Beautiful and Brutal Yard

Beautiful and Brutal Yard (also abbreviated B.A.B.Y ) is the third studio album by British rapper J Hus, released on 14 July 2023 through Black Butter Records. The album includes collaborations with Drake, Naira Marley, Jorja Smith, Burna Boy, Popcaan, CB, Villz and Boss Belly. It was preceded by the singles "It's Crazy" and "Who Told You" featuring Drake. J Hus will tour the UK and Ireland in October and November 2023 in support of the album. The album was shortlisted for the 2023 Mercury Prize.

Background and promotion
In May 2023, Spotify-sponsored billboards appeared in London. The billboards were labelled "Don't Say Militancy" and included a phone number. When called, a voicemail would play that confirmed an upcoming J Hus album. Shortly after, the album's lead single "It's Crazy" released. On 8 June 2023. the second single "Who Told You" released.

The album's announcement on 29 June 2023 was accompanied by a trailer in which J Hus walks through his own mansion before being delivered a vinyl copy of his album and before he is transported "in front of a beat-down neighborhood". A voiceover by Idris Elba states, "No matter what's going on around me, I'm still myself. And now my eyes are open and I can see the beauty of everything. I always calculate trying to challenge destiny and test fate. Welcome to my Beautiful and Brutal Yard, may peace be onto you."

Critical reception
Beautiful and Brutal Yard received a score of 83 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic based on seven critics' reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Alexis Petridis of The Guardian named it his album of the week and noted, "that its polarities hold together for more than an hour is partly down to J Hus's famed adaptability, his facility to ride any beat thrown his way". NME's Niall Smith described it as "a scattershot burst of brilliance" as well as "an elongated, yet joyous return from J Hus", who "channels his lyrical potency, struggles and romantic pursuits into one unified portrait". Hayley Milross of The Line of Best Fit stated that the album "shows Hus display his greatest quality – his music" and "displays both the beauty and brutality of the world", calling it "an album that connotes the essence of home, and his home is his music". Clash's Dwayne Wilks wrote that while the album "remind[s] us why [J Hus is] so adored", he found that there is "less of his story" and it does not reach the heights of J Hus's previous two albums, but concluded "no other artist commands rhythm and rhyme like Hus, and it's patently clear that the Stratford rapper is enjoying making music again, which is a blessing for the rest of us". Will Pritchard, reviewing the album for The Telegraph, called it "the record of the summer" along with "thrilling, hip-twisting, [and] unsettling", on which "Hus still leads the pack with his pitless charisma, linguistic inventiveness, and musical curiosity". Pritchard, writing for Pitchfork, described it a "carnal and philosophical investigation of masculinity against lush, robust beats that evoke a distinctly Black British take on G-funk".

Commercial performance
In the United Kingdom, Beautiful and Brutal Yard debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, with first-week sales of 17,260 album-equivalent units. The sales consisted of 1,722 CDs, 557 vinyls, 294 cassettes, 305 digital downloads, and 14,383 sales-equivalent streams.