Apollo Kids | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by Ghostface Killah | |||||
Released | December 21, 2010 | ||||
Recorded | 2010 | ||||
Studio | Red Bull Studios, Starks Studios (Staten Island, New York) |
||||
Genre | Hip hop | ||||
Length | 40:53 | ||||
Label | Def Jam | ||||
Producer | Sean C & LV, Jake One, Pete Rock, Chino Maurice, Scram Jones, Frank Dukes, Yakub, Big Mizza, Shroom, Anthony Acid | ||||
Ghostface Killah chronology | |||||
|
|||||
Wu-Tang Clan solo chronology | |||||
|
Professional ratings | |
---|---|
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
Allmusic | |
The A.V. Club | A– |
Consequence of Sound | |
Entertainment Weekly | A– |
Los Angeles Times | |
Pitchfork Media | 7.3/10 |
PopMatters | 7/10 |
Rolling Stone | |
Slant Magazine | |
Spin | 7/10 |
Apollo Kids is the ninth studio album by American rapper and Wu-Tang Clan-member Ghostface Killah, released on December 21, 2010, by Def Jam Recordings. Guests on the album include several Wu-Tang members and affiliates, as well as Redman, Black Thought, Busta Rhymes, Joell Ortiz, and Game, among others.
Apollo Kids is the follow-up to Ghostface's R&B-oriented Ghostdini: Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City (2009) and serves as a return to the characteristic "Wu-Tang Sound". Ghostface Killah recorded the album at Red Bull Studios and Stark Studios in New York City. He conceived it as a mixtape for Def Jam after having recorded Blue & Cream and opting not to release it with the label.
Although it only charted at number 120 on the Billboard 200, Apollo Kids received universal acclaim from music critics, who praised its gritty aesthetic and Ghostface Killah's unfiltered rapping.
Ghostface Killah recorded the album Blue & Cream near the end of his contact with Def Jam Recordings, but discarded it and instead offered the label Apollo Kids, which he recorded as a mixtape. He later said of the exchange with Def Jam in a 2012 interview for Complex:
They wanted Supreme, I’m gassing for them to do Supreme. But I caught them niggas real quick for their bread and then gave them Apollo Kids. That was gonna be called The Warm Up, but they was like, 'Nah, I know what you're trying to do.' They caught on.
Apollo Kids was recorded by him at Red Bull Studios and Starks Studios in Staten Island, New York.