Normani Finally Hits Her Dopamine Sweet Spot

People were shouting and clowning about the whereabouts of Normani's debut album for an eternity of pop music. The singer made that noise sound pretty silly when she recently reflected that part of the delay was due to her parents' simultaneous cancer diagnoses. Normani first announced that her solo debut was in the works in 2018, shortly after her breakout girl group Fifth Harmony went on hiatus indefinitely. She went on to write some huge songs and singles (“Love Lies” with Khalid, “Dancing With a Stranger” with Sam Smith, “Motivation” on her own), but as the album remained elusive, her “fans” grew restless. – and sometimes harsh. In 2022, he hit a user X who insisted he had “felt comfortable” and was “not HUNGRY anymore” with a STFU. Meanwhile, her mother's breast cancer returned after 19 years in remission, and a year after starting treatment, Normani's dad also got cancer. “Fuck all of that,” she had thought to herself at that moment. “This is bigger than music. This is life or death.”

Under the supervision and encouragement of her family, Normani Kordei Hamilton was on the road to stardom from the age of three through dance and artistry. At 16, she was a prodigy in Fifth Harmony, one of pop's last collectives. in its kind. She has since gone on to become a solo artist with every single, albeit minimal, since 2018. Now in her own era (and under new management) she has shown and proven that she is exactly what we thought she could be together dopamine, an LP dripping with sex, study and precision. Anyone who's seen her break the internet with intricate choreography to her own inescapable songs shouldn't be surprised that she's got it right.

dopamine is Normani's clearest artistic statement, written on a night sky like a constellation. It's about dark moods, sensuality and danceability, simple frames made rich and renewed features. Supervised by Starrah (hip-hop's secret weapon songwriter behind songs like Rihanna's “Needed Me” and Megan Thee Stallion and Beyoncé's “Savage Remix”) and producer Tommy Brown (student of modern R&B architect Rodney “Darkchild” is Jerkins), the album. apparently we owe a seminal period to the 1990s and early 2000s, when divas like Aaliyah, Janet Jackson and Destiny's Child lusted, harmonized and cut a fucking rug. It's also an ode to the distinctiveness of Southern black womanhood, with brass horns, stripped-down vocals, Mike Jones interjections, references to Pimp C, OutKast, lean and slabs, and a newly liberal use of the N-Word. All of this sounds more like creative reverence than nostalgia ploy or swagger. She succinctly argues not so much for a place among the wizards of the black culture from which she comes, but for her status as a star student. There are only thirteen well-curated tracks here, stamped with the kiss of her 2021 hit with Cardi B, “Wild Side.”

Normani has earned more than one feel from the vocal bible of the era she styles herself after—she's got the Brandy Norwood collaboration. Normani said recently Rolling rock that the dopamine Standout “Insomnia” was inspired by Brandy's “A Capella (Something's Missing)” and when Normani had the audacity to introduce the iconic singer with the song, Brandy was so impressed that she added her own touches to it, ethereal ads and layers and layers of “hmms” and “ahhs” that dance between stereo sides and make the track full, even in its quietest moments. It's beautifully co-written with Victoria Monét from a point of weakness at the whims of a relentless ex, and made all the more intense with electric guitar pop. Brandy's accompaniment eventually escalates to angelic heights – but only after letting the young pop star take center stage for much of the song. “Insomnia” feels like a coronation.

That dopamine it's nothing like Normani's actual solo arrival, 2019's “Motivation” (via its elaborate video, which pays homage to the top 106 & Park) is by design. He never meant to release that sexy bubblegum song, did he he said – and her too he thinks isn't that great – but he had to drop something new to perform at the MTV Video Music Awards right after. She told podcast host Zach Sang that the slow and seductive “Wild Side” is the real her, the Normans her friends know. “Wild Side”, then, foreshadowed his pure libido dopamine, she herself teased a video art of Normani as a sex worker, dancer and rocket rider. There's no shame and little innuendo here, from “Lights On,” what she calls her “Janet moment,” all the rain and breath-taking promises to “make you come fast like a '98 sports car” to “Grip,” which uses something that sounds like an old GI Joe commercial likened her pussy to a Kung Fu move. Your mind can wander to Ginuwine's “Pony” and “So Anxious” if you listen to “Grip” and “1:59” hard enough. Next, “Candy Paint” is Normani's high-octane, man-eating proclamation that she “needs[s] a nigga hit it” and warns that it could be yours.

It is important that there is only love, longing, bending and fucking dopamine. You'd expect an exhausting ballad or two given the pain and vitriol Normani has experienced, but if this sex-kitten is what the once-quiet, possibly girl-group star has been throughout her adulthood, she may have become important. not to lose sight of her. from it now. “When my parents got sick, I didn't have the mental capacity to try to be creative, but I pushed myself anyway,” Normani said. Dizzy. “I know that's what got them through such a difficult time – they needed to see me persevere and keep going.” Her sensuality — which she equated with her femininity when she discussed “Wild Side” with Zach Sang in 2021 — takes on even deeper meaning as she helped her mom come to terms with her own womanhood as breast cancer she shook her body. Everywhere dopamineNormani owns her pleasure with the pride and confidence of the star she was always destined to be.