| Coming of Age | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | August 3, 1999 | |||
| Studio |
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| Genre | Hip hop | |||
| Length | 50:13 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer | ||||
| Memphis Bleek chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Coming of Age | ||||
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Coming Of Age is the debut studio album by American rapper Memphis Bleek. It was released August 3, 1999, via The Island Def Jam Music Group, Def Jam Recordings and Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella Records on August 3, 1999. The album spawned the hit single "Memphis Bleek Is...".
The album debuted and peaked at number 7 on the Billboard 200, with 118,000 units sold in its first week. [1] The album was certified Gold by the RIAA on September 14, 1999, for shipments and sales of over 500,000 units in America.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [2] |
| Entertainment Weekly | B+ [3] |
| Rolling Stone | [4] |
| USA Today | [5] |
Matt Diehl of Entertainment Weekly praised Bleek for holding his own lyrically alongside guest artists Ja Rule and N.O.R.E., and displaying striking sensitivity on "Regular Cat". He also noted how the album's production of "ominous inner-city symphonies and raw street beats" was ageless. [3] Keith Farley from AllMusic noted how Bleek's vocal delivery was more "street-level" than Jay-Z's, along with the album containing an "urban funk" style like most of his material, concluding that "Still, Coming of Age is a fine debut that shows Memphis Bleek already leaps and bounds ahead of most rappers." [2] In a dual review with Ja's Venni Vetti Vecci , Rolling Stone 's Rob Sheffield felt that Bleek came across as a cliché-filled rapper that lacked witticism in his lyrics and wasted the beats given to him by his producers. [4]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Pain in da Ass Intro" | 0:43 | ||
| 2. | "Who's Sleeping" (featuring Reb) |
| Pat Viala | 2:40 |
| 3. | "Memphis Bleek Is..." |
| Swizz Beatz | 4:08 |
| 4. | "What You Think of That" (featuring Jay-Z) | Buckwild | 4:40 | |
| 5. | "Murda 4 Life" (featuring Ja Rule) |
|
| 4:47 |
| 6. | "You're All Welcome (Pain Interlude)" | 0:37 | ||
| 7. | "Stay Alive In NYC" |
|
| 4:14 |
| 8. | "You a Thug Nigga" |
|
| 4:14 |
| 9. | "N.O.W." (featuring Da Ranjahz) |
| Dark Half | 4:16 |
| 10. | "Everybody" |
| Omen | 4:00 |
| 11. | "I Won't Stop" (featuring Dark Half) |
| Bernard "Big Demi" Parker | 3:07 |
| 12. | "My Hood to Your Hood" (featuring Beanie Sigel) |
|
| 3:47 |
| 13. | "Why U Wanna Hate For" (featuring Noreaga) |
| The Burn Unit | 3:49 |
| 14. | "Regular Cat" |
| J-Runnah | 5:12 |
Sample credits
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United States (RIAA) [9] | Gold | 500,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
Black on Both Sides is the debut solo studio album by American rapper Yasiin Bey, then known as Mos Def, released on October 12, 1999, by Rawkus and Priority Records.
Roc-A-Fella Records was an American hip hop record label and music management company founded by record executives and entrepreneurs Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, Damon Dash, and Kareem "Biggs" Burke in 1994. Carter issued his debut album, Reasonable Doubt (1996) as the label's first release, in a joint venture with Priority Records. The label has signed and released albums for acts including Kanye West, Cam'ron, Beanie Sigel, Memphis Bleek, Juelz Santana, Freeway, Jadakiss, Teairra Marí, State Property, and The Diplomats before its dissolution in 2013.
Malik Deshawn Cox, known by his stage name Memphis Bleek, is an American rapper. He first became known for his affiliation with fellow New York City-based rapper Jay-Z, with Cox often described as his hype man and protégé. Cox signed with his Roc-A-Fella Records label imprint in the late 1990s, through which he has released four major label studio albums: Coming of Age (1999), The Understanding (2000), M.A.D.E. (2003), and 534 (2005). He has since founded his own labels: Get Low Records in 1998, and Warehouse Music Group in 2016—through which he signed rapper Casanova.
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