The album's cover art and release was released on November 8, 2017.[4] A short film accompanied its release date. The film was directed by Bobby Bruderle alongside G-Eazy, who co-wrote it and was released as an Apple Music exclusive.[2][4][5] It was later revealed that G-Eazy paid for the film himself, costing around $700,000. In an interview with Angie Martinez, he revealed the album's concept.[6]
"The concept of it is kinda split in half and it's two CDs, but for all intents and purposes its 20 songs, it's just a long album," he explained. "The concept of it is kinda like its about the lifestyle, 'The Beautiful and Damned'. Like being a kid, having the dream of doing this, starting from square one, from outside looking in from without having nothing -- to chasing this dream, and then all these years down the road of following this yellow brick road trying to get to where you're going, one day waking up and being like, 'Did it take me where I wanted to go?' This fantasy of, like, sex, drugs, & rock 'n' roll is kinda clichéd, but it's clichéd for a reason. It's dark."
The Beautiful & Damned received generally mixed reviews from music critics, with a score on Metacritc of 59/100.[9] Neil Z. Young of AllMusic gave the album 4 out of 5 stars stating that, "With an inspired guest list and excellent production, The Beautiful & Damned is a satisfying artistic accomplishment that cautions as much as it seduces."[7]HipHopDX concluded; "Established formulas of pandering singles and assembly line choruses aside, The Beautiful & Damned possesses enough serious assertiveness and classic Bay area slick talk to get burn well into 2018.", giving the album 3.9 out of 5 stars.[11]
In a more mixed review, Sheldon Pearce of Pitchfork Media gave the album a 5.1 out of 10, and said that, "There are no insights to be found here about prestige, depression, or dependency. The whole thing is unbelievably dour and boring."[12] Rachel Aroesti of The Guardian gave the album 2 out of 4 stars, and disapproved of the album's themes, stating in her conclusion, that, "His take on rap’s current go-to themes of drug dependency, joyless sex and the double-edged sword of success feels stale and smug."[10]
In a negative review, Wren Graves of Consequence of Sound shared a similar sentiment, and gave the album a D+, stating "There’s no interruption, no welcome silence between discs one and discs two. No, just 20 songs, a brutal slog of stacks and condoms and stacks and condoms and occasionally a disembodied ass without any other parts of a woman sighted."[8]
Commercial performance
The Beautiful & Damned debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200 with 122,000 album-equivalent units, of which 68,000 were pure album sales.[13] It is G-Eazy's third US top 10 album.[13] In its second week, the album dropped to number eight on the chart, earning an additional 50,000 album-equivalent units.[14] In its third week, the album climbed to number four on the chart, selling 42,000 more album-equivalent units.[15] In its fourth week, the album climbed to number three on the chart, selling 38,000 units, bringing its four-week total to 252,000 album-equivalent units.[15] On January 31, 2019, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over a million units in the United States.[16]
