American Dream (21 Savage album)

In July 2023, Savage embarked on a concert tour with Canadian rapper and singer Drake, named the It's All a Blur Tour, during which the latter stated that both him and Savage were working on their respective solo studio albums. On August 7, Savage took to Twitter to state that "it's time", seemingly teasing the album. After embarking on a solo headlining tour in November 2023, Savage headlined his first show in London, England, at the O2 Arena, where he stated that his "album finna drop" and told his fans to "get ready". In December 2023, billboards and banners began to appear, further adding to the promotion of the album and further building its anticipation. On January 8, 2024, Savage announced that a biopic film about himself titled American Dream: The 21 Savage Story, starring himself along with Donald Glover and Caleb McLaughlin, would be released on July 4. On the same day, Savage posted the film's trailer on his official YouTube channel, previewing a track from the album in the process, and announced that the music inspired by the film was available for pre-order. Just a day later, on January 9, Savage took to his social media to post the album's official cover art and announced that it would be released three days later. Five days earlier, the official music video for the former was also released alongside the album. The second single, "Née-Nah", a collaboration with Travis Scott and Metro Boomin, was sent to US rhythmic radio on January 23, 2024. The third and final single, "Prove It", a collaboration with Summer Walker, was sent to US rhythmic radio on June 4, 2024. ==Critical reception==

American Dream received generally positive reviews. The album had a score of 73 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic based on five critics' reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reception. Rolling Stones Mosi Reeves wrote that on the album, sometimes, "the production flags or his choruses don't quite hit their marks", however, "he's still capable of giving you what you've come to expect". In comparison to Her Loss, Reeves stated that "American Dream is garlanded with dreamily rendered samples, a technique used to much better effect here than Her Loss". Writing for HotNewHipHop, Teejay Small wrote that "the album lacks a cohesive through-line that thematically ties the material back to the premise promised by the title and imagery" and that "the overall aesthetic of American Dream may lead listeners to assume that the project is a meditation on the state of poverty or immigration in 21's life". ==Commercial performance==

American Dream debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with 133,000 album-equivalent units, including 4,500 pure album sales, replacing Morgan Wallen's One Thing at a Time (2023) from the top spot. American Dream earned a total of 169.53 million on-demand streams. The album is 21 Savage's fourth consecutive number-one album in the US. Fourteen tracks debuted on the Billboard Hot 100, with two of them in the top 10: "Redrum" (at No. 5) and "Née-Nah" (at No. 10) respectively. The intro, "American Dream" was deemed too short to debut on the charts. The album broke a record in rap music as American Dream debuted with the most first-week streams for a trap album in history. The album debuted at number 2 on the UK Albums Chart and the Irish Albums Chart while debuting at number 5 and 8 on the French Albums Chart and the Finnish Album Charts. ==Track listing==

Notes • signifies a co-producer • All tracks are stylized in lowercase. For example, "N.H.I.E." is stylized as "n.h.i.e.". • "Redrum" features vocals by Usher. • "Letter to My Brudda" features vocals by Paola Barba and 21 Lil Harold. • "Dangerous" features vocals by 21 Lil Harold. • "Dark Days" features vocals by Ink. • N.H.I.E. is an acronym for "Never Have I Ever". Sample credits • "All of Me" contains a sample of "Wishing on a Star", written by Billie Rae Calvin, as performed by Rose Royce. • "Redrum" contains a sample of "Serenata do adeus", written by Vinicius de Moraes, as performed by Elza Laranjeira; as well as samples from the "Here's Johnny!" scene from The Shining; and interpolations of "A Lot", written by Shéyaa Abraham-Joseph, Jermaine Cole, Dacoury Natche, Anthony White and Shelia Young, as performed by 21 Savage and J. Cole. • "Dangerous" contains samples of "To Yasmina", written by Bernard Lubat, as performed by Bernard Lubat And His Mad Ducks. • "Née-Nah" contains samples of "About Her" written by Malcolm McLaren, Rod Argent, and W. C. Handy, as performed by McLaren; and "'Cause I Love You", written by Leonard Williams and Frank Wilson, as performed by Lenny Williams. • "Prove It" contains a sample of "You Are My Joy", written and performed by Faith Evans. • "Should've Wore a Bonnet" contains a sample of "I Don't Want to Do Anything", written by DeVante Swing, as performed by Mary J. Blige and K-Ci; and interpolations from an unreleased song, "Hair", written by Durk Banks and Symere Woods, as performed by Lil Durk and Lil Uzi Vert. • "Just Like Me" contains a sample of "Raw", written by Kira Huszar, as performed by Loony. • "Red Sky" contains a sample of the full-length version of "Summer Night City", written by Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, as performed by Abba. ==Personnel==

Musicians • 21 Savage – vocals • Heather Carmillia Joseph – additional vocals (1, 15) • Spiff Sinatra – keyboards (1, 2), drums (1, 2) • James Owens Jr. – keyboards (1) • Isaiah Brown – keyboards (1), strings (1) • Rose Royce – additional vocals (2) • Noc – drums (2) • Jalen Jackson – keyboards (2) • Usher – additional vocals (3) • Nineteen85 – keyboards (4) • Peter Lee Johnson – strings (6) • 21 Lil Harold – additional vocals (7, 8) • Paola Barba – additional vocals (7) • Higher Learning – choir (13) • Ink – additional vocals (15) Technical • Mike Bozzi – mastering • Miles Walker – mixing (1–5, 12, 15) • Isaiah Brown – mixing (5, 11), recording (1–5, 7–15), engineering assistance (1) • Ethan Stevens – mixing (6, 8, 9, 13), recording (6, 8, 9, 13) • Alex Tumay – mixing (7, 10, 14) • Patrizio "Teezio" Pigliapoco – mixing (10) • David "Dos Dias" Bishop – mixing (11), recording (11) • William "Bilz" Dougan – recording (13) • Natalie D'Orlando – recording (15) • Spiff Santra – engineering assistance (1) • Jared Brown – engineering assistance (2) • Shawn Peden – engineering assistance (2–5, 7, 8) • Khaya "Macxsn" Gilika – engineering assistance (2) ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts ==Certifications==