Self Portrait (Lalah Hathaway album)
album by Lalah Hathaway
Self Portrait is the fifth studio album by American singer Lalah Hathaway. It was released by Stax Records on June 3, 2008 in the United States. Chiefly produced by Rex Rideout, it marked her debut with the label and became Hathaway's highest-charting album by then, reaching number six on the US Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, her first top ten entry on that chart.
Background
The title and release date of Self Portrait were announced in Hathaway's official MySpace page in March 2008. The album features production contributions from Rex Rideout as well as Paula Gallitano, Kenneth Crouch, and Terrace Martin. Hathaway also worked with singer-songwriters Sandra St. Victor and singer Rahsaan Patterson on Self Portrait. Commenting on her decision to name the album Self Portrait, Hathaway told Essence in 2008: "This is the first record that I've ever worked on from start to finish including developing the concept, styling, the sequence and selection of the songs, the musicians, the producers, the marketing, the way it sounds – everything. That's why I call it Self-Portrait because it's my fifth album but it feels like my first."
Promotion
Opening track "Let Go," produced by Rex Rideout and co-written by Rahsaan Patterson, was seclected as the album's lead single. Co-produced by Hathaway, it also features Patterson on background vocals.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7448295. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2008.
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This entry incorporates text from “Self Portrait (Lalah Hathaway album)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.