The Best of Both Worlds is the first collaborative album by American singer R. Kelly and American rapper Jay-Z. It was released on March 19, 2002, through Jive Records, Roc-A-Fella and The Island Def Jam Music Group. The album was produced primarily by R. Kelly and Poke and Tone, with additional production by Megahertz and Charlemagne. The album features guest appearances by Beanie Siegel, Lil' Kim, and Devin the Dude.
The Best of Both Worlds was supported by three singles: "Honey", "Get This Money" and "Take You Home with Me a.k.a. Body". The album debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 223,000 copies in its first week. Despite this, critical reception was generally mixed. The second single, "Get this Money" was released in March 2002. The third single, "Take You Home with Me a.k.a. Body" was released on May 21, 2002. Both of which failed to chart.
Critical reception
The album received generally mixed reviews from music critics. Jason Birchmeier of AllMusic stated that "while the idea of a collaborative album was a reasonable one, the album falls terribly short of both artists' high standards". He also called the album uninspired and claims it "rates among the poorest efforts -- arguably the poorest -- in either Kelly's or Jay-Z's catalog to date." He gave the album a two star rating out of five.
Commercial performance
The Best of Both Worlds debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 223,000 copies in its first week. This became Jay-Z's fifth US top-ten album and R. Kelly's fifth on the chart. In its third week, the album dropped to number six on the chart, selling 82,000 more copies. As of November 2004, the album has sold 875,000 copies in the United States.
Track listing
Notes
- <sup></sup> signifies a co-producer
Charts
Weekly charts
{| class="wikitable sortable"
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!Chart (2002)
!Peak<br />position
|-
|Australian Albums (ARIA)
| style="text-align:center;"|100
|-
|-
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|Canadian Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)
|align="center"|19
|-
|Canadian R&B Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)
|style="text-align:center;"|7
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|UK Albums (OCC)
| style="text-align:center;"|37
|-
|-
|-
|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!Chart (2002)
!Position
|-
|Canadian R&B Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)
|align="center"|54
|-
|Canadian Rap Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)
|align="center"|29
|-
|French Albums (SNEP)
| style="text-align:center;"|147
|-
|US Billboard 200
| style="text-align:center;"|99
|-
|US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)
| style="text-align:center;"|15
|}