No Mercy
by T.I.
  • Record Label: Atlantic
  • Release Date: Dec 7, 2010
Metascore
59

Mixed or average reviews - based on 16 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 16
  3. Negative: 0 out of 16
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  1. The Guardian
    Feb 3, 2011
    40
    As for the other 13 songs, which he performs with a red-carpetful of A-list guests (Eminem, Kanye West, Christina Aguilera), they range from dour, generic pieces that can't conceal his listlessness to a few pretty good-ish party songs with sharp hooks and crackling beats. You can only hope he rediscovers his swagger.
  2. The Independent (UK)
    Jan 26, 2011
    60
    Tracks like the delinquent reminiscence "How Life Changed" and the mea culpa duet with Chris Brown, "Get Back Up", teeter queasily on the cusp of boast and apology. But you have to admire the gall of a repeat offender brazen enough to feature a quote from Helen Keller in his lyric booklet.
  3. HipHopDX
    Jan 13, 2011
    70
    No Mercy takes T.I.'s recent experiences and frustrations, and effectively bottles them up into a potent and complete work.
  5. Beats Per Minute
    Jan 13, 2011
    65
    The album's top heavy, and its finest moments come when T.I.'s able to look past himself, whether it be to attack the legal or education system. The rest is frustratingly mixed.
  6. Prefix Magazine
    Jan 4, 2011
    50
    No Mercy is a valley, not a peak, in a career that has seen plenty of both.
  7. PopMatters
    Jan 4, 2011
    40
    The electricity that defined T.I.'s early career-dexterous lyricism molded effortlessly to trap rap essentials -- feels further away than ever before.
  8. RapReviews.com
    Jan 3, 2011
    45
    Utterly forgettable and insubstantial, No Mercy is a contrived, sputtering guest-filled affair certain to alienate his longtime fans and disappoint those who jumped aboard for "Paper Trail."
  9. Rolling Stone
    Jan 3, 2011
    60
    No Mercy is the sound of a rapper addressing his idiocy without sacrificing his swagger. Sometimes, the gravitas feels perfunctory, like T.I. is just fulfilling a public-service requirement; other times, it totally backfires.
  10. The A.V. Club
    Dec 14, 2010
    67
    On No Mercy, he starts off strong, but gets lost along the way. He argues that listeners should show him sympathy since the good outweighs the bad in his life, and that's true of No Mercy as well… but not by much.
  11. Pitchfork
    Dec 10, 2010
    55
    On No Mercy, he sounds absolutely sapped of energy. And that's rough; nobody plays the ferocious livewire better.
  12. Entertainment Weekly
    Dec 9, 2010
    75
    The self-proclaimed King of the South addresses his troubles on tracks like Welcome to the World and Castle Walls.
  13. Boston Globe
    Dec 7, 2010
    70
    It's well crafted, but some of T.I.'s best lines obscure the tracks' fuzzy thinking.
  14. Los Angeles Times
    Dec 7, 2010
    63
    Repeatedly confessing to his own fallibility, T.I. turns his attacks on gossip website TMZ and people who post Twitpics - uncomfortably interrupting his own celebration to snarl.
  15. AllMusic
    Dec 7, 2010
    50
    Neither redemptive nor triumphant, No Mercy is the MC's least compelling release thus far, but there's a sense that he'll regain focus once his legal matters settle.
  16. Slant Magazine
    Dec 7, 2010
    50
    Mostly, the album shows that T.I.'s lyrical side is not worthy of much attention.
  17. Mojo
    Apr 22, 2011
    60
    While T.I.'s measured, discursive rap style is heard at its best on scourging confessional duets with Eminem and, of all people, Christina Aguilera on the genuinely touching Castle Walls, Further promising collaborations with Kanye West, Pharrell and Drake end up having a rather more formulaic ring to them. [Apr 2011, p.97]
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Awards & Rankings

56
#56 Most Discussed Album of 2010
70
#70 Most Shared Album of 2010

User Reviews

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User Score
6.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 48 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 27 out of 48
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 48
  3. Negative: 6 out of 48
  1. BIGMAN22
    Mar 2, 2016
    0
    T.I can construct a few listenable songs and has done so in the past. but on here it doesnt sound like much. not alot of replay value. theT.I can construct a few listenable songs and has done so in the past. but on here it doesnt sound like much. not alot of replay value. the ones that do stick out are the ones with guest appearances. other than that its not really re memorable.… Full Review »
  2. keve16
    Mar 22, 2015
    6
    6.0/10................................................................................................................................................
  3. Bottom_Line
    Jul 12, 2013
    8
    This is the shortest and most shallow edition in the rappers career. That being said, there are songs where he does go deep, and those songsThis is the shortest and most shallow edition in the rappers career. That being said, there are songs where he does go deep, and those songs are light years ahead of current rappers. The songs that aren't too serious are still better than rappers with that being their style today. I would say about 5 of these 14 tracks are actually serious songs. No Mercy doesn't bring the same raw, real, serious lyrics that T.I.'s previous albums have held, but there is an element of that in the album which makes it feel like a compilation album along with the production variation. The production varies from club banger type beats, to somewhat throwback beats, to old T.I. type of beats. The individual production from song to song isn't bad by any means, but this sort of takes you out of the album as it doesn't exactly seem to all fit together into an album that has any common theme except for in the serious songs, which aren't abundant enough. Still with these mentioned wrong doings, the tracks that succeed in bringing the type of T.I. we know and even showing a slightly new, more grown up T.I. on serious subjects help the album more than the songs that don't succeed in bringing this hurt it.… Full Review »
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