Totally Krossed Out is the debut studio album by American hip hop duo Kris Kross. It was produced and largely written by Jermaine Dupri and Joe "The Butcher" Nicolo and released on March 31, 1992, by Ruffhouse Records and Columbia Records. After developing a musical concept for the duo, Dupri and Nicolo spent two years writing and producing the album.

Critical reception

In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, the music critic Robert Christgau gave the album an "A−" and praised Dupri for "avoiding BBD's girl-bashing and ABC's kiddie escapism" in his lyrics for the duo. He found the music "ebullient" and suited for Kris Kross' "preadolescent tempos and timbres". "Jump" was voted the third-best single of 1992 in The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll. Christgau, the poll's creator, named it the best single of the year in his own year-end list and also ranked "Warm It Up" at number four. In a retrospective review, AllMusic's Steve Huey gave the album four out of five stars and said that Dupri "delivers a catchy, pop-friendly batch of tracks that manage to stay pretty consistently engaging (perhaps in part because they are short)".

Commercial performance

Totally Krossed Out was a huge success for the duo, selling over four million copies and reaching No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, where it remained for two and six non-consecutive weeks respectively. Four singles were released, including "Jump" and "Warm It Up", both of which reached No. 1 on the Hot Rap Singles, and "I Missed the Bus" and "It's a Shame". The album was certified 4× platinum by the RIAA. Music videos were released for the four singles and for "The Way of Rhyme", even though the song was not released as a single.

Track listing

All songs written and produced by Jermaine Dupri and Joe "The Butcher" Nicolo, except where noted.

Personnel

Credits are adapted from Allmusic.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications