Rudolf has said that he embraced dance music saying, "it's like most of it up-tempo, most of it electropop rock hip-hop stuff". The album features mostly guitar heavy beats.
Guests
Kevin Rudolf confirmed collaborations from Birdman, Lil Wayne, Jay Sean, Rivers Cuomo from Weezer, and Three 6 Mafia in an interview with Rap-Up. Kevin has stated that he wanted to do a duet with Jay-Z and Kanye West on the album. Lil Wayne appears on the tracks "I Made It" and "Spit in Your Face," a reworked version of a Lil Wayne song which had leaked about a year prior to the album's release. That song was original slated to be on Lil Wayne's album Rebirth. Wayne raps on all of the verses. He wanted Natasha Bedingfield to be on the album, but was unable to find a suitable song. He also wanted to work with Sade on the album. In an interview, Vibe listed Flo Rida as a feature on the album.
Production and songwriting
Kevin Rudolf was the primary producer and songwriter for all tracks except "Spit In Your Face," which was produced by Cool & Dre with co-production by Rudolf. Tracks "You Make the Rain Fall," "Whatchu Waiting For," "Must Be Dreamin'", and "Late Night Automatic" were co-produced by Dr. Luke. Rivers Cuomo of Weezer appeared on the track "Must Be Dreamin'" and provided additional production and songwriting. Three 6 Mafia co-wrote both tracks which they are featured on, "Watchu' Waiting For" and "Late Night Automatic," while Flo Rida co-wrote the track "You Make the Rain Fall", which features additional production by Kool Kojak.
Reception
Critical reception
To the Sky was met with mixed reviews from music critics. David Jeffries of Allmusic gave the album two and a half stars out of five, saying "A mixed bag for fans to sort through, but without a worthy “Let It Rock" successor, this is hard to recommend over his debut." He described the songs as "generally good". Steve Juon of RapReviews gave the album a seven out of ten, saying "The swagger's been good to him, because not every R&B or rock album would meet with a hardcore hip-hop head's approval, but even without the numerous rap cameos I think "To the Sky" would have been a win to a hip-hop audience – they don't hurt either though. This is "In the City" evolved, with no pun intended, to a higher level."
Commercial performance
To the Sky debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 78. The album has sold 20,000 copies in the US.
Singles
The first single released is "I Made It ". The song features Lil Wayne, Birdman and Jay Sean. The song received chart success in Australia, Canada and the United States. The second single is "You Make the Rain Fall". It is the theme song for the third season of "NXT". It was released to Mainstream radioSeptember 14, 2010 and features Flo Rida.
