Wakedafucup

Background

On December 31, 2013, it was announced that their sixth studio album would be titled Wakedafucup. In a February 2014, interview with HipHopDX, Onyx spoke about collaborating with ASAP Ferg on "We Don't Fuckin Care", saying: "It’s crazy how we connected with him. His DJ is my man, Hectic. And Hectic has been down with Onyx since I did my Firestarr album. I did my album in his bathroom, and we was rockin’. He rocks with them, and said that A$AP Ferg was doing a mixtape called Trap Lord. He wanted us to jump on the mixtape, and then the mixtape turned out to be an album. So in return—just out of respect—it was like, “Hey we’ll jump on a joint, and then you can jump on [“We Don’t Fucking Care”] on our album.” So it was just a mutual respect. I always liked the whole A$AP Mob and what they represent, because they reminded me of Onyx when I first saw them. They were kind of dark and mystic in a way, and they were doing something different when Hip Hop wasn’t doing what they were doing. When we first came out, nobody was doing it the way we did it. We had our own clothing line, our own style and our own swag with the whole shit. Further down the line, A$AP is gonna be like that. They’re going to leave their own mark in Hip Hop as far as fashion and what they’re doing. So A$AP and Onyx going together filled in a generation gap, and it made sense."

They also spoke about the album, saying: "I think this Wakedafucup album with these niggas from Germany is gonna set the fuse off for the New York sound again. I think this is where it’s at for Hip Hop. You got other niggas coming out representing that New York sound, and this is gonna be the start of it. That’s why we’re dropping it on March 9—which is the anniversary of Biggie’s death."

Singles

On February 11, 2014, the album's first single "Wakedafucup" featuring Dope D.O.D. was released. On February 13, 2014, the music video for "Wakedafucup" featuring Dope D.O.D. was released.

Critical response

Wakedafucup was met with generally positive reviews from music critics. Homer Johnsen of HipHopDX gave the album three and a half stars out of five, saying "Overall Wakedafucup is multi-faceted. It has street records (“Whut Whut”), Horrorcore verses and inclinations (“Wakedafucup”), first person narratives (“Hustlin Hour”), storytelling (“Trust No Bitch”) and conscious Rap (“One 4 Da Team”). There is a lot going on, but it’s stays digestible as a whole, and never loses sight of itself. It’s also a welcome album during a time in which comparable street records are few and far between. Veterans like U-God of the Wu-Tang Clan and Diddy have said Hip Hop is getting too soft, so to see Onyx drop a record that’s truer to its roots than most similar Rap music these days is both welcome and refreshing." Kellan Miller of XXL gave the album an XL rating, saying "With Wakedafucup, Onyx have followed in the footsteps of what made the recent studio releases of their New York contemporaries Nas and Jay successful: having fun. It just so happens that Onyx’s brand of fun has nothing to do with popping Molly or even rocking Tom Ford, but rather rocking the eardrums with psychotic intensity. Saving the best for last, the album concludes with “Turndafucup,” a record that could just as easily been dubbed “Slam Part 2” because it is just that good. If you’ve been sleeping on Onyx the last decade or so, it’s clearly time to wakedafucup."

Grant Jones of RapReviews gave the album an eight out of ten, saying "This is brutal listening, yet never boring and that is testament to both Onyx's energetic displays and Snowgoons willingness to provide understated production where necessary, rather than simply providing bangers on every song. Given how well this has been received by the fans, it's likely a sequel may be in order, but the only way this could be outdone is by gathering Onyx and M.O.P. together for a collaborative project - produced exclusively by Snowgoons. Now that really would make people wake the fuck up!"

In June 2014, XXL named it was one of the best hip-hop albums of 2014 to that point.

Track listing