X is the sixth studio album by American singer Chris Brown. The album is the follow-up to his fifth album Fortune, which was released in 2012. The X album was released on September 12, 2014.
Background[]
X was called Carpe Diem at first and the song "Nobody's Perfect" which was supposed to be the first single of the album was premiered on L.A. Power 106's Big Boy's Neighbourhood radio, but never got a official release. Chris even did a tour named after the working title of the album called as a promotion for his album Fortune, The Carpe Diem Tour. In March 2013, Breezy revealed that he recorded songs with artists and producers, such as Diplo, Timbaland, Ariana Grande, Kendrick Lamar, Wiz Khalifa, Rihanna, Ludacris, RoccStar, Danja & Nicki Minaj. Some of the collabs made the album and some of them didn't.
The album got pushed back a few times, because of problems with his label and his sentence to an anger management rehabilitation center for three months. Because of the delay of the album, Breezy released the mixtape X Files with songs who didn't make the final cut of the album. The mixtape includes the collab with Ludacris, the original version of Main Chick and some other songs. On April 4, 2014 Chris released a teaser of the music video for his collab Don't Be Gone Too Long which was planned to feature Ariana Grande. The album one again got delayed, because of his prison sentence and the duet with Ariana and the videoclip would remain unreleased. The song appeared on the album. Not with Ariana, but with the writer of the song Cathy Dennis. The song with the music video leaked online on 13 september 2014.
During a interview for Rolling Stone, Chris explained the title of the album: "It's the Roman numeral for 10. 5/5/89 is my birthday: 5 plus 5 is 10, and this is my tenth year since I got into music. 'X' is the 24th letter in the alphabet, and I will turn 24 when this album comes out. 'X' is also a metaphor, as in ex-girlfriend. It implies you're progressing and moving on in life, not holding on to the past and your old ways."
Singles[]
The lead single of the album was "Fine China". Which was a classic sounding song with some Michael Jackson influences. "Don't Think They Know" which features Aaliyah, who died in a horrible plane accident in 2001, was released as the second single of the album. The vocals from Aaliyah are take from the unreleased recordings of her duet song with Digital Black with the the same title. The third single was "Love More" featuring Nicki Minaj. The single was pushed back before it's release for unknown reasons. The fourth and most succesful single is "Loyal" which is one of the many collabs with Tyga and Lil Wayne. The Fifth and last single was "New Flame" with Usher and Rick Ross.
Tracklist[]
01. "X"
02. "Add Me In"
03. "Loyal" (featuring Lil Wayne and Tyga)
04. "New Flame" (featuring Usher and Rick Ross)
05. "Songs On 12 Play" (featuring Trey Songz)
06. "101 (Interlude)"
07. "Drown In It" (featuring R. Kelly)
08. "Came To Do" (featuring Akon)
09. "Stereotype"
10. "Time For Love"
11. "Lady In A Glass Dress (Interlude)"
12. "Autumn Leaves" (featuring Kendrick Lamar)
13. "Do Better" (featuring Brandy)
14. "See You Around"
15. "Don't Be Gone Too Long"
16. "Body Shots"
17. "Drunk Texting" (featuring Jhené Aiko)
18. "Lost In Ya Love" (Deluxe bonus track)
19. "Love More" (featuring Nicki Minaj) (Deluxe bonus track)
20. "Don't Think They Know" (featuring Aaliyah) (Deluxe bonus track)
21. "Fine China" (Deluxe bonus track)
22. "No Lights" (Japanese bonus track)