What Happened to the Albums Released on 9/11?

 

A couple years ago, Willa Ford did an interview on why her music career never took off like Britney, Christina, or even Jessica Simpson. She stated in paraphrasing, the reason for her career not taking off the way it did was because she released a single “Did Ya Understand That” on September 11, 2001. That song was supposed to be the follow-up single to her moderately catchy debut “I Wanna Be Bad”. After making this comment, Willa caught a ton of backlash with Charlamagne tha God be the biggest giving her the dubious honor of Donkey of the Day. People lost more on 9/11 than a short-lived music career, families were changed because of the attacks, protocol was changed after these attacks, New York was changed after the attacks. But today, instead of going through Willa Ford’s failed music career, I want to debunk some of her claims on why her music failed because there were plenty of music that came out on that day. We are going to shine the light on all the albums that were released on 9/11. Also, we will be talking about some albums that came out the week after as well. So, here’s

What Happened to the Albums Released on 9/11.

·         Jay-Z “The Blueprint”: The first album is a big one. Jay-Z released his sixth album The Blueprint. Fun fact Jay-Z was supposed to release the album later in the month, but bootleggers were running ramped at the time and they want to beat them to the punch. This album sold 420,000 copies its first week. He’d already released IZZO which went to the top 10 on the Hot 100. Other singles included Girls 3x, Jigga that N-Word, & Song Cry which that last song didn’t chart at all but is viewed as a fan favorite. But this album had a known song called Takeover, a diss track aimed at Nas but also send shots to Prodigy from Mobb Deep (when Jay-Z did his unplugged he plugged in Shook Ones in his second verse). The Source Magazine gave this album a perfect five mics. In 2003 this album was ranked 464 on Rolling Stones Top 500 Albums, but was later bumped up 50 in a 2020 revised list. Apple Music ranked this #13 on their 2024 list as the album is currently certified triple platinum as of 2018. To add on to its cultural significance, The Blueprint was preserved in the Library of Congress

·         Nickelback “Silver Side Up”: The next album was the album that went to #2 on the 200, Silver Side Up, by Nickelback which was their third album. This was their first album released since 1998 Stale. Despite going #2 on the 200, it reached #1 on the Canadian Charts. Most of Nickelback’s success in 2001 was stemmed by the song “How You Remind Me”. Prior to this Nickelback only saw minor/underground success and this was their first song to be a mainstream success. The song reached #1 in the latter part of that year in both the US and CAN. The album went platinum six times over, selling 10 million worldwide. This was the start of Nickelback’s dominance in the 2000s, the best was yet to come.

·         Fabolous “Ghetto Fabolous: Might have been easy for establish acts to release an album on 9/11. Imagine being a brand-new rapper trying to break through and not only have your debut on 9/11 but have go up against Jay-Z. That’s what Fabolous had to go through. He released his debut album Ghetto Fabolous. Fab was having early success thanks to his debut single Can’t Deny It.  He’ll drop another single known as Young’n Holla Back produced by the Neptunes. Critics were torn on his debut album because of a lack of identity. They said that that there where other rappers like Fab that already does his sound better in highlighting Jadakiss, who was starting his solo career, Jay-Z, who already released an album that week and Mase who was retired from rap. Despite these criticism’s Ghetto Fabolous went Platinum, and Fab would improve on his skills. Shout out to the Breakfast Club DJ Envy, who produced the final song on the album and like to let us know that.

·         POD “Satellite”: We have an album and band that I haven’t heard of. Brief context, POD is a nu-metal band, Christian metal. They held from San Diego and this was their fourth album but their second on Atlantic. The had a leadoff single known as Alive which gave them their first charting single going #41 on the Hot 100, #2 on the Alternative Charts. But despite this, the song was on heavy rotation on MTV. So the band rode the hype of that song to release their album on the September 11. But the second single “Youth of the Nation” reached #28 on the Hot 100, and was also on heavy rotation on MTV. See what happens when network air videos of not major artists, it helps out their album sales. Satellites went Triple Platinum. POD continued to release albums but none were as successful as Satellites. The era saw multiple Grammy Nominations, VMA Nominations.

·         Mariah Carey “Glitter”: Mariah decided to release her soundtrack to her movie Glitter, and if there was an artist that was impacted by 9/11, it was this one. Now, I’ve already discussed this album on a previous video so I’ll keep this one brief. Mariah was going through a lot during this time to the point it pushed her to the brink of exhaustion, mental and physical. This halted everything promo and the album was originally suppose to be pushed back to the 21^st. However, due to the attacks it was Mariah that made the final call and released the album on 9/11 to distract everyone from the news. Should be noted that the album was already released in Japan at the time. As I mentioned, this album/movie was a flop, where she requested her release from Virgin. This story does have a happy ending, in 2018 #JusticeforGlitter was trending and Glitter was reprimanded.

Now we want to talk about the albums released the week after, again I’m trying to see something so let’s start off with:

·         Tori Amos “Strange Little Girls": Tori Amos released a cover album called Strange Little Girls. Before this video, I never heard of this artist. She was a singer in the 90s who had a breakthrough in 1992 which saw her nominated for multiple VMAs. Most of her lyrics and content consists of sexuality, religion, feminism, and trauma. Like I said her album was a cover album, and the songs on that album were originally sung by men. There’s even a song by Eminem on this album. She did rewrote some of the words from a point of view of a woman. This album debut at #4 on the Billboard 200 and this era gave her two Grammy Nominations, so her album wasn’t impacted in the aftermath of 9/11.

·         Gerald LeVert “Gerald’s World”: Gerald LeVert released his fifth album Gerald's World. Sadly, I don’t have much to say about this one. His album debut at #6 and prove to everyone that he was still a staple in R&B. May he rest in peace.

·         Diana Krall “The Look of Love”: Just like Tori Amos, Diana Krall is a name new to me, brief context. She’s a jazz singer and pianist from Canada. The Look of Love was her sixth album. Like with Strange Little Girls, this was also a cover album. A Target exclusive album had an original written called Charmed Life. The album earned her a Juno Award for Album of the Year & it won a Grammy for Best Engineered Album (Non-Classical). Debuting at #9, this album went Platinum in US, 7x Platinum in Canada and another proof that her album wasn’t impacted by 9/11.

·         Macy Gray “The ID”: Macy Gray’s debut album was a massive success thanks to the song “I Try”, so she came into her follow up with expectations. Unfortunately, those expectations weren’t met. She dropped two singles “Sweet Baby” by Erykah Badu & “Sexual Revolution”, however neither song charted on Billboard, but they did found some success in other countries. Turned out “I Try” was the peak of her mainstream success. But despite this and thanks to her cult following, her sophomore album still went Gold. Kind not impacted in the aftermath of 9/11

That wraps up this video. Goes to show you that all these albums despite being released on 9/11 or the week after, still found success. Even though Mariah’s album wasn’t successful initially, it was able to find success years later. So, to Willa Ford (hope you are doing well today), just because of a tragic and scary time for America happened, the music didn’t stop. There was still a chance for your follow-up single to do well. The week after 9/11 when the country was re-opening up, this is where you should be promoting the single. Felt like she gave up on Did You Understand That once those attacks happened. But anyway… (RIP to all the lives lost on that tragic day).