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One for All is the debut studio album by American hip hop group Brand Nubian, released on December 4, 1990,[1][2] by Elektra Records. The album was highly acclaimed for its politically charged and socially conscious content. Sales never matched the wide acclaim — the album has only sold 350,000 copies as of May 2013[citation needed] — but it has remained in print since its 1990 release. The album is mainly produced by Brand Nubian, but it also features production by Skeff Anselm, Stimulated Dummies, and Dave "Jam" Hall. The album's production contains many motifs of hip hop's golden age including James Brown-sampled breakbeats and funky R&B loops. The album is broken down track-by-track by Brand Nubian in Brian Coleman's book Check the Technique.[3]
 | This article is written like a review. (July 2018) |
| One for All | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | December 4, 1990 | |||
| Recorded | 1989–1990 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 71:34 | |||
| Label | Elektra | |||
| Producer |
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| Brand Nubian chronology | ||||
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| Singles from One for All | ||||
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Commercial performance
One for All charted at number 130 on the U.S. Billboard 200, spending 28 weeks on the chart.[4] It also reached number 34 on the Billboard Top Black Albums chart, on which it spent 40 weeks.[4] Alex Henderson of Allmusic writes of the album's commercial performance, "In black neighborhoods of New York and Philadelphia, [One for All] was actually a bigger seller than many of the platinum gangsta rap releases outselling it on a national level."[5]
Critical response
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [5] |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music |  [6] |
| Los Angeles Times | [7] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [8] |
| The Source | [9] |
| The Village Voice | A−[10] |
One for All was a critical success upon its release.[11] Los Angeles Times writer Steve Hochman called it "an impressive debut" and commended "the power of the lessons delivered with style and creativity", stating "There's a playful ease to this record recalling the colorful experiments of De La Soul, and there's as much sexual boasting as Islamic teaching."[7] Jon Pareles of The New York Times described the album as "a peculiar merger of sexual boasting, self-promotion and occasional political perspective."[12] J the Sultan of The Source gave it the publication's maximum five-mike rating and wrote that it "overflows with creativity, originality, and straight-up talent. [...] the type of record that captures a whole world of music, rhymes and vibes with a completely new style."[9] In his consumer guide for The Village Voice, critic Robert Christgau gave One for All an A− rating,[10] indicating "the kind of garden-variety good record that is the great luxury of musical micromarketing and overproduction. Anyone open to its aesthetic will enjoy more than half its tracks."[13] He commented that "most black-supremacist rap sags under the burden of its belief system just like any other ideological music," but quipped, "This Five Percenter daisy-age is warm, good-humored, intricately interactive—popping rhymes every sixth or eighth syllable, softening the male chauvinism and devil-made-me-do-it with soulful grooves and jokes fit for a couch potato."[10]
It has since received retrospective acclaim from publications such as AllMusic, Rolling Stone, and Trouser Press. AllMusic editor Alex Henderson complimented the group's "abstract rapping style" and stated, "On the whole, Nubian's Nation of Islam rhetoric isn't as overbearing as some of the recordings that other Five Percenters were delivering at the time."[5] In The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), music journalist Peter Relic stated, "they had a sobering lyrical style equally effective whether promoting African-American consciousness ('Concerto in X Minor') or telling hoes to chill (the Edie Brickell-sampling 'Slow Down')".[8] Trouser Press writer Jeff Chang praised the group's "marriage of party groove and polemical grit" and cited the album as "a high point of East Coast hip-hop".[14]
Accolades
In 1998, the album was selected as one of The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums and its lead single "Slow Down" was featured on the publication's 100 Best Hip-Hop Singles of All Time list.[15] One year later, Rolling Stone placed it on a list of the Essential Recordings of the 90's.[16] It was additionally ranked #2 on ego trip's 1999 list of "Hip Hop's 25 Greatest Albums by Year (1980–98)".[citation needed]
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| # | Title | Songwriters | Producer(s) | Performer(s) | Sample(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "All for One" | M. Dixon, D. Murphy, L. Dechalus |
Brand Nubian | Grand Puba, Sadat X, Lord Jamar |
|
| 2 | "Feels So Good" (CD Bonus Track) |
M. Dixon, D. Murphy, L. Dechalus |
Brand Nubian, Dante Ross |
Sadat X, Grand Puba, Lord Jamar |
|
| 3 | "Concerto in X Minor" | M. Dixon, D. Murphy, L. Dechalus |
Brand Nubian | Sadat X |
|
| 4 | "Ragtime" | M. Dixon, D. Murphy, L. Dechalus, S. Anselm |
Skeff Anselm | Grand Puba, Sadat X, Lord Jamar |
|
| 5 | "To the Right" | M. Dixon, D. Murphy, L. Dechalus |
Brand Nubian | Grand Puba, Sadat X, Lord Jamar |
|
| 6 | "Dance to My Ministry" | M. Dixon, D. Murphy, L. Dechalus |
Brand Nubian | Lord Jamar |
|
| 7 | "Drop the Bomb" | M. Dixon, D. Murphy, L. Dechalus |
Brand Nubian | Grand Puba, Lord Jamar, Sadat X |
|
| 8 | "Wake Up (Stimulated Dummies Mix)" | M. Dixon, D. Ross, J. Gamble, G. Dajani |
Stimulated Dummies | Grand Puba |
|
| 9 | "Step to the Rear" | M. Dixon, D. Ross, J. Gamble, G. Dajani |
Stimulated Dummies | Grand Puba |
|
| 10 | "Slow Down" | M. Dixon, D. Murphy, L. Dechalus, K. Withrow, E. Brickell |
Brand Nubian | Sadat X, Lord Jamar, Grand Puba |
|
| 11 | "Try to Do Me" | M. Dixon, D. Murphy, L. Dechalus, D. Hall |
Dave "Jam" Hall | Grand Puba |
|
| 12 | "Who Can Get Busy Like This Man..." | M. Dixon, D. Murphy, L. Dechalus |
Brand Nubian | Sadat X, Grand Puba |
|
| 13 | "Grand Puba, Positive and L.G." | M. Dixon, A. Arrington, C. Carter |
Brand Nubian | Grand Puba, Positive K |
|
| 14 | "Brand Nubian" (CD Bonus Track) |
M. Dixon, D. Murphy, L. Dechalus |
Brand Nubian, Dante Ross | Lord Jamar, Sadat X, Grand Puba |
|
| 15 | "Wake Up (Reprise in the Sunshine)" |
M. Dixon, D. Murphy, L. Dechalus |
Brand Nubian | Grand Puba |
|
| 16 | "Dedication" | M. Dixon, D. Murphy, L. Dechalus |
Brand Nubian | Grand Puba |
|
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- Skeff Anselm – producer
- Carol Bobolts – design
- Brand Nubian – producer
- Geeby Dajani – mixing, producer
- John Gamble – mixing, producer
- Grand Puba – producer
- D. Hall – mixing, producer
- Dante Ross – executive producer, mixing, producer
- Mark Seliger – photography
| Chart (1991) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard 200[17] | 130 |
| US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[18] | 34 |
Singles
| Song | Chart (1991)[19] | Peak position |
|---|---|---|
| "Slow Down" | U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs | 63 |
| U.S. Hot Rap Singles | 3 | |
| "Wake Up" | U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs | 92 |
| U.S. Hot Rap Singles | 5 | |
| Song | Chart (1992) | Peak position |
| "All for One" | U.S. Hot Rap Singles | 17 |
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