Monday, October 26, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CIARA (ALBUM NEWS)
Ciara has been laying low as of late, but for good reason. The R&B singer is well into recording her fourth album and we’ve got the exclusive details.
Christopher “Tricky” Stewart and his songwriting partner The-Dream have been secretly spending the summer in the studio producing the entire follow-up to Ciara’s Fantasy Ride. Stewart broke the news to Rap-Up.com in an exclusive interview. “We’re doing the whole project,” he reveals. “We’re pretty good into it at this point. We’re about 14 songs deep right now.”
The 23-year-old ATLien relocated to the West Coast to work on the album with Tricky and Dream, who crafted “High Price” and “Like a Surgeon” off this year’s Fantasy Ride. “She came out to L.A. to work with us. We’re out here making this record ’cause it feels good and the vibe is good,” says the Grammy-winning producer.
The as-yet-untitled effort will feature danceable tracks that have become Ciara’s signature. “This record obviously is gonna have tempo to it, but I think it’s gonna have even more substance than the last record,” Tricky discloses. “She dances and we always want to bring out what she does that other people don’t.”
Although Fantasy Ride boasted collaborations with a who’s who of the industry including Justin Timberlake, Chris Brown, and Ludacris, the “Love Sex Magic” singer will be riding solo this time. “This album we wanted to take a few steps back and make it more about her, so the only feature is Dream. But the features that we do on this record will be remixes.”
The hitmaker even shared a couple song titles with Rap-Up.com. “I love ‘Speechless.’ I love this record called ‘Gifted.’ Those are two of my favorites. ‘Speechless’ is the record with her and Dream together.”
While there’s still the possibility of a release by the end of the year, it’s looking like 2010 will mark Super C’s return. “It’s a little up in the air, but there’s a chance that it might come this year. That was the goal, but at the same time, we didn’t want to rush anything. I think it’s looking more like a next year thing.”
Ciara is pulling out all the stops to make this her best work yet. “Right now, she’s on her grind, coming back, trying to make a better album than she made last time and get back to that mark where everybody knew that she was in the top tier of the female business.”
Ciara must have liked what she heard on Fantasy Ride this year. After working with producer Christopher “Tricky” Stewart on four of her album’s 13 tracks, the singer has given Tricky and his songwriting partner The-Dream domain over the entirety of her follow-up disc. But what we heard a lot on Fantasy — and what we likely won’t be hearing much on the new album — are Ciara’s high-profile collaborations with other artists.
“At this point in my career, it’s important for my fans to get to know more about me and to really feel me,” she told MTV News on the red carpet Saturday at Justin Timberlake’s charity event. “I’ve done a lot of features over the course of my career. I’m not saying that I won’t do any, but I want really my fans to come into my world. I’ve been very blessed to work with a lot of cool people, but this time it is about knowing me more and hearing more of me.”
Of course, Fantasy featured Ludacris, Chris Brown, Young Jeezy, Missy Elliott and Timberlake. The video for “Love Sex Magic,” which featured JT, nabbed a Best Choreography nomination at this year’s Video Music Awards.
Tricky recently told RapUp.com the name of two records they’ve recorded — “Gifted” and “Speechless,” which actually features Ciara with The-Dream — but Ciara said those two tracks are only the beginning of the “really crazy, really fun” album they’re putting together.
“I got on Tricky because he was spilling all the beans,” she laughed. “Those two records that he named are definitely awesome records and there are some cool ones that I’ve done lately that are just even more amazing.”
“It’s kind of reminding me of how it was for me at the beginning of my career,” she explained, “which is a really good feeling.”
CIARA TURNS 24 TODAY...AOWWWW