The album features guest appearances from Sleepy Brown, Phantogram, T.I., Ludacris, Kid Cudi, Little Dragon, Killer Mike, Kelly Rowland, ASAP Rocky, B.o.B, Wavves, Mouche, Scar, Bosko, Jai Paul, UGK, Big K.R.I.T., Theophilus London, and Tre Luce.

In a July 2010 interview for The Village Voice, Big Boi revealed that he was working on the follow-up album to the critically and commercially successful Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty, stating that he was "maybe about six songs into it".

[7] The album features guest appearances from Sleepy Brown, Phantogram, T.I., Ludacris, Kid Cudi, Little Dragon, Killer Mike, Kelly Rowland, ASAP Rocky, B.o.B, Wavves, Mouche, Scar, Bosko, Jai Paul, UGK, Big K.R.I.T., Theophilus London, and Tre Luce.

[12] Ted Scheinman of Slant Magazine finds it to be exemplary of a recent "collusion between rap and indie acts", and calls the album "profoundly atmospheric, not in the triumphalist Kanye [West] vein, but with enough melodic hooks on which to hang songs that are both thumping and bittersweet.

"[11] Pitchfork Media's Miles Raymer attributes the album's stylistic influences to Big Boi's past few years performing at festivals with indie rock and electronic acts, writing that it may be viewed as "an outgrowth of rap's artsy ambitions" or "a compilation of indietronic-rap fusion tied together by one voice".

[23] John Calvert of Fact called it "glossy, overwhelmingly kinetic and neon-colourful ... arguably the pop hip-hop production job of the year," and wrote that each of its "innumerable hooks" are "textured, accentuated and arranged in just such a way that they jump out at the listener like musical holograms.

"[16] In a mixed review, AllMusic's Andy Kellman was ambivalent towards Big Boi's collaborations and "inharmonious experiments", writing that he "adapts to the unfamiliar surroundings with little effort and often sounds comfortable, but the fusions are short on power.