Yes Lawd! is the debutstudio album by American neo soul duo NxWorries, which consists of vocalist Anderson.Paak and producer Knxwledge. It was released on October 21, 2016, by Stones Throw Records. It is supported by four singles, "Suede", "Link Up", "Lyk Dis", and "Get Bigger / Do U Luv". Yes Lawd! received generally positive reviews from critics.
Release and promotion
On June 19, 2016, member Anderson.Paak confirmed that NxWorries' debut studio album is finished and set for release. On July 25, 2016, Paak's manager, Adrian Miller, confirmed that the album was to be titled Yes Lawd!. On September 19, 2016, the third single to NxWorries' debut studio album "Lyk Dis" was released, along with the track listing and release date for the album. On October 14, 2016, the duo released the album a week early for streaming on Apple Music.
Critical reception
Yes Lawd! received critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, it received an average score of 80, based on 22 reviews. NME magazine's Jordan Bassett hailed it as "a sprawling, languid affair, running to 19 tracks of soulful hip hop", while Jim Carroll of The Irish Times called it "an all-beats-blazing set of the funk". It was deemed an "R&B lover and millennial must-have" by Vibe, and Rolling Stone named it the 15th best R&B album of 2016. Robert Christgau gave the album a three-star honorable mention in his column for Vice, indicating "an enjoyable effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well treasure". He cited "Another Time", "Lyk Dis", and "Fkku" as highlights while calling Anderson.Paak a "love man projects minimum modicum of empathy with his salable burr yet somehow sounds cuddly even so". Marshall Gu from PopMatters was less enthusiastic, writing that the album "wants to be a neo-soul version of Madvillain or The Unseen or Donuts, that is, a stoner's dream collection of fragments of songs, less focused on hooks and more focused on sounds".
Track listing
Credits adapted from BMI. All tracks produced by Knxwledge. ;Sample credits
"Livvin" contains samples of "Tributo Ao Sorriso", written by Alen Terra, Yan Guest, Jorge Amiden, and Luiz Junior, and performed by Karma.
"Kutless" contains samples of "Lady", written and performed by Gino Vannelli.
"Lyk Dis" contains samples of "Mr. Me, Mrs. You", written by H. B. Barnum and Robert Young, and performed by Creme d'Cocoa; and contains samples of "Ebony Woman", written by Morris Bailey and performed by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes.
"Can't Stop" contains samples of "I Think My Heart Is Telling", written by John H. Fitch Jr. and Reuben Cross, and performed by Evelyn "Champagne" King; and samples of the television seriesRick and Morty.
"Suede" contains samples of "The Bottle", written by Gil Scott-Heron and performed by Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson.
"Starlite" contains samples of "God Is So Good to Me", written by Clyde G. Carter and performed by Gwen Carter.
"Jodi" contains samples of the "Funky Bottoms" titled episode from the Kung Faux television series.
"Sidepiece" contains an interpolation of "Won't Do", written and performed by J Dilla.
"Another Time" contains samples of "Bless You With My Love", written by Barbara J. Trotter and performed by Heaven Sent & Ecstasy; and samples of "Your Love", written by Kenni Ski, Allen Anthony, and Shawn Carter, and performed by Christión and Jay Z.
"Fkku" contains samples of "Absolutely Beautiful", written and performed by Eddie Robinson; and samples of the video "Dear person that pissed me off..." by Krissychula.
