New Album Friday: “Brown Friday” and Killiam Shakespeare

Just in time for the holidays, some of our faves are dropping highly anticipated projects tomorrow. “Brown Friday,” as the cybersphere is calling this glorious day, will see the releases of Chris Brown’s and Monica’s (Remember, her last name is Brown too now.) latest albums.

The person many of us still love to hate, Chris Brown, will be releasing his 7th album entitled Royalty. The project, which is named after his daughter, is a follow-up to his unsurprisingly underrated X album. This album is not being released without some criticism, of course. It’s Chris Brown, what else do we expect. Chris recently tweeted (and deleted) expressing  some frustration with his record label RCA (and he’s not the only one unfortunately). He also recently released a 34-track EP entitled Before the Party a couple weeks back. A rather strange move when the focus should be on getting people to buy/pre-order the album. Let’s just pray this move won’t effect his album sales. Pre-order here.

After giving Philly a jaw-dropping and star-studded performance last week, Monica will FINALLY be releasing Code Red. Let’s get one thing straight. Before a Keyshia Cole, a K. Michelle, or a Jazmine Sullivan, there was Monica. Since the age of 15, Monica has been owning the “hood love anthem” lane. Need some receipts? Click here, here, and here. Legendary, right? You can also check out Code Red’s first single and arguably the cutest video of the year, the Polow Da Don-produced “Just Right for Me.” Pre-order here.

Also coming out tomorrow (no, not another Brown) is the self-titled debut album of Philly’s own Killiam Shakespeare. Killiam Shakespeare is a band led by esteemed drummer-producer and a dear friend to the Anderson Street Project Steve McKie. Steve is the mastermind behind some of favorite Bilal, Jill Scott and Vivian Green songs so we’re very to excited to hear this album. Awhile back we chatted with Steve about his storied career and his upcoming projects. In case you missed it, check it out here. The album is available for pre-order now.