The significance of the date, 4/7, goes back to Capital STEEZ, that was a number that followed him throughout his lifetime, which he saw a lot of meaning from.
The album's title is a reference to the 2012 mixtape AmeriKKKan Korruption by the late rapper Capital Steez, which was later re-released at the five-year anniversary of the project. The titles from both projects contains an overt reference by Los Angeles-based rapper Ice Cube's first solo album AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted. In all three cases "America" was intentionally misspelled, alluding to the white supremacist movement of the Ku Klux Klan.
Promotion
The album's lead single, "Devastated", was released on May 27, 2016. The song was produced by Powers Pleasant, Kirk Knight and Adam Pallin.
The album's second single, "Land of the Free", was released on January 20, 2017. The song was produced by Kirk Knight and Adam Pallin, both of whom produced Joey's first single. The song's accompanying music video was released on March 6, 2017, on Pro Era's YouTube account. Joey performed the single on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on April 3, 2017.
The album's third single, "Temptation", was released to urban contemporary radio on June 13, 2017. The song was produced by 1-900 and Kirk Knight.
Critical reception
All-Amerikkkan Badass was met with generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 75, based on 15 reviews. Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 7.2 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.
Clayton Purdom of The A.V. Club said, "He's still reaching to the golden age for inspiration, but updating it so thoroughly that we're reminded why we considered it golden in the first place". Jonathan Hatchman of Clash said, "Although refreshing, visceral and completely understandable—when listening to the whole LP, the political themes are occasionally overwhelming". Greg Whitt of Consequence said, "The 12-song project is the Brooklyn native's most well-rounded release to date". Jack Doherty of Drowned in Sound said, "The strange thing about the record is that the tracks just keep getting better and better as you go along". A. Harmony of Exclaim! said, "Courageous and passionate, Badass is a well-timed soundtrack to social and political struggle. While the album specifically chronicles the horrors of being a young black man in America, Joey articulates his angst in a way that easily resonates with anyone stumbling under the weight of oppression".