In My Defense

**In My Defense** is the second studio album by Justin Da Mustang. ￼It was released in October 17, 2022 by Bad Dreams Records with distribution handled by Empire. The lead single, Sally Walker, was released on March 15, 2019.

## Background

In early 2016, Da Mustang released "Team", which was intended to be the lead single from his scrapped studio album, *Digital Distortion*. Da Mustang released several other songs were throughout 2016, 2017 and 2018, including the singles "Mo Bounce", "Switch" and "Savior". In late 2017, Da Mustang announced that *Digital Distortion* had been shelved completely and he was working on a new record, an extended play titled *Survive the Summer*. Shortly afterwards, it was announced that he had signed to Island Records. The extended play included the single "Kream" featuring Tyga. Several months after the EP's release, Da Mustang announced he had left Island Records and had become an independent unsigned artist.

In August 2018, Da Mustang expressed his anticipation to record his album on Twitter. In November, Da Mustang signed a multi-million dollar record deal with Empire Distribution after his departure from Island Records. In February 2019, Da Mustang announced the first single release, "Sally Walker", with the single art makeup by internet personality James Charles. The single was released on 15 March 2019. The second single "Started" was released along with its music video on 3 May 2019. Da Mustang also teased an upcoming collaboration with Brazilian drag queen Pabllo Vittar on Twitter. On 28 June 2019, "Just Wanna" was released as a promotional single along with the album pre-order.

On June 24, 2019, Da Mustang revealed the cover and back cover of the album on his twitter account along with the merchandising and the album's release date, being July 19.

## Critical Reception

*In My Defense* received negative reviews from music critics, on review aggregator, Metacritic, the album received a 39 out of 100, indicating "Generally unfavorable reviews" based on 4 critics. Mike Neid of *Idolator* stated "It's raucous and unrepentant fun. A comedown would only provide a little more depth. Craig Jenkins of *Vulture* stated "*In My Defense* is a funny follow-up to the frustrations of the Digital Distortion era because the title and cover art are ruses... It's an improvement over last year's EP [*Survive the Summer*]. Justin Da Mustang seems to be in control of his career for the first time in a long time. Not everyone in the game can say the same." Nicolas Tyrell of *Clash* magazine praised his overall improvement," Da Mustang has improved in both his flow and story-telling in his time away from the mainstream", but noted the album as a whole is "delivered as a project that he thinks that we want to hear, as opposed to what is truly on his mind".

In a negative review, *Pitchfork*'s Dani Blum wrote "The album is stacked with cartoonish approximations of what he thinks a rap song should sound like: shivers of bass, the occasional 'skrrrt,' Mad Libs of designer brands and bodily fluids. Many sound like direct imitations of the rappers he admires," and critiques the album as a whole to be "Justin crams his songs with one-liners that sound like branded Instagram captions". He praised "Sally Walker" as the best song on the album; however, describing "Freak of the Week" as "a rejected track by Megan Thee Stallion".