Playing with Fire (Kevin Federline album)

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Playing with Fire
Studio album by Kevin Federline
Released October 31, 2006 (2006-10-31)
Recorded 2005-2006
Genre Pop Rap
Length 49:36
Label Federation Records
Producer Disco D, Notes, J. R. Rotem

Playing with Fire is the debut and only studio album from American personality and rapper Kevin Federline, released on October 31, 2006, in North America, and on November 6, 2006, in the UK. The lyrics were all co-written by Federline.

Federline's album debuted in the Billboard 200 at number 151, with first-week sales reported at about 6,500. According to SoundScan numbers, Playing with Fire was the 16th highest debut out of 19 albums released that week that made the Billboard 200.[1] In its second week, it dropped out of the chart, selling a mere 1,500 copies.[2] The review-tallying website Metacritic.com summarized the reviews they cited as possessing "extreme dislike or disgust"; as of January 2011 it remains the lowest-rated album in their database.[3] According to Ask Billboard, Playing with Fire had sold 16,000 copies as of January 22, 2007.[4]

Contents

[edit] Reception and legacy

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 1/5 star[5]
Entertainment Weekly F[6]
Rolling Stone 1/5 star[7]
Slant Magazine 1/5 star[8]
Now Magazine 1/5 star[9]
Vibe 1/5 star[10]
Billboard.com 1.5/5 stars[11]

Before the album's release, Federline's closing performance of "Lose Control" with an introduction by then-wife Britney Spears was the highlight of the 2006 Teen Choice Awards. The audience gave the performance a standing ovation before and during the ending credits.

Playing with Fire was universally panned by critics. Between Metacritic's founding in 1999 and the album's release, no album had scored below 20, partially because many critics have a minimum 1 of 5 score, which is translated to 20 out of 100 in the website. "Playing with Fire" scored 15, receiving an F from Entertainment Weekly, which translated into a 0/100. "Playing with Fire" is ranked number one on Metacritic's 100 worst-reviewed albums, its 15 score a full thirteen points behind the second-worst reviewed, Hefty Fine by Bloodhound Gang.[12]

One notable exception to the almost universal derision was Ron Harris of the Associated Press, who enthused: “All jokes aside about his climb to fame, Kevin Federline’s album Playing With Fire (Federline Records) is a credible, entertaining debut. I kid you not.... The streets of Fresno County are no joke, and good for Fed-Rock if wants [sic] to boast about surviving that life.”[13]

Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Senior Editor of Allmusic (AMG) was less charitable: “Federline's debut album, Playing with Fire, is indeed bad, but it's bad in an uninteresting way; it's as dull and predictable as its title... he's not nearly as shocking as he'd like to believe or as amusing as his haters would hope: he just comes across as a big boob... It's also a bore because he's a boor, writing endlessly about the same three topics: his alleged superstardom, his hatred of the media, his love of parties and dope... it often sounds like he can't quite understand them."[14]

Said Preston Jones of Slant Magazine, "Federline can only rap about weed, his bank account, his wife, fighting anyone who looks at him sideways, and partying 'til three days from now —- roughly in that order... An oh-so-tiny sliver of myself kind of wanted Playing With Fire to be less aggressively shitty than it is, if only so the restless, rapacious media would ease off this tattered target of its ire—unfortunately, this disc is just as disposable and dumb as you'd expect."[15] Kevin O'Donnell of Rolling Stone called it "reprehensible" and a "tragicomedy";[16] while Chris Willman in Entertainment Weekly proclaimed that it was "a concept album about squandering Britney Spears' fortune."[17]

The "Playing with Fire" concert tour was also a commercial disaster. In New York City, Federline performed before an estimated audience of 300 out of a total seating capacity of 1,500 at Webster Hall, with only one-third of attendees remaining by the end of the concert. Although many of the tickets were given away for free, approximately three-quarters of the seats at his Chicago performance remained empty.[18] Four of the eight scheduled tour performances (Cleveland, Atlantic City, Anaheim, and San Diego) were ultimately cancelled.[19][20]

While performing in WWE, Federline used the song "America's Most Hated" as his entrance music. While feuding with John Cena, he said that his new album would surpass Cena's record sales.

On September 11, 2010, Matthew Wilkening of AOL Radio ranked Federline's cancelled song track, "PopoZão", at #84 on the list of the 100 Worst Songs Ever, stating, "Thankfully, we rejected this crap outright. OK, we broke a man's spirit, but the alternative was much worse."[21]

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Intro"
  2. "The World Is Mine"
  3. "America's Most Hated"
  4. "Snap"
  5. "Lose Control"
  6. "Dance with a Pimp" (featuring Ya Boy)
  7. "Privilege" (featuring Bosko)
  8. "Crazy" (featuring Britney Spears)
  9. "A League of My Own"
  10. "Playing with Fire"
  11. "Caught Up" (Skit)
  12. "Caught Up"
  13. "Kept on Talkin'"/"Middle Finger"

[edit] Samples and interpolations

America's Most Hated

[edit] Cancelled tracks

  • "PopoZão"
  • "Y'all Ain't Ready"
  • "U Should" (featuring Ya Boy and Phat Rat)
  • "Keep Messing with My Family"
  • "Untold Stories"
  • "Rockstar" (Ya Boy featuring K-Fed)
  • "Down South"[22]

[edit] Technical credits

[edit] Chart performance

Chart (2006) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard 200 151
U.S. Billboard Top Heatseekers 2

[edit] References

  1. ^ 'Hannah Montana' Holds Billboard #1; K-Fed's Tough Week Continues | News | VH1.com
  2. ^ VH1.com : Fergie : Justin, Christina, Fergie Take Now 23 To The Top - Rhapsody Music Downloads
  3. ^ metacritic.com, Playing with Fire entry, accessed February 12, 2007
  4. ^ Caulfield, Kevin (January 22, 2007). "Ask Billboard". Archived from the original on Dec 12, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071212032552/http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/ask_bb/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003534638. Retrieved 07 Feb 2007. 
  5. ^ Allmusic review
  6. ^ Entertainment Weekly review
  7. ^ review
  8. ^ Slant Magazine review
  9. ^ Now Magazine review
  10. ^ [Jan Vibe review]
  11. ^ Billboard.com review
  12. ^ http://www.metacritic.com/music/bests/
  13. ^ Surprise! K-Fed's debut CD not all that bad - RAP/HIP-HOP MUSIC - MSNBC.com
  14. ^ AllMusic.com review
  15. ^ Slant Magazine - Music Review: Kevin Federline: Playing With Fire
  16. ^ Playing With Fire : Kevin Federline : Review : Rolling Stone
  17. ^ Playing with Fire (Music - Kevin Federline) | Music Review | Entertainment Weekly
  18. ^ Desperate K-Fed Can't Give It Away - TMZ.com - Entertainment News, Celebrity Gossip and Hollywood Rumors
  19. ^ All Federline Shows Canceled Due to Poor Ticket Sales
  20. ^ Liner Notes: Get out, rock out
  21. ^ Wilkening, Matthew (September 11, 2010). "100 Worst Songs Ever". AOL Radio. http://www.aolradioblog.com/2010/09/11/worst-songs/?icid=main. Retrieved December 20, 2010. 
  22. ^ Kevin Federline: The Luckiest Man Alive

[edit] External links

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