Before the Party


Before the Party is the sixth mixtape by American recording artist Chris Brown; it was released on November 27, 2015, by Chris Brown Entertainment and produced by Riley Urick and Zaire Koalo. The mixtape contains appearances from French Montana, Wiz Khalifa, Wale, Fetty Wap, Tyga, Rihanna and more. It also includes production from Kuk Harrell, Kanye West, Danja, David Banner, Drumma Boy, among others. Before the Party was released as a prelude to his seventh studio album, Royalty.

Release

On October 13, 2015, Brown announced that his upcoming album Royalty would've been released on November 27, 2015. After it was revealed that the album has been pushed back to December 18, 2015, in exchange on November 27, 2015, he released a free 34-track mixtape, called Before the Party, as a prelude to Royalty.

Critical reception

Before the Party received positive reviews from music critics, some of them even said that the mixtape was a better work than his album Royalty, which the mixtape was supposed to be a prelude to. HotNewHipHops Nicholas DG expressed a positive response, praising it for being "an impressive massive mixtape", saying that the track "Holy Angel" is one of Brown's best songs ever, expressing how "is bent on collecting the hardships and sins he has faced throughout his lifetime". Other tracks praised by the critic were "Play Me", because of his "slowly crescendoing orchestral sound and a hypnotic drum beat", "Desperado", being a "perfect musical embodiment to the song's narrator's feeling of never-ending betrayal", "Gotta Get Up", describing it as a "Michael Jackson's heavily inspired track", and "FAN " because of his blending genres of rock, hip-hop and electro.
Digital Spys Ian Sandwell said that the mixtape was "better than expectations", praising tracks like "Holy Angel", "Counterfeit", "Text Message" and "Hell of a Nite". The Daily Reveilles Sarah LeBoeuf wrote that she was "a bit disappointed" from the mixtape, saying that "Holy Angel", "Counterfeit", "Go" and "Sex" were highlights from the mixtape, but other songs like "Ghetto Tales" or "Hell of a Night" were songs too much similar to Brown's past works, saying that the mixtape at some points was "too repetitive, but overall not bad".

Track listing

;Sample credits