''My Garden'' is the debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American recording artist

Kat Dahlia Katriana Sandra Huguet (born July 29, 1990), better known by her stage name Kat Dahlia (formerly Kat Hue), is a Cuban-American recording artist. Born and raised in Miami, Florida, Dahlia is a singer, songwriter and rapper, known for her "razor ...

. It was released on January 13, 2015, by

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America Sony Corporation of America (SONAM, also known as SCA), is the American arm of the Japanese conglomerate Sony Group ...

, distributed by Vested in Culture. The album was supported by two

singles Singles are people not in a committed relationship. Singles may also refer to: Film and television * ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series * ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe * ''Singles'' ...

; "Gangsta" and "Crazy", as well as the

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

' "instant gratification" tracks; "Mirror" and "Clocks". In January 2014, ''Complex'' listed ''My Garden'', as the forty-sixth most anticipated album of 2014. After several delays, from being scheduled to be released in February 2014, to being rescheduled to September 2014, in October 2014,

settled in January 2015.

Background

At the age of 18, after saving money from jobs as a waitress, Dahlia decided to leave Miami and moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

a month later, "on a whim." Shortly thereafter, Dahlia became involved in what she describes as a "toxic relationship," which she would later come to regard as a source of inspiration and "writer's gold." After self-financing an

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

(EP) and a

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 ...

, Dahlia was discovered by Vested in Culture (VIC) Vice President of A&R, Amanda Berkowitz. Berkowitz quickly brought Dahlia to the attention of veteran record executive

Sylvia Rhone Sylvia Rhone (born March 11, 1952) is an American music industry executive. Since 2019, she is the chair and CEO of Epic Records, a label owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Rhone served previously in senior positions at Vested In Culture, Unive ...

. In 2012, describing Dahlia as "more than just a pop artist," Sylvia Rhone signed Dahlia to her newly launched label, VIC, a joint venture with

. Dahlia's debut album is set be VIC's inaugural release.

Recording and production

In April 2013, it was announced Kat Dahlia was scheduled to collaborate with English music producer

Naughty Boy Shahid Khan ( ur, شاهد خان; born 1 January 1981), better known by his stage name Naughty Boy, is a British DJ, record producer, songwriter and musician. In 2012, Khan signed a three–year publishing deal with Sony ATV, as well as a rec ...

, for her upcoming debut album, ''My Garden''. In July 2013, Dahlia revealed she was working with fellow American rapper and singer-songwriter

Missy Elliott Melissa Arnette Elliott (born July 1, 1971), better known as Missy Elliott or Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliot, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. She embarked on her music career with R&B girl group Sista in the earl ...

, on her debut album ''My Garden''. In addition to Elliott, Dahlia revealed further collaborations with American record producers Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley,

Salaam Remi Salaam Remi Gibbs (born May 14, 1972) is a Grammy winning American record producer known for his association with Nas, Amy Winehouse, Robby, Fugees, Fergie, Estelle, Black Thought, and Miguel, and for his reggae-tinged (often referred to as ...

and

Christopher "Tricky" Stewart Christopher Alan "Tricky" Stewart (born January 4, 1974) is an American record producer, record executive, songwriter, and music publisher. In a career spanning over 30 years, Stewart has won 5 Grammys and is responsible for over 50 million rec ...

. During a May 2013 interview with ''Interview'' magazine, Dahlia expressed wanting to work with Detroit-based rapper

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...

Fugees Fugees (; sometimes The Fugees) is an American hip hop group formed in the early 1990s. Deriving its name from a shortening of the word "refugees", the group consists of Wyclef Jean, Pras Michel, and Lauryn Hill. The group rose to fame with its ...

singer

Lauryn Hill Lauryn Noelle Hill (born May 26, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, and record producer. She is often regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time, as well as being one of the most influential musicians of her generation. ...

and American pop singer

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

. In a May 2013 interview with

Fuse Fuse or FUSE may refer to: Devices * Fuse (electrical), a device used in electrical systems to protect against excessive current ** Fuse (automotive), a class of fuses for vehicles * Fuse (hydraulic), a device used in hydraulic systems to protect ...

, Dahlia spoke on her collaborations with Timbaland,

Snoop Dogg Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. (born October 20, 1971), known professionally as Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg and briefly Snoop Lion), is an American rapper. His fame dates back to 1992 when he featured on Dr. Dre's debut solo single, " ...

and Meleni "Polly A." Smith, the latter of which contributed to Dahlia's song "Money Party". In a June 2013 interview, Dahlia revealed she co-wrote song with some friends, such as Tawanna "Frankie Storm" Dabney, who wrote " Don't Stop the Music" for Barbadian singer

Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, actress, and businesswoman. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, Barbados, Rihanna auditioned for American record producer Evan Rogers who invited her to the ...

. During the same interview, when asked about her dream collaborations, Dahlia stated: "I'd love to work with

B.B. King Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shimm ...

. I would love to work with

Robert Plant Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the English rock band Led Zeppelin for all of its existence from 1968 until 1980, when the band broke up following the ...

and

Kendrick Lamar Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (born June 17, 1987) is an American rapper and songwriter. Known for his Progressive rap, progressive musical styles and Social consciousness, socially conscious songwriting, he is often considered one of the most infl ...

who is a great writer.

is an amazing writer,

Ellie Goulding Elena Jane Goulding ( ; born 30 December 1986) is an English singer and songwriter. Her career began when she met record producers Starsmith and Frankmusik, and she was later spotted by Jamie Lillywhite, who became her manager and Artists and ...

, Emeli Sande, I like writers. I like people that have a message in their music.

Damian Marley Damian Robert Nesta "Jr. Gong" Marley (born 21 July 1978) is a Jamaican DJ, singer, lyricist and rapper. He is the recipient of four Grammy Awards. Early life, education and family Damian Marley is the youngest son of reggae musician Bob Marle ...

,..". In July 2013, Vested in Culture founder Sylvia Rhone, announced via her official

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account that Dahlia had entered recording sessions with Timbaland and

. Rhone spoke highly of the sessions, adding that it "felt like good 'ol days" and cited it as "magic".

Release and promotion

In May 2013, Dahlia stated that she wanted to release the " Synematic " –produced "Fireman", as a follow-up to her debut single, "Gangsta". On July 25, 2013, Kat Dahlia performed an acoustic version of her song "Mirrors", for

Perez Hilton Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr. (born March 23, 1978), known professionally as Perez Hilton, is an American blogger, columnist, and media personality. His blog is known for posts covering gossip items about celebrities, and for posting tabloid p ...

's ''Perez TV''. On August 8, 2013, a song titled "Clocks". was released by

Epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film with heroic elements Epic or EPIC may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and medi ...

subsidiary label Vested in Culture, exclusively via

VEVO Vevo ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized as VEVO until 2013) is an American multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available as an app on selected smart TVs, di ...

. The following month, Dahlia performed a live acoustic rendition of "Clocks", as part of ''Billboard's Tastemaker Sessions''. On August 22, 2013, an album teaser of ''My Garden'', was released. In September 2013, Dahlia announced she would be releasing an

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

(EP) titled ''Seeds''. In support of ''Seeds'', Dahlia set out on a nine-date

concert tour A concert tour (or simply tour) is a series of concerts by an artist or group of artists in different cities, countries or locations. Often concert tours are named to differentiate different tours by the same artist and to associate a specific to ...

along the east coast. Beginning on October 8, in New York City, at Webster Hall and end on October 20, at Culture Room in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. On November 21, 2013, Dahlia released the EP for free via digital download. The project includes six songs, including "Happy and I Know It" and "The High", which Dahlia released

s for. The album was at one point scheduled to be released in February 2014, and more recently moved to September 2014 by

. On October 25, 2014, it was revealed the album would finally be released on January 13, 2015. On November 19, 2014, Vested in Culture released "Money Party", featuring Polly A., as a single via iTunes.

Singles

On December 13, 2012, Sylvia Rhone, founder of Vested in Culture (VIC), premiered a song titled "Gangsta", by her newly signed artist, Kat Dahlia. On March 1, 2013, "Gangsta" was officially released via digital distribution, by Vested in Culture and Epic Records, as Dahlia's commercial debut

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

. The digital download also featured the songs "Mirror" and "Money Party", the latter of which features fellow American singer, Polly A. The music video for "Gangsta", directed by Samantha Lecca, was released on March 5. In May 2013, Dahlia released a Spanish-language version of "Gangsta". On December 17, 2013, Dahlia released the album's second single, titled "Crazy", on her official website. On February 20, 2014, Dahlia premiered the music video for "Crazy", during an appearance on

BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los A ...

's ''

106 & Park ''106 & Park'' is an American hip hop and R&B music video show, set up in a countdown format, that was broadcast on weekdays at 6:00 pm ET/5:00 pm CT on BET; it aired on a one-day delay on BET International. It was the network's highest- rated ...

''. On July 28, 2014, Vested in Culture released a

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

of "Crazy", featuring new production and vocals from Puerto Rican

reggaeton Reggaeton (, ), also known as reggaetón and reguetón (), is a music style that originated in Panama during the late 1980s. It was later popularized in Puerto Rico. It has evolved from dancehall and has been influenced by American Hip hop m ...

producer and singer, Jose "Gocho" Torres.

Critical reception

''My Garden'' received generally positive reviews from

music critic ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of mus ...

s. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 63, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on four reviews. Andy Kellman of

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

wrote, "'Gangsta,' a tough ballad about self-reliance with a twist on

50 Cent Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, and businessman. Born in the South Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 2000, when he produced ...

's "

Wanksta "Wanksta" is a song by American rapper 50 Cent, released on November 5, 2002, as the second single from the soundtrack to the film '' 8 Mile'' (2002). The single, produced by Sha Money XL and John "J-Praize" Freeman, reached number 13 on the US ...

," was released in early 2013 as her debut single and topped out at number 40 on ''Billboard'''s R&B/Hip-Hop chart. It made for an ideal introduction to her as an autonomous individual and throaty vocalist, but her progress stalled. Two years of delays preceded the release of her first album. Regardless of the time taken for preparation, ''My Garden'' is an assertive, fully formed debut." Writing for ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...

'', Ryan B. Patrick described Dahlia's sound as "a bit dated" and the release "a tad obligatory" after the delay, further explaining that "though the album aims high, it runs out of steam landing in the realm of just okay." Meaghan Garvey of ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'', gave the album three out of five stars, saying "she sings, writes and raps; she has a bit of

's swagger and the gravelly vocals of 1990s

grunge Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock genre and subculture that emerged during the in the American Pacific Northwest state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. Grunge fuses elements of p ...

. If that sounds like a lot to balance, well, sometimes it is. But if nothing else, on Dahlia's debut, ''My Garden'', she transcends the sum of her seemingly disparate influences, proving herself to be a relatively distinct artist, even if her risks don't always pay off." Judy Cantor-Navas of ''Billboard'' praised the song "Tumbao", which adopts the chorus of

Celia Cruz Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso (21 October 1925 – 16 July 2003), known as Celia Cruz, was a naturalized Cuban-American singer and one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century. Cruz rose to fame in Cuba during t ...

's "

La Negra Tiene Tumbao ''La Negra Tiene Tumbao'' (English: ''The Black Woman's Got Style'') is the 59th album recorded by Cuban salsa recording artist Celia Cruz. It was released by Sony Music on 2 October 2001. It featured musical collaborations with Mikey Perfecto an ...

Track listing

Personnel

Credits for ''My Garden'' adapted from

. *Adeniyi Adelekan - composer *Will Anspach - engineer *Curtis "Barbosa" Austin - composer, programming *Warren Babson - engineer *Amanda Berkowitz - A&R *Danny King - composer, producer, programming, keyboards *Bilal - composer, vocals (background) *Anita Marisa Boriboon - art direction, design *Delbert Bowers - assistant *Matthew Vine Burke - executive producer *Maddox Chhim - assistant *Stephen Coleman - string arrangements *Gonzalo Contreras - engineer *Kat Dahlia - primary artist *Anthony Daniel - engineer, mixing *Justin Anthony Desantis - composer *Gleyder "Gee" Disla - engineer, mixing *Kirby Dockery - composer *Chris Galland - assistant *Javier Garcia - composer *Chris Gehringer - mastering *Sergio George - composer *Glass John - composer, keyboards, producer, programming *Dalia Glickman - A&R *Nicole Guzman - composer *Kuk Harrell - vocal producer *Katriana Sandra Huguet - composer *Jaycen Joshua - mixing *The Julca Brothers - arranger, bass, engineer, guitar (electric), organ, producer, programming *David Julca - composer, guitar *Johnny Julca - composer, mixing *Ryan Kaul - assistant *Daniel Iyere - composer *Michael Klein - A&R *Dave Kutch - mastering *Jon Levine - bass, composer, drums, engineer, piano, producer, programming, synthesizer *Manny Marroquin - mixing, producer *Orchestra Bratislava - orchestra *Fernando Osorio - composer *Jermaine Pegues - A&R *Heny Puro - composer *Kevin Randolph - piano *Rankin - photography *Redwine - producer *Jean-Robert Redwine - composer *Salaam Remi - arranger, bass, composer, drums, keyboards, producer *Jared Scharff - composer, producer *Scott "

A-Trak Alain Macklovitch (born March 30, 1982), known by his stage name A-Trak, is a Canadian DJ, record producer, and record executive. He came to prominence in the late 2000s as an international club DJ and remix artist, known for incorporating highly ...

" - engineer *Asdru Sierra - orchestral arrangements, string arrangements *Meleni Smith - composer, vocals (background) *Frankie Storm - composer *Synematik - vocal producer *Andrew "Broadway" Williams - producer, programming *Andrew A. Williams - composer *Steve Wyreman - guitar *Young Boyz - producer *Mansur Zafr - drum programming

Charts

References

External links

Official Kat Dahlia Website
{{Authority control 2015 debut albums Epic Records albums Albums produced by Salaam Remi Hip hop albums by American artists Southern hip hop albums Contemporary R&B albums by American artists