The Lady Killer

The Lady Killer was released by Elektra on 9 November 2010. Production was shared among Salaam Remi, Element, the Smeezingtons, Fraser T. Smith, Paul Epworth and Jack Splash. Green reportedly spent three years on it and recorded close to 70 songs. Thirteen leftovers leaked online in June 2010 as a collection titled Stray Bullets. Green told Exclaim! that, unlike his earlier albums, it was written to be like a score, a motion picture.

It debuted at number nine on the Billboard 200 with 41,000 copies in its first week, entered the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart at number two, and reached number ten in the UK, where it became double platinum. It had sold 498,000 copies in the United States by October 2012. Singles in order were Fuck You, It's OK, Fool for You, Bright Lights Bigger City, I Want You (Hold On to Love), Cry Baby and, from a Platinum Edition released on 28 November 2011, Anyway.

Pitchfork's Joshua Klein said Green avoids being too rough or too smooth, hearing Bright Lights Bigger City stalking along a bass line that consciously echoes Billie Jean. Metacritic averaged 80 from 33 reviews. The album was nominated for the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 54th Grammy Awards in 2012. On the clean version Fuck You appears as Forget You.