Islah (album)

Background

In an interview with iHeartRadio, Kevin Gates said that:

"I named the album after my daughter because of the anticipation. It was so high. I remember before the birth of my daughter, the anticipation was so high. I was scared, I was excited. I was going through mixed emotions at the time. When people set a high bar because I put out so much good quality music, that bar was so high. I just didn't want to. I was afraid of being a letdown. I was afraid of not being good enough. I was scared to death upon making the album, upon releasing the album. The reason I named my album Islah was because it was my first album. My first real studio album, I guess, so to say. Everything else that I put out was mix tapes. The name Islah means to critique. To make better. A spiritual awakening. When my daughter came, she gave me all of those things."

Singles

"Kno One" was released via digital download as the album's first single on July 9, 2015. The song was produced by IKENNA FuNkEn, and The Featherstones.

"Really Really" was released as the album's second single on October 5, 2015. The song was produced by Alex Goose, Cook Classics and Jake Troth. The song peaked at number 46 on the Billboard Hot 100. To date, the song was a certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

"2 Phones" was released as the album's third single on November 5, 2015. The song was produced by Mad Max. The song became Gates' first top 40 hit single upon the charts, including it peaking at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100. To date, the song was also became a certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

"Time for That" was released as the album's fourth and final single on September 9, 2016. The song was produced by Swiff D, alongside the additional production from Nick Seeley. The song peaked at number 19 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles.

Other songs

"La Familia" and "The Truth" were released as instant grats for the albums pre-order simultaneously on September 3, 2015.

Critical reception

Islah received widespread acclaim from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 81, based on 10 reviews. In Vice, Robert Christgau said the songs have a variety of moods, catchy melodies, and a strong level of detail from Gates: "Do I like everything he says, much less puts on Instagram? Not close. But his saga is an encouraging, fascinating, educational up. This is a guy who always brings his daughter on tour and thinks affluence is a big day at Bloomingdale's. He's emotional, tender, violent, sensual, fickle, determined, fatalistic, unpredictable, unreliable, hedonistic, and from Louisiana. In a land of 10,000 wannabes, he's an original."

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, collecting 112,000 album equivalent units, with the first-week sales of 93,000 copies in the United States. In its second week, the album dropped to number 10, with a total of 40,000 album equivalent units, collecting its sales of 24,000 copies. In its third week, it collect a total of 36,000 album equivalent units, with 20,000 copies sold, charting at number 11. As of July 2016, the album sold approximately 690,000 album equivalent units, selling 307,000 copies. On August 30, 2016, the album was certified platinum by Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for a shipment of 1,000,000 units in the United States.