PGriffin
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Post by PGriffin on Feb 3, 2020 11:03:19 GMT -5
I'm over her pretty pictures and appearances. At this point give us (me) music or get out! ugh.....I'm still salty over how Motivation was handled.
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Post by Wave. on Feb 6, 2020 16:05:16 GMT -5
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Lumi
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Post by Lumi on Feb 6, 2020 18:55:42 GMT -5
She looks impeccable oh my god.
This must mean the eras starting soon though!!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2020 18:57:48 GMT -5
I hope whenever her album rolls around that we get more like Waves Cause the R&B she served up on Waves was everything I wanted from her
Another 6LACK collab would be cool since 6LACK is like one of the best males in modern R&B alongside Miguel
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think pink.
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Post by think pink. on Feb 17, 2020 1:24:55 GMT -5
She had a less than stellar performance tonight at All-Star weekend and twitter is dragging her.
She posted this on her insta stories. I can see why she hardly uses social media.
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Hashtag Pow
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Post by Hashtag Pow on Feb 17, 2020 20:44:57 GMT -5
I'm watching this performance now, and I am embarrassed for her!!!!
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Post by Wave. on Feb 18, 2020 10:22:51 GMT -5
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PGriffin
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Post by PGriffin on Feb 18, 2020 12:07:57 GMT -5
I'm starting to feel like she won't ever "happen" as a solo artist.
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Choco
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Post by Choco on Feb 18, 2020 13:08:21 GMT -5
I'm starting to feel like she won't ever "happen" as a solo artist. To be honest, me too. It's just taking way too long for her to even drop a project. I don't get it. I mean, quality of the performance aside, she's still using promo spots for "Motivation" when there should have been another single released already. The Birds of Prey single was bad. You stream her dance during Rih's fashion show and you see how much of a star she is, they really need to give her some good material and push her singles better.
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Post by Active Aggressive on Feb 18, 2020 13:09:14 GMT -5
I'm by no means a betting man, but I wouldn't put any of my hard-earned money on Normani.
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Post by Wave. on Feb 18, 2020 13:30:15 GMT -5
Or are we just impatient?
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PGriffin
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Post by PGriffin on Feb 18, 2020 13:56:05 GMT -5
Motivation was released nearly 6 months ago. Diamonds was a non event. What are they waiting for? I mean I get that there may be things going on behind the scenes BUT I'm tired of the pretty pics and all this talk of her "potential"
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Post by Active Aggressive on Feb 18, 2020 13:56:20 GMT -5
Or are we just impatient? I can only speak for myself here but...nah. I have more than enough music to keep me company and I am never one of those people who are like, "OMG WHERE IS THIS ALBUM YOU LYING HO!1!11!" like all of the trolls who purport to be Rihanna and Adele stans. This is 2020, not 1995. No one has a luxury of a slow burn and/or artist development, unless your name is Lizzo and even then, when you drop, you need to keep dropping stuff to maintain interest. Otherwise, no one will care. Outside of one hot song that was barely pushed (and the fact that she was part of a manufactured girl group with a couple hot songs some years ago), Normani has not done enough to maintain the GP's interest in her. By the time she drops anything else, she will essentially be a brand new artist, starting over again. These are just basic facts.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2020 14:05:09 GMT -5
Yeah, I don't see her debut album making any noise under the current circumstances. She should have taken advantage of the success of "Love Lies" and "Dancing With A Stranger" to push an official solo single straight away (even if it was "Motivation", which managed to have more stability on the charts than Camila's non-"SeΓ±orita" singles at the time).
Also, while the comparisons with BeyoncΓ© are beneficial to some extent, her team needs to show what she can bring to the table as her own artist/performer, or else she will only be seen as a wannabe by skepticals and casual listeners.
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Ling-Ling
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Post by Ling-Ling on Feb 18, 2020 14:15:10 GMT -5
We have to be honest though, as a black female, she's in a precarious situation from the jump. Outside of being on RCA, which is a disaster of a label, where does she go as an artist? She has super star potential, but if she goes fully mainstream, she'll get backlash for not being Urban enough (something we currently see happening with Lizzo). And launching a black female pop star in 2020 is still not a guarantee. Lord forbid Rihanna release something this year, pop radio can reach their one black woman at a time quota. If she goes too Urban, well, Urban music streams, but what Urban female singers are knocking it out of the park these days at radio or even on streaming? Outside of female rappers, what's the last female star Urban launched? And Normani and the label probably have their eye on international appeal as well. She needs the absolute perfect f**king blend of Pop/Rhythmic/Urban material and she's got to deliver 200% on all fronts. The pressure is real for her, so I get the hesitation from her and the label.
I'm getting Tinashe deja vu vibes from her entire situation. Especially with RCA being at the wheel. It sucks to watch.
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Post by Active Aggressive on Feb 18, 2020 14:52:38 GMT -5
We have to be honest though, as a black female, she's in a precarious situation from the jump. Outside of being on RCA, which is a disaster of a label, where does she go as an artist? She has super star potential, but if she goes fully mainstream, she'll get backlash for not being Urban enough (something we currently see happening with Lizzo). And launching a black female pop star in 2020 is still not a guarantee. Lord forbid Rihanna release something this year, pop radio can reach their one black woman at a time quota. If she goes too Urban, well, Urban music streams, but what Urban female singers are knocking it out of the park these days at radio or even on streaming? Outside of female rappers, what's the last female star Urban launched? And Normani and the label probably have their eye on international appeal as well. She needs the absolute perfect f**king blend of Pop/Rhythmic/Urban material and she's got to deliver 200% on all fronts. The pressure is real for her, so I get the hesitation from her and the label. I'm getting Tinashe deja vu vibes from her entire situation. Especially with RCA being at the wheel. It sucks to watch. Oh shit. Thanks for reminding me she is on RCA because now I know not to even get invested. Hopefully, she learns her lessons sooner than later and not be a Tinashe 2.0.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2020 18:00:49 GMT -5
[gazillionth stan rant about why won't this girl hire a social media manager redacted] I wish Mani hadn't posted that Insta story because it's super vague and might not even have anything to do with the performance or the Twitter reaction to it - she actually posted it too soon after the perf for me to think it was the latter - but her fans are terrible when it comes to going into conspiracy mode and blaming other people for things. Now the Twitter fans are fighting with her choreographer because he called them all miserable and threatened to send all of their negative comments to her, and her mother is out there crying 'peace be still' and throwing up prayer hands. Just made a mountain out of a molehill for no damn reason. I don't think I'd call what I feel about Normani's situation panic per se. More so just, I've seen enough faves get delayed or dicked over by bad label situations to be somewhat numb to them. It would be a bummer to already have to put someone of Normani's potential in that 'If we just get an album it will be the greatest thing ever!' boat but I might have to bring myself to accept that is where we are. I think the one silver lining Normani has is her manager; he seems to be the one competent person on her team and he keeps her set up with a nice check somewhere (in fact I think a lot of these recent performance gigs were probably made with the belief that she'd have new music out by now, it just didn't pan out that way). And she also seems to have a lot of fans within the industry, so stuff will randomly fall in her lap without her even having to do much for it (e.g. the VMAs invite). But I feel for her because I've noticed that every time she talks about the album release she gets more and more vague about the date than the time before, and that lets me know that whatever the hold up is, it isn't her that's causing it. She probably feels like she can't be forthcoming about what is causing the delays because she saw what happened to Tinashe when T started spilling little tidbits to her fans about being delayed/shelved/forced into collabs or single choices she didn't really want. If this were mid-2000s, RCA would have rushed an album/solo single out as soon as Love Lies peaked, same way Kelly Rowland had an album out within six months of Dilemma smashing. There's really no excuse for the delay, but I think everything Ling-Ling pointed out is the reason RCA is dragging their feet. They don't really know what they want to do with her which is stupid because Love Lies and DWAS painted such a clear r&b-pop path that I don't know what there is to be confused about. And she's recorded enough material by now that I'm sure they could choose any direction they did want for her and easily find a short album's worth of marketable material. The situation is even crazier when you realize that if the VMAs had not invited her to perform the gap between single releases would likely be even bigger.
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think pink.
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Post by think pink. on Feb 19, 2020 4:11:06 GMT -5
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Post by Choco on Feb 19, 2020 15:09:26 GMT -5
She's back in the studio according to her social media.
The Twitter response to the studio pic was low-key hilarious tho. People want material.
Tinashe teas aren't inaccurate here, but at the same time T wishes she had two huge hits to her name like DWAS and LL (+ what's left of the 5H fandom). Normani is in a much better position, at least popularity wise.
Considering how disastrous the solo thing is going for all the other members (except Camila), I wonder if they should maybe consider a comeback in a couple years (hopefully after all ladies have had the chance to do an album)? It could make some noise with the right material.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 19, 2020 16:12:52 GMT -5
She's back in the studio according to her social media. The Twitter response to the studio pic was low-key hilarious tho. People want material. Tinashe teas aren't inaccurate here, but at the same time T wishes she had two huge hits to her name like DWAS and LL (+ what's left of the 5H fandom). Normani is in a much better position, at least popularity wise. Considering how disastrous the solo thing is going for all the other members (except Camila), I wonder if they should maybe consider a comeback in a couple years (hopefully after all ladies have had the chance to do an album)? It could make some noise with the right material. This is also funny because she put that studio pic on Instagram. She hasn't posted anything on Twitter since telling people to tune in to the All-Star performance (and if you discount the tweets where she obviously only logged in to promote something once and then logged back out, she hasn't posted on Twitter since the end of January). She really don't be fucking with that bird app or the chirrens on it, which is probably for the best for everyone involved, but yeah it's pretty amusing to see Normani Nation having a meltdown on Twitter while Normani herself is over on Insta like 'y'all hear sum'n?' Her fanbase is exhausting. They don't realize that the main reason this even popped off to the degree that it did is because THEY kept retweeting and dragging, then they got mad when non-fans picked up on the performance and started retweeting and dragging. I wouldn't log in for them either! She had an off day, every performer does. So of course people will comment on it, but now they want to flip it like they just want music and some communication. They're worse than Arianators and that is no small feat. Sean (the choreographer) was wrong for going after them, though. He should have ignored him the same way his boss does. It's just nuts that someone with the success she has had in the past two years can even possibly be compared to Tinashe without us looking crazy for making the comparison. It really shows how absurdly inept RCA is. All four of the 5H members plan on having an album out this year so a 2021 or 2022 reunion could in theory be doable. They all seem to be in such different places though (not just in terms of success but musical direction and mind state) that I'm not sure if it would pan out in reality.
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think pink.
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Post by think pink. on Feb 19, 2020 17:02:07 GMT -5
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Choco
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Post by Choco on Feb 19, 2020 17:12:43 GMT -5
That photoshoot looks like something Britney, Xtina and Bey would have done back in '03.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 19, 2020 17:15:41 GMT -5
Well at least it's a very welcome distraction!
The Wondaland issue should officially be out in a couple of weeks too. It would really be a shame if something isn't coming along with that, but...how many times have I gassed myself up to think things mean new music soon.
I need to look for it but I swear I remember a tweet from a few weeks back saying Mani was on a 3-day shoot for something. It wasn't this shoot with SZA and Megan, it was something else and she was on her own.
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think pink.
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Post by think pink. on Feb 19, 2020 17:24:46 GMT -5
Well at least it's a very welcome distraction! The Wondaland issue should officially be out in a couple of weeks too. It would really be a shame if something isn't coming along with that, but...how many times have I gassed myself up to think things mean new music soon. I need to look for it but I swear I remember a tweet from a few weeks back saying Mani was on a 3-day shoot for something. It wasn't this shoot with SZA and Megan, it was something else and she was on her own. She recently shot for Interview magazine thatβs out now. I doubt that would take 3 days though.
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Post by Wave. on Feb 27, 2020 12:30:18 GMT -5
Doja has been consistently rolling, and they both are on RCA.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2020 16:35:06 GMT -5
There are so many irksome as hell things with that Doja Cat comparison, where do I even begin:
- Say So is Doja's fifth single from an already released album and it took me WAY too long to figure out what subchart they were referring to when saying it's headed to the top 10 (Spotify) because they were most certainly not talking about the Hot 100 where she is yet to enter the top 50. They know damn well if Normani had a single that was 'nearing' top 10 on ONE streaming platform while still in the bottom half of the Hot 100, they'd be foaming at the mouth about how her team is dropping the ball again (and that is even assuming they had left her team with a hair on their heads after dragging said team and her for having three consecutive singles that didn't chart at all and a lead single that was only a local hit).
- The same "fans" who have something to say about Normani not performing/promoting enough also stay complaining every time she does book a gig and it's the same four singles (yes, including the flops!)/5H medley/covers set she's been doing for the past 6 to 12 months. They literally got mad at Sean in January (before he started beefing with them on Twitter) because he uploaded some VMA rehearsal footage and they were like 'wtf are we supposed to do with this old s**t now, go away.' Do y'all want her to come out the house or nah?
- Normani is an aspiring pop star with two co-lead hits under her belt already; Doja Cat is a rapper who is just now arriving. Two different genres, two different approaches (hence, why Doja can get away with building her way up for now). I do think the approach labels typically take with pop stars is mostly outdated and RCA has fumbled more than one bag because of it; nonetheless it is the approach that they continue to take so it doesn't make sense to measure Normani against someone in a different lane...compare her team to Dua Lipa's if you want to complain about bad moves. That would make sense.
- and why does this fandom stay complaining about every person on her team EXCEPT the label when the label is the one who decides when anything gets released? Mad at everyone but the right one.
Again, I see why she pays her own Twitter Nation dust. She's probably secretly praying that they all finally jump ship so she can start all over with a new casual base that has more sense than opinions.
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Post by Wave. on Feb 28, 2020 8:44:06 GMT -5
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Choco
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Post by Choco on Feb 28, 2020 8:55:02 GMT -5
The thing with Dua Lipa's team, for example is that they hustled. "New Rules" was the sixth single that finally broke her into the US. The Doja comparison is a bit unfair because they're not aiming for the same audience.
I think this discussion might be proven worthless if/when 'mani drops another single and it smashes, but at the moment it's hard to see why there's not even one single near release to keep her name out there (unless they expected the Birds of Prey song to be a hit, which lmao, not even someone with the name recognition of Adele and Taylor Swift combined could make a hit out of that track).
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Post by Linnethia Monique on Feb 28, 2020 17:25:26 GMT -5
With the Doja Cat comparison people have to realize that she's been on the RCA back burner for YEARS. I'm talking 6-7 years of releases with no budget in sight and that all changed when she became a viral sensation. Normani has been given better treatment which fuels the frustration. Now a funny thing about Doja is the kids that were screaming #FREEKESHA are still supporting Dr. Luke since he co-writes a lot of her work including her two biggest hits to date. Once you are in Kemosabe you're there for life.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2020 19:02:36 GMT -5
The thing with Dua Lipa's team, for example is that they hustled. "New Rules" was the sixth single that finally broke her into the US. The Doja comparison is a bit unfair because they're not aiming for the same audience. I think this discussion might be proven worthless if/when 'mani drops another single and it smashes, but at the moment it's hard to see why there's not even one single near release to keep her name out there (unless they expected the Birds of Prey song to be a hit, which lmao, not even someone with the name recognition of Adele and Taylor Swift combined could make a hit out of that track). RCA wasn't even going to follow up DWAS with a single until the VMAs called, so I doubt they were relying on Diamonds for a lead-in to anything. RS put up her interview online today and they're now aiming for a summer single. *blank stare* I would guess her management hopped on Diamonds because at this point, how else is she going to pick up a check. Re: Dua, that hustling is what I mean by making fair comparisons. Hustling for a pop artist is a very different game from hustling for a rap artist, even if said rap artist is aiming for mainstream success, and Dua is by far the most reasonable template for any new pop artist to follow. Fans of Normani would do well to recall (or learn, for those who don't keep up with pop) how long it took Dua to even get her first album out (two years, leak city, frustrating delays) because it is a lesson in patience and optimism - Dua is proof that you are always only one hit away. But RCA would also do well to remember the effort it took to get Dua to stick because you don't get that 'one hit away' payoff without effort...and releases. Normani has so many missed opportunities because RCA won't capitalize or build on her hype and just release a damn song. With the Doja Cat comparison people have to realize that she's been on the RCA back burner for YEARS. I'm talking 6-7 years of releases with no budget in sight and that all changed when she became a viral sensation. Normani has been given better treatment which fuels the frustration. Now a funny thing about Doja is the kids that were screaming #FREEKESHA are still supporting Dr. Luke since he co-writes a lot of her work including her two biggest hits to date. Once you are in Kemosabe you're there for life. ngl one of the reasons I struggle so much into getting into Doja personally is the moral conflict of interest I have in supporting anything that comes from Luke. But I'm not surprised that Doja is how he seems potentially set to regain his hitmaking relevancy - when all that s**t went down with Kesha and his pop well started drying he up, he immediately rushed into urban collaborations and I knew then that he would never really die off. f**k him tbh, but Doja deserves better so #conflicted (and Kesha can't get out of her contract either so if you want to support her you are in effect financially supporting him...it's all very inseparable and unfortunate). I'm also curious how much of Doja's handling is Kemosabe and how much is RCA. With Normani I get a strong feeling that Keep Cool is only there in name now, but I'm not sure if the same is true for Doja. This mainstream push for Doja is very recent - and the one thing that might make sense of it is RCA taking interest in financially investing once they see the artist in question showing potential on her own, but coming at the cost of the smaller imprint having to give up a large amount of control over said artist's promotion or direction. It just seems as if Normani got better treatment from the start because her first release under them (Love Lies) took off, and even LL was a slow burner that largely benefited from a viral performance.
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