Foxy Brown - Black Roses (2006)

Following the disappointment in the cancelled promotion of her studio album 'Ill Na Na 2: The Fever', Foxy Brown left Def Jam Records, and in 2004 she began recording new material, later reuniting with Jay-Z and performing dates on the Best of Both Worlds Tour. After signing back to Def Jam under his regime, Brown and Jay-Z began work on her new album 'Black Roses', with production by The Neptunes, Kanye West, Timbaland, Trackmasters, and Dave Kelly. Guest appearances were confirmed from Barrington Levy, Dido, Luther Vandross, Mos Def, Baby Cham, Spragga Benz, Shyne, Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, KRS-One, Roxanne Shante, and Jay-Z, although it was uncertain whether all would make the final cut for the album. In November 2004, Brown confirmed that the title for her upcoming album would be 'Black Roses', explaining that her best friend Barrington Levy has a song called 'Black Roses', and while he'd been traveling all over the world he'd never seen a black rose in any other garden, so when he found his black rose, he knew that shit was special. Brown identified with this, saying "you can have all the female rappers in the world, but there's only one black rose. I feel that's me." Brown also announced that she would be the first artist signed to Jay-Z's upcoming imprint record label S. Carter Records, although rather than launching the imprint, Jay-Z became the new president and CEO of Def Jam Records, where he signed Brown as one of the first artists on his new roster. 

On 08 December 2005, Brown announced she had experienced severe and sudden hearing loss in both ears and she had not heard another person's voice in six months, and so 'Black Roses' was put to one side while her health issues were investigated. In June 2006, she announced that her hearing had been restored through surgery, and that she was planning to resume recording, and although her label did not set a release date, she hoped the album would be out by the end of 2006. It was unsure if the title 'Black Roses' would be retained, but in the end that turned out to be the least of her worries, as in November 2006 there was speculation that Jay-Z was disappointed in Brown's "lack of productivity on the album", and was planning to drop her from the Def Jam label, and so the planned December 2006 release of 'Black Roses' was cancelled. In May 2007, Black Hand Entertainment announced a management deal with Brown, and although she confirmed that the album was nearly complete, the release would be six months later, on 06 September. On August 16, Black Hand Entertainment announced that Brown would leave Def Jam to launch an independent record label, Black Rose Entertainment, distributed by Koch Records, but despite the name of the label, 'Black Roses' would not be the first album to appear on the label. A brand new record titled 'Brooklyn's Don Diva' was eventually scheduled with a release date of December 4, although it was delayed until the following year, coming out on 13 May 2008, after many delays triggered by Brown's prison sentence, after she was jailed for a year in September 2007 for violating the terms of her probation after she was accused of hitting a woman with a cell phone. 'Brooklyn's Don Diva' included two previously unreleased songs from her shelved album 'Ill Na Na 2: The Fever', but none from 'Black Roses', which became yet another legendary unreleased record from the rapper, and although no definitive track listing circulated like that for 'The Fever', most reconstructions agree on about two thirds of the intended songs, and so I've added in the best of the rest to make up this version of this second cancelled album from Foxy Brown. 

Track listing

01 Intro/Dem Don't Like Me
02 That Dude/That Chick (feat. Mos Def)
03 In A Trap (feat. T.I.)
04 X-Clusive (feat. Stacy McKenzie)
05 Hennesey & Bacardi
06 Come Fly With Me (feat. Sizzla)
07 Mr. DJ (feat. Barrington Levy)
08 Boss (feat. Young Gavin & Mousey Baby)
09 Drugz
10 Too Ill (feat. Loon, Coke & Exo)
11 Ride Ya Bike (feat. Ron Browz)
12 All Night (feat. Lady Saw)
13 Why You Hating (feat. Red Handed, Young Gavin & Curtains)
14 Art Of War
15 Up Jumps The Boogie
16 I Don't Need Nobody

Foxy Brown - Ill Na Na 2: The Fever (2003)

Inga DeCarlo Fung Marchand, known as Foxy Brown, was born on 06 September 1978, growing up with her two older brothers in Park Slope, a middle-class neighbourhood in Brooklyn. While still a teenager, she won a local talent contest, and members of the production team Trackmasters, who were working on LL Cool J's Mr. Smith album, were in attendance that night. They were impressed enough to invite Brown to rap on 'I Shot Ya', following this with appearances on several RIAA platinum and gold singles from other artists, including remixes of songs 'You're Makin' Me High' by Toni Braxton, as well as featuring on the soundtrack to the 1996 film 'The Nutty Professor'. She became an instant sensation due to rapping provocatively at such a young age, and this led to a label bidding war at the beginning of 1996, which was won in March by Def Jam Records, who then added the 17-year-old rapper to their roster. In 1996 she released her debut album 'Ill Na Na' to strong sales, helped in no small part by being heavily produced by Trackmasters, and featuring guest appearances from Jay-Z, Blackstreet, Method Man, and Kid Capri. Following the release of 'Ill Na Na', Brown joined fellow New York-based hip hop artists, Nas, AZ, and Cormega (later replaced by Nature) to form the supergroup known as The Firm, releasing their debut album on Aftermath Records. It boasted production duties by  Dr. Dre, the Trackmasters, and Steve "Commissioner" Stoute, and crashed into the Billboard 200 album chart at No. 1. She spent the first half of 1997 touring, joining rapper Snoop Dogg, pop group The Spice Girls, and rock band Stone Temple Pilots, for the spring break festivities hosted by MTV in Panama City, Florida, and then joining the Smokin' Grooves tour, performing alongside Cypress Hill, Erykah Badu, The Roots, OutKast, and The Pharcyde. 

Her second solo album was released in January 1999, with 'Chyna Doll' once again topping the Billboard 200 Album chart, equalling Lauryn Hill's record as the first female rapper to accomplish this feat. Two years later she released 'Broken Silence', but despite a couple of popular singles being released from it, it could only manage a number 5 showing on the Billboard Charts, although like previous albums, it did sell over 500,000 records and was certified gold by the RIAA. In 2002, Brown returned to the music scene with her single 'Stylin'', which was to be the first single from her upcoming album 'Ill Na Na 2: The Fever', and the next year, she was featured on DJ Kayslay's single 'Too Much for Me' from his 'Street Sweeper's Volume One Mixtape', as well as on Luther Vandross' final studio album 'Dance With My Father', but her fourth studio album stayed mysteriously absent from the schedules. In April 2003, Brown appeared on popular New York radio DJ Wendy Williams' radio show, and revealed the details of her relationship with Lyor Cohen, president of Def Jam Recordings at the time, and also with Sean "P. Diddy" Combs. Brown accused both of illegally trading her recording masters, and announced that Cohen had cancelled promotion for 'Ill Na Na 2: The Fever' over personal disagreements between them. 'Stylin'' was later released on the compilation album 'The Source Presents: Hip Hop Hits Vol. 6', but its parent album has never seen the light of day. It did get as far as a promo CD, but with no support from the record company it quietly vanished, and so here is the cancelled fourth album from Foxy Brown, which as is so often the case with these shelved projects, is far too good not to be heard.    

Track listing

01 Intro (Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood) (feat. Nina Simone)
02 Magnetic
03 The Original
04 We Makin' It (feat. Pretty Boy) 
05 Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep 
06 Open Book 
07 Memory Lane 
08 Jumpin' (feat. Fox-5) 
09 Streets Love Me 
10 Why, Why, Why?
11 All My Life (Black Girl Lost) 
12 Fan Love 
13 I Need A Man (feat. The Letter M) 
14 Superfreak (feat. Jazze Pha) 
15 Stylin'