Riot (EP)

Background

When Rain was 13 years old, she auditioned for the Nickelodeon series "Star Camp". Rain was chosen along with seven other kids to be in a musical group called "The Giggle Club". Shortly after season one was finished up filming, the Giggle Club had broken up so all the members could focus on their solo careers. After the series ended, Nick Cannon decided to groom Rain for a solo career. Cannon brought Rain to several record producers to record solo tracks. After hearing one of Rain's songs "Detention", Canon started girl group School Gyrls which went on to record two albums, star in several movies on Nickelodeon, and also tour in Asia and North America. After Rain and fellow School Gyrls' member Jacque Pyles decided to leave the group, they both started pursuing solo careers.

After the disbandment of the School Gyrls, Rain started working with producers Rock City and G-Production on new solo music. Rain released her debut single "Boogie" in 2011. During the time it was released, Rain had announced several projects, some included an upcoming Christmas extended play, her debut mixtape, and her involvement in several potential television shows. These projects went unreleased for unknown reasons. During the three years after Boogie was released, Rain had signed with Empire Records and had begun work on writing and recording new material.

Production

Throughout 2014, Rain tweeted pictures of her and other collaborators in different studios in California. The photos revealed that Rain was working with musicians such as Isaac Hasson, Buddy Dalton, Kenton Duty, and others. Rain recorded at Universal Republic Records throughout September and October.

Lyrics

Most of the EP focuses on relationships, both good and bad. Songs like "Riot" and "Just Want to Love You" both feature lyrics about destructive relationships. Riot is more about the destructive and mentally upsetting portion of the relationship as its happening, while Just Want to Love You is about after the relationship has gone bad and just wanting to stay together. Both songs feature multiple references to fire and lighters, most likely due to the objects' destructive nature and the somewhat destructive relationships mentioned in the songs. "Dare to Love" is lyrically similar to "Just Want to Love You" due to both songs involving overcoming relationships, although Just Want to Love You is about someone trying to overcome their relationship issues and continue like they were before their problems had started, and Dare to Love is about someone wanting their partner to overcome their past romantic issues and "dare to love" them.

Other songs on the EP including "Turn on the Dj" and "Thirsty" are more about having fun while partying, although both incorporate lyrics about lusting over someone in a somewhat romantic way after seeing them at a club. Back to Bad is quite different than the other songs on the EP.

Songs

The extended play opens up with a track called "Intro" which features snippets from some of the songs on the EP along with several voice overs of people saying lines such as "she's back and a better than ever" and "is the world ready for a new music icon?". The 46 second introduction is followed by the album's lead and titular song "Riot". Riot is an uptempo Dance-pop song that features heavy club beats in the background. Riot served as the lead single from the album and was released on January 27, 2014, exactly one year before the EP was released. Riot is followed by track three, "Dare to Love", the extended play's second single which is with former Disney star and singer Kenton Duty. Dare to Love is an upbeat love song about overcoming past relationship issues and being willing to fall in love, again. The song is mainly pop with some elements of different genres. Track number four is "Turn on the Dj", which is unlike most other songs on the EP. Turn on the Dj is a Club dance song that features heavy bass drops sampling dubstep music. The song features rap like parts from Rain, similar to early work by American recording artist Kesha. Turn on the Dj is followed by "Back to Bad" which is a 90s pop throwback track. The sixth track on the album is "Just Want to Love You". Just Want to Love You is one of the more R&B influenced song on the EP. The song is about a damaged relationship. The seventh and overall last song on the EP is "Thirsty", which is very similar to "Turn Up the Dj" due to its experimental club beats and dubstep samples.

Singles

"Riot" was released on iTunes on January 23, 2014 and to all other digital retailers on January 31, 2014 under Empire Records. A lyric video was uploaded to Rain's YouTube channel and than later released onto her Vevo channel on May 20, 2014. After much promotion over social media, the music video for Riot was released onto in August, 2014. The video features Rain playing a girl who discovers that her boyfriend (played by Gabriel De Santi) is cheating on her and she gets her revenge by tearing up the apartment. Shortly after its release, YouTube pulled the video. Although there wasn't any official announcement released by Rain or her record label about why the video was pulled, it is presumed that it was removed due to its somewhat destructive plot. The video had approximately 57,000 views before it was abruptly pulled. It was re-uploaded to Rain's YouTube/Vevo channels on August 18, 2014. The Brooklyn remix of "Riot" was released onto the iTunes store on October 21, 2014. Riot ended up becoming a top ten single by peaking at #10 on the "U.S. Treding 140" Twitter chart.

"Dare to Love" was released as the second single from the album on September 26, 2014. The single features guest vocals from actor and singer Kenton Duty. The music video featured Rain and Duty playing characters who form a romantic relationship while volunteering at an animal shelter. Although the single had failed to chart anywhere, it was still moderately successful by ranking up over 21,000 YouTube views as of January 24, 2015.

Rain announced in late January that she was filming a new music video for "I Just Want to Love You". It hasn't been announced yet whether or not I Just Want to Love You will be a single or not. The video currently remains unreleased. A video for "Back to Bad" was announced on April 11, 2015 by HellHoundMusic

Release formats

Performance credits

Technical and production