Before the Party received positive reviews from music critics, that praised its sound, the performances and its songwriting.[2] The mixtape became one of the biggest releases on DatPiff, reaching more than 500,000 downloads.[3]
Release
On October 13, 2015, Brown announced that his upcoming album Royalty would've been released on November 27, 2015.[4][5] After it was revealed that the album has been pushed back to December 18, 2015,[6] in exchange on November 27, 2015, he released a free 34-track mixtape on DatPiff, called Before the Party, as a prelude to Royalty. The mixtape is composed by previously unreleased tracks that Brown recorded in different studio sessions between 2012 and 2015. The cover art was created by visual artist McFlyy,[7] and features an anime depiction of Brown, posing stoically in a Bape coat, floating in the universe with a woman with bountiful cleavage and a Gundam head.[8] The mixtape was later released on various streaming platforms on August 15, 2017, in its entirety.[9]
Before the Party received positive reviews from music critics.[11]HotNewHipHop's Nicholas DG responded positively to the mixtape, calling it "an impressive massive mixtape". He praised "Holy Angel" as one of Brown's best songs, writing that the track "is bent on collecting the hardships and sins he has faced throughout his lifetime".[12] The critic also praised "Play Me" for its "slowly crescendoing orchestral sound and a hypnotic drum beat", described "Desperado" as a "perfect musical embodiment" of betrayal, called "Gotta Get Up" a Michael Jackson-inspired track, and highlighted "FAN (Freak at Night)" for its blend of rock, hip-hop, and electro influences.[13] Craig Jenkins of Vice described it as an "album-before-the-album", and commented that its songs "aren’t leftovers or scraps exactly, either. They’re really accomplished. Song after state-of-the-art song, Before the Party makes you wonder what did make [Royalty], if this is all the stuff that didn’t".[14]Digital Spy's Ian Sandwell argued that Before the Party was a stronger project than the album Royalty, which the mixtape was intended to serve as a prelude to. He also described parts of the mixtape as experimental and praised its "atmospheric downtempo R&B cuts" as its standout tracks.[15]
Commercial performance
It received a great success being one of the most listened and downloaded free mixtapes on DatPiff, being certified double platinum by the site's standards, reaching over 500,000 downloads and over 3,000,000 full listens.[16]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
