White Van Music
| White Van Music | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | October 7, 2008 | |||
| Genre | Hip hop | |||
| Length | 66:26 | |||
| Label | Rhymesayers Entertainment | |||
| Producer | Jake One | |||
| Jake One chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from White Van Music | ||||
| ||||
White Van Music is the debut studio album by American hip hop producer Jake One. It was released on Rhymesayers Entertainment on October 7, 2008.[1] It peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart,[2] number 49 on the Independent Albums chart,[3] and number 94 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.[4]
Background
[edit]Jake One started work on the album in 2006. According to him, the album was titled after a song he had made for a friend titled "In My White Van".[5]
In 2025, he discussed the album in an interview with StudioTalks:[6]
"White Van Music was my reaction to being signed to G-Unit and focusing all my energy on that at the time. I got burnt out making the beats they liked—specifically, repetitive one-bar loop-type beats. It was cool and fun for a while, but it wasn’t what I really wanted to do. I didn’t see myself as one of those guys making strictly commercial music. That wasn’t my goal.
With White Van Music, I wanted to pull together all of my influences and create something that felt cool and different to me. That’s why you have such a wide variety of artists on the album—like Brother Ali, Young Buck, MF Doom, and Keak Da Sneak. Back then, rap was very divided. You were either into East Coast hip-hop, underground rap, or commercial acts like Nelly and Chingy. But I liked pieces of all of it. Sure, I had preferences, but I wanted the album to reflect that mix and show I could bring it all together in a cohesive way.
My biggest inspiration for the album was Pete Rock’s Soul Survivor. To me, that’s still the best producer album of its time. A lot of producer albums feel like a collection of throwaway tracks from other projects, and sometimes that’s unavoidable. But that’s not what I was aiming for. I wanted to make something deliberate and original. [...] Overall, it was a special project for me. I still meet people who tell me how much they love the album, and that means a lot. It didn’t make me much money, but it helped grow my name and establish my identity as a producer. That was the point of it, and I think it achieved that."
Critical reception
[edit]| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 73/100[7] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | favorable[8] |
| Exclaim! | mixed[9] |
| HipHopDX | 4.0/5[10] |
| Pitchfork | 7.6/10[11] |
| RapReviews.com | 8/10[12] |
| Spin | favorable[13] |
| XLR8R | 7/10[14] |
At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, White Van Music received an average score of 73, based on 8 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[7]
Nate Patrin of Pitchfork gave the album a 7.6 out of 10, commenting that "the quality of the beats easily overcomes the somewhat odd novelty of hearing backpackers in close quarters with hardcore rappers, and with each listen it starts feeling more and more natural to have an all-star CD where M.O.P. and Little Brother both have hot tracks."[11] Omar Mouallem of Exclaim! wrote, "Ultimately what it accomplishes (aside from a consistently and continuously good listen) is solidify Rhymesayers Entertainment as a serious label no longer limited to underground status."[9]
HipHopDX included White Van Music on the "Top 25 Hip Hop Albums of 2008" list.[15]
Jeff Weiss of LA Weekly placed "Get 'Er Done" at number 38 on the "50 Best Hip-Hop Songs of 2008" list.[16]
Track listing
[edit]| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "I'm Coming" (featuring Black Milk and Nottz) | 3:07 |
| 2. | "Gangsta Boy" (featuring M.O.P.) | 3:11 |
| 3. | "The Truth" (featuring Freeway and Brother Ali) | 3:34 |
| 4. | "Turn It Down" | 0:50 |
| 5. | "God Like" (featuring D. Black) | 2:29 |
| 6. | "Bless the Child" (featuring Little Brother) | 4:22 |
| 7. | "Oh Really" (featuring Posdnuos and Slug) | 2:48 |
| 8. | "Hi" | 0:48 |
| 9. | "Trap Door" (featuring MF Doom) | 2:14 |
| 10. | "Dead Wrong" (featuring Young Buck) | 3:36 |
| 11. | "Kissin' the Curb" (featuring Bishop Lamont and Busta Rhymes) | 3:35 |
| 12. | "How We Ride" (featuring Freeway) | 4:37 |
| 13. | "White Van" (featuring The Alchemist, Evidence, and Prodigy) | 3:16 |
| 14. | "Big Homie Style" (featuring J. Pinder, GMK, and Spaceman) | 4:24 |
| 15. | "Scared" (featuring Blueprint) | 2:29 |
| 16. | "Great Sound" | 1:03 |
| 17. | "Get 'Er Done" (featuring MF Doom) | 2:24 |
| 18. | "Feelin' My Shit" (featuring Casual) | 3:23 |
| 19. | "Soil Raps" (featuring Keak da Sneak) | 4:07 |
| 20. | "Glow" (featuring Elzhi and Royce da 5'9") | 3:08 |
| 21. | "R.I.P." | 1:38 |
| 22. | "Home" (featuring Vitamin D, C Note, Maine, and Ish) | 5:21 |
| Total length: | 66:26 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 23. | "Hurt U" (featuring Pharoahe Monch and Kardinal Offishall) | 3:38 |
| Total length: | 70:04 | |
Charts
[edit]| Chart (2008) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard)[2] | 10 |
| US Independent Albums (Billboard)[3] | 49 |
| US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[4] | 94 |
References
[edit]- ^ "Jake One's White Van Music". XXL. September 29, 2008. Archived from the original on November 9, 2022. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
- ^ a b "Heatseekers Albums: The Week of October 25, 2008". Billboard. Archived from the original on September 19, 2015. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
- ^ a b "Independent Albums: The Week of October 25, 2008". Billboard. Archived from the original on March 28, 2018. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
- ^ a b "Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums: The Week of October 25, 2008". Billboard. Archived from the original on February 10, 2022. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
- ^ Hay, Jonathan (January 2009). "Jake One Interview (January 2009)". dubcnn.com. Retrieved 2025-02-15.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Aroch, Andrej (February 5, 2025). "Jake One – "My goal has always been to create music where you can't tell whether it uses a sample or not"". StudioTalks. Retrieved 2025-02-15.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b "White Van Music by Jake One". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
- ^ Rinaldi, Matt (October 23, 2008). "White Van Music - Jake One". AllMusic. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
- ^ a b Mouallem, Omar (November 2008). "Jake One - White Van Music". Exclaim!. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
- ^ J-23 (October 8, 2008). "Jake One - White Van Music". HipHopDX. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ a b Patrin, Nate (October 30, 2008). "Jake One: White Van Music". Pitchfork. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
- ^ Hernandez, Pedro (October 28, 2008). "Jake One :: White Van Music :: Rhymesayers Entertainment". RapReviews.com. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
- ^ Golianopoulos, Thomas (November 6, 2008). "Jake One, 'White Van Music' (Rhymesayers)". Spin. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
- ^ Maharaj, Zoneil (November 27, 2008). "White Van Music". XLR8R. Archived from the original on September 26, 2015. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
- ^ "The Top 25 Hip Hop Albums Of 2008". HipHopDX. December 29, 2008. Archived from the original on May 13, 2017. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
- ^ Weiss, Jeff (December 16, 2008). "Weiss' 50 Best Hip-Hop Songs of 2008 (#50-26)". LA Weekly. Archived from the original on November 30, 2017. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
External links
[edit]- White Van Music at Discogs (list of releases)
