The album received mostly mixed reviews from music critics, with some ranking it among the best hip-hop albums of the year, while others deemed it inferior to Harlem World. Commercially, the album failed to reprise the success of his debut: It opened and peaked at number 11 on the US Billboard 200 and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) exactly one month after its release on July 15, 1999. Two months before the release, Mase announced his retirement from rapping to become a Christianpastor.[3] Thus, Double Up would mark his latest release until 2004's Welcome Back.[4]
AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine called Double Up a "good sequel to a promising debut [that] pretty much recycles the same hooktastic pop-rap formulas as Harlem World, following Puff Daddy's design of borrowing the best, regardless of the source, and turning it into radio-ready party music. While this is pleasing to the ear, it tends to be a little monotonous and too predictable, especially when compared to Mase's raps."[7] Similarly, Entertainment Weekly's Tom Sinclair wrote: "In the grand tradition of his mentor, Puff Daddy, Mase cannily packs his tracks with can’t-miss samples for maximum ear appeal. But it’s his words, delivered with chilling, methodical clarity, that cut deepest. His disenchantment with hip-hop hypocrisy is a recurring theme, and his holy dissatisfaction is wholly convincing."[8]
BBC News wrote: "If this really is it, then in Double Up he has left a lasting legacy, with his use of beats and samples as fresh and innovative as ever [...] And what an album it is – maybe not quite as tight as Harlem World, but certainly up there with Eminem as one of the hip hop compositions of the year."[13] Less impressed, Kris Ex from Rolling Stone declared the album a "predictable collection of richer-than-thou tales of girls, jewels and cars, and woe-is-me lamentations of jealously, back-stabbing and alienation. In trying to distance himself from Puff Daddy, Mase has fallen well short of his former Svengeli's slick standardes – you can't even dance to Double Up."[10]XXL later referred to the album as his weakest release.[4]
Commercial performance
Double Up debuted and peaked at number eleven the US Billboard 200 and number two on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart,[14] selling 107,000 copies in its first week.[15] It was a considerable decline from his previous album Harlem World, which had debuted with twice as many units sold.[5] On July 15, 1999, Double Up was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[16] In January 2009, Billboard reported that the album had sold 425,000 copies domestically, making it Mase's lowest-selling album to date.[17]
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