Stay Connected
Atlanta Black Star/Entertainment
EntertainmentMusic

Brandy Returns to R&B Roots on New Label with ‘Two Eleven’

Posted byBy Stan | Published on: CommentsComments (0)

After spending the four years since 2008’s “Human” (Epic Records) largely away from the recording booth — save for a brief foray into rap, under the name Bran’Nu — Brandy Norwood is making a return to her R&B roots on the melodic, vocal-driven “Two Eleven,” which arrives Oct. 16 on RCA/Chameleon Records.

The project is the first under the singer/actor’s new deal with RCA/Chameleon. After “Human” disappointed commercially, debuting at No. 15 on the Billboard 200 chart and selling just 214,000 copies to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan, Brandy exited longtime home Epic in 2009, shortly after Amanda Ghost joined the label as president. Ghost, who left Epic in late 2010, declined to comment.

“I’ve been trying to find myself, musically,” says Brandy, who returned to TV during the hiatus (she had starred in the hit TV series “Moesha” from 1996 to 2001). She appeared alongside her brother Ray J, also a singer, in VH1’s “Brandy and Ray J: A Family Business” (and delivered the companion album A Family Business), and in fall 2010, Brandy competed on “Dancing With the Stars.”

“At one point I thought I wouldn’t get another chance,” she says. “You get those thoughts when you take time off, [like], ‘Is it over? It’s never going to happen again.’ [But] the four years wasn’t really my fault. If it were up to me I would do music every day. I didn’t have a backing, a home, a deal. In that time I was able to meet with RCA, get a deal with them and figure out what I wanted to do musically. It’s working out perfect because now, with Two Eleven, it’s everything that I want.”

The road back to her recording career began in August 2011, when Chameleon founder Breyon Prescott signed Brandy to a joint venture between RCA and Chameleon 18 months after seeing her perform at RnB Live Hollywood. “I saw an opportunity to take something that’s so precious and bring it back to the music business,” says Prescott, who’s worked with Angie Stone and Jamie Foxx. “When I saw her perform, she performed like she had a chip on her shoulder. I think she felt like the industry had given up on her.”

Read more: Erika Ramirez, Billboard

 

Independent journalism still matters.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Give once Give monthly Support another way

Related Stories

Back to top