''Opulence'' is the debut

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) by American rapper

Brooke Candy Brooke Dyan Candy (born July 20, 1989) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and tattoo artist. Raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles, daughter of Tom Candy, former CFO of ''Hustler Magazine'', Brooke rose to prominence after starring in Gr ...

, released as digital download by

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

on 6 May 2014. The EP is preceded by the release of title track and lead single "Opulence" and is Candy's first major label release. The EP features production from

Diplo Thomas Wesley Pentz (born November 10, 1978), known professionally as Diplo, is an American DJ and music producer. He is the co-creator and lead member of the electronic dancehall music project Major Lazer, a member of the supergroup LSD with ...

Kool Kojak Allan P. Grigg, better known by his stage name Kool Kojak and stylized as "KoOoLkOjAk", is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, composer, and artist notable for music in '' Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse'', co-writing and co-prod ...

Jesse Shatkin Jesse Samuel Shatkin (born 1979) is an American songwriter, producer and engineer. He has worked with Sia, Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Lopez, Fitz and the Tantrums and One Direction, among others. Shatkin was nominated in 2014 for Grammy Awards a ...

and

Shea Taylor Robert "Shea" Taylor is a songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist based in New York City. He established an early successful songwriting partnership with Def Jam's R&B singer-songwriter phenom Ne-Yo, and has also worked with Rihanna, Beyoncé ...

among others, including a feature with producer Cory Enemy and songwriting work from Mozella,

Jesse Saint John Jesse St. John Geller (born October 5, 1989) is an American songwriter and singer (also stylized as jesse saint john). St. John has written for a number of artists, most notably Britney Spears, Kim Petras, Dorian Electra, Charli XCX, Brooke Cand ...

and

Sia Sia Kate Isobelle Furler ( ; born 18 December 1975) is an Australian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Adelaide, she started her career as a singer in the acid jazz band Crisp in the mid-1990s. In 1997, when Crisp disbanded, she rel ...

, the latter also serving as

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...

of the project.

Background and promotion

Candy caught Sia's attention, and she contacted her via

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

with the purpose of writing one song for her. Sia ended up executive producing Candy's debut record, helping her to get a record contract and to find, in Sia's words: " decent, nice, honest management, and ohelp ermake the art hewant to make from a place of positive mental health and love". Candy signed with

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

in February 2014. She later joined Columbia's UK roster. The first single and title track was performed on April 3, 2014 at

Nicola Formichetti Nicola Formichetti (; born 31 May 1977) is a fashion director and fashion editor. Born in Japan, he is most widely known as the artistic director of the Italian fashion label Diesel and for being a frequent collaborator with singer-songwriter Lad ...

's debut

Diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engin ...

fashion show on

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

. It was later released on April 22, 2014 as digital download along the premiere of its official music video directed by Steven Klein and styled by Formichetti. The song is featured in a scene of CSI's fifteen season episode "Under My Skin" and is part of the soundtrack of the basketball video game

NBA Live 15 ''NBA Live 15'' is a basketball simulation video game for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One released on October 28, 2014, in North America and on October 31, 2014, in Europe. It features Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers as its cover ath ...

Critical reception

The EP was generally praised by critics. Kevin Apaza from

Direct Lyrics MRC II Distribution Company L.P., doing business as MRC (formerly Media Rights Capital), is an American film and television studio. Founded by Mordecai (Modi) Wiczyk and Asif Satchu, the company funds and produces film and television programming. ...

described it as "five songs featuring hard-hitting

synths A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and f ...

, fierce and risqué lyrics, and a swagger by Brooke that can’t be duplicated. She’s making us excited about female rappers again. There just have to be more options than

Nicki Nicki is a given name, and may refer to: Film and television * Nicki Aycox (1975-2022), American actress best known for her roles as Syl on the series ''Dark Angel'' and Stella Vessey on the dramedy ''Ed'' * Nicki Chapman (born 1967), English tel ...

Iggy Iggy or Iggie is a unisex name and it is often a hypocorism, short form of the Ancient Rome, Roman Latin names Ignatius, Ignatia (feminine) and Ignatius (masculine), or their derivatives in other European languages. As such the name is derived ulti ...

!". Ashley Emma NG from Best Fan also praised the project saying "''Opulence'' brings a fresh sound that is all Brook Candy. Some may not understand her lascivious and unconventional attitude, but you can’t help but respect her hustle. Her confidence is indestructible, and not once does it come off as cocky."

Track listing

Credits taken from

Qobuz Qobuz (, commonly mispronounced: ) is a French commercial music streaming and downloading service. It was founded in 2007 by Yves Riesel, expanded to a limited range of overseas markets, including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, It ...

. ;Notes * signifies a co- producer ;Sampling credits * "Feel Yourself (Alcohol)" samples the 1997 song entitled " Alane" recorded by Wes.

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2014 debut EPs Electronic dance music EPs Hip hop EPs Pop music EPs RCA Records EPs Brooke Candy albums