Talk About Our Love
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “Talk About Our Love” | ||
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| Single by Brandy featuring Kanye West from the album Afrodisiac |
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| B-side | "Turn It Up" "Like It Was Yesterday" |
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| Released | March 28, 2004 (leaked) April 27, 2004 (U.S.) |
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| Format | CD single, vinyl single, Digital download | |
| Recorded | 2004; Record Plant (Los Angeles, California) |
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| Genre | R&B, urban | |
| Length | 3:34 | |
| Label | Atlantic | |
| Writer(s) | Claude Cave II, Harold Lilly, Kanye West, Carlos Wilson, Louis Wilson, Ricardo Wilson | |
| Producer | Kanye West | |
| Brandy singles chronology | ||
| "He Is" (2002) |
"Talk About Our Love" (2004) |
"Who Is She 2 U" (2004) |
| Kanye West singles chronology | ||
| "The New Workout Plan" (2004) |
"Talk About Our Love" (2004) |
"Diamonds from Sierra Leone" (2005) |
"Talk About Our Love" is an R&B song performed by American entertainer Brandy, co-written by producers Kanye West and Harold Lilly for Brandy's fourth studio album, Afrodisiac (2004). It also was produced by West, who moreover appears as a featured artist on it, and contains a samples of Mandrill's 1978 song "Gilly Hines," written by Claud Cave II, and Carlos, Louis and Ricardo Wilson.
The track was released as the album's lead single during the second quarter of 2004 (see 2004 in music). While it failed to match the success of previous singles, it achieved comparatively moderate success, reaching the top 30 in Australia, Ireland, the Netherlands, and on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. It, however, peaked at number 6 on the UK Singles Chart.
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[edit] Writing and recording
"We collaborated and we just came up with a great melody [...] It's about two people in a relationship where everybody is in and out of their business, which is something that everybody in a relationship goes through."
"Talk About Our Love" was not composed until late into the production of Afrodisiac, eventually becoming one of two eleventh-hour additions to the album's final track listing. Although Brandy considered the project complete by October 2003, Geroid "Gee" Roberson encouraged the singer to attempt additional studio sessions with producer Kanye West:[2] "One of the executive producers of my album [Roberson] is one of Kanye's managers, so that's how we hooked up," Brandy explained the following year to iVillage Entertainment. "He said he always wanted to work with me [and] having followed his successes, I've always wanted to work with him. When we got together it was like, 'Oh, my God! This is great chemistry. It's magical. Kanye's passionate about the song, and so am I, so it worked out great'!"[2]
Adapting elements of West's own sound, the song incorporates strings by violinist Miri Ben-Ari, and a retro sample of Mandrill's 1978 reocrding "Gilly Hines", written by Carlos, Louis, and Ricardo Wilson, and Claude Cave II. Brandy, who compared the song to Alicia Keys' 2003 single "You Don't Know My Name,"[3] described "Talk About Our Love" as being about "being in a relationship being so deeply in love that everybody wants to be in your business. Everybody wants to be opinionated about what you do and why you do it and I think everybody in a relationship experiences that kind of stuff, people talking about your business so that is what that song is about."[3]
On March 26, 2004 the song made its world premiere via AOL's Music's First Listen program, where it was streamed more than 4.6 million times within its first two month of release.[4] By March 28 the final version of the track had leaked.[4] "Talk About Our Love" was shipped to radio in early April 2004, while the CD single in Australia and the United States was eventually released on April 27, 2004, including a re-worked version of Timbaland-prenned "Turn It Up," Afrodisiac's first buzz single.[5] Elsewhere, Mike City produced "Like It Was Yesterday" appeared as a b-side on the CD single.[4]
[edit] Chart performance
On May 6, 2004, the song debuted at number 88 on the Billboard Hot 100, the sixth-highest U.S. debut of the week.[6] The single peaked at number 36 on June 3, the same week it earned the Hot 100's greatest retail gainer designation,[7] eventually becoming Brandy's lowest-peaking lead single to date. Moreover, it became Brandy's first single failing to reach the top 20 since 1999's "U Don't Know Me (Like U Used To)" at number 72.[7] "Talk About Our Love" was more successful on Billboard's component charts: Benefiting from strong physical sales, it reached the top spot on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Sales chart and number three on the Hot Singles Sales,[8] as well as the top 20 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play and the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.[9] The remix single also peaked at number two on the Hot Dance Singles Sales.[9]
In the United Kingdom, where the single reached its highest international peak position, "Talk About Our Love" debuted at number six, become Brandy's fifth non-consecutive top-10 single. The song was the second-highest entry of the week behind Britney Spears' "Everytime" at number-one,[10] and remained two weeks within the top 10.
Elsewhere, "Talk About Our Love" enjoyed moderate success. While it still managed to reach the top 40 in Australia, Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands, the single failed to enter the top 50 on other foreign markets.[10] On Media Traffic's United World Chart," it debuted at number 28 and stayed in the spot for two weeks.[10]
[edit] Music video
The music video for "Talk About Our Love" was filmed in Los Angeles between March 6 and 7, 2004 and produced by Rick Revel for Radical Media Inc. It was the third Brandy video to be directed by Dave Meyers, who had previously worked with her on the videos for "Another Day in Paradise" (2001) "What About Us?" (2002) before. Apart from producer Kanye West, who came up with the concept for the video,[11] Brandy's younger brother Ray J also makes a cameo appearance in the clip.[12]
The concept of the video was influenced by Brandy's personal experiences at that period, picking up the idea of nosy friends and neighbours, who keep on popping in and out of her house to find out about her affairs.[13] The opening scene begins with Brandy confronting Kanye, who's standing behind the kitchen's table, with the song's first verse, when other people switch constantly in and out the room and watch what's happening. The camera follows Kanye's fleeing steps through the floor, incessantly backspacing on Brandy, who runs after him. The scene shifts into the living-room, showing Brandy in a tanktop and coat before changing into a dance sequence with two male dancers performing the second verse's content to West, who's standing in front of a window. Afterwards they change the mic and Kanye begins performing his rhymes, when Brandy leaves the room to take stairs into the bedroom. He follows and sings to her next on the bed, when once again pop strangers in the room and Brandy and Kanye decide to escape out of the house. The video ends with both singers sitting in an oldtimer and driving down the street.
The video premiered on May 2, 2004 at the end of its Making the Video episode on MTV. It debuted on the network's Total Request Live on May 10 and on Canada's MuchMusic in the week ending May 16. It reached number three on the TRL top ten video countdown on May 21, its seventh day on the countdown;[14] and was retired from the show after spending thriteen days on the countdown.[14] Tempoarily, the "Talk About Our Love" video was the most-played clip on BET,[15] reaching number two on the network's video countdown 106 & Park.[15] PopMatters ranked the video among the best music videos of 2004.[16] At the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards, Brandy and West were nominated in the category of Best R&B Video for "Talk Abour Our Love."[17]
[edit] Formats and tracklistings
These are the formats and track listings of major single-releases of "Talk About Our Love".
[edit] International CD single
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[edit] US CD single
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[edit] Official versions
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[edit] Charts
| Chart (2004) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart [10] | 28 |
| Dutch Singles Chart [18] | 25 |
| Euro 200 Chart [19] | 18 |
| German Singles Chart [10] | 89 |
| Irish Singles Chart [10] | 27 |
| Italian Singles Chart [18] | 36 |
| Swiss Singles Chart [10] | 42 |
| UK Singles Chart [10] | 6 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 [9] | 36 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Singles Sales [20] | 3 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Sales [8] | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs [9] | 16 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play [9] | 13 |
| United World Chart [10] | 28 |
[edit] Notes
- ^ Shaheem Reid. "Brandy Gets Love From Kanye, Timbaland On New Album". MTV News. Retrieved on April 5, 2008.
- ^ a b Suzy Byrne. "Brandy: A Fine Girl". iVillage Entertainment. Retrieved on April 5, 2008.
- ^ a b Claudine Housen. "Brandy Singer in Jamica to launch CD". iVillage Entertainment. Retrieved on April 5, 2008.
- ^ a b c "Brandy's Back to Talk about Our Love". Business Wire. Retrieved on January 14, 2007.
- ^ Amazon.com: Brandy - "Talk about Our Love". Amazon.com. Retrieved January 14, 2007.
- ^ Margo Whitmire. "'Yeah!' Claims 12th Week On Top". Billboard. Retrieved on 2008-04-23.
- ^ a b Margo Whitmire. "Usher's 'Burn' Still Hot At No. 1". Billboard. Retrieved on 2008-04-23.
- ^ a b Top Music Charts - Hot 100 - Billboard 200 - Music Genre Sales
- ^ a b c d e AMG: Billboard Singles. All Music Guide. Retrieved on 2007-04-30.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Brandy and Kanye West - Talk About Our Love". A-Charts. Retrieved on 2008-04-26.
- ^ "(Photo 3) Making the Video: Brandy and Kanye West 'Talk About Our Love'". MTV. Retrieved on 2008-04-27.
- ^ "(Photo 10) Making the Video: Brandy and Kanye West 'Talk About Our Love'". MTV. Retrieved on 2008-04-27.
- ^ "(Photo 1) Making the Video: Brandy and Kanye West 'Talk About Our Love'". MTV. Retrieved on 2008-04-27.
- ^ a b The TRL Archive - May 2007. ATRL. Retrieved on 2008-01-01.
- ^ a b "Brandy Stimulates Top of Charts as Afrodisiac Debuts at #3". Market Wire. Retrieved on 2008-04-26.
- ^ Cynthia Fuchs. "Best Music Videos 2004". PopMatters. Retrieved on 2008-04-20.
- ^ Justin Dickerson. "Jay-Z raps up six MTV video noms". Variety. Retrieved on 2008-04-20.
- ^ a b "Talk About Our Love" history. Swisscharts. Retrieved on 2007-09-03.
- ^ apcchart.com
- ^ Top Music Charts - Hot 100 - Billboard 200 - Music Genre Sales
[edit] External links
- Brandy music videos — watch "Talk About Our Love" at LAUNCHcast
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