CIARA: 'CICI'

What's Good Y'all! I don't know if you have had the chance to catch the latest post on Lipsticknlyricsz mentioning Ciara performing on her latest tour with Missy Elliot and Busta Rhymes, but if you haven't been following, she's been killing it and I am absolutely loving this era of Ciara. There are only a few shows left on the tour so sadly for me I missed them, but I did finally get into Ciara' last album, 'CiCi'. Can I be real friends? I actually haven't listened to a full Ciara album since 'Goodies.' I guess I just loved that album so much, I wasn't ready for 'The Evolution' of Ciara. And when I think about it, Ciara came out at such a wild time, we had a ton of R&B girls, the competition was crazy! To see her longevity and still standing with the new R&B girlies, it's aspiring...so I had to tap back into my girl for real, it's time.

You know, Ciara, has been on the scene since 2004 and since her arrival she's caught nothing but hate and rumors, this ain't the shaderoom so we aren't going to be covering all the wild accusations and hate against her and her marriage. I really want to focus on the many posts I've seen through the years that ask "Who the hell is still listening to Ciara?" A lot of people actually, you just so happen to be out of the loop.

Let me catch you up to why Ciara is still one of the greatest R&B artists of our time. Since 'Goodies', as of today 'CiCi' is Ciara's 8th studio album. She topped the Billboard 200 charts with her second album, Ciara: The Evolution (2006) and the sixth studio album, Jackie (2015). Singles such as, 'Promise' and 'Like a Boy' became top 20 singles. Her single "Love Sex Magic" (featuring Justin Timberlake), received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. "Ride" (featuring Ludacris) received platinum certification by the RIAA. Lastly, but certainly not least, the single "Body Party" went double platinum-certified and "I Bet" became a platinum-certified single. In 2019 Ciara produced her 7th studio album, 'Beauty Marks', and August 18th will mark the 1 year anniversary of her 8th studio album, 'CiCi', which was released in 2023.

I'm mad it took me a year to get into this album. It took a minute for 'How We Roll' featuring Chris Brown to grow on me, not sure why I started loving it more recently, but I couldn't get it out of my head one day and I had to check out the album. Now my good sis got a lot of social media slander for featuring Chris Brown in a song in 2023, but I think ya'll need to move around at this point lol you don't have to like or support the man but until he does the most again please, move on the way you want and let others do the same. I honestly love that they finally did a collab, it's long overdue seeing that they both came out around the same time. 'BRB', the second song on the album, is a cute Tik-Tok bop for the kids. Of course if you are a Ciara fan you are instantly going to love this album but if you are a part of the younger generation, a song with Chris Brown transitioning into a dope dance song will draw in a younger audience, she may not have had before.

There are only 7 songs on the album and it's so hard to choose favorites because I love them all, but it would probably be, 'Forever' featuring Lil Baby, sampling the Iconic Jackson 5 'All I Do Is Think Of You' and 2 in Luv which samples Trick Daddy's 'I'm a Thug.' My motto about samples is if you're gonna do it, you have to do it right and make it your own, Ciara does just that! The entire album makes me want to dance and just have a great time in only 21 mins and 28 secs., so you'll be replaying the entire album again and again just to repeat the feel good vibes.

The last thing I want to say is I want us to stop boxing in our artists, especially our black artists. Ciara is an artist, songwriter, performer, producer, engineer and then some. Being a wife and a mother are additional, beautiful titles to her life, meaning that doesn't limit her from creatively expressing herself in whatever way she sees fit. Too often I have seen online how she is singing and doing things a wife/mother shouldn't do or she is misleading women and the reality is she is more empowering than ever. To show the world you can have a husband, kids and a career, you can absolutely do it all with the right team behind you, with the right man behind you, who isn't inspired by that? To see her growth as a woman and an artist has been so beautiful, like we really grew up with this lady y'all! lol

Check out CiCi on all streaming platforms:

Apple Music

Spotify

Tidal

Youtube

And to see if you can still catch the Tour