Brandy (album)

Background

In 1990, Norwood's talent led to a binding oral contract with Teaspoon Productions, headed by Chris Stokes and Earl Harris, who obtained her gigs as a backing vocalist for their R&B boy band Immature. The same year, Stokes arranged the production of a demo tape which was handed over to Atlantic Recording Corporation executives. While they liked the material, they found Norwood too young at age 11 and told her to come back when she was 14. In 1993, amid ongoing negotiations with East West Records, Norwood's parents organized a recording contract with Atlantic after auditioning for the company's director of A&R, Darryl Williams. Norwood subsequently dropped out of Hollywood High School later and was tutored privately from tenth grade on.

During the early production stages of her debut on the Atlantic label, Norwood was selected for a role in the ABC sitcom Thea, portraying the 12-year-old daughter of a single mother played by Thea Vidale. Broadcast to mediocre ratings, the series ended only eight months after its premiere. Norwood appreciated the cancellation of the show as she was unenthusiastic about acting at the time and the taping caused scheduling conflicts with the recording of her album, stating: "I felt bad for everybody else but me. It was a good thing, because I could do what I had to do, because I wanted to sing [...] When Thea was canceled I was like, ‘Okay, I can now put all my focus into my album’." Atlantic consulted newcomer Keith Crouch to work with Norwood on the bulk of the album. Norwood noted that her collaboration with Crouch "was very important for me as a young artist. At the time he was not trying to be like anyone else on radio. He was all about his own sound. But what I really loved about Keith is he gave me real music. He didn’t give me teenybopper records. It was age appropriate, youthful records, but it was still real music. We had a great connection." While Crouch would provide the core sound of the album, Norwood also worked with all-male R&B group Somethin' for the People and Damon Thomas on some tracks. A then 16-year-old Robin Thicke scored his first co-writing credit on the album with "Love Is on My Side".

Critical reception

In his review for AllMusic, Eddie Huffman wrote that "this teenage R&B singer hit the Top Ten late in 1994 with "I Wanna Be Down", a representative track from her solid debut album. Brandy knows her way around a hip-hop beat, layering tender-tough vocals over spare arrangements like a lower-key Janet Jackson or a more stripped-down Mary J. Blige. Good songs and crisp production make Brandy a moody, moving success." In 2007, Vibe rated Brandy among the 150 most essential albums since its launch. The magazine found that "Brandy's debut is slow, deliberate, and naive — not for lack of accomplishment, but because the best moments here sound as wide-eyed and new as a first date."

People compared the effort with Aaliyah's debut album Age Ain't Nothing but a Number, which was released four months prior, writing: "While everything about Aaliyah screams here-and-now, Brandy's well-groomed blend of gently lilting hip hop and pop-soul has a more timeless appeal. With the poise and sassy confidence of a diva twice her age, Brandy mixes her love songs with tributes to her little brother ("Best Friend"), God ("Give Me You"), the perfect man ("Baby") and older crooners like Aretha and Whitney ("I Dedicate"). While this isn't groundbreaking stuff, Brandy has the pipes to become more than the latest teenage next-big-thing." Anderson Jones from Entertainment Weekly was less enthusiastic with the album. He gave the album a C rating and considered it as: "An album that seems based on the philosophy 'If Aaliyah can do it, why can't I?' except that in singing about best friends, heroes, and puppy love instead of about making love, teen actress Norwood (TV's Thea) acts her age. A premature effort, at best." In his Consumer Guide, Robert Christgau gave the album a "neither" score, and said it "may impress once or twice with consistent craft or an arresting track or two. Then it won't."

Sales and legacy

Brandy entered the US Billboard 200 at number 94, and peaked at number 20 in its fifth week, remaining for 89 weeks on the Billboard 200. The hit single "Baby" sold 800,000 copies in 1995 and Brandy was the 52nd best selling album of the year, with 1.2 million copies sold in the country. Brandy was certified four-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and as of 2002 had sold 2.12 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. In addition, it peaked at number 6 on the US Billoard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. It remained for 86 weeks on that chart. In Canada, the album also peaked at number 20 on the Canadian RPM Singles Chart during the week of February 13, 1995. To date, Brandy is certified gold by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA), denoting shipments of over 50,000 copies. The album peaked at number 26 in Australia. As of 2010, the album has sold over 6 million copies worldwide.

With the release of her debut album and the combined commercial success of its singles, Norwood had established herself a successful solo artist. The album led her to successful endeavors post 1994 until the release of her second album Never Say Never (1998), including a joint tour with vocal group Boyz II Men, songs landing on successful soundtracks for films such as Waiting to Exhale (1995) and Set It Off (1996), her first starring TV role in the sitcom Moesha, and starring as the first African American Cinderella in Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella.

Widely acclaimed, Complex magazine named Brandy one of the 50 best R&B albums of the 1990s. Serving as an inspiration for other artists, American neo soul singer Erykah Badu revealed on Twitter that her 1997 debut album, Baduizm, was partly influenced by Brandy, tweeting “Brandy's first album was one of my inspirations when writting Baduizm. I looove that album [...] songs i liked were "I Wanna Be Down" and "Always on My Mind"... nice." Fellow neo soul artist Jill Scott particularly praised the songs "Sunny Day" and "Always On My Mind" saying "I listen to her shit all the time". Pop group Karmin's song "Brokenhearted" was inspired by Brandy's song of the same name. Canadian recording artist Drake sampled all three parts of "I Dedicate" on his 2016 album VIEWS for the song "Fire & Desire". Gospel recording artists The Walls Group remade the song "Always On My Mind", turning it into "God On My Mind".

Personnel

Production