Ariana Grande showed us she has an ear for throwback pop tunes as demonstrated on her Mariah Carey-inspired debut single. And apparently, there’s more where that came from.
“Her album is a throwback to the great R&B of the 90s,” Grande’s manager, Scooter Braun, told MTV News of her debut album, Daydreamin’, dropping in August. “And she has some incredible ballads on there. We’re talking about putting out one album in August and following it with a second album in February or March. She’s recording so much music that we feel like we can keep the momentum going. I’m so incredibly excited about the album and the music. This girl would live in the studio if she had the opportunity.”
When Braun and the “Sam & Cat” star first started talking about it, the 20-year-old knew she wanted to pay homage to the ’90s, a decade that spawned R&B superstars like Carey and Mary J. Blige, whom he cites as her influences for the release.
“I grew up on that stuff. … It was a fun album to be a part of. It was a fun album to get the demos in my email [for] and listen to and say, ‘Damn’,” he said. “You don’t expect it from her and that’s what I like about her. Music today isn’t defined by what color you are or where you’re from or what genre you’re supposed to be in. The genres are all crossed and the races are all crossed, and at the end of the day, [music is] supposed to be the universal language and we’re finally seeing in the industry where [music] is the universal language and genres are universal.”
That crisscrossing of genres is on full display on “The Way,” which finds the Nickelodeon actress hooking up Pittsburgh MC Mac Miller. “A collaboration works well when you’re not introducing someone [to get on a record],” he said. “I’ve seen it with some of my other artists; they’re actually friends with the artists they’re collaborating [with]. She was friends with Mac.
“She put that record together and then she called Mac and said ‘I want you to get on it.’ She was friends with him and you can see there’s a natural chemistry between them as friends,” Braun continued. “And I think that’s why it works so well. These kids are all around the same age and the same generation and they’re having fun with the music.”
With fans counting down the days until the unconfirmed August date, Braun shared he has one song he’s really looking forward to people hearing. “I don’t know what we’re going to drop next, but I can tell you one of my favorite songs is called ‘Baby, I.’ And it’s a great, it’s such a feel-good record,” he said. “I don’t want to tell you too much. You’ll just have to wait and hear it.”
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