After years of anticipation, Normani released her debut album ‘Dopamine’ this week.
Powered by preceding singles ‘1:59’ and ‘Candy Paint,’ the LP sees the star shine with a body of work that is strong, assured, and all sorts of cohesive.
Continuing along the press trail for the set, the 28-year-old spoke with Vogue about finally releasing the album, her breakthrough moment artistically, and working with The Vocal Bible Brandy.
Check out quotes below…
On Finally Releasing Dopamine:
“I think a weight has been lifted, for sure. It’s been such a long journey and process for me, and I know everything that I’ve endured and put into this, so I’m just doing my best to be present and grant myself some grace and celebrate myself.”
On ‘Wild Side’ Being Her Artistic Breakthrough:
“I feel like the first time I defined my own sound was with “Wild Side.” Still, to this day, that’s one of my favorite records that I feel wholeheartedly just represents me and represents stylistically the type of music that made me fall in love with music from a very early age—Aaliyah, Missy Elliott, Timbaland, the nostalgia of it all. I always joke that I feel like I was born in the wrong generation, because my favorite era is undeniably the late ’90s and early 2000s. I started this process a very long time ago, and I’ve learned a lot more about myself not only as an artist, but as a woman too. And I think you can hear that on “Wild Side”—it was a real breakthrough, and one of the first moments where I was like, Oh, wow, this feels authentic. This feels like it really represents where I am.”
On Working with Brandy:
“I actually remember going into the studio with Stargate [a producer on the album] and being like, “I want to do something like this”—like Brandy’s ‘Something’s Missing.’ That was everything I wanted to capture, so she was definitely the inspiration from the very beginning with that song. And then I decided to just shoot my shot, and ask if Brandy could help with the vocal production, because obviously she’s a master of her voice and of vocal production. She’s someone that I’ve always been influenced and inspired by since I was young—she was one of the very first artists that I fell in love with. So it felt like a full-circle moment. The fact that she actually loved the song just as much as I did and believed in it enough to want to jump on it really meant a lot to me. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith.” [Via Vogue]
Click Here To Check out That Grape Juice’s Top 5 Tracks From Normani’s ‘Dopamine’
7/10.
Dopamine is solid comparatively to Chloes debut but I doubt it lands on the BB200. Big boy should have been the Single with a video. But unlike on in pieces The Dopamine album lacked vocal moments and strong bridges in place of stronger production quality than in pieces.
@Normani’s “DOPAMINE” is expected to debut with 11-17M on-demand streams in the US first week (8.5-13K SEA units; excluding pure sales).
But They will never heavily promote like Have Mercy. Wonder if she can outperform in pieces
The prospect of Normani outselling in pieces is like a turtle 🐢 beating a sloth 🦥 In a race 🏁
A Flop is born!
💀🤣 2018: I have an album title y’all 😂. 2024: I’m officially a FLOP y’all💅🏻💀
How is she landing all these big mags for promo and not putting out a single TV/streaming performance? Where is the video? Even with all the delays the album deserved better
Was well worth the wait. Normani did that!!
Next year, she’ll be spreading WIDE on Onlyfans, cuz no one is buying this.
My biggest problem with dopamine is, it’s already apparent that Normani just BARELY has a voice let alone a recognizable one yet there still COULD have been VOCAL MOMENTS. Ciara had a few on the Goodies album, yet normani is always on ONE NOTE/TONE. Sadly, not even her Head voice was put to use, her only vocal strength.
An alleged Mezzo-Soprano with 4 octaves and 3 notes and she barely uses ANY of it in her (mid) music.
Very curious but which vocal moments did ciara have?
I didn’t say they were IMPRESSIVE moments, there were plenty of Cute vocal adlib moments all over that album, even on Pick up the Phone and and i.
The Title
This album was DOA on release day. No promo on talk shows, no radio interviews, no visuals and lack of a radio single that would pave the way for the album. After all this time waiting, we as fans deserve so much more. Promo should’ve been lined up and ready to go. Tinashe is independent and even she was on Kimmel. I’m so disappointed I stood by Normani all this time for this tragic album roll out.
Ikr. It’s really embarrassing.
Nobody knows this girl outside of blogs. FLOP! Watch RCA shelve her áss after her flop tour ticket sales.
She announced the album four months ago just to do NOTHING in between lmao. Zero promo whatsoever. Does she think she’s Beyonce or something?
10k first week
Normani coulda hustled to promote the heck out of this album months leading up to release. Nope. She refused and was in hiding and continues to not engage on social media. No one cares for fashion magazine interviews who have low readership. That’s literally the bare minimum.
We believe the album trailer is for a Album movie called Dopamine..with probably 4 videos. A remix to Insomnia turning it into a duet with Brandy.