Go (Mario album)

Go is the third studio album by American recording artist Mario. It was released by J Records on December 10, 2007. Mario worked with many producers on the album, most notably Scott Storch and Pharrell with whom he recorded a song called, "Faith".^[1][2] Other songs were written and produced by Akon, Timbaland, The Neptunes, Stargate, Mr. Collipark, Polow da Don and with guests such as Juelz Santana and Rich Boy. Go is Mario's first album to receive a parental advisory sticker in the United States, and his second to receive a parental advisory sticker in the UK.^[3][4][5]

Go
Studio album by Mario
Released	December 10, 2007 (2007-12-10)
Length	53:30
Label	3rd Street J
Producer	Akon Jasper Cameron Oak Felder Mr. Collipark The Neptunes Polow da Don Big Reese Ralph B. Stacy Stargate Stee T-Wayne Terry "Madd Scientist" Thomas Timbaland
Mario chronology
Turning Point (2004) Go (2007) D.N.A. (2009)
Singles from Go
"How Do I Breathe" Released: May 15, 2007 "Crying Out for Me" Released: August 21, 2007 "Music for Love" Released: April 3, 2008

Release and promotion

The album was originally scheduled to be released on November 28, 2006 under the title "Mario Barrett – Effortless.^[6] It was to be his first album in which Mario would use his full name. The album then had several release dates in 2007, including April 4,^[7] May 8, July 31, August 21, October 9, and finally November 27 – coincidentally, exactly a year after the first date announced. The album was eventually released on December 10, 2007 in the United Kingdom and December 11, 2007 in the United States. When asked about the delays of the album, Mario answered that he had "a few legal situations to work through, which set his album back 6 to 8 months", adding that, he now has "more control over his projects and albums he gets done."^[1]

In 2007 Mario toured with Dijon Thomas, the tour was called Do Right Tour.^[8] In 2008, Mario was scheduled as the tour's opening act for all dates of Ms. Kelly Tour with Kelly Rowland, to promote his album Go. On July 2, 2008, Courtney Galliano & Joshua Allen from the U.S. television reality program and dance competition So You Think You Can Dance, danced to "Skippin" as the part of the competition.^[9]

Singles

The album was preceded by "How Do I Breathe," Go's first single, released on May 15, 2007. While the song was not as commercially successful as previous releases, it reaching number 46 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 18 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. It was more successful elsewhere, reaching number 17 in New Zealand and number 21 in the United Kingdom, where it was eventually certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in November 2022 for sales in excess of 200,000 units.^[10] A music video for "How Do I Breathe" premiered exclusively on May 23, 2007 on BET.

For his second single from Go, on Mario's official website, fans were asked to vote for the next single from the choices, "Why", "Kryptonite", or "Crying Out for Me". The second single officially released was "Crying Out for Me", with the music video premiering on September 17, 2007 on BET, again. Released August 21, 2007, it was more successful in the US, peaking at number 5 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100. On July 30, 2008, "Crying Out for Me" received a gold certification from Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).^[11]

While Mario did shoot a video for the song "Do Right," using clips from a MTV documentary surrounding his mother's substance abuse, it served as a promotional single only and did not chart due to having an unofficial release. Instead, "Music for Love," released on April 3, 2008, served as the album final single from the album. The son failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 but reached the top 20 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, peaking at number 18.

Critical response

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
About.com	^[12]
AllMusic	^[13]
DJBooth	^[14]
KSTW	^[15]

Go received favorable reviews from critics. Andy Kellman of Allmusic gave the album four out of five stars, characterized the album as "the singer's strongest release yet, easily apparent after one listen, a credit that can be distributed equally between an ever-improving artist and his collaborators". He also said "Go is indeed Mario's most aggressive and assertive album, but no other song comes close to out-vulgarizing "Go" itself."^[13] Sophie Bruce of BBC Music characterizeD the album as "A good mix of romantic ballads and up-tempo floorfillers." She found that "the production values are slicker and the beats snappier than on his two previous albums [...] While his contemporaries churn out identikit baby-voiced falsetto tunes, Mario’s distinctive voice is earthier and more mature with the underlying power of a young Luther Vandross."^[16]

Nathan Slavik from DjBooth.net called Go "an honest, confident and purposeful collection that sounds like the work of someone who’s put aside childhood concerns and fully embraced what it means to be a man." He found that while a few songs "fall short of perfect, but if they sound lacking it’s only because Mario’s has raised the bar so high on the rest of the album. R&B has no shortage of boys; right now it desperately needs more men, and Go is Mario’s musical ticket into the world of the grown and sexy."^[14] Mark Edward Nero from About.com gave the album three out of five stars and said that "Go is the first Mario album that carries a parental advisory sticker, and for very good reason." He stated too "Mario has bitten a big chunk out of Usher's vocal style, plus added some R. Kelly-style raunch to his lyrics, seemingly to shake things up and throw some dirt on his previously squeaky clean image. But Mario's occasional bawdiness here is crude, distasteful and completely unnecessary."^[12]

Chart performance

Go debuted and peaked at number 21 on the US Billboard 200, selling 77,000 copies in its first week.^[17] It marked Mario's lowest opening sales for any of his studio projects up to then and was a considerable decline from his previous effort Turning Point, which had opened to sales of 161,000 units in 2004.^[17] The album also reached number four on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, becoming his third consecutive top five entry on the chart.^[18]

Track listing

Go track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Go"	Pharrell Williams	The Neptunes	3:47
2.	"Crying Out for Me"	Jamal Jones Jasper Cameron	Polow da Don Jasper^[b]	4:48
3.	"Skippin'"	Terry Thomas Theron Thomas	Theron "MaddScientist" Thomas	3:58
4.	"Music for Love"	Jerrod Stacy Thomas Thomas	Ralph B. Stacy Jevon Hill^[c]	3:49
5.	"Kryptonite" (featuring Rich Boy)	Mario Barrett Warren Felder Maurice Richards Clifford Harris Atozzio Towns^[19]	Oak	4:12
6.	"How Do I Breathe"	Mikkel Storleer Eriksen Tor Erik Hermansen Phil "Taj" Jackson	Stargate	3:36
7.	"No Definition"	Tim Mosley Ezekiel Lewis Balewa Muhammad Jerome Harmon Patrick Smith Candice Nelson King Logan	Timbaland J-Roc^[a] Logan^[a]	3:49
8.	"Why"	Barrett Marsha Ambrosius Felder	Oak	3:42
9.	"Lay in My Bed"	Cameron Maurice Sinclair Jones	Big Reese Jasper	3:35
10.	"Right and a Wrong Way"	Teddy Riley Keith Sweat	Stee T-Wayne	5:11
11.	"Let Me Watch" (featuring Juelz Santana)	Michael Crooms Sean Garrett LaRon James	Mr. Collipark Garrett^[a]	4:24
12.	"Do Right"	Barrett Aliaune Thiam Giorgio Tuinfort Harold Lilly	Akon	4:02
Total length:				53:30

United Kingdom/Japan Bonus track

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
13.	"Let Me Love You" (Acoustic)	Scott Storch Ne-Yo Mario	Storch	4:35

United States/iTunes bonus track

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
14.	"What Is It Gonna Be"	Eriksen Hermansen Theron "Neff-U" Feemster Clarence Ray Blaylock Solomon Ridge Jr. Shaffer Smith	Stargate	3:25

in some countries replaces "Music for Love"^[20][21]

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
15.	"Ghetto Love ^[22]"	Sterling Simms Kristal Oliver Chasity Nwagbara Chuka Maduakor Felder	Oak	4:09

Notes

• ^{^[a]} signifies a co-producer
• ^{^[b]} signifies a vocal producer
• ^{^[c]} signifies an additional vocal producer

Personal and credits

Vocals: Mario Choir, chorus: Stacie Davis, Esther Dean, Shari M. Gary, Kim McCoy, English Norman, Dawn Toran, Sam Salter, Crystal Johnson, Larel Frederick, Nastacia "Nazz" Kendall & Alan Austin Engineers: Andrew Mezzi, Princeton, Carlton Lynn, Vernon Mungo, Ralph Cacciurri, Darren Moore, Andrew Coleman, Dave Hyman, Geoffrey Rice, Kori Anders, Corey Stocker, Mikkel S. Eriksen & Tony Terrebonne Instrumentation: Stee, Tor Erik Hermanson & Mikkel S. Eriksen (aka Stargate) Guitar: Mike Hartnett & Tony Love Keyboards: Elvis Williams Keyboards, programming: Giorgio Tuinfort

Executive producer: Peter Edge, J.Erving, Mario & Rick Frazier John lopez Mastered: David Kutch Creative direction/Design: Jane Marledge Photography: Patrick Holeck Assistant: Lloyd Copper, Jared Robbins & Mike Miller Vocal producers: Jevon Hill, Nelly & Avery Storm Mixing: Manny Marroquin, Phil Tan & Jean-Marie Horvat Digital editing: Colin Miller Featuring vocals: Juelz Santana & Rich Boy

Locations and studios

Recording locations and studios included:^[23]

Battery Studios, New York, New York Dirty South Studios, Atlanta, Georgia Doppler Studios, Atlanta, Georgia MTS Recording Patchwerk Records Studios, Atlanta, Georgia Silent Sound Studios, Atlanta, Georgia

Sony Music Studios, New York, New York South Beach Studios, Miami, Florida St. Louis, Missouri Thomas Crown Headquarters, Virginia Beach, Virginia Transcon Studios, Orlando, Florida Zac Digital, Atlanta, Georgia

Charts

Weekly charts Weekly chart performance for Go Chart (2007) Peak position Japanese Albums (Oricon)^[24] 43 US Billboard 200^[25] 21 US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)^[18] 4 Year-end charts Year-end chart performance for Go Chart (2008) Position US Billboard 200^[26] 137 US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)^[27] 26

Release history

Release dates for Go

Region	Date	Format	Label	Ref(s)
South Africa	October 9, 2007	CD digital download	J Records	^[citation needed]
Germany	December 4, 2007			^[28]
Australia	December 8, 2007			^[29]
United States	December 11, 2007			^[citation needed]
Japan	December 11, 2007			^[citation needed]
United Kingdom	December 10, 2007			^[citation needed]

References

1. . May 2007. Archived from the original on June 6, 2007. Retrieved June 9, 2007.
2. "Pharrell Interview" on YouTube August 2007. Retrieved September 4, 2007
3. Official Site 2010-04-05 at the Wayback Machine News on guests/production. Retrieved April 3, 2007
4. Strong Language/Sexual Content
5. Mario Turning Point UK edition With Parental Advisory
6. MTV.com "Mario Says New LP Shows 'Mysterious Side' — But Ends Mystery Behind Last Name", September 2006. Retrieved April 3, 2007
7. MTVAsia.com 2007-01-29 at the Wayback Machine "Mario Changes LP Title, Reaches Out To Disadvantaged Kids", December 2006. Retrieved January 20, 2007
8. "Mario Gets Naked!". 2008-07-16. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
9. "So You Think You Can Dance: Top 14 Perform".
10. "Mario, How Do I Breathe (Award)". British Phonographic Industry (BPI). Retrieved November 22, 2022.
11. "Mario, Crying Out for Me (Award)". Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Retrieved November 22, 2022.
12. Nero, Mark Edward. "Mario - Go". About.com.
13. Kellman, Andy. "Go - Mario". AllMusic.
14. Slavik, Nathan. . DJBooth. Archived from the original on 2007-12-21.
15. Fields, Aaron (2007-11-30). . KSTW. Archived from the original on 2008-12-03. Retrieved 2012-10-14.
16. Bruce, Sophie (2007-11-29). "BBC - Music - Review of Mario - Go". BBC Music.
17. "Josh Groban's 'Noel' Is 2007's Top Selling Album … For Now". Billboard. December 19, 2007. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
18. "Mario Chart History (Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved December 19, 2014.
19. "Credits / Go / Mario – TIDAL".
20. "Mario - Go! - Review". 411mania.com. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
21. "ACE Repertory".
22. "Mario - Go! - Review". 411mania.com. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
23. Product Page: Go. Muze. Retrieved on 2009-12-04.
24. "Oricon Top 50 Albums: 2014-02-18" (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved February 16, 2006.
25. "Mario Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved December 19, 2014.
26. "Top Billboard 200 Albums – Year-End 2008". Billboard. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
27. "Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums – Year-End 2008". Billboard. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
28. GO Germany release 2011-07-19 at the Wayback Machine Go Germany release. Accessed September 2, 2009
29. Go Australia release 2012-03-23 at the Wayback Machine Go Australia release. Accessed September 2, 2009