Blaqkout

While putting the finishing touches on Snoop Dogg’s acclaimed Ego Trippin album in early 2008, DJ Quik had an idea. The rapper-producer-musician-entrepreneur wanted to do a full-length album with Kurupt, the Dogg Pound member and Snoop Dogg affiliated-rapper he’d known since Death Row Records’ mid-1990s heyday and had worked with sparingly over the years.{{Cite web|url=http://mvremix.com/urban_blogs/2009/05/18/dj-quik-and-kurupt-blaqkout-coming-june-9th/|title = DJ Quik and Kurupt BlaQKout Coming June 9th}} The inspiration for the name of the album was taken from the Method Man & Redman collaborative albums Blackout! and Blackout! 2 since this was also a collaboration album. It was modified to include the letter Q to represent DJ Quik and the letter K to represent Kurupt.{{Cite web|url=http://www.siccness.net/vb/f6/dj-quik-kurupt-album-works-265138.html|title = Dj Quik & Kurupt Album in the Works}} Kurupt revealed the album was recorded within 6 months.{{Cite web|url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/06/dj-quik-kurupt-talk-tupac-blaqkout-and-rap-history.html|title = DJ Quik & Kurupt talk Tupac and 'BlaQKout'|date = 19 June 2009}}

{{Music ratings

| MC = 83/100[https://www.metacritic.com/music/blaqkout/dj-quik-kurupt Blaqkout Reviews – Metacritic]

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1Score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/blaqkout-mw0000816205|title=BlaQKout - DJ Quik / Kurupt|website=AllMusic|last=Jeffries|first=David|date=June 9, 2009|access-date=May 9, 2025}}

| rev2 = The A.V. Club

| rev2Score = B+{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091221022633/http://www.avclub.com/articles/dj-quik-kurupt-blaqkout,29207/|title=BlaQKout|website=The A.V. Club|last=Matos|first=Michaelangelo|date=June 16, 2009|access-date=May 9, 2025}}

| rev3 = The Boston Phoenix

| rev3Score = {{Rating|4|4}}{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090826155611/http://thephoenix.com/Boston/Music/84995-DJ-Quik-and-Kurupt-BlaQKout|title=DJ Quik and Kurupt - BlaQKout|website=The Boston Phoenix|last=Beck|first=Richard|date=June 15, 2009|access-date=May 9, 2025}}

| rev4 = Christgau’s Consumer Guide

| rev4score = {{Rating-Christgau|cut}}{{cite web|url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?id=6277&name=DJ+Quik+%26+Kurupt|title=DJ Quik & Kurupt|website=Robert Christgau|last=Christgau|first=Robert|date=|access-date=May 9, 2025}}

| rev5 = Cokemachineglow

| rev5score = 70%{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100213084324/http://www.cokemachineglow.com/record_review/4676/djquikkurupt-blaqkout-2009|title=DJ Quik & Kurupt - BlaQKout|website=Cokemachineglow|last=Purdom|first=Clayton|date=July 17, 2009|access-date=May 9, 2025}}

| rev6 = HipHopDX

| rev6Score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100828202514/http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/album-reviews/id.1188/title.kurupt-dj-quik-blaqkout|title=Kurupt & DJ Quik - BlaQKout|website=HipHopDX|last=Paine|first=Jake|date=June 6, 2009|access-date=May 9, 2025}}

| rev7 = Pitchfork

| rev7Score = 8.2/10{{cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13211-blaqkout/|title=BlaQKout - DJ Quik / Kurupt|website=Pitchfork|last=Drake|first=David|date=June 18, 2009|access-date=May 9, 2025}}

| rev8 = RapReviews

| rev8Score = 8.5/10{{cite web|url=https://www.rapreviews.com/archive/2009_06_blaqkout.html|title=DJ Quik & Kurupt :: BlaQKout|website=RapReviews|last=Wallace|first=Emanuel|date=June 23, 2009|access-date=May 9, 2025}}

| rev9 = Tom Hull

| rev9score = B+ ({{Rating-Christgau|hm3}}){{cite web|url=https://tomhull.com/ocston/nm/get_gl.php?n=DJ+Quik|title=Grade List: DJ Quik|website=Tom Hull – on the Web|last=Hull|first=Tom|access-date=May 9, 2025}}

| rev10 = URB

| rev10Score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090630052323/http://www.urb.com/reviews/cd/feature.php?ReviewId=1229|title=DJ Quik & Kurupt :: BlaQKout|website=URB|last=Vidal|first=Dan|date=June 10, 2009|access-date=May 9, 2025}}

}}

Blaqkout received widespread critical acclaim from contemporary music critics. AllMusic rated the album with 3 and a half stars and wrote Just like the similarly titled 2009 album from Method Man and Redman, DJ Quik and Kurupt's Blaqkout is a throwback triumph that succeeds thanks to the hip-hop veterans' superior chemistry and informal attitude. Anyone expecting a courageous game changer will be disappointed by all the swaggering, sexual bragging, and irresponsible pimping the duo frontload onto the effort, but coming to terms with the overall weekend attitude is quick and easy, thanks to rock-solid hooks and Quik's production. On "Ohh!" he creates a head-bobbing backing track out of chopped-up vocals and Smooth jazz keyboards, offering a G-funk alternative to Timbaland's "Indian Flute." Key track "Do You Know" finds him blending blissed-out ambience and a Soul II Soul hook, but "F**k Y'All" employs Quik's classic formula with that West Coast funk over thumping bass.{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/blaqkout-mw0000816205|title = BlaQKout - DJ Quik, Kurupt | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic|website = AllMusic}} The A.V. Club rated the album with a B+ and wrote DJ Quik has long been one of the most consistent producers in Hip hop, as well as a skilled (though sometimes ridiculously sexist) MC. But he’s seldom been in the lean, adventurous form he explores on BlaQKout, a collaboration with Dogg Pound member Kurupt. Quik’s tracks are head-turning throughout: The blistering single “9X Outta 10” features Kurupt at his steeliest and takes the minimal slam-beats aesthetic of Clipse’s 2002 hit “Grindin'” to a lush new place, especially when a couple of cut-up female vocals enter the mix. “Do You Know” is cinematic soul with his usual easy-gliding groove slipping around under it; “Ohh!” calls up early-’80s Zapp and early-’00s 2-step garage (more cut-up vocals); North African overtones spice the heavy stomp of “Hey Playa (Moroccan Blues).” The lyrics aren’t going to win awards for thematic originality, and there’s an especially egregious spoken-word bit poorly justifying the excessive use of the word “bitch,” but most of the time, Quik and Kurupt sound invigorated by each other. Or as Quik ends a verse in “Hey Playa,” in slow motion, “I’m that much quicker.”{{Cite web|url=https://www.avclub.com/articles/dj-quik-kurupt-blaqkout,29207/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091221022633/http://www.avclub.com/articles/dj-quik-kurupt-blaqkout,29207/|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 21, 2009|title = DJ Quik & Kurupt: BlaQKout|website = The A.V. Club}} The Phoenix gave the album 4/4 stars and wrote LA hip-hop has two threads, and DJ Quik pulls both of them. The first is g-funk, a production style that relies on deep, open grooves and an endless parade of funk samples. The second is West Coast backpacker rap, which is what happens when guys with enormous vocabularies smoke a lot of weed. The fact that Quik has inhabited both worlds for two decades is a pretty nifty trick: he can go "out there" without disappearing completely, and he can talk about problems in the ghetto without sounding as if he lived at the Gap. On BlaQKout, his collaboration with the Philadelphia/LA MC Kurupt, his sonics range far and wide. "Do You Know" has a glamorous sweep that suggests something like wise retrospection, and it leads right into "Watcha Wan Do," which could be the funky soundtrack to a Zelda game. Eventually, there's "9X Outta 10," which sounds as if somebody had handed turntables to the Terminator. This one has Kurupt rapping as if he were hypnotized — "It's gonna start again where it started at/Ended up, and restart again." It all might seem like preamble when you finally get to "Jupiter's Critic and the Mind of Mars," which may be the weirdest slice of rap genius since "A Milli." Quik has some of Prince's little-guy arrogance, and here it's nearly schizoid: "It's character, you miss it?/It's America, you visit?/Did you get on a boat without a ticket?" Uh, yes? What? This makes him sound crazier than he actually is, though. Quik knows what he's doing. You can hear it on every track of this symphonic mini-masterpiece.{{cite web |url=http://thephoenix.com/Boston/Music/84995-DJ-Quik-and-Kurupt-BlaQKout/ |title=The Phoenix > CD Reviews > DJ Quik and Kurupt | BlaQKout |accessdate=2009-06-19 |url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090826155611/http://thephoenix.com/Boston/Music/84995-DJ-Quik-and-Kurupt-BlaQKout |archivedate=2009-08-26 }}

The album debuted at number sixty-one on the Billboard 200, selling 8,800 copies in its first week. It also entered at number six on Billboard's Top Rap Albums, number eleven on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and number nine on Independent Albums. In its second week, it dropped to number one-hundred-ninety-one on the Billboard 200 with sales of 3,000.{{Cite web |url=http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.9376/title.hip-hop-album-sales-the-week-ending-6-21-2009 |title=Hip Hop Album Sales: The Week Ending 6/21/2009 | Get the Latest Hip Hop News, Rap News & Hip Hop Album Sales | HipHop DX |access-date=2013-01-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120925073622/http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.9376/title.hip-hop-album-sales-the-week-ending-6-21-2009 |archive-date=2012-09-25 |url-status=dead }} As of April 24, 2012, BlaQKout has sold 30,000 copies in the United States.{{Cite web|url=http://www.complex.com/music/2012/04/dj-quik-tells-all-the-stories-behind-his-classic-records/do-you-know|title=DJ Quik Tells All: The Stories Behind his Classic Records|website=Complex Networks}}

BlaQKout appeared on several critics' year-end top albums lists. Rhapsody deemed it the 20th best album of 2009.[http://blog.rhapsody.com/2009/12/best-albums-of-2009.html The 25 Best Albums of 2009] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100115060622/http://blog.rhapsody.com/2009/12/best-albums-of-2009.html |date=January 15, 2010 }} Referenced July 31, 2010 The album was also ranked at number 25 by Pitchfork Media.{{Cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/7744-the-top-50-albums-of-2009/3/|title = The Top 50 Albums of 2009 - Page 3|website = Pitchfork}} The Factual Opinion ranked the album at number 15.{{Cite web|url=http://www.factualopinion.com/the_factual_opinion/2009/12/the-top-30-albums-of-2009-15.html|title = The Top 30 Albums of 2009: # 15}}

Later DJ Quik said he's very pleased with the album: "I love Blaqkout. We only sold a measly 30,000 records, no marketing. No international distribution because Fontana doesn't have that, my distributor. That record was done for the sake of art. Not even hip-hop, just art. New gear, new Pro Tools system. New recording technique. New microphones, new samples. Let's go! If you don't mind, it's not going to be a gangster rap record. It's going to be eclectic, and avant-garde, and enigmatic and all this weird shit. It's just gonna be some funky new shit. He (Kurupt) was like, 'Push the button.' Every time I pushed the button, we'd be in there quirk-ing out, funking out. And I kept my sound; it's still raw, still funky. At the same time, Kurupt sounds great, I sound pretty good I think. We did a record that is for the sake of music. It makes sense."{{Cite web|url=https://www.complex.com/music/2012/04/dj-quik-tells-all-the-stories-behind-his-classic-records/do-you-know|title = DJ Quik Tells All: The Stories Behind his Classic Records|website = Complex Networks}}

{{Track listing

| extra_column = Producer(s)

| title1 = BlaQKout

| writer1 = {{hlist|David Blake|Ricardo Brown}}

| extra1 = DJ Quik

| length1 = {{duration|m=3|s=1}}

| title2 = Cream n Ya Panties

| note2 = featuring Tre Mak

| writer2 = {{hlist|Blake|Brown|Cole}}

| extra2 = DJ Quik

| length2 = {{duration|m=4|s=5}}

| title3 = Do You Know

| writer3 = {{hlist|Blake|Brown|Nellee Hooper|Simon Law|Timothy Christian Riley|Trevor Romeo|Raphael Saadiq|Caron Wheeler|D'wayne Wiggins}}

| extra3 = DJ Quik

| length3 = {{duration|m=3|s=28}}

| title4 = Whatcha Wan Do

| note4 = featuring Problem and Yo-Yo

| writer4 = {{hlist|Blake|Brown|Jason Martin|Yolanda Whittaker}}

| extra4 = DJ Quik

| length4 = {{duration|m=3|s=33}}

| title5 = Ohh!

| writer5 = {{hlist|Blake|Brown}}

| extra5 = DJ Quik

| length5 = {{duration|m=3|s=15}}

| title6 = Fuck Y'all

| note6 = featuring Puff Johnson

| writer6 = {{hlist|Blake|Brown|Ewanya Johnson}}

| extra6 = DJ Quik

| length6 = {{duration|m=3|s=14}}

| title7 = Hey Playa (Moroccan Blues)

| writer7 = {{hlist|Blake|Brown}}

| extra7 = DJ Quik

| length7 = {{duration|m=4|s=21}}

| title8 = Exodus

| writer8 = {{hlist|Blake|Brown}}

| extra8 = DJ Quik

| length8 = {{duration|m=3|s=2}}

| title9 = 9x's Outta 10

| writer9 = {{hlist|Blake|Brown}}

| extra9 = DJ Quik

| length9 = {{duration|m=2|s=55}}

| title10 = Jupiter's Critic & the Mind of Mars

| writer10 = {{hlist|Blake|Brown}}

| extra10 = DJ Quik

| length10 = {{duration|m=2|s=28}}

| title11 = The Appeal

| writer11 = {{hlist|Blake|Brown|Terrace Martin}}

| extra11 = {{hlist|DJ Quik|Terrace Martin{{ref|a|[a]}}}}

| length11 = {{duration|m=3|s=37}}

| title12 = Problem: The B Stands for Beautiful

| writer12 = {{hlist|Blake|Brown|Martin}}

| extra12 = DJ Quik

| length12 = {{duration|m=1|s=20}}

| title13 = Whatcha Wan Do

| note13 = Alternative Version) (featuring Problem and Yo-Yo

| writer13 = {{hlist|Blake|Brown|Martin|Whittaker}}

| extra13 = DJ Quik

| length13 = {{duration|m=3|s=34}}

| total_length = {{duration|m=41|s=53}}

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = iTunes bonus track

| extra_column = Producer(s)

| title14 = Bees to the Honey

| writer14 = {{hlist|Blake|Brown}}

| extra14 = DJ Quik

| length14 = {{duration|m=3|s=58}}

| total_length = {{duration|m=45|s=51}}

}}

;Notes

• {{sup|{{note|a|[a]}}}} signifies a co-producer

;Sample credits

• "Do You Know" contains samples of "Anniversary" by Tony! Toni! Toné! and "Back to Life (However Do You Want Me)" by Soul II Soul

Credits for Blaqkout adapted from liner notes.{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/blaqkout-mw0000816205/credits|title=BlaQKout - DJ Quik, Kurupt | Credits | AllMusic|website=AllMusic}}

{{col-begin}}

{{col-2}}

• Desiree Anderson – vocals
• George Archie – keyboard
• Robert Bacon, Jr. – guitar
• Keith Crouch – moog synthesizer, synthesizer bass
• DJ Quik – audio production, drums, keyboards, mixing, percussion, sequencers, synthesizer, vocals
• Scott Elgin – audio engineer
• Joshua Barner – audio engineer
• Dave Foreman – bass, guitar
• Shawn Germany – audio engineer

{{col-2}}

• Puff Johnson – vocals
• Kurupt – vocals
• Terrace Martin – audio production
• Tai "Missy" Phillips – vocals
• Problem – vocals
• John T. Smith – guitar
• Tre Mak – vocals
• Derrick Walker – percussion
• Yolanda Whittaker – vocals

{{col-end}}

{{col-begin}}

{{col-2}}

{{col-end}}

{{reflist|2}}

{{DJ Quik}}

{{Kurupt}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:2009 albums

Category:DJ Quik albums

Category:Kurupt albums

Category:Albums produced by DJ Quik

Category:Albums produced by Terrace Martin

Category:Mad Science Recordings albums