Harlem songstress Teyana Taylor has been in the game for quite some time and has been on fire since the release of the critically acclaimed ‘Fade‘ music video by Kanye West. Teyana has had a successful year, from scoring a hit VH1 show with her hubby Iman Shumpert surrounding their family to performing a critically acclaimed Lil’ Kim tribute at the VH1 Hip-Hop Honors, and ripping the runway at NYFW. After those wins, wouldn’t it have been the perfect time to release an album?
Coming at the tale end of a streak of great albums from the GOOD MUSIC camp, including Pusha T, Kanye West, Kanye and Cudi, and then NAS himself; I believe this was the first mistake on Ye’s behalf.
June 2018 saw the release of quite a few heavyweights in the music industry, including XTINA, The Carters, Kanye, the infamous Pusha T and Drake beef and more. Teyana’s presence in the industry is respected, but in the past few years her status has risen quite a few levels, and she’s grown a much larger fan base. I think anyone could tell that it’d be a foolish idea to place a developing artist in such a jam-packed month instead of pushing it back to give her the proper shine.
Also, during his entire pro-Trump twitter spree where he randomly blurted out ideas, and concepts, for all the albums he was curating; very few times did he ever mention or promote Teyana’s project. All the albums were released simultaneously with outrageous, star-studded listening parties that were live streamed so fans could jam along with the artists and hear the music at the same time as everyone else.
Slated for a June 22nd release, Teyana’s live stream didn’t begin at midnight like everyone else’s, it began at 2AM (EST), and fans were perplexed at the fact that not only was Kanye the center of attention the entire time, but the entire stream was muted, and the album still had not been released.
After a day of radio silence from both Teyana and Kanye; the album appeared on all streaming platforms and is receiving mostly good reviews from fans despite the confusion about its release. The sultry, and enchanting R&B project aesthetically sounds like a romantic dream on a rainy day with the love of your life.
All the drama aside; as expected between Teyana’s rich vocals, and Kanye’s genius production; the album is amazing. Perfectly tracing her Harlem roots, touching on both her feminine and masculine sides; and at the end of the album she even pays homage to her ballroom inspirations (happy pride month! ;))
What is your favourite track on the album? How do you feel about its release, and would you like to see Kanye produce her next one as well? Sound off in the comments
