Player (song)
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"Player" is a song recorded by American singer Tinashe, featuring guest vocals by American singer Chris Brown. It was released as a single on October 2, 2015, by
RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...
. The song was written by Tinashe, Myron Birdsong, Brown, its producers Lulou and Alexander Kronlund, and Chloe Angelides. "Player" was originally intended to be the lead single from Tinashe's third studio album, '' Joyride'' (2018), but it was later scrapped. An alternate version of the song, featuring Japanese rapper AK-69 instead of Brown, was included on the Japanese edition of ''Joyride''.


Background and release

"Player" was written by Tinashe, Chris Brown, its producers Lulou and Alexander Kronlund, and Chloe Angelides. It features guest vocals from Brown. Regarding the collaboration, Tinashe stated: "I've always kinda wanted to do a song with rown Obviously, he's one of the best entertainers of our generation... It's just exciting to be able to work with him". "Player" was originally the lead single from Tinashe's upcoming second studio album, '' Joyride''. It was preceded by the promotional single "Party Favors". Tinashe announced the collaboration in an interview for Travis Mills of
Apple Music Apple Music is an audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users can select music to stream to their device on-demand, or listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the sister internet radio stations Apple Musi ...
's Beats 1 on September 23, 2015. A number of snippets of the song leaked online the same day. Several media sources falsely reported that the song was produced by Max Martin, and Boi-1da.
RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...
released "Player" as a digital download on October 2, 2015. An alternate solo version which omits Brown's verse, as well as clean versions of both the original and solo version were also made available the same day. In the United States, "Player" impacted rhythmic contemporary radio on October 13, 2015, and
contemporary hit radio Contemporary hit radio (CHR, also known as contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top ...
on October 27, 2015.


Composition

"Player" is a
synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s b ...
and R&B song. According to '' Rap-Up'', the song "blurs the line between house and R&B", and contains a "slinky" rhythm. It is more pop and dance-indebted than Tinashe's previous material. Tom Breihan of
Stereogum ''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine. ''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several awar ...
writes, "'Player' is very much a club song, but it's got a bit more of the free-floating atmosphere that Tinashe clearly loves so much". With sparse production, the song features incandescent synths reminiscent of Tinashe's 2014 single " 2 On", and a pulsing bassline similar to that on her 2014 album '' Aquarius''. Other instruments include
drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...
and keyboards. At first, the song has a minimal sound and slowly builds with Tinashe performing over stuttered kick, trap beats up until it peaks at the refrain where the track becomes more uptempo,
dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...
-orientated. Unlike most of her previous material, Alex Hudson of ''
Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...
'' observed, "Production-wise, Player'is a dance floor-geared number as thudding beats and twinkling synths are streamlined into a four-on-the-floor thump during the chorus". Brown performs the song's second verse half-sung, half-rapped with braggadocio and in lieu of a full croon. The track then builds up through Brown and Tinashe's appearances combined, and peaks at the final refrain. With thinly veiled innuendo, the lyrics in "Player" detail Tinashe's search for a lover who shares a similar sexual stamina and serves as a message to the
player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who i ...
archetype. Brown's lyrics portray him as the male foil and a potential suitor for Tinashe. Tinashe taunts and provokes Brown, while he tries to prove his worth to her. A few months after the release, Tinashe revealed that it was not exactly her idea to work with Chris Brown on the song. These comments came after singer Kehlani's suicide attempt, which he labeled a ploy for attention. She stated "It was really the label, It wasn't me" on the collaboration.


Critical reception

Upon its release, "Player" was well received by
music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...
. Brennan Carley of '' Spin'' lauded the song as the "pop smash Q4 needed" and denoted its synth-plinking to be "sweeter" than that of "2 On". Carley concluded that the track veers "into bigger capital P-pop territory with hugely successful results", and that proved Tinashe was "coming for the top spot". Digital Spy's Lewis Corner wrote, "Be warned: you'll want to keep coming back for more", and shared Carley's sentiment; "Tinashe is coming for that pop crown". Similarly, Elias Leight of '' The Fader'' wrote that "Tinashe aims towards the top 40" with "Player" which he also deemed as "club-ready". The song was well received by reviewers for ''
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''; Jessica Goodman deemed it "a thumping single", while Will Robinson felt it was "charged and more celebratory" than "Party Favors". Zach Frydenlund of '' Complex'' said the song was "made for radio", and noted that Brown "actually lays down a pretty fire verse". Courtney Buck of '' The 405'' felt the track was "slickly-produced" and described it as "delicately laced with pop pristine that has a much wider appeal to some of her earlier material". ''
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'' named it their song of the week; writer Maeve McDermott complimented its pop and dance music direction. Alex Hudson of ''Exclaim!'' wrote, "The words 'featuring Chris Brown' aren't exactly a strong selling point due to the singer's questionable personal life," but found "Player" to be "a banger" nevertheless and praised Tinashe's "catchy" melodies.


Chart performance

In the United States, "Player" debuted at number three on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart and at number 43 on the
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...
chart. The single's debut was predominantly attributed to its first-week sales of 24,000 copies. It was further aided by a first-week streaming tally of 1.3 million—39% of which came from Spotify. In the United Kingdom, "Player" bowed at number 85 on the UK Singles Chart issued for October 15, 2015; it marked Tinashe's first top 100 hit on the chart as a lead artist.


Music video

An accompanying
music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...
directed by Emil Nava premiered at Times Square on November 2, 2015.


Track listings

*Digital download #"Player" (featuring Chris Brown) xplicit– 3:21 *Digital download #"Player" (Explicit) – 3:02 *Digital download #"Player" (featuring Chris Brown) lean– 3:21 *Digital download #"Player" (Clean) – 3:02 *Digital remixes #"Player" (Niko The Kid Remix) – 3:56 #"Player" ( Young Bombs Remix) – 3:20 #"Player" () – 4:16 #"Player" ( Luca Lush Remix) – 3:48 #"Player" ( Jai Wolf Remix) – 4:07 #"Player" (Cutmore Club Mix) – 5:45


Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from Qobuz. *Tinashe – vocals, writer *Chris Brown – vocals, writer *Lukas "Lulou" Loules – writer, producer, bass, drums, keyboards, programming *Alexander Kronlund – writer, producer *Chloe Angelides – writer *Sam Holland – engineering *Cory Bice – engineering assistant *Jeremy Lertola – engineering assistant *Serban Ghenea – mixing, engineering *John Hanes – engineering


Charts


Certifications


References


External links

* * {{Chris Brown singles 2015 singles 2015 songs Tinashe songs Chris Brown songs RCA Records singles Songs written by Alexander Kronlund Songs written by Lukas Loules Songs written by Chris Brown Songs written by Tinashe Songs written by Chloe Angelides