Jeremih (album)

While attending Columbia College Chicago, Jeremih collaborated with record producer Mick Schultz.^[2] Jeremih began writing all of these songs, while Schultz produced the entire album. The duo recorded approximately 20 songs for the album.^[3] In February 2009, Jeremih met with the Def Jam Recordings CEO Russell Simmons and its executive vice president of A&R, Karen Kwak. After a vocal performance, Jeremih signed a recording contract with the label that same day.^[4][5]

The lead single from the album, called "Birthday Sex" was released on March 24, 2009. The single topped it on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.^[6] The single even peaked it at number 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 58 on the Canadian Hot 100.^[7][8]

The album's second single, called "Imma Star (Everywhere We Are)" was released on June 9, 2009. The song peaked at number 23 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and number 51 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.^[9]

The album's third and final single, "Break Up to Make Up", impacted US rhythmic radio stations on November 17, 2009.^[10] The song peaked at 87 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

More information Aggregate scores, Source ...

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	70/100[11]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[12]
Sarasota Herald-Tribune	C−[13]

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Upon its release, Jeremih received generally positive reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, it received an average score of 70 based on four reviews.^[14]

Andy Kellman of AllMusic described Jeremih's vocals as "charmingly sly", expressing a comparison to Slim of 112 and Raphael Saadiq.^[15] Giving the album a C−, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune felt that the use of Auto-Tune made Jeremih sound like a "clone" of Kanye West, but showed "little of West's imagination on his debut album".^[13] Meanwhile, following the album's August 2009 UK release, noted R&B writer Pete Lewis of 'Blues & Soul' referred to it as "A promisingly-diverse R&B set which combines jiggy, club-flavoured tracks like the sexy 'That Body' and catchy 'My Ride' with classy soulful ballads like the hauntingly mellow 'Starting All Over' and wistful 'My Sunshine'.^[16]

Jeremih debuted at number six on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 59,000 copies in the first week.^[1] This became Jeremih's first US top-ten debut.^[1] In its second week, the album dropped to number 15 on the chart, selling an additional 29,000 copies.^[17] On October 1, 2021, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over one million units in the United States.^[18]

• All tracks written by Mick Schultz and Jeremy "Jeremih" Felton and produced by Mick Schultz; tracks 2 and 7 co-written by Keith James

• Tom Coyne – mastering
• Terese Joseph – A&R
• Karen Kwak – A&R
• Eric Peterson – guitar, mixing
• TaVon Sampson – art direction, cover design
• Mick Schultz – producer, engineer, executive producer
• Dion Stewart – stylist
• Jim "Big Jim" Wright – photography