'' is
Namie Amuro 's sixth original studio album under the
Avex Trax label. The album was released on
July 13 ,
2005 after four singles and has become her most commercially successful effort in five years.
While planning the album, Amuro decided she wanted to create music that would have its most profound effect live. The result is an album that is her most
Uptempo containing 11
R&B /
Dance songs and only one
Ballad . The term "Hip-Pop" has been coined to the describe the music on the album because of her image as a pop music icon and her transition to R&B/
Hip-Hop music.
The album art theme is that of the
Pink Panther . Amuro happened to be a big fan of the Pink Panther cartoon character and wanted to include its image. A licensing deal was struck with
MGM studios allowing Amuro to freely use the character in her album artwork and promotion. A special character "Namie Panther" based on Amuro herself was also created as a counterpart to the Pink Panther. Because of the Pink Panther deal, all of the material released for the album has been pink. (Amuro had stated in an interview years before that she did not like pink.) First pressing packaging of the album included Pink Panther stickers and a Pink Panther styled newspaper containing lyrics for the album.
Before the announcement of the album, the title track, "Queen of Hip-Pop" was used as a commercial jingle for
Chevrolet Suzuki Cruze automobiles. Another track off the album, "WoWa" (pronounced 'Ooh Wah') was released as a video and radio single but was not retailed. The video featured Amuro on
Rollerskates dancing with cheerleaders by a pool. Animated scenes of the
Pink Panther and Namie Panther were made specifically for the video. Excluded from the album is the track "the SPEED STAR" which was released as a double a-side single with the song "GIRL TALK." It is the second single that Amuro has opted to leave off an original album. No explanation has been given for this. A hidden track titled "No pt.II" is included shortly after "No"; it is a remixed ballad version of the song containing new vocals.
Upon release, the album charted at number one in Japan for two days ultimately debuting at number two for the week. It has currently sold over 450,000 copies and is the 23rd best selling album of 2005 as of
September 24 , 2005.
# "Queen of Hip-Pop" (TIGER, Nao'ymt) - 3:14
# "
WANT ME, WANT ME " (Michico, SUGI-V) - 3:10
# "WoWa" (Nao'ymt) - 4:08
# "I Wanna Show You My Love" (Michico, T.Kura) - 3:39
# "
GIRL TALK " (Michico, T.Kura) - 4:22
# "Free" (Namie Amuro,Nao'ymt) - 4:18
# "My Darling" (Michico, T.Kura) - 4:14
# "Ups & Downs duet with Nao'ymt" (Nao'ymt) - 3:46
# "I Love You" (Christopher Stewart, Tab, Traci Hale, Shoko Fujibayashi) - 4:16
# "
ALL FOR YOU " (Natsumi Watanabe, Ryoki Matsumoto) - 5:47
# "
ALARM " - (JUSME, MONK) 4:10
# "No/No pt. II" (Nao'ymt) - 7:07
- Namie Amuro - Vocals , background vocals
- Jun Abe - piano, keyboard
- T.Kura - multiple instruments
- L.L. Brothers - additional vocals
- Rush by Taashi Katou - Strings
- Ryoki Matsumoto - chorus
- Michico - background vocals
- MONK - multiple instruments
- Nao'ymt - vocals, multiple instruments
- C. "Tricky" Stewart - multiple instruments
- SUGI-V - multiple instruments
- Ken Suzuki - Guitar
- Producers - T.Kura, Michico, Nao'ymt, C. "Tricky" Stewart, SUGI-V
- Vocal Producers - Michico
- Vocal Direction - Daisuke Imai, Michico, Nao'ymt, Kenji Sano
- Chorus Arrangement - Ryoki Matsumoto
- Mixing - D.O.I, Junya Endo, T.Kura, Carlton Lynn, Yoshiaki Onishi
- Photography - Shoji Uchida
- Art Direction - Hidekazu Sato
- Oricon Sales Chart (Japan)
Oricon Sales Chart (Japan)
- Oricon Sales Chart (Japan)
As of January,
2006 "Queen of Hip-Pop" has been certified for shipments of over 500,000 by the RIAJ.
