Roddy Ricch – Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial

Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial is the debut studio album by American rapper Roddy Ricch, released by Atlantic on December 6, 2019. It features guest appearances from Gunna, Lil Durk, Meek Mill, Mustard, Ty Dolla Sign and A Boogie wit da Hoodie. Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200. One of its tracks, “The Box” became Roddy Ricch’s highest-charting song of his career, reaching number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 prior to being released as a single. It was preceded by the singles, “Big Stepper”, “Start wit Me”, featuring Gunna, and “Tip Toe”, featuring A Boogie wit da Hoodie. The album’s fourth single was “The Box”, after receiving heavy airplay without promotion, going viral on Tik Tok, and an official music video.

Background and production
In an interview with Revolt, the album’s audio engineer Chris Dennis uncovered some of the album’s recording sessions. Dennis recalls first meeting Roddy Ricch at a studio session one a day in March 2019, whereafter they “just kept working ever since then” from that day on. Ricch had just returned to the US after touring with Post Malone on the European leg of Malone’s Beerbongs & Bentleys Tour. Ricch’s label wanted to start working on his debut album, something which Ricch also expressed interest in. Dennis says they spent a “solid year” working on the album, changing tracklists constantly and recording new music. He used production software Plugin Alliance which, he explained, “has no latency in the recording on any of the plugins. For the album, Ricch didn’t want to employ a lot of effects or reverb, because “he likes his stuff really clean, dry, and in your face. That was the learning curve in the beginning — getting his clean vocals. You also have to work fast because he can record a song in 10 minutes”, Dennis stated. “The Box”, for instance, was recorded in roughly 15 minutes. On the track “War Baby”, a choir was used, an idea Ricch came up with. The choir was arranged through Ricch’s cousin.

Around 250 songs were recorded for the album. Dennis revealed a lot of those songs will instead appear on other people’s albums.

Commercial performance
Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial debuted atop the US Billboard 200 with 101,000 album-equivalent units (including 3,000 pure album sales). It is Roddy Ricch’s first number one on any Billboard chart. Five songs off the album also managed to chart on the Hot 100, with ” The Box” being the highest charting song, peaking at number 1 on the chart despite no single release. In its second week, the album fell to number three on the chart with 81,000 units. In its third week, the album remained at number three on the Billboard 200 with 73,000 units. In its fourth week charting, the album rose to number two on the Billboard 200 chart with 74,000 units. In its fifth week, it regained the number one position on the Billboard 200, with 97,000 album-equivalent units, an increase of 31% in total units over the previous week. The album topped the charts for a third time with 95,000 units sold in its 8th week of release. The album later returned to the top of the charts for a fourth time with 79,000 units sold in its 10th week on the chart.