Ella Mai is an up and coming R&B singer/songwriter from London who has just recently released her highly anticipated album “Ella Mai”. The album has a total of 16 songs and features big-time artists such as Chris Brown, John Legend and H.E.R. In 2014 Mai competed on The X Factor in the U.K. and not as a solo act but as a part of a trio. Unfortunately, the group “Arize”, did not surpass the initial audition for the judges and the group broke up shortly after. Not too long after Mai released a four-track solo EP of her original songs to Soundcloud. Mai was discovered soon after by infamous producer DJ Mustard and was immediately signed to his label “10 Summers Records”. DJ Mustard has been a part of the music industry for almost a decade and specializes in producing hip-hop, more specifically, west coast hip-hop. Mustard has worked with a variety of artists ranging from Tyga, Nipsey Hustle, to, YG, Rihanna, Travis Scott, and ASAP Ferg. Almost every song that Mustard produced has been a major hit so when I listen to DJ Mustard-produced songs, I expect nothing but the best.
But from what I heard from Ella Mais’ album, it seemed like Mustard only knew how to produce one kind of song. To say that I am disappointed with the outcome of this album would be an understatement. Mai dropped three singles before her debut album was released, Boo’d up and Trip. Originally, Boo’d up was included on Mais’ EP “Ready” and reached number five on the US Billboard Hot 100 in July 2018, Trip has now made it to number 16. This album was a complete flop, the only two songs that I could actually listen through were Boo’d up and Trip and even those two songs are starting to get really annoying. When I listened to this album the first thing that popped up in my mind was Chris Browns’ 2009 album “Graffiti”. You probably only remember the one song “I Can Transform Ya” and you probably didn’t even know it was on that album.
Ella Mais’ album was far from R&B. It took me hours to finally complete the album, and usually, I can finish an album in no more than two hours. To make matters even worse, every, single, song, sounded the same. I was not impressed with the production of not one song on that album. There aren’t any smooth transitions and she kept talking in between songs (a personal pet peeve of mine). I usually don’t like to do negative album reviews because I like to support artists as much as I can, but this album got way too much hype to be in the condition it’s in. I can honestly say that this has been the WORST album of 2018 and that says a lot considering over 50 albums have been released this year alone. I don’t know about the rest of you guys, but when I listen to an album I like to hear individuality and creativity. I like to be able to hear how the artist differentiates from other artists in their genre. This album could have been so much better. Period.