Adrienne Bailon Assembles All-Star Lineup for Solo Debut

“Nobody knows what we’re coming with!” says an excited Adrienne Bailon when describing her Island Def Jam debut, due this summer. The former Cheetah Girl and 3LW member has recruited some of music’s biggest names for the as-yet-untitled album, including Ne-Yo, The-Dream, Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, Pitbull, and Estelle.

staging-rapup.kinsta.cloud sat down with the 26-year-old singer-actress in New York City where she exclusively filled us in on the project that she jokingly refers to as Disney After Dark.

How would you describe the album?
It’s an R&B-pop album that kind of reminds me of a modern day version of 3LW. I’m going back to my roots of R&B and hip-pop. I’m so excited. It’s going to be a great album and I think people will be really surprised.

Who are you working with?
I’m working with Jerry Wonder; he did all the Fugees and City High stuff. There definitely will be a Latin influence in my music, kind of like Nuyorican. We’re trying to do some reggaeton too. Pitbull will be on the album. I really want to get [Bachata group] Aventura, so we’re working on that. We have Bryan-Michael Cox, The-Dream, Rodney Jerkins, The Stereotypes, and Ne-Yo. He wrote a song which is called “When He’s Here.” It’s pretty much a love song about how nothing else matters when he’s here. Danja’s on the album and D’Mile who did “Feedback” for Janet.

Any other songwriters?
Estelle wrote a couple songs too—a song called “Hello” and a song called “They Don’t Really Know.” Estelle killed the writing on this album. She and I did background [vocals] on a lot of songs. One of my other favorites was written by Kevin Cossom. He wrote a song that The Runners produced.

Have you selected a first single?
“Superbad” leaked onto the Internet. It will make the album, but it’s not going to be the first single. We don’t know what the first single is yet, but one of the singles will be a song called “Rainy Days,” which I am obsessed with. It might be my favorite song on the album. It’s a mid[tempo]. I think people wouldn’t expect it from me because it’s not on some hot, sexy shit. It’s a very sincere and honest song about relationships and how they fall apart. The chorus goes, “It was one rainy day/ It was two drops away/ And it was three clouds that made me see there’s a storm.” It was written by [City High’s] Claudette Ortiz and a woman named LaTavia.

Do you have a release date?
The album is set to drop this summer, and the first single will be out in April.

–Rajul Punjabi