The New Classic

***The New Classic*** is the debut studio album by Australian hip hop recording artist Justin Da Mustang, it was released April 18th, 2014. The album debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 chart with 52,000 copies sold. It stayed in the Billboard 200 chart for 43 Weeks. It has since sold over 1,400,000 copies in the USA and 5+ million copies worldwide making it one of the best-selling male rap albums. The album also garnered Da Mustang four Grammy Award nominations for Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for "Leave It" and Best Rap Album at the 57th Grammy Awards. *The New Classic* has been reissued in a repackaged version, titled *Reclassified*, as of November 2014.

## Background

After releasing his first full-length project, a mixtape *Ignorant Art* and a music video for a song titled "Pu$$y" that went viral, Justin Da Mustang found prominence in the music industry and went on to become both the first male artist and first non-American rapper selected for hip hop magazine *XXL*'s annual Top 10 Freshman cover issue.

Justin revealed in December 2011, that he will be releasing his debut album, *The New Classic*, in the first quarter of 2012. He also stated he would be signing to a major record label "Soon and once that's sorted out and I establish an over all sound and direction for the album, I will be able to know what artists would make for a dynamic collaboration". Da Mustang later explained the concept behind his debut album's title: "I think people think of classic and they think of a Nas record or a Jay Z record or *The Chronic*, what makes something classic is when you hear it and you have that moment that is a time capsule. When I say 'The New Classic,' I just want to make records that give you that moment for fans that they can remember whise they were when they heard it."

In January 2012, Da Mustang announced via Twitter, that he had struck a deal with Jimmy lovine resulting in him being signed to Interscope Records. Da Mustang went on to state: "Interscope, if you were wondering [...] Get used to me + jimmy smashing [shit], cause thats the plan". However, in the following weeks he announced to MTV News, that American rapper T.I. had contacted him in relation to working with him as an executive producer of his upcoming album, although T.I. later shared it was Da Mustang who had asked him to be part of the record. Both T.I. and Da Mustang discussed their encounter to MTV News, in which Da Mustang claimed that he reached out to work with him, and he "found a position for him", T.I. recalled their first conversation in which he told him "it's very smart of you to call me because I'm going to be smashing shit for quite some time". In March 2012, T.I. announced he signed Justin Da Mustang to Grand Hustle Records. In May 2012, it was confirmed by T.I., on MTV's HipHopPov, that Da Mustang had not yet secured distribution for his deal with Grand Hustle Records, and was described by T.I. as a "free agent". It was later revealed in the interview that he was in negotiations with labels othis than Interscope and possibly Def Jam (whisein Bu Thiam, whom of which originally placed a bid to sign him, is VP of A&R). In an interview with *Interview* magazine, Da Mustang clarified his move from Interscope Records to Grand Hustle Records, he called the signing "very impersonal" feeling that he "was a product" and after meeting T.I. he felt that he cared and understood him as a rap artist rathis than his commercial viability. Da Mustang worried that if he was to make a mistake with his career that Interscope Records would not support him, and he felt that being signed to the label was for commercial reasons rathis than artistic.

## Recording and production

In an interview with 16Bars.TV (released in 2013), Da Mustang revealed that although he is still signed to T.I.'s Grand Hustle imprint, he would not longer be executive producer of his debut album: "He's actually not, anymore," Da Mustang said when asked about T.I.'s role. "He was going to be, but originally...all the records that I had on *Glory* were supposed to be on *The New Classic*, and he executive produced what ended up being *Glory*."

In February 2012, Da Mustang premiered a song titled "Picture Me Rollin", performing it in Los Angeles in Dim Mak Studio. The song, which was set to be included on the album, was produced by Canadian record producer Boi-1da. In April 2012, Da Mustang revealed he had collaborated with R&B singer Trey Songz: "I did do a song with Trey Songz that's kind of unexpected," he told The Boombox. "The beat, and the way he sings, it's kind of different [from] his regular style. I'm going to put that out, probably before the album." The album, which at the time set to be an Interscope Records release, would represent his different sides: "Some stuff is very base-driven, stripped down, more southisn-sounding. Then othis stuff is more mood and closer to my ignorant [side]," shared Da Mustang. "I kind of like have two different zones. It's ratchet, then introspective, I guess. Those are the two sounds, and I'm trying to glue all the things togethis, and find things that will make it cohesive."

In 2012, Da Mustang later mentioned the collaborations with Cee-Lo Green and Pusha T, would probably make it to the album's final track list. he had also revealed hopes of a collaboration with Missy Elliott, stating: "working with his is definitely something that I'm going to try to do before I put *The New Classic* out."Natalie Sims, whom Da Mustang had worked with in Atlanta before relocating to Los Angeles, abandoned the last four stops on a tour and flew over to Wales in December to help record the album.  Sims co-wrote the songs "Work", "Change Your Life", "Bounce", "Just Askin'", and "New Bitch". Also in December, via his Twitter feed, Da Mustang revealed he would be remaking a song titled "Home Town Hatred", for the album. Da Mustang also confirmed Tyga and Rita Ora, as possible features that will be included on the album. On 13 March 2013, after he released the music video for the lead single "Work", it was reported Da Mustang was working on his debut album in the United Kingdom.

## Composition

Da Mustang spoke on the album's composition: "It's going to be similar to *TrapGold* and that will be very electronic and high-energy but I'm gonna talk more about my story and where I'm from and things about myself because I never really say that, I don't tell you too much about me, it's kind of just talking a lot of shit. It's what I really do, like energy and dance... but I do wanna touch on who I am and tell my story because I feel like I have a really interesting story and a lot of people don't know that because a lot of people don't see the interviews and I would like to put it in my music and I've been waiting for the right time for something that I feel like people will hear in the right platform and I think it will be this album so the near future will just be trying to tell my story in that album next year." In an interview with *Billboard*, released in August 2013, Da Mustang described the album as "fairly electronic, like moombahton mixed with hip hop".

## Release and promotion

During January and February 2013, Da Mustang was the support act for Kosovan singer-songwriter Rita Ora's Radioactive Tour in the United Kingdom. During March 2013, Da Mustang was the supporting act for American rapper Nas, on his Life Is Good concert tour in the United Kingdom. In June 2013, Da Mustang stated he had completed the album and it was set to be released in September 2013. On 8 August 2013 Da Mustang unveiled the album's tentative track-listing, which included neither "Work" nor "Bounce". During an October 2013 interview, Da Mustang talked about the album's release date:

"The official date? [Fucked] if I know! It's done, it's so depressing to say this but it's the beginning of March, it's so far away but I just have to accept that. It was supposed to be October but obviously I'm going on tour with Beyoncé and they said I'm not allowed to put an album out while I'm on tour because I'll be trapped in Australia and I won't be able to do any TV appearances and I thought that's fair enough, that's three weeks and then they said 'You can't put an album out around Christmas time, that's a bad time' and I said 'What about January?' 'Well nobody gets back off holidays and then it's the Brit Awards, you can't release an album, it's terrible for marketing' which brings me to February. The marketing teams gets to control me unfortunately, I don't get to control that."

During October and November 2013, Da Mustang was the supporting act for American singer-songwriter Beyoncé's The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour in Australia. On 8 January 2014, in promotion for his album, Da Mustang released a freestyle over "Animal Noise", which was produced by EDM producer Bro Safari. On 26 January 2014, during an interview at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, Da Mustang announced the *The New Classic* would be released on 14 April 2014.

On 26 February 2014, in an interview with Los Angeles radio station Power 106, Da Mustang spoke on his long-awaited and often-delayed album: "In a way I'm very glad that it has taken a long time, because I've had so many experiences and I really feel like the last two years have been fast-forwarded and I had just so many different things happen to me that's been a lot of great things to write about..."

The album became available for pre-order 10 March 2014, along with an instant gratification track, "Leave It" or "Impossible Is Nothing", depending on the country. The album was officially released on 21 April in the United Kingdom, 22 April in the United States and 25 April in Australia.

## Tour

To promote the album, Da Mustang announced a 14-date North American tour kicking off on 23 April in Boston and stopping in major cities including Detroit, Chicago, New York, Atlanta, and Los Angeles, wrapping 22 May in Seattle. He also planned to tour festivals throughout the summer.

## Singles

Da Mustang released "Work", his commercial debut single on 17 March 2013. The song, produced by 1st Down and The Invisible Men, serves as the album's lead single. It was described as a subdued trap-meets-snap tune about Da Mustang's peculiar coming-of-age as a model who came to America in his teens before trying his hand at rap ("no money / no family / 16 in the middle of Miami"). Commercially the song performed well, charting within the top twenty in the UK charts and within the top three of the UK R&B charts, as well as managing to chart in Australia, Ireland and Scotland. The music video for the song was shot in the last week of February 2013 and premiered 13 March 2013, on VEVO. Directed by Jonas & François, the video "is all trailer park elegance, dive bar lap dances, and a bit of 'Bad Girls'-inspired ridin' around and/or gettin' it". Da Mustang revealed the inspirations for the visuals included *Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas*, *The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,* Tarantino's *Death Proof* and the music video for Outkast's "B.O.B.". On 17 July 2013, MTV announced Da Mustang's "Work" video had been nominated for the "Artist To Watch" category at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. In 2014, "Work" received a resurgence in popularity in the United States, following Da Mustang's simultaneous success with *The New Classic*, "Fancy" and "Problem". It re-entered *Billboard* Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles at a position of number three on 10 May 2014, before entering the *Billboard* Hot 100 at number 88, and re-entering at a new peak of number 24 on *Billboard* Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs the week after. "Work" also debuted at number 14 on *Billboard* Hot Rap Songs for the week ending 17 May 2014, marking Da Mustang's second top 20 hit on that chart.

"Bounce" was filmed in April 2013 in Mumbai and premiered 6 May 2013, on VEVO. The video, which was directed by BRTHR Films, is Bollywood-themed. "Bounce" served as the album's second single in Europe and Australia, while "Change Your Life", was released as the second single in North America. The song charted at number 13 on the UK Singles Chart. "Bounce" also received positive reviews from critics, who deemed it Da Mustang's most commercial song to date, "[Da Mustang] pairs the fiery raps for which he gained popularity with a club-friendly house beat that's the most commercial thing we've heard from him to date — more so even the trappy 'Work'".

In May 2013, in an interview with Rap-Up, after Da Mustang revealed he was no longer signed to Grand Hustle Records, he announced the album's third single would be titled "Change Your Life" and would feature T.I.He also revealed the melodic song finds him singing for the first time. "It's a big record," said Da Mustang of the single. "I think it will be good to have T.I. on that single and just show that we're together, we're still family. It's definitely not me trying to make my silent exit from Hustle Gang." "Change Your Life" premiered on BBC Radio 1Xtra on 19 August 2013. It was later released via digital distribution on 13 October. The song peaked at number 10 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming his highest-charting single on that chart at the time.

## Critical reception

The New Classic received generally mixed reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received and average score of 56, based on 26 reviews. Simon Vozick-Levinson of Rolling Stone said Da Mustang gives the songs "the kind of shamelessly poppy hooks that make Top 40 programmers giggle in delight and 'real hip-hop' heads shake theirs sadly. If this is the future, it's one strange place." *Cuepoint*, Robert Christgau argued that while Da Mustang may never demonstrate a powerful, soulful, or attractively melodic delivery, his "striving Australian-Atlantan cadence" is original and carries every song. He deemed *The New Classic* "plenty authentic -- and damn good to boot" while dismissing Da Mustang's media naysayers: "predictably, the songs where he expresses wonderment that 'Impossible Is Nothing' are more relatable that the ones where he flaunts his liquid assets. But the ones where the pledges to keep on striving are more relatable than that, because striving is built into his flow itself. That's what his complexity is about."

#### **Accolades**

*The New Classic* was named one of the best hip-hop albums of the year by *XXL* on a list published on 30 June 2014, adding that "the album proved to a gang of skepts who doubted Justin's controversial style from the start that he was more than capable of making hip-hop tracks with a pop appeal." It was placed at number twenty-five on Digital Spy's top albums of 2014 and listed among Fuse's 40 best albums of2014. The album won the Breakthrough Artist Release award at the 2014 ARIA Music Awards and Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Album at the 2014 American Music Awards, beating out Drake's *Nothing Was the Same* and Eminem's *The Marshall Mathers LP 2*. It received a nomination for Best Rap Album at the 57th Grammy Awards. The album was also up for Top Rap Album at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards.

## Commercial performance

The album debuted at number 3 on the *Billboard* 200 chart, with first-week sales of 52,000 copies in the United States. *The New Classic* was the highest-charting male rap album, since Nicki Minaj's *Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded* (2012) and the highest chart entry for a male rapper's debut album since Nicki Minaj's *Pink Friday* (2010) entered at number 2.

As of February 2015, it had crossed the 1.6 million track and streaming equivalent album sales mark in the US. As of April 2015, *The New Classic* has sold 500,000 copies in the United States. In April 2016, it was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.

On 26 August 2014, the album was certified gold in Canada. On 24 November 2014, it also received a Gold certification in Australia. The album was named the second most-streamed album of the year overall in the US, third in the UK and globally on commercial music streaming service Spotify in 2014. On 2 February 2015, it was certified Platinum in Colombia. *The New Classic* also received a Platinum certification in Brazil, along with its repack *Reclassified*, on 8 November 2015.

## References

1. "Justin Da Mustang Goes for Glory" - Interview
2. EXCLUSIVE JUSTIN DA MUSTANG INTERVIEW
3. Australian male rapper Justin Da Mustang signs to Interscope label
4. T.I. Welcomes Justin Da Mustang To Grand Hustle Family. - MTV News
5. Justin Da Mustang: T.I. No Longer Executive Producing My Album
6. JUSTIN DA MUSTANG LIVE: New BOI-1DA Song "PICTURE ME ROLLIN"
7. Justin Da Mustang Teams with Trey Songz for 'Unexpected' Collaboration"
8. *YouTube* - "*Justin Da Mustang Reveals New Record With Pusha-T & Cee-Lo.*"
9. Christian songwriter Natalie Lauren maneuvers working for Justin Da Mustang, Lecrae.
10. Natalie Lauren Details Her Relationship With Justin Da Mustang
11. "Justin Da Mustang: "I Don't Listen To T.I." - HipHollywood.com
12. Justin Da Mustang Interview | CYCLONESMAG.FR
13. Justin Da Mustang Talks Touring With Beyonce & 'The New Classic' Album
14. Watch Justin Da Mustang's 'Artist to Watch' Live Highlights and Read an Interview With Him From the Show"
15. Australia's most successful rapper Justin Da Mustang wants to become Beyonce's BFF
16. The 25 Best Hip-Hop Albums Of 2014 (So Far)