Graffiti (Chris Brown album)
Encyclopedia
Graffiti is the third studio album
by American R&B
and pop
recording artist Chris Brown. It is the follow-up to his successful second album Exclusive
(2007). The album was produced during 2008 to 2009 by several record producers, including Polow Da Don
, Swizz Beatz
, The Runners
, and Brian Kennedy
. Primarily an R&B and pop outing, Graffiti incorporates elements of electro-pop and hip hop music
with synthesizers and electronic-influenced beats.
The album debuted at number seven on the U.S. Billboard 200
chart, selling 102,489 copies in its first week. To date, "Graffiti" has sold 341,000 copies in the US. It became his third consecutive top-ten debut in the United States and produced three singles that achieved moderate chart success. Upon its release, Graffiti received generally negative reviews from most music critics. Graffiti was nominated for two Grammy Awards, one for Best Contemporary R&B Album
and Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals
for the track, "Take My Time" featuring fellow R&B singer-songwriter Tank
.
, who had previously worked with Brown, also announced his involvement in the album stating, "He's good. I'm working with him in Orlando on some stuff." Recording for the album primarily took place in Orlando
and on September 5, 2009, via Twitter, Brown announced that he had completed the album, and also revealed that the album would be released outside of the US on December 7 and in the US on December 8. Speaking to MTV, Swizz Beatz revealed, "he's got something to prove," and "has worked on 60–70 songs."
, pop
, rock
, and Euro-dance styles. Greg Kot
of the Chicago Tribune
found most of its music suitable for the dance-floor and said like on Rihanna
's post-romance Rated R
, "Brown aims to expand his music beyond hip-hop-flavored R&B by embracing Euro-disco, Goth-rock and new wave." Kot compared Brown's work to the "cross-genre experiments of Kanye West
, Saul Williams
, and Lil Wayne
." According to Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times
, most of the album is in "upbeat party mode", mixed with power ballads
, assumingly to "illuminate" his remorse over the Rihanna incident.
Lead single "I Can Transform Ya", lyrically about introducing someone to a luxurious life, has a robotic-crunk
groove, while making a heavy use of synthesizers and guitar riffs. "Pass Out" featuring Eva Simons
,influenced by disco
, samples the "Call on me" Steve Winwood
's "Valerie", which was also used in Eric Prydz
worldwide dance hit, "Call on Me
". The song has been compared to Lady Gaga
. "Sing Like Me" and "Take My Time" recall Brown's earlier R&B/pop work. The hip-hop-influenced "Wait", with Game and R&B singer Trey Songz
features "bouncy sirens", and according to Jon Caramanica of The New York Times
is closest to capturing the "frenetic energy" of Brown's early singles. The song has been called the male counterpart to Keri Hilson
's "Knock You Down
", which Brown references in the song and was also produced by "Wait" producer Polow da Don
. Sarah Rodman of Boston Globe said the song needed a dance floor for full realization. According to Dan Gennoe of Yahoo! Music UK
, "I.Y.A" is a tribute to 80's music
, and the song has been compared to Blake Lewis
' "Heartbreak on Vinyl
. "So Cold" has been described as a "piano-laden apology" as "Famous Girl" has been called a "heavy hearted dance track." The previous track as well as "Crawl" feature an apologetic Brown, pining at points. The previous has been described to bear a sonic resemblance to Madonna
's "Drowned World/Substitute for Love
." The latter, "Famous Girl", featuring new wave
influences and a bouncy, light melodic line, seems to through accusations of infidelity in Rihanna
's direction, as well as implying she "had a temper of her own." The song also references songs Hilson's "Knock You Down", Keyshia Cole
's "Heaven Sent", Beyoncé's "Halo
", and Jazmine Sullivan
's "Bust Your Windows
", as well as Rihanna's "Disturbia" and his "Forever
", as Brown laments on writing the first song and confronts the rumor about busting Rihanna's car windows. "Take My Time" features R&B singer Tank
, and has slow drums, and heavy female breathing, prompting innuendo. Jon Caramanica of The New York Times
said that "Lucky Me", lyrically about downs of life in the limelight, has a melody lifted from Michael Jackson
's "Man in the Mirror
."
. The tour took place in the US. The tour ended on December 15, 2009, in New York and a portion of the proceeds from the tour will go to charity to help the victims of domestic violence as well as people with developmental disabilities.
" was released as the album's lead single
on September 29, 2009. The song received mostly positive reviews, noting the song's club feel and catchiness. "I Can Transform Ya"'s reached the top ten of New Zealand, whilst achieving chart success in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The song's dance-heavy accompanying music video features choreography with hooded ninjas, and makes puns on the Transformers series. "Crawl
" and "Sing Like Me
" were released on iTunes on November 24, 2009, the first as the album's second single, and the latter as a promotional single. The previous received positive to mixed reviews, reaching the top twenty in Japan and New Zealand. Its accompanying music video features Brown and American R&B singer Cassie as his love interest, as he yearns for their relationship on a winter night in a city and in a desert scene.
, selling 102,000 copies in its first week. Graffiti was the week's second highest debut, only behind Glee: The Music, Volume 2
. It's total sales of 341,000 copies to date were disappointing compared to his previous two albums.
, which assigns a normalized
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
score of 39, based on 12 reviews, which indicates "generally unfavorable reviews". It is ranked fourteenth on the site's list of worst-reviewed albums. Rolling Stone
writer Jody Rosen
expressed a mixed response towards its "punchydance-pop songs full of club-ready beats and Casanova gestures", calling it "a bland, occasionally obnoxious, proforma R&B album". Slant Magazine
's Eric Henderson commented that "the only compelling thing about the incoherent Graffiti is the material (both external and internal) that makes it even less palatable than a simply below-average collection of paint-by-numbers R&B beats." Michaelangelo Matos of The A.V. Club
gave the album an F rating and stated "The production is clean and often lively, and Brown sings well enough. The problem is what he’s singing". Allmusic editor Andy Kellman also dismissed the album's songwriting and called Brown "exceptionally insufferable" on most of the songs. Chicago Sun-Times
writer Jim DeRogatis
gave the album one out of four stars and described it as "thoroughly mediocre and at times just garbage". Pete Paphides of The Times
panned its ballads, called them a "slopfest of mawkish penitence". Jon Caramanica of The New York Times
questioned the lyrics' substance and called Graffiti "a curiously faceless album that largely thumbs its nose at close reading".
However, Steve Jones of USA Today
gave the album two-and-a-half out of four stars and commented that Brown "succeeds in expanding his sonic horizons with rock and Euro-dance influenced rhythms that are sure to ignite dance floors and innervate his electrifying performances". Billboard
s Gail Mitchell complimented its music as "a forward-moving fusion of R&B, pop, rock and Euro-dance". Thomas Golianpoulous of Spin
said Brown sounded "generally remorseful", but said that Brown didn't "let any of this obstruct a good party, complimenting the album's "monster club tracks." Despite writing that it has filler tracks, Dan Gennoe of Yahoo! Music
gave the album a seven out of 10 rating and called it the "highest point of his career". Chicago Tribune
writer Greg Kot
noted a "inconsistent and sometimes contradictory tone" in Brown's lyrics, but commented that the album has "several top-notch pieces of innocuous dance music". Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly
complimented its "zero-gravity pleasures", writing that "at its best moments, it still floats". Sarah Rodman of The Boston Globe
commended the music and production, but criticized Brown's songwriting, stating "As co-writer of 12 of the 13 tracks, that’s where he sabotages a lot of the album’s purely musical promise". Joey Guerra of the Houston Chronicle
said the album might have worked, but much of it "never takes flight, instead recycling the usual slick touches and arrangements." BBC Online's Jude Rogers noted "slinky RnB body-poppers and cheesy, breathy ballads" and commented that "plodding melodies draw attention to Brown's unpleasantly macho style".
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by American R&B
Contemporary R&B
Contemporary R&B is a music genre that combines elements of hip hop, soul, R&B and funk.Although the abbreviation “R&B” originates from traditional rhythm and blues music, today the term R&B is most often used to describe a style of African American music originating after the demise of disco in...
and pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
recording artist Chris Brown. It is the follow-up to his successful second album Exclusive
Exclusive (album)
Exclusive is the second studio album by American recording artist Chris Brown. The album was originally scheduled to be released August 28, 2007, but was pushed back to October 30, 2007, then pushed back even further to its final release date of November 6, 2007.The album was both critically and...
(2007). The album was produced during 2008 to 2009 by several record producers, including Polow Da Don
Polow Da Don
Polow-Freache Jamal Fincher Jones , better known by known by professional name Polow da Don or Awesome Jones, is an American record producer, songwriter, rapper, and singer. His cousin is Atlanta singer Monica. He has produced for a variety of artists including Usher, Nelly, Christina Aguilera, T.I...
, Swizz Beatz
Swizz Beatz
Kasseem Dean , better known by his stage name, Swizz Beatz, is an American record producer, DJ, rapper and painter. At the age of 17, he gained attention in the hip-hop world through his friendship with rapper DMX. Grady Spivey and rapper Cassidy helped launch his label Full Surface Records...
, The Runners
The Runners
The Runners is a hip hop production duo from Orlando, Florida, consisting of Andrew "Dru Brett" Harr and Jermaine "Mayne Zayne" Jackson. They came together to form the team in 2000, but they have known each other since they were in kindergarten. They are best known for producing the hit singles "Go...
, and Brian Kennedy
Brian Kennedy (producer)
Brian Kennedy Seals is an American songwriter, record producer and musician from Kansas City, MO. Revered as a piano prodigy, he has been making music tracks since 2001...
. Primarily an R&B and pop outing, Graffiti incorporates elements of electro-pop and hip hop music
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
with synthesizers and electronic-influenced beats.
The album debuted at number seven on the U.S. Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart, selling 102,489 copies in its first week. To date, "Graffiti" has sold 341,000 copies in the US. It became his third consecutive top-ten debut in the United States and produced three singles that achieved moderate chart success. Upon its release, Graffiti received generally negative reviews from most music critics. Graffiti was nominated for two Grammy Awards, one for Best Contemporary R&B Album
Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album
The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality works on albums in the contemporary R&B music genre...
and Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals
Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals
The Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal was awarded between 1970 and 2011. From 1967 to 1969 and in 1971 the award included instrumental performances...
for the track, "Take My Time" featuring fellow R&B singer-songwriter Tank
Tank (singer)
Tank is an American R&B singer, songwriter and producer.-Career:Tank was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and moved with his family as a child to the Washington, D.C. suburb of Clinton, Maryland. He was a multi-sport athlete at Crossland High School and was offered the opportunity to play college...
.
Background
In 2008, Chris Brown commenced work on his third studio album and confirmed the title, Graffiti, at the 2008 American Music Awards. It was revealed in June 2008 that Brown was working with producers The Runners to create an "amazing, insane record. Something you've never heard before." Producer Scott StorchScott Storch
Scott Storch is an American record producer. He produces a variety of music, particularly hip hop, reggaeton, and R&B. His label, Storch Music Company responsible for signing Brooke Hogan and Nox...
, who had previously worked with Brown, also announced his involvement in the album stating, "He's good. I'm working with him in Orlando on some stuff." Recording for the album primarily took place in Orlando
Orlando, Florida
Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...
and on September 5, 2009, via Twitter, Brown announced that he had completed the album, and also revealed that the album would be released outside of the US on December 7 and in the US on December 8. Speaking to MTV, Swizz Beatz revealed, "he's got something to prove," and "has worked on 60–70 songs."
Composition
The album's music incorporates R&BContemporary R&B
Contemporary R&B is a music genre that combines elements of hip hop, soul, R&B and funk.Although the abbreviation “R&B” originates from traditional rhythm and blues music, today the term R&B is most often used to describe a style of African American music originating after the demise of disco in...
, pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, and Euro-dance styles. Greg Kot
Greg Kot
Greg Kot is an American writer and journalist. Since 1990, Kot has been the music critic at the Chicago Tribune, where he has covered popular music and reported on music-related social, political and business issues...
of the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
found most of its music suitable for the dance-floor and said like on Rihanna
Rihanna
Robyn Rihanna Fenty , better known as simply Rihanna, is a Barbadian recording artist. Born in Saint Michael, Barbados, Rihanna moved to the United States at the age of 16 to pursue a recording career under the guidance of record producer Evan Rogers...
's post-romance Rated R
Rated R (Rihanna album)
Rated R is the fourth studio album by Barbadian recording artist Rihanna, first released November 20, 2009, on Def Jam Recordings. The album is a musical distance from her previous effort Good Girl Gone Bad , which contained up-tempo and ballad-oriented songs, and it heavily incorporated pop and...
, "Brown aims to expand his music beyond hip-hop-flavored R&B by embracing Euro-disco, Goth-rock and new wave." Kot compared Brown's work to the "cross-genre experiments of Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
, Saul Williams
Saul Williams
Saul Stacey Williams is an American poet, writer, actor and musician known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop and for his leading role in the 1998 independent film Slam.-Biography:...
, and Lil Wayne
Lil Wayne
Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. , better known by his stage name Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. At the age of nine, Lil Wayne joined Cash Money Records as the youngest member of the label, and half of the duo, The B.G.'z, with B.G.. In 1997, Lil Wayne joined the group Hot Boys, which also included...
." According to Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, most of the album is in "upbeat party mode", mixed with power ballads
Power Ballads
Power Ballads is the debut album by Aqueduct. It was recorded by Trent Bell at Bell Labs and self-released on February 25, 2003. After releasing the album, frontman David Terry relocated to Seattle, Washington. Twelve hours after Terry's arrival in Seattle, Aqueduct opened for Modest Mouse...
, assumingly to "illuminate" his remorse over the Rihanna incident.
Lead single "I Can Transform Ya", lyrically about introducing someone to a luxurious life, has a robotic-crunk
Crunk
Crunk is a music style that originated in Memphis, Tennessee in the mid-to-late 1990s and gained mainstream success around 2003–2004. Performers of crunk music are sometimes referred to as crunksters. An archetypal crunk track most frequently uses a drum machine rhythm, heavy bassline, and...
groove, while making a heavy use of synthesizers and guitar riffs. "Pass Out" featuring Eva Simons
Eva Simons
Eva Simons is a Dutch recording artist. She first came to public attention in 2004 after winning the Dutch version of the reality TV contest Popstars as part of the short lived girlband Raffish...
,influenced by disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
, samples the "Call on me" Steve Winwood
Steve Winwood
Stephen Lawrence "Steve" Winwood is an English international recording artist whose career spans nearly 50 years. He is a songwriter and a musician whose genres include soul music , R&B, rock, blues-rock, pop-rock, and jazz...
's "Valerie", which was also used in Eric Prydz
Eric Prydz
Eric Sheridan Prydz is a Swedish DJ and producer based in London, United Kingdom. The pronunciation of his surname is often questioned; it is pronounced "prids", but when under his alias, Pryda, it is pronounced "pride-ah"...
worldwide dance hit, "Call on Me
Call on Me (Eric Prydz song)
"Call on Me" is a song performed by Swedish DJ, producer Eric Prydz. The single received huge sales success and topped several record charts. "Call on Me" is known for its music video, which features several women and a man performing aerobics in a sexually suggestive manner.-Background:"Call on...
". The song has been compared to Lady Gaga
Lady GaGa
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to...
. "Sing Like Me" and "Take My Time" recall Brown's earlier R&B/pop work. The hip-hop-influenced "Wait", with Game and R&B singer Trey Songz
Trey Songz
Tremaine "Trey" Aldon Neverson , better known by his stage name Trey Songz, is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer and actor. His debut album, I Gotta Make It, was released in 2005, while his second album, Trey Day, was released in 2007...
features "bouncy sirens", and according to Jon Caramanica of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
is closest to capturing the "frenetic energy" of Brown's early singles. The song has been called the male counterpart to Keri Hilson
Keri Hilson
Keri Lynn Hilson is an American R&B singer-songwriter. Born and raised in Decatur, Georgia, Hilson began her music career as a songwriter, penning tracks for several artists in the mid-2000s as part of the five-person production and songwriting team, The Clutch...
's "Knock You Down
Knock You Down
"Knock You Down" is a song by American singer-songwriter Keri Hilson, taken from her debut studio album, In a Perfect World... . The song features guest vocals from American singer-songwriter Ne-Yo and American rapper Kanye West. The song was written by Hilson, West, and Ne-Yo along with Kevin...
", which Brown references in the song and was also produced by "Wait" producer Polow da Don
Polow Da Don
Polow-Freache Jamal Fincher Jones , better known by known by professional name Polow da Don or Awesome Jones, is an American record producer, songwriter, rapper, and singer. His cousin is Atlanta singer Monica. He has produced for a variety of artists including Usher, Nelly, Christina Aguilera, T.I...
. Sarah Rodman of Boston Globe said the song needed a dance floor for full realization. According to Dan Gennoe of Yahoo! Music UK
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
, "I.Y.A" is a tribute to 80's music
1980s in music
For music from a year in the 1980s, go to 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89For a history of music in all times, see Timeline of musical events....
, and the song has been compared to Blake Lewis
Blake Lewis
Blake Colin Lewis is an American singer-songwriter and beatboxer who was the runner-up on the sixth season of American Idol. His major label debut album A.D.D. was released on December 4, 2007 through 19 Recordings/Arista Records. On October 30, 2007, his first single "Break Anotha" was released....
' "Heartbreak on Vinyl
Heartbreak on Vinyl (song)
Heartbreak on Vinyl is the second single by Blake Lewis to be released from his second album of the same name. The track is to date Lewis's most successful single, as it has reached the number-one spots on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Songs and Hot Dance Airplay charts in 2010...
. "So Cold" has been described as a "piano-laden apology" as "Famous Girl" has been called a "heavy hearted dance track." The previous track as well as "Crawl" feature an apologetic Brown, pining at points. The previous has been described to bear a sonic resemblance to Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
's "Drowned World/Substitute for Love
Drowned World/Substitute for Love
"Drowned World/Substitute for Love" is a pop song written by American singer Madonna, William Orbit, Rod McKuen, Anita Kerr and David Collins for Madonna's seventh album Ray of Light . It was produced by Madonna and William Orbit, and received a positive reception from music critics...
." The latter, "Famous Girl", featuring new wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
influences and a bouncy, light melodic line, seems to through accusations of infidelity in Rihanna
Rihanna
Robyn Rihanna Fenty , better known as simply Rihanna, is a Barbadian recording artist. Born in Saint Michael, Barbados, Rihanna moved to the United States at the age of 16 to pursue a recording career under the guidance of record producer Evan Rogers...
's direction, as well as implying she "had a temper of her own." The song also references songs Hilson's "Knock You Down", Keyshia Cole
Keyshia Cole
Keyshia Myeshia Cole Gibson born October 15, 1981) is an American singer–songwriter and actress. She gained nationwide acclaim when her 2005 debut album, The Way It Is went platinum. Her sophomore album Just Like You went into production shortly after that and was released in September 2007...
's "Heaven Sent", Beyoncé's "Halo
Halo (Beyoncé Knowles song)
"Halo" is a song recorded by American R&B singer Beyoncé Knowles for her third studio album I Am... Sasha Fierce . Columbia Records released the song as the fourth single of the album, to mainstream radio in the United States on January 20, 2009. It was composed by Ryan Tedder, Evan Bogart, and...
", and Jazmine Sullivan
Jazmine Sullivan
Jazmine Marie Sullivan is an American recording artist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is also the protégé of rapper Missy Elliott. Her debut single "Need U Bad" reached number one on Billboards Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, while her second single, "Bust Your Windows" peaked at number four...
's "Bust Your Windows
Bust Your Windows
"Bust Your Windows" is the second single by R&B singer-songwriter Jazmine Sullivan from her debut Grammy-nominated album Fearless. It was available as a digital download on Amazon.com in the U.S. on the September 16, 2008...
", as well as Rihanna's "Disturbia" and his "Forever
Forever (Chris Brown song)
"Forever" is a song by American R&B singer Chris Brown. It is produced by Polow da Don. It is the first single from the repackaged Exclusive: Forever Edition, and is the fifth overall single by Brown from his second studio album, Exclusive with uncredited backing vocals from Keri Hilson...
", as Brown laments on writing the first song and confronts the rumor about busting Rihanna's car windows. "Take My Time" features R&B singer Tank
Tank (singer)
Tank is an American R&B singer, songwriter and producer.-Career:Tank was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and moved with his family as a child to the Washington, D.C. suburb of Clinton, Maryland. He was a multi-sport athlete at Crossland High School and was offered the opportunity to play college...
, and has slow drums, and heavy female breathing, prompting innuendo. Jon Caramanica of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
said that "Lucky Me", lyrically about downs of life in the limelight, has a melody lifted from Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
's "Man in the Mirror
Man in the Mirror
"Man in the Mirror" is a song recorded by Michael Jackson and written and composed by Glen Ballard and Siedah Garrett. It peaked at number one in the United States when released as a single in January 1988 off his seventh solo album, Bad. It is one of Jackson's most critically acclaimed songs and...
."
Release and promotion
The album was released internationally on December 7, 2009, and in the US on December 8, 2009. It was released on all major formats and, in addition to the standard edition, an extended deluxe edition was also released, containing an additional six songs. The international edition differs slightly from the US edition, with one extra song ("Girlfriend") appearing on the standard edition and another ("Chase Our Love") appearing on the deluxe extended edition with the inclusion of track ("Movie") omitted. The European deluxe edition was issued as a single-CD, while US and Japanese deluxe editions are two-disc sets. To promote the album, Brown embarked on the "Fan Appreciation Tour" on October 27, 2009, in New JerseyNew Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. The tour took place in the US. The tour ended on December 15, 2009, in New York and a portion of the proceeds from the tour will go to charity to help the victims of domestic violence as well as people with developmental disabilities.
Singles
"I Can Transform YaI Can Transform Ya
"I Can Transform Ya" is a song by American singer Chris Brown. The song features Lil Wayne and Swizz Beatz. It was written by Brown, Wayne and Beatz, and produced by the latter. Originally known simply as "Transformer", the song was Brown's first official release since his altercation with former...
" was released as the album's lead single
Lead single
A lead single is usually the first single released by a musician or a band before the release of its home album.During the era of the grammophone record, all music arrived in the marketplace as what is now termed a single, one potential hit song backed by an additional song of generally less...
on September 29, 2009. The song received mostly positive reviews, noting the song's club feel and catchiness. "I Can Transform Ya"'s reached the top ten of New Zealand, whilst achieving chart success in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The song's dance-heavy accompanying music video features choreography with hooded ninjas, and makes puns on the Transformers series. "Crawl
Crawl (Chris Brown song)
"Crawl" is a song by American recording artist Chris Brown. It is the second single from his third studio album Graffiti, released as a digital download on November 24, 2009. The song was produced by The Messengers and was written by Nasri Atweh, Adam Messinger, Luke Boyd, and Brown...
" and "Sing Like Me
Sing Like Me
"Sing Like Me" is a song by American recording artist Chris Brown. It was released as a promotional single from his third studio album, Graffiti, on November 24, 2009, in the United States. The number was written by Brown, Big Makk, Keith Thomas, Lorenza "Big Lo" Lennon and Atozzio Towns, and...
" were released on iTunes on November 24, 2009, the first as the album's second single, and the latter as a promotional single. The previous received positive to mixed reviews, reaching the top twenty in Japan and New Zealand. Its accompanying music video features Brown and American R&B singer Cassie as his love interest, as he yearns for their relationship on a winter night in a city and in a desert scene.
Commercial performance
The album debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
, selling 102,000 copies in its first week. Graffiti was the week's second highest debut, only behind Glee: The Music, Volume 2
Glee: The Music, Volume 2
Glee: The Music, Volume 2 is the second soundtrack album by the cast of the American musical television series Glee, featuring songs from episodes nine to thirteen of the show's first season. It was first released on December 4, 2009 in Australia by Columbia Records...
. It's total sales of 341,000 copies to date were disappointing compared to his previous two albums.
Critical response
Graffiti received negative reviews from most music critics. At MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalized
Standard score
In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score of 39, based on 12 reviews, which indicates "generally unfavorable reviews". It is ranked fourteenth on the site's list of worst-reviewed albums. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
writer Jody Rosen
Jody Rosen
Jody Rosen is an American journalist and author. He is the music critic for the online magazine Slate, and the author of White Christmas: The Story of an American Song....
expressed a mixed response towards its "punchydance-pop songs full of club-ready beats and Casanova gestures", calling it "a bland, occasionally obnoxious, proforma R&B album". Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...
's Eric Henderson commented that "the only compelling thing about the incoherent Graffiti is the material (both external and internal) that makes it even less palatable than a simply below-average collection of paint-by-numbers R&B beats." Michaelangelo Matos of The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
gave the album an F rating and stated "The production is clean and often lively, and Brown sings well enough. The problem is what he’s singing". Allmusic editor Andy Kellman also dismissed the album's songwriting and called Brown "exceptionally insufferable" on most of the songs. Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
writer Jim DeRogatis
Jim DeRogatis
James "Jim" DeRogatis is an American music critic and co-host of Sound Opinions. DeRogatis has written articles for magazines such as Spin, Guitar World and Modern Drummer, and for fifteen years was the pop music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times.He joined Columbia College Chicago as a full-time...
gave the album one out of four stars and described it as "thoroughly mediocre and at times just garbage". Pete Paphides of The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
panned its ballads, called them a "slopfest of mawkish penitence". Jon Caramanica of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
questioned the lyrics' substance and called Graffiti "a curiously faceless album that largely thumbs its nose at close reading".
However, Steve Jones of USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
gave the album two-and-a-half out of four stars and commented that Brown "succeeds in expanding his sonic horizons with rock and Euro-dance influenced rhythms that are sure to ignite dance floors and innervate his electrifying performances". Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
s Gail Mitchell complimented its music as "a forward-moving fusion of R&B, pop, rock and Euro-dance". Thomas Golianpoulous of Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
said Brown sounded "generally remorseful", but said that Brown didn't "let any of this obstruct a good party, complimenting the album's "monster club tracks." Despite writing that it has filler tracks, Dan Gennoe of Yahoo! Music
Yahoo! Music
Yahoo! Music, owned by Yahoo!, is the provider of a variety of music services, including Internet radio, music videos, news, artist information, and original programming...
gave the album a seven out of 10 rating and called it the "highest point of his career". Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
writer Greg Kot
Greg Kot
Greg Kot is an American writer and journalist. Since 1990, Kot has been the music critic at the Chicago Tribune, where he has covered popular music and reported on music-related social, political and business issues...
noted a "inconsistent and sometimes contradictory tone" in Brown's lyrics, but commented that the album has "several top-notch pieces of innocuous dance music". Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
complimented its "zero-gravity pleasures", writing that "at its best moments, it still floats". Sarah Rodman of The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
commended the music and production, but criticized Brown's songwriting, stating "As co-writer of 12 of the 13 tracks, that’s where he sabotages a lot of the album’s purely musical promise". Joey Guerra of the Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
said the album might have worked, but much of it "never takes flight, instead recycling the usual slick touches and arrangements." BBC Online's Jude Rogers noted "slinky RnB body-poppers and cheesy, breathy ballads" and commented that "plodding melodies draw attention to Brown's unpleasantly macho style".
Track listing
- (co.) signifies a co-producer.
Charts
| Chart (2009) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
40 |
| French Albums Chart Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry... |
134 |
| German Albums Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
83 |
| Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically... |
47 |
| New Zealand Albums Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
40 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
55 |
| UK R&B Chart UK R&B Chart The Official UK R&B Chart is a forty-position R&B/Hip-Hop chart compiled by The Official UK Charts Company. Although the chart does not receive any airplay, its compilation is viewed on BBC Radio 1's website and publications such as ChartsPlus and Music Week... |
11 |
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
7 |
| US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999... |
1 |
Year-end charts
| Chart (2010) | Position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
113 |
Release history
| Country | Date |
|---|---|
| Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... |
December 7, 2009 |
| United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... |
December 7, 2009 |
| United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
December 8, 2009 |
External links
- Graffiti at DiscogsDiscogsDiscogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...
- Graffiti at MetacriticMetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...