Mixerr Album Reviews #616

This is Michael Mixerr. Today I will talk about the album by Nicole Wray. This album was released in 2001 on CD by Elektra Records under Missy Elliott's Goldmind Inc. label.


Elektric Blue is the intro and title track to the album. When you’re feeling down, you must reach out and feel Elektric Blue. When you’re having doubts, you must reach out and feel Elektric Blue. Hearing the intro of Elektric Blue is an angelic breathtaking experience. I fell in love with Elektric Blue after I heard it in 2011. Great intro!

I'm Lookin' is a late night love song. You might have remember seeing the music video for this song on Midnight Love on BET back in 2001. I'm Lookin' is one of those late night cruise songs. DJ Eddie F produced I’m Lookin’.
Nicole Wray is looking for someone to love and hold on to. She’s looking for you. She’s looking for someone she can trust. But she has not someone for herself truly for her. Nicole wants to be like everyone else who’s dating. Well, Nicole wonders if she’ll ever be complete.

Wanna Cruise is one of those late night cruise songs. A song that you can cruise to when you're in your car cruising down the highway late at night. Late at night would be the best! Timbaland and Harold Lilly both had produced this long extensive masterpiece of a song while Nicole Wray composed its entirety. DJ Eddie F produced I’m Lookin’ and Wanna Cruise. Wanna Cruise is one of those sultry ballads along with I’m I’m Lookin’.

Without You is a song to surf to at the beach. This song was on the original Why Do Fools Fall In Love soundtrack. That's another great song! Fast paced too!! Without You is a bonus track for Elektric Blue. Nicole Wray explains on Without You that without you there is no me.

Bangin' features Prodigy of Mobb Deep and Missy Elliott. Bangin' is an upbeat fast paced song about a man sleeping with another woman and about what Nicole will do to her main man after the love. Bangin’ has Timbaland’s signature production on it with his usual double drums over fast paced beats. I love the horn synths in the background. This should have been the first single!

Talk With Time is a sweet, subtle song great for storybook telling time. It's about her and her boyfriend not getting to see each other because there is not enough time every day out the week for them to socialize and be together. The clock is ticking in the background. Harold Lily is on this song right after the first minute passes saying, “I won’t let you down. I love you baby!” Harold Lily produced Talk With Time, Wanna Cruise, and Sweetest.


Too Controllin' was too short. It needed two extra bridges with Missy Elliott. I do agree that Missy Elliott should have been in that song. You can hear the organ that is well known and used in church in the background and the piano as well.
This is song was good but short.

Gonna Love You is clearly a cover of a Babyface song. It has the same melody as TLC's I Miss You So Much. This sound like a 90s song more than a 2000s song. If Gonna Love You were a single, it would have hit #77 on the charts. Gonna Love You should have had a music video to accompany the song.

Single Life (Interlude) was too short as well. I loved Nicole singing, but the song was too loopy. It needed to be longer.
Single Life is ode to the single ladies who are living that single life that hold down 2 jobs without any children in the picture at all.

Don’t Have To features Pam and Dodi as the background vocalists who are singing in the background for this song. Don’t Have To is about Nicole not having to worry about paying rent or worry about where her next meal is coming from. It’s all good now. All she has is her hopes and her dreams. She’s going to the top whether people like it or not.

Sweetest is a smooth, sexy, sultry love ballad about her boyfriend’s love being the sweetest. Nicole says “Your love is the sweetest.” His love is something that Nicole Wray is unable to describe. Sweetest is a great song to listen in the park to or on a long walk.

Dial My Heart is a sultry love ballad featuring Tamar Braxton's songwriter Tamara Savage whom this love ballad was written by. Think dial my heart for love. Other than that, BillBoard Magazine confirmed 'Dial My Heart' featuring Tamar Braxton's songwriter Tamara Savage is on the Elektric Blue album.


Mama Used To Say (No Joke) samples Mama Used To Say by 80's British electronic musician Junior. In fact, Mama Used To Say (No Joke) pays homage and is a tribute to Junior - Mama Used To Say. The song Mama Used To Say (No Joke) has a Rock feel to it. Rockwilder produced this song and Wanna Cruise. This song also features Redman and Missy Elliott. It's one of those old school feel skating rink type of songs as Missy Elliott explained herself on the Elektric Blue album sampler. Mama Used To Say (No Joke) is for all those independent working people out there along with the working class people out there. Stop begging for money from your friends.

The moral to this song is to get a job occupation and get an income. Living life being ‘flat broke’ as in ‘broke as a joke’ is no fun. Stop begging for money from your friends. Stop thinking that life’s a joke. Get up off your ass and do something with yourself because you’ve got to live your life. Don’t live life for no one else. Haters gonna hate.


Ghetto Children is a sad heartfelt song about what everyday misfortune that unfortunate children deal with in their lifetime. Ghetto Children is a song that has the feels. The misfortune unfortunate children Nicole describes on this song are children that come from extreme poverty. The song Ghetto Children features Virginia rapper Bizzy Rock.

These are children that live in public housing projects such as HUD. These are children are on public assistance and welfare. Such children come from extreme poverty, the ghetto of course, and lower income areas. Neither of these children own material things in their possession. These children will never get a new bike because the rent is always due, will never experience shop till you drop, and never ride down with the top down for example. Nicole Wray encourages these children to focus your mind, be something, and stay away from trouble. Be something. Don’t let nobody stop you.



I will now focus on how the faulty promotion of the Elektric Blue album resulted into not getting an official release along with how Nicole Wray got dropped from Goldmind Inc. and Elektra. So pay attention and listen closely.

The I’m Lookin’ single failed to chart into the single digits on the BillBoard Charts. I’m Lookin’ only charted at #66 on the BillBoard Charts in 2001. If Bangin’, Mama Used To Say, Without You, Sweetest, and Wanna Cruise were used as singles first to promote the Elektric Blue album, then Nicole would still be signed to Missy.

If Nicole and Elektra had promoted Bangin' (Don't Lie) and Mama Used To Say (No Joke) as singles and made music videos, the album would had more of a chance for an official release instead of promo albums and album samplers on CDs. Those two songs would have hit #3 on the BillBoard for 2001. Nobody was interested in late night love songs as they once were in the mid 1990s. She needed more fast paced songs produced by Timbaland, Eddie F, Missy Elliott, and Rockwilder. Nicole should have known that but that’s not entirely her fault.

The singles should have been done in this order!: Bangin' (Don't Lie) as #1, Mama Used To Say as #2, Without You as #3, Talk With Time as #4, Sweetest as #5, Wanna Cruise as #6, and I'm Lookin' as #7. That is how it should have been done to me. More time should have been spent trying to promote the Elektric Blue album. A music video should have been made for the song Bangin' (Don't Lie). This album should have been the successor of Make It Hot.


It was mostly due to the merger between Elektra and Atlantic at the time that resulting in the reason why Elektric Blue did not get an official release. Warner Music Group was going bankrupt from 1998-2000 at the time. WMG had wanted artists with hits that were top charting on the BillBoard.

Missy did not promote Nicole Wray's careers very well. Nicole Wray's debut and ‘sort of’ only album, Make It Hot, should have gone platinum or silver but instead it sold 800,000 units. Why? Because 1,000,000 to be sold was the guidelines for Warner Music Group at the time because they were going bankrupt from 1998-2000. WMG had wanted artists that were hitting the Top #40, not Top #100.

One day, Nicole got a call from Missy saying that she did not want work with Nicole on Elektric Blue album and focus more on herself along with her other artists. Missy wanted to sing and also to have a backup singer to replace Lil Mo, Gina Thompson, and Nicole Wray. So she called Tweet back in 2000 and asked her to work on Aaliyah's track with her. They knew each other since the early 1990s when they were in DeVante's Swing Mob collab at Da Bassment Studios in Rochester, New York. Missy's call was supposedly the thing that saved her life. To sum it all up, Tweet was basically a replacement for Nicole Wray.

That's where she got screwed over by Missy. That was like a BIG SLAP in the face for Nicole Wray! That was so disrespectful towards her! Nicole should have gotten the masters for the songs from the Elektric Blue album and should have released that independently on CDBaby, soundcloud, ReverbNation, or whatnot. That's how it should have been done. More time should have been spent trying to promote the Elektric Blue album.
Missy really killed Nicole’s career by telling her that she did not want to work with her on the semi-official album of Elektric Blue and by focusing more on herself and most of the artists who were signed to Goldmind Inc. at the time.


In the end, it was Nicole Wray got the unfair deal in the music business. She had to suffer the consequences of being dropped by Goldmind Inc. and Elektra Records. Luckily she is now signed to Truth & Soul Records (known for Lee Fields  and The Expression fame) with Terri Walker (of Def Soul fame) in a duo called Lady. I hope things work out for Nicole Wray.


Elektric Blue is Nicole Wray’s best work next to Make It Hot! Missy Elliott, Nicole Wray, and the producers put forth great effort for this album. This was Nicole Wray in her prime. More time along with finances should have been spent forth trying to promote the Elektric Blue album with Elektra, Missy Elliott, and Nicole Wray.
I rate this album, Elektric Blue, 5/5*****!!