Album of the Year is the fourth solo studio album by American rapper and record producer Black Milk. It was released on September 14, 2010 via Fat Beats Records. Recording sessions took place at Music House Studios and Studio 1. Produced entirely by Black Milk, it features guest appearances from Ab, Danny Brown, Elzhi, Fatt Father, Kon Artis, Melanie Rutherford, Monica Blaire and Royce da 5'9".
The album debuted at number 136 on the Billboard 200, number 28 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, number 11 on the Top Rap Albums, number 27 on the Independent Albums and number 3 on the Heatseekers Albums charts in the United States.
Album of the Year was met with generally favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 79 based on eleven reviews.[1]
Craig Jenkins of Prefix praised the album, calling it "one of 2010's most innovative and adventurous albums of any stripe, incorporating traces of African jazz, latin music, psych, metal, and more in its relentless attack. It bangs hard from start to finish, and it's guaranteed to send producers scrambling to rerecord their drums in its wake".[8] Jesal 'Jay Soul' Padania of RapReviews wrote: "through soaking in various travails, and pouring them through the microphone, he has truly grabbed us. His beats have almost taken a backseat on this journey but it is worth it just to prove that his story, his journey and his life are much more interesting that a mere drum pattern and a sample".[9] Chet Betz of Cokemachineglow determined: "there's a stunning balance between fluid variations and deviations that in total feel like improvisation and the strictly confined, loping-in-circles gait of traditional hip-hop-a process which then lends itself to being described as simultaneously dynamic and hypnotic, loose and hard, jam and the jam".[4]AllMusic's David Jeffries called it "a major step forward and for the adventurous hip-hop fan, it could very well be appropriately titled".[2] Nate Patrin of Pitchfork declared: "while there was an unspectacular battle-rap anonymity to his past lyrics, they were at least spit in the service of a strong overall style. Now he's grown a bit, upping the emotional dimension subtly and letting some more specific humanistic details come through, even in the lines that read like average boasts on paper".[6] David Amidon of PopMatters concluded: "when taken as a whole, Album of the Year is certainly more exhausting than it deserves to be".[7] Mosi Reeves of Spin wrote: "the crisp arrangements often overshadow his stiff, stentorian delivery, but he still manages to convey moments of both personal loss--the death of mentor/Slum Village rapper Baatin--and professional triumph".[11]
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