Fortune (Chris Brown album)

Work for Fortune began on September 2, 2011, with Kevin McCall revealing that he had been collaborating "heavily" with Brown for an upcoming album.[1] Later that month, producer David Banner explained that the idea of the album was to create material that reflects earlier R&B efforts by Brown and others in a more club-oriented style.[2] Banner also revealed details of a song that he and Brown recorded for Fortune, saying: "When I tell you, you know how they don't play that much R&B in the club no more? ... The song that me and Chris made, they are going to play it like they used to play Jodeci. Like they used to play Keith Sweat. The song that me and Chris made is so jamming".[2] On January 7, 2012, Brown tweeted that there was only two weeks left of recording sessions for the album: "LAST TWO WEEKS of me finishing FORTUNE! I'm excited for all the fans to hear my real music".[3] The tweet was soon followed up by another from Brown, with him tweeting: "Dub step records on my album sounding crazy!!!!".[3] However, the tweet was later removed, suggesting that Brown gave away too much details about Fortune.[3]

In addition to recording, it was revealed later that month that Brown was in the studio working on the album with Asher Roth, Nas, Wiz Khalifa, will.i.am, and Kid Sister.[4][5] On January 20, 2012, Brown announced that Nas will appear as a guest vocalist on the album.[4] In an interview with MTV News, producer Harvey Mason, Jr., half of production duo the Underdogs, who co-wrote and co-produced "Turn Up the Music", spoke more about the album, saying "The Fortune record is F.A.M.E to the next level. Similar material, but he's really being innovative with some of the music that you haven't heard before, taking pieces of other genres and integrating them into pop and R&B, which I think is really cool. Vocally, he sounds amazing; he's really, really coming into his own as a singer".[6] Producer Damon Thomas, the other half of the duo, added "The only way I can describe Chris and what he's doin' with this record that he's making is that he's this generation's Michael [Jackson]".[6] On February 29, 2012, Brown tweeted "I hope this album shows growth and positivity to all my fans and will inspire them to live life to the fullest!!! #FORTUNE".[7] During a radio interview with Atlanta's Hot 107.9 in March 2012, rapper 2 Chainz revealed that he will be appearing as a guest vocalist on Fortune,[8] however the track he was featured on did not make the final track listing.[9] In May 2012, songwriter and producer William Orbit stated that the best songs he made for Madonna's album MDNA (2012) that did not make the final track listing would be included on Fortune.[10]

Primarily, Fortune is an R&B and pop album.[11][12][13][14][15] The album also includes elements of club music, such as EDM and dubstep.[11][16] Lyrically, Fortune includes Brown speaking of sex.[14][17] The character that Brown portrays is an unlikable one, with him being totally demanding of sex.[14] Brown uses his egotistical mind to punish an unnamed women in a cruel manner for her actions against him, refusing to engage in sex with the woman.[17] Romantic adventures are spoke of by Brown throughout the album, while multiple references are made by him to his penis.[18][19] Brown also requests woman to take their clothes off, notably in "Bassline" and "Sweet Love".[18]

As well as getting women to take off their clothes, the lyrical content of Fortune also focuses on clubbing.[16] This is a favoured theme for Brown, though the censored side of him is mostly shown on the album.[11][16] Brown uses choruses in relation to clubbing throughout Fortune.[16] Within "Bassline", Brown requests for the audience to remember his poor reputation but forget it, while he references partying.[12]

In January 2011, Brown told fans on Twitter that he was planning on releasing his then studio album, F.A.M.E. (2011), as a double disc because he recorded too many songs for one disc and therefore planned on releasing a second disc titled, Fortune.[20] However, during a listening party for F.A.M.E. on March 14, 2011, Brown announced that he would be releasing the Fortune disc in six months.[21] On August 23, 2011, RCA Music Group announced it was disbanding Jive Records along with Arista Records and J Records. With the shutdown, Fortune is now being released on the RCA Records brand.[22] During an interview with Rap-Up magazine in September 2011, Kevin McCall revealed that the album was being pushed back for an early 2012 release.[1] Then two months later, Jive Records France announced via Twitter that the album would be released in March 2012.[23] However, on March 1, 2012, RCA Records confirmed that Fortune would be released in the US on May 8, 2012, as both standard and deluxe editions.[7] Then on April 22, 2012, Brown announced via Twitter that the album will be delayed, tweeting "Team Breezy! The official album date for FORTUNE is July 3, 2012!!!!!!!!!!!!".[24] The track listing for both the standard and deluxe editions of Fortune was revealed on May 29, 2012.[9] The album was set to feature fourteen tracks on the standard edition, with an additional five tracks on the deluxe edition.[9] On July 3, 2012, Fortune was released through RCA Records.[25]

The album's official cover (standard version) was revealed on February 29, 2012.[26] The cover art was shot in January of the same year by Steven Gomillion and Dennis Leupold of the photography team, Gomillion and Leupold.[27] On the album cover, a light shines down on Brown, who poses against a blue backdrop, dressed in a blue "sleek, slim-fitting suit with a skinny tie and thick black framed glasses",[28] while the word "Fortune" appears behind him in different languages.[28] Brown and his art director Courtney Walter came up with the idea of using hieroglyphics for the album's title.[27] In an interview by telephone with Erik Parker of CBS Local, Gomillion said Brown "knew before the last album came out what this one would look like. He thinks so far ahead".[27] Regarding the use of the color blue, Gomillion said "The funny thing about that blue is it basically just happened. It matched the suit and it gives a kind of futuristic vibe. You'll see blue throughout the [album] packaging".[27] Sarah Brotherton of MTV News wrote that the cover shows "a more mature, sleek side" to Brown.[29] Becky Bain of Idolator noted that Brown "seems to have finally dropped his beloved graffiti imagery and is going for a futuristic vibe".[30] A reviewer for Rap-Up described it as a "slick cover".[26] Alex Loinaz of E! Online compared Brown's look to that of actors Keanu Reeves in The Matrix films, and Colin Firth in A Single Man (2009).[31]

Brown performed a number of songs from the album live for the festival Supafest in 2012.

On November 18, 2011, "Strip", featuring Kevin McCall, was released as a buzz single for the album.[32][33] The song achieved moderate success, reaching number 37 on the US Billboard Hot 100,[34] and number three on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.[35] In January 2012, Brown released the first promotional photo for Fortune, which showed him posing against a white backdrop, dressed in a full-length fur coat, black hoodie and jeans.[36] At the 54th Grammy Awards, held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California on February 12, 2012, Brown performed a medley of "Turn Up the Music" and "Beautiful People".[37] The performance featured Brown dressed in a white and gray varsity jacket, white pants and sparkling sneakers, performing heavily choreographed routines with several dancers, atop a collection of blocks.[37] On February 26, 2012, he performed a truncated version of "Turn Up the Music" during the halftime show of the 2012 NBA All-Star Game in Orlando, Florida.[38]

On March 2, 2012, Brown released the first episode of his Fortune web series, showing him backstage at the 2012 Lo Nuestro Awards where he performed "International Love" with Pitbull, playing in a celebrity basketball game during NBA All-Star Weekend in Orlando with rappers Common, 50 Cent, T.I., and singer R. Kelly, as well as partying and dancing at the club.[39] In April 2012, Brown appeared in Australia as one of the performing acts for the urban music festival, Supafest.[40] His set list was composed of 12 songs: "Turn Up the Music", "Till I Die", "Run It!", "Deuces", "Yeah 3x", "Look at Me Now", "Beautiful People", "She Ain't You", "Wet the Bed", "My Last", "Body 2 Body" and "Birthday Cake".[41] On May 8, 2012, Brown appeared on Dancing with the Stars (US) to perform "Turn Up the Music".[42] For the performance, Brown and his dancers wore suits.[42] He later performed the song at the 2012 Billboard Music Awards, held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Paradise, Nevada on May 20, 2012.[43] The performance featured projected images on the stage backdrop and BMX bike stunt troupes racing around the stage, as Brown performed choreographed routines while lip synching.[43][44] His performance was met with a mixed response from celebrities, most notably Joe Jonas, Pink, and Carey Hart, who all criticized the singer for lip synching.[44] On June 8, 2012, Brown appeared on NBC's Today show and performed "Turn Up the Music", "Don't Wake Me Up", "Yeah 3x" and "Forever", as part of the program's "Summer Concert Series".[45] At the 2012 BET Awards on July 1, 2012, he performed a medley of "Turn Up the Music" and "Don't Wake Me Up", and appeared shirtless for the performance with half his body spray painted in grey.[46] Brown performed acrobatic moves with six backup dancers "under triangle-shaped beams" as green and red flashing lights appeared throughout the stage.[46]

Brown embarked on his Carpe Diem Tour in November 2012 to further promote Fortune. The tour included 13 shows in Europe, five shows in Africa, and one show in Asia; this amounted to a total of 19 shows worldwide.[47][48][49] Brown began the tour on November 14, 2012 with a show in Denmark.[50]

"Turn Up the Music" was released to contemporary hit radio in the US on February 7, 2012 as the album's lead single.[51][52] Music critics gave "Turn Up the Music" positive reviews; they praised its production and compared the song to Brown's previous singles "Forever" (2008) and "Yeah 3x" (2010).[53][54] "Turn Up the Music" peaked at number 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart,[55] becoming Brown's eleventh top ten single on the chart.[56] It also reached the top ten in Australia and New Zealand,[57] and peaked at number one in the UK, becoming Brown's first UK number one single.[58] "Sweet Love" was sent to US urban contemporary radio on April 10, 2012 as the second single from the album.[59] "Sweet Love" generated mixed reviews from music critics, who praised the sexiness of the song but were critical of its production.[60][61] The song reached number 89 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart,[34] and number 25 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.[35]

"Till I Die", featuring rappers Big Sean and Wiz Khalifa, was released to US rhythmic contemporary radio on May 1, 2012 as the third single from Fortune.[62] "Till I Die" received positive reviews from music critics, most of whom praised the production.[63][64] It peaked at number 17 on the US Rap Songs chart,[65] and at number 14 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.[35] "Don't Wake Me Up" was sent to US contemporary hit radio on June 12, 2012 as the album's fourth single.[66] "Don't Wake Me Up" received positive reviews from music critics, who generally praised its production.[67][68] It reached the top ten in Australia, Austria, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Norway and the UK.[69][70][71][72] In the US, "Don't Wake Me Up" peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming Brown's twelfth top ten single on the chart, and his second top ten single from Fortune, following "Turn Up the Music".[34] "Don't Judge Me" was sent to US urban contemporary radio on August 14, 2012, as the album's fifth single.[59] The song peaked at number 21 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart,[35] and at number 67 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.[34]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	3.1/10[73]
Metacritic	38/100[74]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[18]
The A.V. Club	D[17]
Chicago Tribune	[14]
Entertainment Weekly	C–[16]
Los Angeles Times	[75]
The Observer	[76]
PopMatters	2/10[19]
Rolling Stone	[77]
The Scotsman	[15]
Spin	4/10[78]

Fortune was met with generally negative reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, the album received an average score of 38, based on 14 reviews.[74] Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave Fortune 3.1 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.[73]

AllMusic's Andy Kellman criticized the album's lyrical content as "shameless" and found "few dimensions" in its music, calling it "an album of unapologetic swashbuckling" that is "saved ... from being a disaster" by some of its production.[18] Kyle Anderson of Entertainment Weekly found the songwriting perfunctory and commented that the album "furthers the uncomfortable and frustrating disconnect between Brown's hotheaded personal life and his oddly edgeless musical persona".[16] Jon Caramanica of The New York Times criticized Brown's "brazenness" and stated, "Listening to Mr. Brown at the deepest level balances aesthetic pleasures, when they happen, with superegolike self-protection against aligning oneself too closely with someone who's done such heinous things".[79]

Hermione Hoby of The Observer panned the album's songs as "ugly stuff".[76] David Amidon of PopMatters panned its misogynistic lyrics and found Fortune, "to the sober mind", "another overload of poor decisions just as Brown's previous two albums have been".[19] Melissa Lockers from Time called it "one of the blandest R&B albums in recent memory" and wrote that it "feels like Chris Brown's musical equivalent of a honeymoon phase, except for the fact that it's completely remorseless".[11] Evan Rytlewski of The A.V. Club criticized Brown's "no apologies mantra" and called the album "the unmistakable work of the same petty, violent-tempered hardhead that the tabloids have documented so well".[17] Mic Wright of musicOMH used his review of the album as a forum on Brown's public controversies and stated, "Fortune is the kind of record that will please Brown's many deluded female fans, but we cannot with good conscience give it a single star".[13]

James Reed of The Boston Globe complimented "Don't Wake Me Up" as "a thumping club cut that's irresistible on an otherwise forgettable album".[80] Barry Walters of Spin commented that, apart from "Don't Wake Me Up", Fortune "makes it easy for Chris Brown's haters and harder on his many fans", writing that "there's more than the usual number of midtempo ballads that once again mix sex-fantasy titillation with his now-familiar toxic defensiveness".[78] Chicago Tribune writer Greg Kot called the album "a pure-pop candy cane, meant to be enjoyed, consumed and forgotten", commenting that "thinking would ruin everything" and "its mixture of smut, vulnerability, menace and dancefloor celebration tells us next to nothing about what is going on between Chris Brown's ears, which is probably for the best".[14] In a mixed review, Randall Roberts of the Los Angeles Times likened the album's trendy musical style to a product's shelf life and attributed it to "Brown's reflex of curbing his creative impulses at nearly every turn, with a few killer exceptions, and showing a conservatism unbecoming such a self-styled renegade".[75] Jesse Fairfax from HipHopDX gave Fortune a positive review, claiming that despite it having minor flaws, the album "further indicates a changing of the guard in urban music".[81]

The album entered at number one on the US Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 135,000 copies, giving Brown his second chart-topping album in the US.[87] However, the first-week sales of Fortune were less than those of Brown's previous studio album F.A.M.E., which sold 270,000 copies and was also a chart topper.[87] In its second week on the chart, Fortune experienced a 67% sales decrease, selling 45,000 copies, and the album descended three places to number four.[88] The following week, the album fell out of the top ten, falling a further nine places to number 13, selling 26,600 copies in its third week.[89] As of September 2012, Fortune has sold 303,600 copies in the US.[90] It ranked as the 77th best-selling album of 2012 in the country.[91] On March 25, 2016, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for combined album sales and album-equivalent units of over one million in the US.[92]

Fortune made its debut on the Irish Albums Chart at number four on July 5, 2012, marking Brown's third top-ten album in that country.[93][94] In the Netherlands, the album debuted on the Dutch Albums Chart at number one on July 7, 2012, giving Brown his first chart-topping album in the country.[95] Fortune debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart for the issue date of July 14, 2012, selling 29,980 copies in its first week, and giving Brown his first UK number-one album.[96][97] This stood as the first time that an R&B album reached number one in both the UK and US since Beyoncé's fourth solo studio album 4 did so in 2011.[98] The album was ultimately certified gold by British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on January 17, 2014 for combined album sales and album-equivalent units of over 100,000 in the UK.[99] Fortune debuted at number 9 on the Japanese Albums Chart, selling 9,922 copies for the week ending July 16, 2012.[100] The album also debuted at number six on the Canadian Albums Chart and number 10 on the Swiss Albums Chart respectively.[101][95] On the French Albums Chart, Fortune entered at number eight, selling 6,434 copies in its first week; this debut made it stand as Brown's first album to enter the top ten on the chart.[102][103] The album peaked at number two on the ARIA Albums Chart, giving Brown his highest charting album in Australia and was ultimately certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) in 2019 for exceeding 35,000 shipped copies.[104][105] In New Zealand, Fortune debuted at number one on the New Zealand Albums Chart, becoming Brown's first number-one album in the country.[106] On the Scottish Albums Chart, the album reached number two.[107] Fortune debuted at number 13 on both the Danish Albums Chart and German Albums Chart.[95][108]

Credits adapted from liner notes.[109]

Notes

• ^{^[a]} signifies a co-producer
• The UK and Ireland deluxe edition is a double disc album.
• "Turn Up the Music" contains background vocals by Michael Jimenez
• "Don't Judge Me", "Biggest Fan", and "Stuck on Stupid" contains background vocals by Sevyn Streeter
• "2012" contains background vocals by Adonis, Georgia Reign, and Kevin McCall
• "Party Hard / Cadillac (Interlude)" contains background vocals by Dewain Whitmore Jr.
• "Wait for You" contains background vocals by Courtney Harrell

Sample credits

• "Party Hard / Cadillac (Interlude)" contains a portion of "Computer Love", written by Shirley Murdock, Larry Troutman and Roger Troutman.

Credits for Fortune adapted from liner notes.[109]

• List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 2012
• List of Billboard number-one R&B albums of 2012
• List of number-one albums from the 2010s (New Zealand)
• List of UK Albums Chart number ones of the 2010s
• List of UK R&B Albums Chart number ones of 2012

• Official website
• Fortune at Discogs (list of releases)