Only One Flo (Part 1) (2010)

Only One Flo (Part 1) is the third studio album by American rapper Flo Rida, which was released on November 30, 2010, through Atlantic Records and Poe Boy Entertainment. The album was preceded by the singles "Club Can't Handle Me", and "Turn Around (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)" which were released in June and November 2010, respectively.

The album received mixed reviews from critics, and peaked at number 107 on the Billboard 200, selling 11,000 copies in its first week in the US. It is currently his least successful release. It is also considerably short for a studio album, with 8 tracks which total up to less than 30 minutes. A follow-up project titled Only One Rida (Part 2) was set to be released in 2011, but was renamed Wild Ones with a 2012 release.

Background

Only One Flo is the first part of what was originally a two-in-one album, but the next album, Only One Rida (Part 2), was renamed Wild Ones. This album is Flo Rida's first one to be released without the Parental Advisory sticker. The album features guest appearances from Git Fresh, Akon, Laza Morgan, Kevin Rudolf, Ludacris, Gucci Mane, and was originally supposed to also feature guest appearances from Lil Wayne, and Jay Rock. Producers having collaborated with Flo Rida on the album include Axwell, DJ Frank E, Dada Life, Infinity, Antario "tario" Holmes, Dr. Luke, Max Martin, Benny Blanco, Boi-1da, Ester Dean, Los da Mystro, David Guetta, Frédéric Riesterer, Knobody, Slade, Wayne-O, Mike Caren, and David Siegel.

Singles

A promo single, titled "Zoosk Girl", which features T-Pain, was released on the Internet; though the song is not featured on the album, the single does have its own music video. On June 28, 2010, Flo Rida released the song "Club Can't Handle Me" featuring David Guetta, which was stated to be the official first single for the album. The song was also featured in the Step Up 3D soundtrack. On November 2, 2010, "Come with Me" was released as the first promo single for the album, along with "Puzzle", produced by, and featuring Electrixx, which is not featured on the album. On November 16, 2010, "Turn Around (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)" was released as the second official promo single for the album via the iTunes Store. It debuted on the Australian Singles Chart at number thirty-four on November 29, 2010. After the release of the album in the UK, "Who Dat Girl" featured Akon started to receive a strong number of downloads, thus causing it to debut at number 39 in US and 64 in UK. "Why You Up In Here" was released as the fourth single, and third promo single, on May 11, 2011. The song features Ludacris, Gucci Mane, and Git Fresh.

Reception

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number 107 on the Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 11,000 copies. The album also charted at number eighty-two in Australia. As of March 25, 2012 the album has sold 61,500 copies in the United States.

Critical reception

Upon its release, Only One Flo (Part 1) received generally mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 55, based on six reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews".

David Jeffries of Allmusic gave the album three-and-a-half stars out of five, praising the Nightclub nature of the songs. He particularly complimented the production of "Who Dat Girl" and thought sampling of George Kranz and Yello on "Turn Around (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)". Entertainment Weekly's Mikael Wood gave the album a "C" rating, disappointed that the quality of the songs didn't go beyond that of "Club Can't Handle Me". He also felt that the appearance of guests Ludacris and Gucci Mane on "Why You Up in Here" outshone that of Flo Rida.