''Grow into One'' (stylized as grow into one) is the second studio album released by

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese pop and R&B singer

Koda Kumi , known professionally as , is a Japanese singer from Kyoto, known for her urban and R&B songs. After debuting with the single "Take Back" in December 2000, Koda gained fame in March 2003 when the songs from her seventh single, "Real Emotion ...

, released on March 19, 2003. It barely peaked in the Top 10 on

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

, coming it at #8, and charted for 43 weeks. The album also contained, at the time, one of her best-selling singles, "

Real Emotion/1000 no Kotoba is a double A-side single by Japanese singer Koda Kumi. The single contains the songs "Real Emotion" and "1000 no Kotoba", which were featured in the game ''Final Fantasy X-2''. This was Kumi's first single to chart in the top 10 on Oricon, comi ...

". Combined with the singles, the album has sold over half a million copies in Japan. The album featured

rap Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

duo Clench & Blistah and

urban contemporary Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, hip hop, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contem ...

singer and producer

Lisa Lisa or LISA may refer to: People People with the mononym * Lisa Lisa (born 1967), American actress and lead singer of the Cult Jam * Lisa (Japanese musician, born 1974), stylized "LISA", Japanese singer and producer * Lisa Komine (born 1978), J ...

, who had been featured on Kumi's single "

Maze A maze is a path or collection of paths, typically from an entrance to a goal. The word is used to refer both to branching tour puzzles through which the solver must find a route, and to simpler non-branching ("unicursal") patterns that lea ...

", after having just split from her founded hip-hop group

M-Flo is a Japanese hip hop group consisting of record producer DJ Taku Takahashi, Verbal and Lisa. Lisa left the group in 2002 to pursue a solo career and the remaining members then started the M-Flo Loves... project working different vocalists fo ...

Background and composition

''Grow into One'' was released one year after her debut album ''

Affection Affection or fondness is a "disposition or state of mind or body" that is often associated with a feeling or type of love. It has given rise to a number of branches of philosophy and psychology concerning emotion, disease, influence, and sta ...

''. The album was predominantly R&B with the only pop songs being those she performed for ''

Final Fantasy X-2 is a 2003 role-playing video game developed and published by Square (video game company), Square for the PlayStation 2. Unlike most ''Final Fantasy'' games, which use self-contained stories and characters, ''X-2'' continues the story of ''Fin ...

,'' which was released on the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

in 2003. Those songs were "real Emotion" and "1000 no Kotoba". The only other pop song was "To Be One", which was used in some of the

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for ''Final Fantasy X-2.'' There was one

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

to make it to the album: the song "One," which featured

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

artist and

music producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

, and was originally released on Kumi's single "

". The album also contained her first

collaboration Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. Most ...

attempt with Japanese

rappers Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

Clench & Blistah with the first track, "Teaser." She would later feature Blistah (known as Mr. Blistah) for several works and collaborate with the duo for their own songs, most notably her song "

Candy Candy, also called sweets (British English) or lollies (Australian English Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language an ...

" and Clench & Blistah's song "Stands Up!." Concerning the success stemming from ''

'', Koda stated, "Although my second album, which I released directly after "Real Emotion" … the singles I released afterwards ranked outside of the top 10." Koda Kumi was hopeful for her ''Grow into One'' album due to the success of "Real Emotion/1000 no Kotoba". Due to the album gaining attention by charted in the Top 10, she began to push herself in her later singles. However, none of the following singles followed the success of "real Emotion", with Koda saying, "Because my hopes had been so high, the fall was really too hard."

Release

''Grow into One'' was released in a standard and limited edition. The former contained the standard fourteen tracks, while the latter contained a

trading card A trading card (or collectible card) is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing (fictional or real) and a short description of the picture, along with other ...

and an unpublished, alternate arrangement of "1000 no Kotoba", was used during the ending credits of the game and had been placed on the second disc of the '' Final Fantasy X-2 Original Soundtrack.'' She would later be placed on her third

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

'' Best: Bounce & Lovers'' in 2007.

Reception

''Grow into One'' peaked at number eight on the

Oricon Albums Chart The Oricon Albums Chart is the Japanese music industry standard albums popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Oricon originally published LP, CT, Cartridge and CD charts prior to the establishment of the Oricon Albu ...

, becoming her first album to chart in the top ten. It remained on the chart for nearly ten months. Between the album and the preluding singles, the total sales reached over 500,000.

Music videos

Music videos for several songs on ''Grow into One'' were released alongside the

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

7 Spirits ''7 Spirits'' is the first DVD released by artist Koda Kumi and was released the same day as her second studio album ''Grow into One''. The DVD contains the music videos that correspond to her singles from albums ''affection'' and ''Grow into One ...

'', which included

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

s for the songs " Love Across the Ocean", set in a futuristic setting with Kumi being sent to earth, "

", set in an airport with Kumi being evaluated by a

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...

, and " Real Emotion", set in the

Final Fantasy is a Japanese video game, Japanese science fantasy anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and developed and owned by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and ...

world of Spira.

Track listing

Official track list.

Charts and certifications

References

{{Authority control Koda Kumi albums 2003 albums Avex Group albums