Jeremih | ||||||||||
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Studio album by Jeremih | ||||||||||
Released | June 30, 2009 | |||||||||
Recorded | 2008–09 | |||||||||
Genre | R&B, hip hop | |||||||||
Length | 51:54 | |||||||||
Label | Def Jam | |||||||||
Producer | Mick Schultz (also exec.) | |||||||||
Jeremih chronology | ||||||||||
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Jeremih is the eponymous debut studio album by American R&B recording artist Jeremih. It was released on June 30, 2009, by Def Jam Recordings. Promoting the release of the album, the album previewed exclusively on MySpace. The album debuted at number 6 on the US Billboard 200, selling 69,000 copies in its first week.
While attending Columbia College Chicago, Jeremih collaborated with record producer Mick Schultz. Jeremih began writing all of these songs, while Schultz produced the entire album. The duo recorded approximately 20 songs for the album. In February 2009, Jeremih met with the Def Jam's CEO Russell Simmons and an executive vice president of A&R Karen Kwak. After performing front of these two men, Jeremih signed a deal to Def Jam Recordings on that same day.
The lead single from the album, called "Birthday Sex" was released on March 24, 2009. The single topped it on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. The single even peaked it at number 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 58 on the Canadian Hot 100.
The album's second single, called "Imma Star (Everywhere We Are)" was released on June 9, 2009. The song peaked at number 23 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and number 51 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.
Upon its release, Jeremih received generally positive reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, it received an average score of 70 based on four reviews. Andy Kellman of Allmusic described Jeremih's vocals as "charmingly sly", expressing a comparison to Slim of 112 and Raphael Saadiq. Giving the album a C-, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune felt that the use of Auto-Tune made Jeremih sound like a "clone" of Kanye West, but showed "little of West's imagination on his debut album". Meanwhile, following the album's August 2009 UK release, noted R&B writer Pete Lewis of 'Blues & Soul' referred to it as "A promisingly-diverse R&B set which combines jiggy, club-flavoured tracks like the sexy 'That Body' and catchy 'My Ride' with classy soulful ballads like the hauntingly mellow 'Starting All Over' and wistful 'My Sunshine'.