When you look at the picture, I guess the first fewer words that come to your mind will be “Because I Love It”. In many cases, you are right and of course today I will talk about Ameriie and her third album Because I Love It.
However, at first, my subject will be the latex dress pictured above, which has been gaining increasing popularity in recent years. It was after I have written such a title did I realize how much I like it, not just the beautiful attractive latex dress.
So, let’s begin with Because I Love You. As we know, it was her first album not to feature writing and production from her long-time collaborator, friend, and producer Rich Harrison. Other producers, such as Bryan-Michael Cox, The Buchanans, One Up, and Chris & Drop, were enlisted to work with Ameriie.
She cited music of the 1980s as a major influence on the album, saying “I love 80’s music period! That’s why I did Because I Love It, since it had mostly R&B, soul, and 80’s new wave. When I said I wanted to do that in 2006, people were like, ‘what?!’….but I love it – latex catsuit.”
Because I Love It was scheduled to be released in the U.S. in 2007, and its then-impending release made the Blender magazine list of “25 Reasons to Love ‘07″, ranking nineteenth. Allmusic described the album as “enthuastic” and “unwavering”, and praised Ameriie for being able to “lasso each song, whether it requires salt, sugar, heartache, delight, or any combination thereof”.
“Take Control”, which was co-produced by Mike Caren, Ameriie and Nicholson and co-written by Ameriie and Cee-Lo Green, was the first single from the album and was released in the U.S. in late 2006. It failed to chart on the Hot 100, and peaked at sixty-six on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
The album’s North American release was pushed back several times, before being cancelled altogether after the failure of the second single, a remixed version of “That’s What U R” featuring Fabolous and Slim Thug, to garner significant radio play.
The single and album made greater impact in Europe: in the UK, “Take Control” became Ameriie’s second top ten hit following “1 Thing”, and Because I Love It entered at number seventeen on the UK Albums Chart upon its release in May 2007, eventually receiving a silver certification from the BPI for more than 60,000 copies issued.
“Take Control” was nominated for Best Song at the MOBO Awards. Second single “Gotta Work” reached the top forty and was parlayed into an Asia-wide advertisement campaign for cable provider AXN’s tenth anniversary.
Now, I would proudly say that I like the latex dress, “Because I Love It”.
Yeah, because everybody likes it!