U.S.A. (United State of Atlanta) (stylized on the cover as U.nited S.tate of A.tlanta) is the fourth studio album by the American hip hop duo Ying Yang Twins. It was released on June 28, 2005 via ColliPark Music and TVT Records. A chopped and screwed version done by Michael "5000" Watts was released later the same year.
In the United States, the album debuted at number #2 on the Billboard 200 and atop the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, with approximately 201,000 copies sold in the first week released, marking the duo's highest-charting album to date.[1] The album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America on August 25, 2005 with an excess of one million copies sold.
The album was supported with singles: "Wait (The Whisper Song)", "Badd", "Shake" and "Bedroom Boom". Mr. Pollipark's remix of Britney Spears' "(I Got That) Boom Boom" was initially going to appear on the album but did not make the final cut.
U.nited S.tate of A.tlanta was met with generally favourable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 76 based on fifteen reviews.[2]
Nick Marino of Entertainment Weekly gave the album "A–" rating, saying it "prove[s] they have something in common with Common: they can be conscious without being soft".[4]Soren Baker of Los Angeles Times called it Ying Yang Twins' "most ambitious album".[7] Tom Breihan of Pitchfork found it "a good-not-great Southern rap album, overlong and weighted down by too many inept slow tracks but boasting enough furious, kinetic dance tracks to make it worth your money".[8]Spin gave the album "B" rating, calling it "a deliriously twerked, end-of-days house party".[12]
AllMusic's David Jeffries wrote: "at 77 minutes and 23 tracks, the sprawling album is weighed down by some filler and redundant numbers, but as a step forward for a party band riding on whatever the Dirty South sound of the moment is, it's surprisingly bold and accomplished".[3] Lee Henderson of PopMatters called it "Black Eyed Peas with swear words".[9]Christian Hoard of Rolling Stone resumed: "at seventy-seven minutes, their new disc is long on crunked-out filler, but there are plenty of hook-filled bangers and club-ready sex rhymes".[11]
RapReviews contributor gave the album mixed review, stating "it's no secret the Twins get gully. Fortunately for listeners, it's very contagious. Unfortunately, it comes at the expense of lyrical content".[10]
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