21 hours ago, nelly said:

That whole era was a mess thank goodness high price video never leaked 

 

 

That's my favourite Ciara song but what tf is that video

High Price is that bop, but what was this? lol

I think the high price video looked real cheap but I love the direction 

 

 

I been here since the old days so I always wonder if people even truly know Ciara's story around the time of that album cover and the Fantasy Ride era all together. 

 

So this goes to say, there needs to be a documentary made on this specific era of Ciara's career (Fantasy Ride). As a fan that was a following everything in the early days of ATRL, blogs, youtube, and when Spotify wasn't even a thing; it was all so wild and traumatizing. It felt like World War 3 defending Ciara. I put so much time and passion to really defend this woman and IDK how I did it considering what was at stake. 

 

Fantasy Ride was originally supposed to be a three disc/or three parts comic book album which at the time had never been done. She even hired one of the best comic book artists to illustrate the album's artwork. The album was originally supposed to be released in the Fall of 2008. This is important to know because at the time there was a lot of movement happening from other artists and Ciara was being left behind. It was also important because a lot of artists like Rihanna were crossing over into the pop music space and Fantasy Ride was supposed to be Ciara's true crossover pop album before most black pop artists even dipped their toe at the idea. In a way she was ahead of the curve because most black R&B artists were playing it safe while Ciara was trying to go full pop and I don't think the label wanted to go in that direction until LSM became a hit and it was too late.  

 

However, I feel like all of this is surface level and people reduce this era as Ciara just having "bad luck" or releasing a bad album but it goes way deeper than that. The handling of this album and how Ciara was treated needs to be looked at to truly understand the downfall of Ciara's commercial success and why many fans til this day don't have closure with this era of Ciara's career.  

 

Most people forget that was hurt the album was the songs leaking. Almost all of her songs from the album were being leaked nearly 6-9 months before the album was officially put out impacting excitement and sales.  80% of the album had been on limewire and per reports hundreds of thousands of people had Fantasy Ride illegally downloaded obviously impacting sales. 

 

The project was also pushed back MANY Times after disclosing potential release dates causing confusion with fans. The pushbacks are also what really w hurt the project the most if you ask me. I remember fans feeling frustrated because she would announce a date and then push it back but we also were technically hearing the project already because the songs were already out. 

 

ALSO, the media and stan culture  played a huge part in the downfall of Ciara's commercial success. Forces from all corners, from TV networks (BET), blogs, her old team/producers were participating in cancelling Ciara. It was an exhausting time. This was impacting Ciara's likeability as an artist. There was a specific blog that was specifically out to end Ciara's career at the time and they succeeded by creating false stories on Ciara and creating hate bashing articles at the expense of clicks. This encouraged other blogs like Mediatakeout, and youtube bloggers like the Skorpion Show to join in on the bashing. 

 

Then you have the Beyonce vs Ciara stan war. Beyonce was being accused of biting off Ciara's style and vice versa. Many fans wanted to crown Ciara the best dancer and many fans felt Beyonce deserved that crown causing friction between the two fan bases. When Ciara released the  "Like a Boy" music video in 2007  Beyonce was accused of stealing Ciara's concept with the "Upgrade You" music video that was released a week later. It was obviously a coincidence but many fans ran with the narrative that one was out to copy the other. Then Beyonce released "If I Were a Boy" in 2008 which fueled the comparisons even further. So on and so forth. Why is this important to know? Because this played a huge role in creating this cancel culture against Ciara and making her unlikable. Media sources were even reporting that Ciara was being accused of copying Beyonce when it reality that wasn't the case. 

 

Then finally when Ciara found a true hit with "Love, Sex Magic" with JT, the album was finally pushed for release in May 2009 ( mind you it was pushed back last minute as well before the May release). That disastrous album cover is really what put the nail in the coffin for Ciara's Fantasy Ride era. I remember the negative backlash it faced. At the time album covers were extremely impactful, so I remember how disappointed the general public felt and even some of her own fans turned against her. At the time Ciara was regaining credibility thanks to her high octane televised performances and the LSM music video that showed Ciara's evolution as a pop aritst. Ultimately the album cover not being favorable turned people away  and it harmed the album's marketability.  

 

 

On 6/7/2025 at 3:47 AM, ciara said:

She probably the one that chose this hideous album artwork now that I think about it 

 

I never understood why they went with this cover and never added Go Girl on the album... Because the single artwork was pretty similar, and the song and the video were fire !

 

 

 

Wait, the MV gave Clark Kent/Superman vibes, it was on theme

Edited June 12, 20251 yr by Flocon

This might be a hot take but the Go Girl single cover could have been a better album cover but ideally I wanted something a little more feminine and heroine esque. She looks like a damn villain on the official and the braids just was not conventional at the time. I understand the execution but considering everything that was happening at the time I would have leaned on playing it safe more. It was such an easy thing to execute they really dropped the ball. 
 

5 hours ago, ciara said:

 

 

I been here since the old days so I always wonder if people even truly know Ciara's story around the time of that album cover and the Fantasy Ride era all together. 

 

So this goes to say, there needs to be a documentary made on this specific era of Ciara's career (Fantasy Ride). As a fan that was a following everything in the early days of ATRL, blogs, youtube, and when Spotify wasn't even a thing; it was all so wild and traumatizing. It felt like World War 3 defending Ciara. I put so much time and passion to really defend this woman and IDK how I did it considering what was at stake. 

 

Fantasy Ride was originally supposed to be a three disc/or three parts comic book album which at the time had never been done. She even hired one of the best comic book artists to illustrate the album's artwork. The album was originally supposed to be released in the Fall of 2008. This is important to know because at the time there was a lot of movement happening from other artists and Ciara was being left behind. It was also important because a lot of artists like Rihanna were crossing over into the pop music space and Fantasy Ride was supposed to be Ciara's true crossover pop album before most black pop artists even dipped their toe at the idea. In a way she was ahead of the curve because most black R&B artists were playing it safe while Ciara was trying to go full pop and I don't think the label wanted to go in that direction until LSM became a hit and it was too late.  

 

However, I feel like all of this is surface level and people reduce this era as Ciara just having "bad luck" or releasing a bad album but it goes way deeper than that. The handling of this album and how Ciara was treated needs to be looked at to truly understand the downfall of Ciara's commercial success and why many fans til this day don't have closure with this era of Ciara's career.  

 

Most people forget that was hurt the album was the songs leaking. Almost all of her songs from the album were being leaked nearly 6-9 months before the album was officially put out impacting excitement and sales.  80% of the album had been on limewire and per reports hundreds of thousands of people had Fantasy Ride illegally downloaded obviously impacting sales. 

 

The project was also pushed back MANY Times after disclosing potential release dates causing confusion with fans. The pushbacks are also what really w hurt the project the most if you ask me. I remember fans feeling frustrated because she would announce a date and then push it back but we also were technically hearing the project already because the songs were already out. 

 

ALSO, the media and stan culture  played a huge part in the downfall of Ciara's commercial success. Forces from all corners, from TV networks (BET), blogs, her old team/producers were participating in cancelling Ciara. It was an exhausting time. This was impacting Ciara's likeability as an artist. There was a specific blog that was specifically out to end Ciara's career at the time and they succeeded by creating false stories on Ciara and creating hate bashing articles at the expense of clicks. This encouraged other blogs like Mediatakeout, and youtube bloggers like the Skorpion Show to join in on the bashing. 

 

Then you have the Beyonce vs Ciara stan war. Beyonce was being accused of biting off Ciara's style and vice versa. Many fans wanted to crown Ciara the best dancer and many fans felt Beyonce deserved that crown causing friction between the two fan bases. When Ciara released the  "Like a Boy" music video in 2007  Beyonce was accused of stealing Ciara's concept with the "Upgrade You" music video that was released a week later. It was obviously a coincidence but many fans ran with the narrative that one was out to copy the other. Then Beyonce released "If I Were a Boy" in 2008 which fueled the comparisons even further. So on and so forth. Why is this important to know? Because this played a huge role in creating this cancel culture against Ciara and making her unlikable. Media sources were even reporting that Ciara was being accused of copying Beyonce when it reality that wasn't the case. 

 

Then finally when Ciara found a true hit with "Love, Sex Magic" with JT, the album was finally pushed for release in May 2009 ( mind you it was pushed back last minute as well before the May release). That disastrous album cover is really what put the nail in the coffin for Ciara's Fantasy Ride era. I remember the negative backlash it faced. At the time album covers were extremely impactful, so I remember how disappointed the general public felt and even some of her own fans turned against her. At the time Ciara was regaining credibility thanks to her high octane televised performances and the LSM music video that showed Ciara's evolution as a pop aritst. Ultimately the album cover not being favorable turned people away  and it harmed the album's marketability.  

 

 

Pretty much why I hate that album. Everything around it was just a disaster.

 

+The Vibe cover debacle

+Philana leaking music and having Sandra Rose bash her

+The backlash when her album sales came out. Oh god The memes! she became such an easy target for laughs. Especially from some of the bigger Stan communities. I think I still have PTSD from it jdjxnxnnxnd

 

and it's crazy because she was doing some awesome things in between all of the mess; cover of billboard magazine, being billboards woman of the year, her leaning more into fashion (although I hated the looks), performing on SNL, working with huge producers, Johnny wright becoming her manager and having JT swoop in.

 

there were so many things that could have saved this era but it just continued to go downhill.

 

then Keri Hilson came out with a similar swag and basically knocked her off the board.

 

Oh yeah and her hanging out with Kim kardashian and Lloyd calling her a fake and a b**** helped support the narrative that she went Hollywood

Edited June 13, 20251 yr by DudeLuv

Soo...

 

Spoiler

 

Lyric video is finally almost at 1 million 

 

On 6/14/2025 at 9:28 PM, ccfan007 said:

Soo...

 

  Hide contents

 

Lyric video is finally almost at 1 million 

 

Kinda weird this one is at nearly 1 mill. Two versions posted on Normanis page are at like 550k

Remix seems to be picking up a bit on Spotify:

 

6/15 - 423,234 (+43,506)

6/16 - 490,649 (+67,415)

Edited June 16, 20251 yr by ccfan007

Spotify Remix:
6/15 - 423,234 (+43,506)

6/16 - 490,649 (+67,415)

6/17 - 574,188 (+83,539)

 

Edited June 17, 20251 yr by ccfan007

Ummm what is this?

 

 

 

1 hour ago, ccfan007 said:

Spotify Remix:
6/15 - 423,234 (+43,506)

6/16 - 490,649 (+67,415)

6/17 - 574,188 (+83,539)

 

Not bad

2 hours ago, TESTES said:

Not bad

A video would really drive this further. It's still climbing decently on radio.

This era is such a hot mess 

On 6/17/2025 at 8:39 PM, Appletree said:

This era is such a hot mess 

It's not even an era, just her extending her mixtape and going on with her day at this point. 

21 minutes ago, TizTiz said:

It's not even an era, just her extending her mixtape and going on with her day at this point. 

I wish she would just stop. Cancel the album and just go be a mom. Her "album" is gonna be such a waste of time 

I can't believe for fancy ride they chose never ever when she had so many bangers on the record. 
 

She has always chose wrong singles. 

 

For example she had girl gang but yet chose Dose 

11 minutes ago, Appletree said:

I can't believe for fancy ride they chose never ever when she had so many bangers on the record. 
 

She has always chose wrong singles. 

 

For example she had girl gang but yet chose Dose 

I'm sorry, but Dose >>>>>>>> Girl Gang

Daaamn, it's dead in here 🤣

 

On 6/19/2025 at 5:46 AM, Appletree said:

I can't believe for fancy ride they chose never ever when she had so many bangers on the record. 
 

She has always chose wrong singles. 

 

For example she had girl gang but yet chose Dose 

Girl Gang is kinda bad, but a music video with Kelly would have ate. 

 

Shame she didn't push Freak Me. She was pretty ahead of her time with that one. 
 

-

 

Surprised they didn't have a video ready for the Ecstasy remix. The 3 of them are visual artists, her team could have considered that when planning a remix.. 

3 minutes ago, FantasyRide said:

Surprised they didn't have a video ready for the Ecstasy remix. The 3 of them are visual artists, her team could have considered that when planning a remix.. 

Normani's last video was 4 years ago

1 hour ago, TizTiz said:

Daaamn, it's dead in here 🤣

 

There's so much she could be doing but she's lazy doesn't engage with fans etc you know the deal 

Tbh I think it's smart to let Ecstasy slowly burn on radio and then in July release the song with Latto and Jazze Pha.