Background

Nine Livez was released through Profile Records

Profile Records

Profile Records was a record label that specialized in many types of urban-oriented music, such as hip hop, active until 1996..- History :In 1980, at 23 years old, after working briefly for MCA, Cory Robbins was looking to start a record label. He invited his songwriter friend Steve Plotnicki to be...

 on March 7, 1995. The album contained 15 tracks, 11 of which were produced by Rob Lewis (Record Producer), while the other four were produced by Tony Stoute (American Record Producer).

Three singles were released from the album. The first was "Whutcha Want?

Whutcha Want?

"Whutcha Want?" was the lead single released from Nine's debut album, Nine Livez. Produced by Rob Lewis, "Whutcha Want?" was Nine's most successful single, becoming his only one to make it to the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at 50 on the chart, as well as making it to 3 on the Rap charts."Whutcha...

", released on January 24, 1995. The song was Nine's most success single, reaching #50 on the 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...

, his only single to reach that chart, while also reaching three other Bllboard charts, gaining the most success on the Hot Rap Singles chart where it peaked at 3. The second single was Any Emcee

Any Emcee

"Any Emcee" was the second single released from Nine's debut album, Nine Livez. It was released on March 28, 1995 and was produced by Rob Lewis. "Any Emcee" appeared on on three different Billboard charts. The song sampled The Spinners' "I'll Be Around and Eric B...

, released on March 28, 1995. The song heavily sampled the bass line of "I'll Be Around

I'll Be Around (The Spinners song)

"I'll Be Around" is a song recorded by the American R&B vocal group The Spinners . The song was co-written by Thom Bell and Phil Hurtt and produced by Bell...

" by The Spinners, while the chorus was taken from Eric B. & Rakim

Eric B. & Rakim

Eric B. & Rakim were a hip-hop duo composed of DJ Eric Barrier and MC Rakim .Hailing from Long Island, New York, the pair are generally considered by hip hop enthusiasts to be one of the most influential and innovative groups in the genre...

's "My Melody". "Any Emcee" made it to three Billboard charts, its highest chart position was 21 on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales. The third was "Ova Confident", but it did not reach the Billboard charts. All three singles had promotional music videos shot and released.

Reception

Critically, Nine Livez was met with favorable reviews, Allmusic gave the album a solid 3 out of a possible 5 stars calling the album "Far from a classic, Nine Livez is an under-appreciated album from an underrated artist". Rap Reviews gave the album a more favorable review, giving it 8.0 out of a possible 10 and calling it "one of the best albums of 1995, if not the entire decade".

Nine Livez peaked at 90 on the Billboard 200 and #18 on the Billboard 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...

, reaching both those positions on March 25, 1995.

Track listing

1. "Intro (Death of a Demo)"
2. "Ova Confident
   Ova Confident
   Ova Confident is one of the singles off of rapper Nine's 1995 album Nine Livez. The chorus samples KRS-One's vocals from "Rough...", a Queen Latifah track KRS-One Appeared on along with Heavy D and Naughty By Nature's Treach from Queen Latifah's 1993 album Black Reign....
   
   "
3. "Redrum"
4. "Da Fundamentalz"
5. "Hit Em Like Dis"
6. "Who U Won Test"
7. "Whutcha Want?"
8. "Fo'eva Blunted"
9. "Peel"
10. "Rataliate"
11. "Tha Cypha"
12. "Ahh Shit"
13. "Everybody Won Heaven"
14. "Any Emcee"
15. "Ta Rasss"

Chart history

Chart (1995)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard 200	90
Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums	18

Samples

• "Any Emcee"
  • "I'll Be Around" by The Spinners
• "Fo'eva Blunted"
  • "Stockyard" by Galt MacDermot
    Galt MacDermot
    Galt MacDermot is a Canadian composer, pianist and writer of musical theatre. He won a Grammy Award for the song African Waltz in 1960. His most successful musicals have been Hair and Two Gentlemen of Verona...
    
    
• "Da Fundamentalz"
  • "One one One" by Hall & Oates
    Hall & Oates
    Hall & Oates are an American musical duo composed of Daryl Hall and John Oates. They achieved their greatest fame in the late 1970s and early to mid-1980s. Both sing and play instruments. They specialized in a fusion of rock and roll and rhythm and blues styles, which they dubbed "rock and soul."...
    
    
• "Whutcha Want?"
  • "Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding
    Otis Redding
    Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul and R&B...
    
    
  • "Spinning Wheel" by Lonnie Liston Smith
    Lonnie Liston Smith
    Lonnie Liston Smith, Jr. is an American jazz, soul, and funk musician who played with important free jazz artists such as Pharoah Sanders and Miles Davis before forming Lonnie Liston Smith And The Cosmic Echoes, recording a number of albums widely regarded as classics in the fusion / Quiet Storm /...
    
    
• "Peel"
  • "Song for a Friend" by Billy Cobham
    Billy Cobham
    William C. Cobham is a Panamanian American jazz drummer, composer and bandleader, who has called Switzerland home since the late 1970s....
    
    
• "Ova Confident"
  • "Rough..." By Queen Latifah
    Queen Latifah
    Dana Elaine Owens , better known by her stage name Queen Latifah, is an American singer, rapper, and actress. Her work in music, film and television has earned her a Golden Globe award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Image Awards, a Grammy Award, six additional Grammy nominations, an Emmy...
    
     Featuring Treach
    Treach
    Anthony Criss , better known by his stage name Treach, is an American rapper and actor. He is best known as the lead rapper of the hip hop group Naughty by Nature.-Career:...
    
    , Heavy D And KRS-One
    KRS-One
    Lawrence Krisna Parker , better known by his stage names KRS-One , and Teacha, is an American rapper...
    
    

External links

• [ Nine Livez] at Allmusic
• Nine Livez at Discogs
  Discogs
  Discogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...
  
  
• Nine Livez at Tower Records
  Tower Records
  Tower Records was a retail music chain that was based in Sacramento, California. It currently exists as an international franchise and an online music store....
  
  
• Nine Livez at 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...