I Told You

Recording and production

In an interview with HotNewHipHop, Lanez spoke on the album: "I was tryna come up with a title for mad long and that what was kind of slowing me down cause I didn't want to make music off the wrong title... I might fuck around and not put no features on it. It has to have features that I can put on it and then there's those days where I'm like 'you know, I don't really need any features on it'. I prefer albums in the 10-12 [track list range], you know that 18 be too long sometime because sometimes I wanna listen to an album from top to front and 18 songs is like 70 minutes of music. That's too much for me to comprehend and understand and I really want people to look at the musicalities of what we're putting out as far as the product and how good it is."

Release and promotion

In August 2015, Lanez performed on the Mac Miller's GO:OD AM Tour. On October 15, 2015, Lanez announced that he will be headlining "The Swavenation Tour" with fellow American rapper Boogie. On December 25, 2015, these mixtapes such as Chixtape III and The New Toronto were promoted as the prelude for his major-label debut album.

On April 1, 2016, Lanez and fellow American rapper ASAP Ferg announced that they will be performing in "The Level Up Tour", setting up the two to performed in a special joint set, trading off between their own tracks and collaborations. On June 10, 2016, Lanez revealed the title to the album and tweeted, "The Album is coming this summer".

On July 7, 2016, Lanez announced that he will be headlining the I Told You tour, to support the album. The tour started on July 22, in WayHome Music & Arts Festival in Oro-Medonte, Ontario. Lanez will be traveling across the North America through December 2016, with the stops at Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits, Made in America, and the Mad Decent Block Party.

Singles

On July 15, 2015, Lanez released the first single from the album, called "Say It". The song was produced by Pop and Toro. The music video was released on August 11, 2015. The song peaked at number 23 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and number 10 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts. On July 29, 2016, Lanez released the second single from the album, called "Luv" on iTunes. The song was produced by Cashmere Cat and Benny Blanco. The song peaked at number 19 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and number 9 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts.

Critical reception

The album received generally positive reviews. HotNewHipHop, who collectively rated the album an 80, described the album as an "ambitious and lavish" project that showed that Lanez's future seemed "only brighter from here". Kevin Ritchie of Now was also positive towards the project, saying that the album made "a convincing case for Lanez's pop appeal".

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number 4 on the Billboard 200 with sales of 53,000 units, with streaming added.

Track listing

Note: The album includes a skit between each track.