Ciara's long-delayed third album, "Fantasy Ride," includes one cut for which she's been taking flak. "Turntables" is a duet with Chris Brown, a song the Atlanta-based hip-pop ingénue opted not to remove even after Brown allegedly battered his ex-girlfriend, Rihanna, in a February incident for which he's now facing criminal charges. The song, produced by Timbaland associate Nate "Danja" Hills, does have the whirlpool pull of a hit, thanks in part to the synergistic tension between Ciara and Brown; still, the question remains, why did she feel it was worth the compromise?
The violence between Brown and Rihanna now haunts the R&B scene, and not just those who work with or know the two. We're all still living in the unresolved moment after Rihanna's bruised face entered our vision. Without necessarily addressing that image, "Fantasy Ride" and this week's other significant R&B release, Chrisette Michele's "Epiphany," touch upon the issues that again arose in its wake, confronting the intimate power plays that black American singers have chronicled at least since the time when blues queens like Ma Rainey sang about their "sweet, rough men."
"Fantasy Ride" goes the superheroine route so popular among today's pop ingenues. Originally intended as a triptych divided into one hip-hop-flavored disc, another featuring futuristic club cuts and yet another of seductive ballads, this final version is intriguing but inconsistent.
