The album is called "Royalty" because it represents where I’m at right now in my life, and my daughter is the biggest part of my life. In November 2015, during an interview with Hot 97, Brown explained the significance of the title, named after his daughter Royalty Brown: Recording sessions for Royalty took place in late 2014 and throughout 2015 at Record Plant in Los Angeles, California. He then wanted to release two different versions of the album, an urban one for the US market, and a worldwide version with pop- funk songs, but he ended up releasing most of the pop-funk songs on an EP called Royalty International - EP, keeping for the album mostly urban records. That happening made him change the idea for the project, ending up doing mostly R&B songs that he described as "a screenshot of my emotional state at that point". During the progression of the album he discovered that he had a daughter and simultaneously broke up with his ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran. In February 2015, Brown said, during an interview for The Breakfast Club, that he started working on the album going for a funky direction inspired by "overseas" music. Brown directed and released eight music videos for the songs of album, serializing them to construct a linear story. Its third single "Back to Sleep" became the album's biggest success, peaking at number 20 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
Royalty was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for combined equivalent units of 1,000,000 units.įour singles preceded the album's release: " Liquor", " Zero", " Back to Sleep", and " Fine by Me". It also became his seventh solo album consecutive top ten debut in the United States.
The album debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200, selling 184,000 units in its first week, marking an improvement over Brown's last three studio albums. The album received mixed to positive reviews from music critics, who celebrated Brown's overall performances and most of the record's production, but questioned its consistency, calling it a qualitative step back from his previous solo album X. For the album Brown collaborated chiefly with underground artists and producers, being Brown's record with fewer featurings as well. Its lyrical content was described by Brown as a "representation of where i was in my life at that point". Royalty is mainly an R&B and alternative R&B album, also containing songs with influences of funk, pop and trap music. The album is named after the singer's daughter, Royalty Brown, whom the album is dedicated to. The album was anticipated by the mixtape Before the Party, released as its prelude, and serves as the follow-up to his sixth album X (2014). It was released on December 18, 2015, by CBE and RCA Records. With Zayn, you sense that the future has been on his mind for a while-it just took him a minute to get around to it.Royalty is the seventh studio album by American singer Chris Brown. The music has taken chances, too: the woozy, alt-leaning R&B of tracks like “iT’s YoU,” the club sounds of “No Candle No Light,” the decidedly adult themes of “sHe” and “PILLOWTALK.” Some teen stars never outgrow the past.
#Chris brown back to sleep remix hear that first code#
It wasn’t just that he upended the boy-band code by refusing to dance, but he also breathed a little real-life spontaneity into a world whose moves often seem choreographed to death. But gambles always seemed like Zayn’s forte. I just needed time to breathe.”Ī gamble, for sure.
“There wasn’t any time to sit down and process anything and be like, ‘Is this what I really want to do?’” he told Apple Music after going solo in 2016. And while 1D were close pals, Zayn still felt like the creative odd man out, a lifelong hip-hop and R&B fan trying to find his voice in the group’s bright, pop-rock matrix. He’d joked that he’d only gone through with The X Factor in the first place because it beat taking exams.
After all, he was still basically a kid: 22 years old, with the past five years of his life swallowed up by the madness of being in the biggest boy band on the planet. When Zayn Malik left One Direction in early 2015, he didn’t really have a plan.