And the Anonymous Nobody...

And the Anonymous Nobody...
Studio album by De La Soul
Released	August 26, 2016
Genre	Hip hop
Length	67:59
Label	AOI Kobalt
Producer	De La Soul Jordan Katz Dave Palmer Davey Chegwidden Ethan Phillips Joshua Matthew Lopez Kaveh Rastegar Money Mark Pete Rock Supa Dave West
De La Soul chronology
For Your Pain & Suffering (EP) (2016) And the Anonymous Nobody... (2016) Cabin in the Sky (2025)
Singles from and the Anonymous Nobody...
"Trainwreck" Released: April 29, 2016 "Pain" Released: June 1, 2016 "Royalty Capes" Released: July 20, 2016 "Drawn" Released: August 10, 2016 "Greyhounds" Released: August 17, 2016

And the Anonymous Nobody... (stylized as and the Anonymous Nobody...) is the eighth studio album by American hip hop group De La Soul, the group's first full-length album since The Grind Date and its last prior to group member Trugoy the Dove's death in 2023. ^{[1] [2]} It was released on August 26, 2016, on AOI Records, executive produced by Jordan Katz. The group announced the track list on May 20, 2016. ^[3]

The album has guest features from 2 Chainz, Damon Albarn, David Byrne, Estelle, Little Dragon, Snoop Dogg, Jill Scott, Justin Hawkins, Pete Rock, and Roc Marciano. It received positive reviews by critics, and peaked at 12 on the Billboard 200. The album was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 2017 Grammy Awards.

Background

In early 2015, De La Soul created a Kickstarter in order to fund the album. In under ten hours, it surpassed the projected goal of $110,000. ^[4] Initially, the group announced that the album would be released on April 29, 2016. ^[5] Subsequently, releasing a new EP titled For Your Pain & Suffering on April 29, 2016, the group rescheduled the release of the album for August 26, 2016. ^[6] The first single, "Pain" (featuring Snoop Dogg), was released on May 31, 2016. ^{[7] [8] [9]}

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	77/100 [10]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[11]
The A.V. Club	A− [12]
Consequence of Sound	B− [13]
Drowned in Sound	8/10 [14]
Exclaim!	8/10 [15]
musicOMH	[16]
Pitchfork	6.4/10 [17]
Q	[18]
Spin	8/10 [19]
XXL	[20]

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 77, based on 28 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". ^[10] Writing for Exclaim! , Kyle Mullin gave the album a rave review, calling it "one of the most thrilling, wide-ranging rap releases of the year." ^[15]

Commercial performance

In the United States, And the Anonymous Nobody... debuted at number 12 on the Billboard 200, with 23,000 album-equivalent units, marking the fifth highest debut of the week. ^[21] It was the seventh best-selling album of the week, selling 21,000 copies in its first week. ^[22] And the Anonymous Nobody... was the first De La Soul album to debut at number one on the Billboard Top Rap Albums. ^{[23] [24]} The album was also streamed 2 million times in the first week. ^[21] It was nominated at the 59th Grammy Awards for Best Rap Album.

Track listing

And the Anonymous Nobody... track listing

No.	Title	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Genesis" (featuring Jill Scott)	The Anonymous Nobodies	1:36
2.	"Royalty Capes"	Plug Too the Anonymous Nobodies [a] Davey Chegwidden [a]	3:46
3.	"Pain" (featuring Snoop Dogg)	Supa Dave West De La Soul [a]	4:39
4.	"Property of Spitkicker.com" (featuring Roc Marciano)	Plug Too the Anonymous Nobodies [a]	5:32
5.	"Memory of… (Us)" (featuring Estelle and Pete Rock)	Pete Rock De La Soul [a] West [a]	4:55
6.	"CBGB's"	Plug Too Ethan Phillips [a]	1:20
7.	"Lord Intended" (featuring Justin Hawkins)	The Anonymous Nobodies Joshua Matthew Lopez [a]	7:16
8.	"Snoopies" (by De La Soul and David Byrne)	Plug Won West [a] Lopez [a] Money Mark [a] Chegwidden [a]	4:15
9.	"Greyhounds" (featuring Usher)	Phillips the Anonymous Nobodies [a] Chegwidden [a]	5:26
10.	"Sexy Bitch"	Plug Won	1:31
11.	"Trainwreck"	West the Anonymous Nobodies [a]	3:17
12.	"Drawn" (featuring Little Dragon)	The Anonymous Nobodies Dave Palmer [a] Kaveh Rastegar [a] Chegwidden [a]	5:33
13.	"Whoodeeni" (featuring 2 Chainz)	Plug Too	4:31
14.	"Nosed Up"	West	3:57
15.	"You Go Dave (A Goldblatt Presentation)" (featuring David Goldblatt)	Chegwidden Phillips the Anonymous Nobodies [a]	1:20
16.	"Here in After" (featuring Damon Albarn)	The Anonymous Nobodies Rastegar [a] Lopez [a] Chegwidden [a]	5:41
17.	"Exodus"	The Anonymous Nobodies	3:24
Total length:			67:59

Notes

• On the Kickstarter Exclusive CD, LP and digital editions of the album, "You Go Dave (A Goldblatt Presentation)" contains an additional track, "Unfold", after it, running for 6:00.
• ^{^a} signifies a co-producer

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (2016)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA) [25]	25
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) [26]	34
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [27]	14
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) [28]	31
Canadian Albums (Billboard) [29]	51
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [30]	19
French Albums (SNEP) [31]	53
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [32]	22
Irish Albums (IRMA) [33]	34
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) [34]	31
Scottish Albums (OCC) [35]	14
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [36]	12
UK Albums (OCC) [37]	16
UK Official Vinyl Albums (OCC) [38]	1
UK R&B Albums (OCC) [39]	2
US Billboard 200 [40]	12
US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard) [41]	3
US Vinyl Albums (Billboard) [42]	1

Year-end charts

Chart (2016)	Peak position
US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard) [43]	66

References

1. Gee, Andre. "De La Soul's Trugoy the Dove Dead At 54". Rolling Stone . Retrieved February 12, 2023.
2. Sisario, Ben. "De La Soul's David Jolicoeur, Who Rapped as Trugoy the Dove, Dies at 54". New York Times . Retrieved February 12, 2023.
3. Schwartz, Danny (May 20, 2016). "De La Soul announce tracklist". Hotnewhiphop.com. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
4. Cohen, Finn (August 9, 2016). "De La Soul's Legacy Is Trapped in Digital Limbo". The New York Times . Retrieved September 7, 2016.
5. Walker, Angus (November 21, 2015). "De La Soul Sets New Release Date For Upcoming Album". hotnewhiphop.com. Retrieved February 7, 2016.
6. Simmons, Ted (April 29, 2016). "De La Soul announced that their Kickstarter-funded album would be delayed". XXL . Retrieved April 29, 2016.
7. "Hear De La Soul, Snoop Dogg's Funky, Cathartic 'Pain'". Rolling Stone. May 31, 2016.
8. "De La Soul Enlist Snoop Dogg for New Song "Pain": Listen". Pitchfork. May 31, 2016.
9. "De La Soul and Snoop Dogg Want to Ease the "Pain"". XXL. May 31, 2016.
10. "And the Anonymous Nobody". Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved August 25, 2016.
11. Sendra, Tim (August 26, 2016). "De La Soul – and the Anonymous Nobody". AllMusic . Retrieved September 21, 2016.
12. Bray, Ryan (August 26, 2016). "And The Anonymous Nobody… is De La Soul's long-awaited but inspired return". The A.V. Club . Retrieved August 26, 2016.
13. Eustice, Kyle (August 26, 2016). "De La Soul – and the Anonymous Nobody". Consequence of Sound . Retrieved September 3, 2016.
14. Miller, Kellan (August 26, 2016). "De La Soul - and the Anonymous Nobody..." Drowned in Sound . Archived from the original on August 27, 2016. Retrieved August 26, 2016.
15. Mullin, Kyle (August 30, 2016). "De La Soul - And the Anonymous Nobody". Exclaim! . Retrieved August 30, 2016.
16. Bemrose, Bekki (August 26, 2016). "De La Soul – And The Anonymous Nobody". musicOMH . Retrieved August 26, 2016.
17. Patrin, Nate (September 3, 2016). "De La Soul: and the Anonymous Nobody". Pitchfork . Retrieved September 7, 2016.
18. And the Anonymous Nobody delivers. [Sep 2016, p.104]
19. Williams, Stereo (August 25, 2016). "Spin Magazine Review". Spin.com. Retrieved August 25, 2016.
20. "De La Soul Make a Strong Return With 'And the Anonymous Nobody' - XXL". XXL . Retrieved August 14, 2017.
21. Hernandez, Victoria (September 5, 2016). "Young Thug's "No, My Name Is Jeffery" Lands In Top 10 Of Billboard 200". HipHopDX . Retrieved September 5, 2016.
22. "Top Album Sales". Billboard . Retrieved September 17, 2016.
23. "De La Soul's First Album In 12 Years Lands At No. 1 On Billboard Rap Albums Chart". Vibe. September 7, 2016. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
24. "De La Soul's Crowd-Funded Album Debuts at No. 1 on Top Rap Albums Chart". Billboard . September 9, 2016. Retrieved September 26, 2016.
25. "Australiancharts.com – De La Soul – And the Anonymous Nobody". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
26. "Austriancharts.at – De La Soul – And the Anonymous Nobody" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
27. "Ultratop.be – De La Soul – And the Anonymous Nobody" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
28. "Ultratop.be – De La Soul – And the Anonymous Nobody" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
29. "De La Soul Chart History (Canadian Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved September 7, 2016.
30. "Dutchcharts.nl – De La Soul – And the Anonymous Nobody" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
31. "Le Top de la semaine : Top Albums Fusionnes - SNEP (Week 35, 2016)" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique. June 10, 2013. Retrieved September 6, 2016.
32. "Offiziellecharts.de – De La Soul – And the Anonymous Nobody" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
33. "GFK Chart-Track Albums: Week 35, 2016". Chart-Track. IRMA. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
34. "Charts.nz – De La Soul – And the Anonymous Nobody". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
35. "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
36. "Swisscharts.com – De La Soul – And the Anonymous Nobody". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 7, 2016.
37. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
38. "Official Vinyl Albums Chart Top 40 | Official Charts Company". www.officialcharts.com. Retrieved September 4, 2016.
39. "Official R&B Albums Chart Top 40". Official Charts Company. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
40. "De La Soul Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved September 7, 2016.
41. "De La Soul Chart History (Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
42. "De La Soul – Chart History: Vinyl Albums". Billboard . Prometheus Global Media . Retrieved September 8, 2016.
43. "Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums – Year-End 2016". Billboard. Retrieved April 13, 2017.