Much like our ‘Retro Rewind’ and ‘From the Vault’ segments, readers of That Grape Juice know what avid music lovers we are – especially of hits past. So in a quest to re-spin the gems and jams of yesterday we introduced a new retrospective segment – ‘TGJ Replay’.
Unlike its ‘Rewind’ and ‘Vault’ predecessors, ‘Replay’ looks to dust off and showcase albums (and eras) from a library of pop music hits. Today, we recap Keri Hilson’s ‘In A Perfect World’ – her critically acclaimed debut LP…
After years of pushbacks, label dramas, and the like, Atlanta bred beauty Keri Hilson finally found her album aboard record shelves worldwide.
Indeed, Hilson – who had made quite the name for herself behind the scenes as a songwriter crafting R&B hits for some of the genres heaviest hitters – was poised for her own chart takeover. Teaming with ‘The Way I Are’ collaborator Timbaland and hip hop hitmaker Polow Da Don as primary production contributors, Hilson birthed ‘In A Perfect World’ – her debut LP.
Led by the 2008 pop singles ‘Energy’ and ‘Return the Favor’ (ft. Timbaland)…
‘Energy’
‘Return The Favor’
The tracks, despite receiving moderate buzz, did not lend much favor to Hilson’s cause. While the former peaked on the Hot 100’s lower half, the latter failed to chart at all.
Not discouraged by the reception, Hilson tapped R&B’s “go to” co-star rapper Lil’ Wayne for her third single ‘Turnin Me On’. The move, a sonic departure from her two previous pop offerings, would prove to be a lucrative one as the song instantly took off on radio and charts alike…
Featuring sleek choreography and Hilson’s now signature brand of sass, the tune and video would turn fans onto the Atlanta songbird who many felt was finally getting her due. Immediately soaring to the Hot 100’s top 20 on the wings of its accompanying visual (pegged an updated version of Destiny Child’s 2004 hit ‘Soldier’), it seems Miss Keri Baby had finally arrived.
‘Turnin Me On’ (video)
The success of ‘Turnin’ helped turn the Keri campaign around and boosted its parent album’s first week sales to facilitate a top 5 debut. Not to lose momentum, the songstress quickly capitalized on the song’s success by tapping fellow singer/songwriter Ne-Yo and hit rapper Kanye West for ‘Turnin’s follow-up ‘Knock You Down’. A move that benefited Hilson yet again as the tune became her most successful of the era (reaching #3 on charts).
The promotional video for ‘Make Love’ and final (official) release ‘Slow Dance’ (written by Justin Timberlake) would round out the album’s singles. Collectively the tunes and the album’s all star cast (including Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Polow Da Don, Keyshia Cole, Kanye West, Ne-Yo, and more) helped shift sales of the record to gold status and help cement Hilson’s name amidst R&B’s top female performers.
‘Make Love’
‘Slow Dance’
As Miss Keri Baby has long been a TGJ fave, we keep ‘In A Perfect World’ on ‘replay’ here at TGJ HQ. So, while we press play on our favorite track from the set ‘How Does It Feel’, you tell us:
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…When Keri was, somewhat, “Quasi-Relevant”.
Energy is still my jam though…
🙂
Agreed. Energy made me appreciate her as an artist.
fav track : Turnin’ me on (REMIX)
😈
slow dance >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
This album was actually really good. Keri can sing, write and has stage presence. She did really good promo for this album too. I don’t know why people hate on her so much just because she “might” have shaded Beyonce, so what? I hope she can redeem her audience with her next album. She’s one of the few artist who still do concept albums.
this album is soooo underrated!! ”make love” shoulda been a single instead of ”slow dance”. then after that it shoulda been tell him the truth then after that ”where did he go”
btw why cant u vote for ”where did he go??”
I don’t care what anyone says; this album was BOMB! I loved it from top to bottom. KYD, Alienated, Change Me, Make Love, Tell Him The Truth….ahhh!!!
This album shoulda done better. Keri is one of those artists with potential.
An album from 2009, an album that hasn’t even gone platinum,brought any significant cultural changes or birthed by an artist who made it past her second album. Are you serious TGJ?
After so many good retro rewinds and we get this? lol
probably did this to start a stan war.
This is such a great album! So many great potential singles as well. Alienated, Tell Him The Truth, How Does It Feel >>>
One of my favorite albums of all time. Amazing from start to finish. This cd brings back so many great memories 🙂
Keri will always be her own worst enemy (give me co-writing credit, b****, cuz I know you’re reading this and about to write a song with that title). She has talent, but she isn’t confident but then tries to be, which makes her seem cocky (unjustifiably so). Her style is a mess and she comes off as unrefined. Her hair styles are always awful…wearing quick weaves when I know she’s got the budget for nicer hair. I think she should wear long blonde hair and basically become a Beyoncé clone until they start giving her the spotlight she deserves.
MY FAVOURITE ALBUM IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!! the concept is amazing and truly comes throught with songs like ‘where did he go’, ‘tell him the truth’ and ‘Intuition’. From top to bottom it is just amazing <3 I love how the up-beat, club tracks are kept to a minimum and still sound urban. I guess you need that club track (get your money up) to break down the emotion in the album lol 'Return the Favor' is a bit too pop for my liking but other than that the album is PERFECT. If you listen throughout, it tells one story- the story of KERI HILSON. It is truly a great R&B album, with those 90's sounding throwback ballads (eg. slow dance, make love, tell him the truth, where did he go) her ballads are amazing and are the majority of the album; i love how she doesn't use over-cluttered production and developed her own sound. Her voice and writing skills truly shine. She has some killer vocals in 'make love', slow dance and 'tell hihm the truth Hope the third album is like this
and pepople need to give credit to how soulful the album is.. Like theres none of that pointless b******* that music has now turned into(ie. electronic dance music crap)
‘In a perfect world’ is so full of R&B ballads and i LOVE IT!