All Money Is Legal
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All Money Is Legal, also known as A.M.I.L.: (All Money Is Legal), is the only studio album by American rapper Amil. It was released on August 29, 2000, through Roc-A-Fella, Columbia, and Sony Music. Jay-Z, Damon Dash, and Amil served as executive producer with a team of producers that included Just Blaze. Before the album's release, Amil was best known for her feature on Jay-Z's 1998 single "Can I Get A...". She was one of several up-and-coming artists signed to Roc-A-Fella, alongside Memphis Bleek and Beanie Sigel, who released an album in 2000. Although it was her only album on Roc-A-Fella, Amil had been closely associated with the label and its co-founder Jay-Z, earning the moniker "First Lady of Roc-A-Fella".
A hip hop album, the lyrics of All Money Is Legal focus on wealth and, to a lesser degree, Amil's personal life. It was recorded at Playground Studios in Los Angeles and at The Cutting Room, The Hit Factory, and Quad Studios in New York City. Although Jay-Z had written Amil's verses for their past collaborations, she wrote her own lyrics for all the album's tracks. Amil mostly raps throughout the album, but sings on some tracks. According to academic commentators and music critics, Amil adopted the persona of a "gold digger" throughout the album.
Reviews were mixed, the production and Amil's verses dividing critics. The album peaked at number 45 on the US
Background and recording
In 1997,
After Major Coins disbanded, Jay-Z signed Amil to
Before the release of her debut album, Amil featured on albums by
All Money Is Legal was recorded at The Cutting Room, The Hit Factory, and Quad Studios in New York City, and Playground Studios in Los Angeles. Amil, Jay-Z, and Damon Dash were the album's executive producers.[17] It was one of several albums from up-and-coming artists at Roc-A-Fella to be released in 2000, along with Memphis Bleek's The Understanding and Beanie Sigel's The Truth.[4] Amil has co-writing credits on all the album's songs,[18] and Jay-Z said she had a "talent for song-making".[3] To be taken seriously as a solo artist by "naysayers who say Jay is her puppeteer", Amil said: "I kept this album me — nothing more, nothing less."[19] She said she wanted to avoid sexual topics on All Money Is Legal and had planned not to use any profanity in her future music, explaining: "I know I sin, but I'm trying to become a better person."[3] Producer Just Blaze contributed to All Money Is Legal,[20] and felt his work on the album raised his profile within Roc-A-Fella.[21] Beyoncé recorded her guest vocals for "I Got That" in 2000 in a separate recording session. Her then-manager Mathew Knowles paid Roc-A-Fella for the featured spot as a way to assess her viability as a solo artist, since she was still a part of Destiny's Child at the time. As a result of this collaboration, Beyoncé worked with her future husband Jay-Z for the first time.[22]
Composition and lyrics
All Money Is Legal is a hip hop album with 13 tracks.
Lyrically, the songs on All Money Is Legal focus mainly on material possessions and money,[3][23] as evidenced by the album title.[23] Some tracks touch on more personal issues,[3][24] specifically "Smile 4 Me" and "Quarrels".[24] The New York Daily News' Jim Farber wrote that Amil was more personal in her music than Foxy Brown and Lil' Kim, whom he described as "sexy cartoons".[26] Amil raps most of her vocals on the album, but also sings on several tracks like "Get Down".[24][28] Critics have referred to Amil's rapping style as sing songy,[23][26] and Farber said she "specializes in short, jabbing melodies".[26]
The opening track "Smile 4 Me" was inspired by Amil's life, and includes the lyrics: "Got my people up north trying to slice the bid / While I'm in love with a nigga with a wife and a kid."
Amil's lyrics on All Money Is Legal have been cited as an example of the theme of "gold digging" in hip hop performed by women. In a 2003 academic paper, women's studies professor Layli D. Phillips and social psychology professor Dionne P. Stephens cited Amil and All Money Is Legal as part of a trend of female hip hop artists performing the stereotypical role of a "Gold Digger".[32] Along with the "Freak", "Diva", and "Dyke", Phillips and Stephens named the "Gold Digger" as one of the major archetypes adopted by female rappers, defining the role with the following terms:
"The Gold Digger will supposedly resort to any and all sexual means to gain whatever financial rewards she wants or needs, seeing men as stepping stones to provide for short-term needs. Short term is not defined so much by a length of time, but rather a mind set whereby the male is good for as long as he can meet the Gold Digger's demands. She takes whatever she can, and when the well runs dry, the Gold Digger is history."[32]
They highlighted the lyric "You know I gotta keep tricks up the sleeve, leav' em bankrupt with
All Money Is Legal includes three features from Jay-Z.
Release and promotion
"I Got That" was released on July 5, 2000, as the album's
All Money Is Legal was released through Roc-A-Fella,
The second single, "4 da Fam", was released on July 29, 2000,
Critical reception
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [55] |
Entertainment Weekly | B[23] |
Los Angeles Times | [56] |
San Antonio Express-News | [57] |
USA Today | [58] |
The album received a mixed response from critics. In Vibe, Andréa Duncan praised it as a "surprisingly diverse and thoughtful collection of tracks".[3] AllMusic's MacKenzie Wilson said Amil was "bold enough to make it solo" with her "New York childhood street smarts" and a "sultry sassiness" throughout the music.[55] A reviewer for The Source commended the album as "a set that displays [Amil's] feminine flair".[19] and Anthony M. Thompson for the San Antonio Express-News described it as having a "distinct, woman's touch".[57] Despite criticizing All Money Is Legal as "unfortunately titled", Dan DeLuca said in The Philadelphia Inquirer that Amil's rapping abilities distinguished her from other female rappers and allowed her to stand out from the album's featured artists.[59] In Entertainment Weekly, David Browne praised some of the lyrics—specifically, references to Aesop and Blake Carrington—but he dismissed the overall focus on money as unoriginal.[23] Ta-Nehisi Coates, writing for the Washington City Paper, panned All Money Is Legal as "a schizophrenic work" with songs "swinging from aching honesty to gangsta-bitch schtick". Coates deemed the album "self-hating" and said Amil had "reduc[ed] herself to a prostitute with a microphone" with the sexually explicit lyrics.[27]
Several reviewers cited "Quarrels" and "Smile 4 Me" as album highlights. An anonymous review columnist in Billboard praised the autographical "Smile 4 Me" as "a testament to [Amil's] lyricism" and wrote that her verses in "Quarrels" on themes of morality would "make heads both nod and think".[24] Despite an overall negative assessment of the album, Coates said Amil had successfully pulled from her past in "melancholy confessionals" like "Smile 4 Me".[27] The Morning Call's Len Righi praised "Smile 4 Me" as the song that Amil best represents her "gritty self-assurance" and "fierce determination".[33] Righi later named All Money Is Legal among the best albums of the year.[60] A Vibe columnist identified "Quarrels", alongside Eve's 1999 single "Love Is Blind", as examples of "strong-willed, pro-woman songs" written and recorded by female rappers.[61] Despite their criticism of Amil's album as inferior to her collaborations with Jay-Z, Soren Baker, writing for the Los Angeles Times, believed she demonstrated "promise when she becomes more personal in her storytelling".[56] On the other hand, the Dayton Daily News' Talia Jackson criticized Amil as "less than believable when she is not rapping about her material world".[25] In a 2014 Billboard interview, Amil said "Smile 4 Me" was one of her favorite songs from the album and that she generally preferred the songs drawn from her personal life.[2]
Retrospective assessments of All Money Is Legal have remained mixed. In a 2018
Aftermath
Amil was removed from the Roc-A-Fella roster shortly after the release of All Money Is Legal.[5][65] After appearing in a music video alongside the rapper Baby (later known as Birdman), a February 2001 Vibe column speculated that she was likely to sign a record deal with Cash Money, the label he co-founded.[66] But she never signed a deal with Cash Money, and—other than a select few releases—she largely dropped out of the mainstream, major-label recording industry.[2][5][67]
Music industry rumors attributed Amil's departure from Roc-A-Fella to personal conflict between her and Jay-Z, as well as his disapproval of her (reported) weight gain.[6][66] During a 2011 interview with Vibe, she responded to the rumors about her and Jay-Z:
"People think there was bad blood between us, but there never was any bad blood. Things happen and I wasn't ready for where my career was going at that time. It was really overwhelming."[65]
Amil said she took a hiatus from her music career because she was mentally unprepared for the pressures of the industry and she wanted to take care of her child, who suffered from asthma. Describing herself as "rebell[ing] against the industry" after the album's release, she refused to do promotion for it and said: "I faded myself." She said she regretted signing a record deal, preferring to be "an around the way rapper" and a songwriter instead.[2]
Jay-Z did not comment on Amil's departure from Roc-A-Fella at the time and, as of 2017, has still never publicly discussed why Amil was dropped from the label.[6][66] However, Jay-Z did defend the quality of All Money Is Legal against its detractors in a 2013 appearance on the New York radio show The Breakfast Club. When DJ Envy asked Jay-Z who had been the "worst signing" at Roc-A-Fella, Charlamagne tha God interrupted to say "Amil!" and Jay-Z replied, "Nah, nah, I wouldn't say Amil. Amil's album, you should listen to it. It's good!"[68]
Track listing
Credits adapted from the liner notes of All Money Is Legal.[18]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Smile 4 Me" | 3:17 | ||
3. | "Get Down" |
| Jon-John | 4:29 |
4. | "Ya'll Dead Wrong" |
| Rockwilder | 3:51 |
5. | "Heard It All" (featuring Jay-Z) |
|
| 3:27 |
6. | "Quarrels" (featuring Carl Thomas) |
|
| 4:10 |
7. | "Girlfriend" |
| Rockwilder | 3:14 |
8. | "All Money Is Legal (A.M.I.L.)" |
| Ty Fyffe | 3:46 |
9. | "That's Right" (featuring Jay-Z) |
| Just Blaze | 4:21 |
10. | "Anyday" |
| K-Rob | 4:08 |
11. | "Raw" |
| Lofey | 4:11 |
12. | "No 1 Can Compare" |
| Omen | 4:15 |
13. | "4 da Fam" (featuring Jay-Z, Memphis Bleek and Beanie Sigel) |
| Ty Fyffe | 4:19 |
Total length: | 51:52 |
Sample credits
- "Smile 4 Me" contains a sample from "Summer Love", performed by David Oliver.
- "I Got That" contains a sample from "Seventh Heaven", performed by Gwen Guthrie.
- "Get Down" contains a sample from "Blank Generation", performed by Richard Hell and the Voidoids.
- "Heard It All" contains a sample from the composition "Chitarra Romana", written by Cherubini, Di Lazzaroand Harper.
- "Anyday" contains a sample from "Collage", performed by The Three Degrees.
- "4 da Fam" contains a sample from "Main Theme", by Roy Budd.
Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from AllMusic:[17]
- Amil– associate executive producer, primary artist, vocals
- Beyoncé – featured artist, primary artist
- Shawn Carter – guest artist, primary artist, executive producer
- Kevin Crouse – mixing
- Damon Dash – executive producer
- Tyrone Fyfee – producer
- Chris Gehringer – mastering
- Jason Goldstein – mixing
- Erwin Gorostiza – art direction
- Manny Marroquin – mixing
- Memphis Bleek – guest artist, performer, primary artist
- Monica Morrow – stylist
- Jon-John Robinson – engineer, producer
- Beanie Sigel – guest artist, primary artist
- Brian Stanley – engineer, mixing
- Carl Thomas – guest artist, primary artist, vocals
- Richard Travali – mixing
- Reggie Wells – make-up
- Carlisle Young – engineer
Charts
Chart (2000) | Peak position |
---|---|
US Billboard 200[43] | 45 |
US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[44] | 12 |
Notes
References
Citations
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External links