Late Nights

Background

At first, the album was originally called Thumpy Johnson and was supposed to be released in 2013. In August 2014, Jeremih announced that he was changing the title of the album to Late Nights: The Album as the sequel to his mixtape Late Nights with Jeremih that was released in 2012. In an XXL interview, he explained why he decided to change the title:

"The last body of work I put out was Late Nights," Jeremih said. "I still feel like how I was feeling when I recorded that. I was traveling, up late nights, recording all the time. It just felt like every record was catering to… I imagined if it was a big bed in the club, everybody would be in one big ass orgy off of all the songs. My first two albums I was making sad songs. I don’t feel like that no more. I was in a relationship then. I’m single as hell right now. You’re getting the best of my last single years".

On August 4, 2014, Jeremih released a mixtape called N.O.M.A. (Not On My Album) to show all the songs he recorded that weren't going to be on the album. One song on the mixtape called "Can't Go No Mo" featuring Juicy J was originally meant to be on the track list of Late Nights. In an interview with Billboard, Jeremih explains how his personal issues is the reason for the album delays. He says:

"I blame myself". I had a video scheduled. I just didn't show up to it because of..." he started, choosing not to finish his thought. "I'm not going to point my finger at somebody else at this point". Jeremih then pointed to some personal troubles he was having with the mother of his child. "I stopped caring about being Jeremih over the last few months," he said. "A lot of people don't know I have a two-year-old son. His mom wasn't allowing me to see him, and it was messing with me. I was internally unbalanced. But I just got out of that trial and I won".

Jeremih also expressed some frustration with his label. "Def Jam is hesitating and not being on my side," he explained. "I see other artists and how they're supported. It's hard when I'm on a roster with Rihanna, Rick Ross and Kanye West".

On May 15, 2015, in a separate interview with Billboard, producer and frequent Jeremih collaborator Mick Schultz confirmed that the originally released track listing and album cover had been changed and was no longer accurate.

On November 21, 2015, the official album artwork, release date and track list was leaked by music streaming service Deezer. The following day, snippets of the album were leaked to the internet.

Singles

The first single, "Don't Tell 'Em" featuring YG was released on June 6, 2014. The single became his third top 10 hit and went double platinum. The second single, "Planez" featuring J. Cole was released on January 22, 2015. The single reached top 10 on urban radio and went Platinum. "Oui" was released as the third single from the album on October 30, 2015. The single reached number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 becoming his fourth top 20 hit as lead artist. "Pass Dat" was released as a promotional single, along with the album's pre-order on December 1, 2015. The track was sent to urban contemporary radio on April 12, 2016 as the fourth single.

The first promotional single "Tonight Belongs to U!" featuring Flo Rida was released on April 21, 2015. The second promotional single, "Royalty" featuring Big Sean and Future was released October 29, 2015. The third promotional single is "Peace Sign" featuring Fabolous and Red Cafe was released November 18, 2015. Jeremih expressed in an interview with German music journalist Malcolm Ohanwe, that he had plans to issue "Impatient" with Ty Dolla Sign as a single.

Critical reception

Upon release, Late Nights received widespread acclaim from music critics. Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100, to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 78, based on seven reviews. AllMusic editor Andy Kellman praised the album saying, Late Nights is together, neither tentative nor overcooked. It's apparently truer to Jeremih's vision than his first two albums, though only the most attentive listening reveals an artist with more dimensions – or more vocal ability – than the one who sang "Birthday Sex" and "Down on Me."

Commercial performance

Late Nights debuted at number 42 on the US Billboard 200, selling 19,000 album equivalent units, and 10,000 pure album copies. The album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on March 15, 2016, after surpassing sales of 500,000 album equivalent units.

Track listing

Credits adapted from Jeremih's official website.

Notes

Sample credits