''4 Real'' is the fourth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

recording artist A musician is someone who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate a person who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters, ...

Crystal Kay is a Japanese singer, songwriter, actress and radio host. After releasing her first single, "Eternal Memories" (1999), Crystal Kay gained fame for her third studio album, ''Almost Seventeen'' (2002), which debuted at number 2 on the Japanese O ...

. It was released via

Epic Records Japan Epic Records Japan is a Japanese record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Its founder was Shigeo Maruyama. Between 1978 and 1988 the label operated as a wholly owned subsidiary: Epic/Sony Inc. () was established in August 1978

on November 27, 2003, and was made available as a stand-alone CD and for digital consumption. The title ''4 Real'' is a play on the phrase "for real"—signifying the singer's fourth record. It contains primarily

contemporary R&B Contemporary R&B (or simply R&B) is a popular music Music genre, genre, originating from African Americans, African-American musicians in the 1980s that combines rhythm and blues with elements of Pop music, pop, Soul music, soul, funk, Hip-hop, ...

influences and saw contributions from various songwriters and producers, including

M-Flo is a Japanese hip hop group consisting of Taku Takahashi, Verbal and Lisa. Lisa left the group in 2002 to pursue a solo career and the remaining members then started the M-Flo Loves... project working different vocalists for each song over t ...

, Yoshika and

Keri Hilson Keri Lynn Hilson (born December 5, 1982) is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Decatur, Georgia, she began her musical career as a songwriter and backing vocalist for other artists under the wing of record producer Anthony De ...

, among others. The album spawned four singles, which were all released over the course of 2003. Commercially, ''4 Real'' peaked at number six on the

Oricon Albums Chart The Oricon Albums Chart is the Japanese music industry standard albums popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Oricon originally published LP, CT, Cartridge and CD charts prior to the establishment of the Oricon A ...

and became her second top-ten album in Japan, following the top-three release ''

Almost Seventeen ''Almost Seventeen'' is the third album by Japanese singer and actress Crystal Kay. It is her second R&B dominant album and is produced by a similar team as worked on ''637: Always and forever''. A large part of the record was written and produc ...

'' (2002). The album continued to chart for a total of 25 weeks in the country. Within a month of the album's release, it was certified gold by the

Recording Industry Association of Japan The is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved in the music industry. It was founded in 1942 as the Japan Phonogram Record Cultural Association, and adopted its current name in 1969. The RIAJ's activities include pro ...

(RIAJ) for physical shipments of over 250,000 units. It went on to sell over 246,000 copies in 2004, and was ranked the 59th best-selling album of the year in Japan.

Track listing

Charts

Album

Singles

Sales and certifications

Release history

References

External links