Ambition is the second studio album

Studio album

A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 by hip hop

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 recording artist Wale

Wale (rapper)

Wale Victor Folarin , better known by his stage name Wale , is an American rapper from Washington, D.C. Wale was born to Nigerian parents. He rose to prominence in 2006, when his song "Dig Dug " became popular in his hometown. Wale became locally recognized and continued recording music for the...

, released November 1, 2011 via Maybach Music Group

Maybach Music Group

Maybach Music Group is a record label founded by Rick Ross, currently distributed by Warner Bros. Records, which took over distribution following the expiration of a deal with Def Jam Recordings....

 and Warner Bros. Records

Warner Bros. Records

Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...

.

Background

On July 20, 2011 Wale began releasing video blogs titled "#NODAYSOFF VLOG: WALE - THE MAKING OF 'AMBITION'" through the Maybach Music Group Channel. On August 22nd, 2011 in a interview with MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

 Wale revealed he and Kid Cudi

Kid Cudi

Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi , better known by his stage name Kid Cudi , sometimes stylized KiD CuDi, is an American rapper, singer and actor. He first gained major attention after the release of his debut mixtape A Kid Named Cudi. In 2009, his single "Day 'n' Nite" reached the top five of the...

 reconciled and were working on a song for the album, tentatively titled "Focused". This will be the first time Wale and Kid Cudi have collaborated musically since the release of "Is There Any Love?" in 2008. The two were previously not working together, because of a small falling-out that they had in September 2010. Guests for the album are Rick Ross

Rick Ross (rapper)

William Leonard Roberts II , better known by his stage name Rick Ross, is an American rapper. He derived his stage name from the drug trafficker "Freeway" Ricky Ross, to whom he has no connection...

, Lloyd

Lloyd (singer)

Lloyd Polite, Jr. , who performs under the mononym Lloyd, is an American R&B recording artist, who experienced as a member of the group N-Toon before embarking on a solo career in 2004....

, Ne-Yo

Ne-Yo

Shaffer Chimere Smith, Jr. , better known by his stage name Ne-Yo, is an American pop and R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, dancer and actor. Beginning his career as a songwriter, Ne-Yo penned the hit "Let Me Love You" for singer Mario...

, Big Sean

Big Sean

Sean Michael Anderson , better known by his stage name Big Sean, is an American rapper. Big Sean signed with Kanye West's G.O.O.D...

, Miguel

Miguel (singer)

Miguel Jontel Pimentel, who performs under the mononym Miguel, is an American recording artist, songwriter and producer. Signed to Jive Records in 2007, Miguel released his debut album, All I Want Is You, in November 2010. The album was preceded by the release of the single "All I Want Is You",...

, Meek Mill, Kid Cudi

Kid Cudi

Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi , better known by his stage name Kid Cudi , sometimes stylized KiD CuDi, is an American rapper, singer and actor. He first gained major attention after the release of his debut mixtape A Kid Named Cudi. In 2009, his single "Day 'n' Nite" reached the top five of the...

, and Jeremih

Jeremih

Jeremiah Felton who performs under the mononym Jeremih , is an American recording artist and producer signed to Def Jam Recordings. Jeremih's debut single, "Birthday Sex" , peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100...

. On September 28, 2011, through his Twitter

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

 feed, Wale announced he officially completed the album.

Promotion and singles

On August 17, 2011 Wale released a mixtape

Mixtape

A Mix Tape or Mixed Tape is a compilation of songs recorded in a specific order, traditionally onto an audio Compact Cassette.A Mix Tape, which usually reflects the musical tastes of its compiler, can range from a casually selected list of favorite songs, to a conceptual mix of songs linked by a...

 titled The Eleven One Eleven Theory, in reference to Ambition's release date. The mixtape features production from DJ Toomp

DJ Toomp

Aldrin Davis, better known as DJ Toomp, is an award-winning American record producer and DJ who works in Atlanta, Georgia. In the late 1980s he was MC Shy-D's DJ and went on tour with him and the 2 Live Crew as they performed at various venues across the country with other artists such as N.W.A...

, Sonny Digital, and Tone P, and features songs such as "Bait", "Chain Music" and the single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 "That Way". To promote Ambition, Wale is going on the Ambition Tour. It is set to start October 2, 2011 in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...

 and end December 8, 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

. The tour will feature Black Cobain from The Board Administration

The Board Administration

The Board Administration is a DC based record label founded by Marketing Executive Le’Greg O. Harrison and Roc Nation-Maybach Music Group artist Wale Folarin....

 as the opening act.

The first promotional second single "Chain Music" was released to digital retailers on September 6, 2011. The second promotional single "Bait" released to digital retailers on September 6, 2011. The first official single "Lotus Flower Bomb" feauting artist Miguel

Miguel (singer)

Miguel Jontel Pimentel, who performs under the mononym Miguel, is an American recording artist, songwriter and producer. Signed to Jive Records in 2007, Miguel released his debut album, All I Want Is You, in November 2010. The album was preceded by the release of the single "All I Want Is You",...

 was released to digital retailers on October 11, 2011. The fourth promotional single "Focused" featuring artist Kid Cudi

Kid Cudi

Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi , better known by his stage name Kid Cudi , sometimes stylized KiD CuDi, is an American rapper, singer and actor. He first gained major attention after the release of his debut mixtape A Kid Named Cudi. In 2009, his single "Day 'n' Nite" reached the top five of the...

 was released to digital retailers on October 19, 2011.

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200

Billboard 200

The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

 chart with 164,000 copies sold in its first week. In Canada, the album debuted at number seventy-seven. As of November 27, 2011, the album has sold 256,000 copies.

Critical response

Ambition received generally favorable reviews from music critics

Music criticism

See also Music journalism for reporting on classical and popular music in the media.The Oxford Companion to Music defines music criticism as 'the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres'. In this...

. At Metacritic

Metacritic

Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

, which assigns a normalized

Standard score

In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...

 rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average

Weighted mean

The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...

 score of 69, based on 15 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable review". David Jeffries, a writer at Allmusic, gave Ambition four out of five stars.

Track listing

Notes

• The Source Magazine confirmed the official tracklisting.
• The track "That Way" is also a track in Maybach Music Group's album Vol. 1.

Sample credits

• "That Way" contains:
  • excerpts and samples of "Give Me Your Love", written and as performed by Curtis Mayfield
    Curtis Mayfield
    Curtis Lee Mayfield was an American soul, R&B, and funk singer, songwriter, and record producer.He is best known for his anthemic music with The Impressions during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's and for composing the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Super Fly, Mayfield is highly...
    
    .
  • interpolations and samples of "I'm the Only Woman", written by LaTonya Blige-DaCosta, Curtis Mayfield
    Curtis Mayfield
    Curtis Lee Mayfield was an American soul, R&B, and funk singer, songwriter, and record producer.He is best known for his anthemic music with The Impressions during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's and for composing the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Super Fly, Mayfield is highly...
    
    , Sean Combs
    Diddy
    Diddy may refer to:*Sean Combs, an American rap mogul also known as Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Puff, Puffy and Sean John*Diddy-Dirty Money, an American hip hop group featuring Diddy...
    
    , Chucky Thompson
    Chucky Thompson
    Carl E. "Chucky" Thompson is a hip hop/R&B record producer. Thompson was a member of Bad Boy Entertainment's "Hitmen" team of in-house producers during the 1990s, and worked with Bad Boy mogul Sean Combs on material for artists such as The Notorious B.I.G. and Mase. He was responsible for album...
    
    , Andre Harrell
    Andre Harrell
    Andre Harrell is founder of the now defunct record label, Uptown Records. Harrell also served as president/CEO of Motown Records. He was also the first half of the hip hop duo Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde.-Biography:...
    
     and Faith Evans
    Faith Evans
    Faith Renée Evans is an American singer-songwriter, recording artist, record producer, actress and author. Born in Florida and raised in New Jersey, Evans relocated to Los Angeles during 1993 for a career with the music business. After working as a backing vocalist for Al B...
    
    , as performed by Mary J. Blige
    Mary J. Blige
    Mary Jane Blige is an American singer-songwriter, record producer and occasional actress. She is a recipient of nine Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards, and has recorded eight multi-platinum albums. She is the only artist with Grammy Award wins in Pop, Rap, Gospel, and R&B. Blige has...
    
    .

Charts

Chart (2011)	Peak position
Canada (Jam! / Canoe Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS... )	77
US Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...  200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...	2
US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999...  (Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... )	1
US Top Rap Albums Top Rap Albums Top Rap Albums is a record chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks Rap and hip-hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart began publication for the week of November 13, 2004....  (Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... )	1