Ciara

Ciara’s long-delayed third album, “Fantasy Ride,” includes one cut for which she’s been taking flak. “Turntables” is a duet with Chris Brown, a song the Atlanta-based hip-pop ingénue opted not to remove even after Brown allegedly battered his ex-girlfriend, Rihanna, in a February incident for which he’s now facing criminal charges. The song, produced by Timbaland associate Nate “Danja” Hills, does have the whirlpool pull of a hit, thanks in part to the synergistic tension between Ciara and Brown; still, the question remains, why did she feel it was worth the compromise?

The violence between Brown and Rihanna now haunts the R&B scene, and not just those who work with or know the two. We’re all still living in the unresolved moment after Rihanna’s bruised face entered our vision. Without necessarily addressing that image, “Fantasy Ride” and this week’s other significant R&B release, Chrisette Michele’s “Epiphany,” touch upon the issues that again arose in its wake, confronting the intimate power plays that black American singers have chronicled at least since the time when blues queens like Ma Rainey sang about their “sweet, rough men.”

“Fantasy Ride” goes the superheroine route so popular among today’s pop ingenues. Originally intended as a triptych divided into one hip-hop-flavored disc, another featuring futuristic club cuts and yet another of seductive ballads, this final version is intriguing but inconsistent.

Ciara follows Beyoncé/Sasha Fierce in giving herself an alter ego, “Super C,” who supposedly sings the more aggressive songs here. But that Ciara doesn’t seem any more false — or real — than the one murmuring the duller love songs. Either way, she’s an R&B version of Mystique from the “X-Men” comics, surviving in a treacherous world by constantly changing shape.

More agile than powerful, Ciara takes on different styles as if they were disguises: shimmery on ballads produced by Polow da Don and Tricky Stewart and The-Dream; teeth bared for “Love Sex Magic,” her Madonna-esque duet with Justin Timberlake; and simultaneously sneering and operatic on the daring, Ludacris-fortified “High Price.” Like so many vocalists in the Michael Jackson mold, she is skilled in the arts of the moan, the stutter and the whisper. Her slim voice responds well to studio trickery, like another synthesizer in the mix.

Her mutability undermines calls for strength such as “G is for Girl (A-Z).” Ciara’s ultimate message seems to be: Avoid real intimacy — stay on the surface, where you won’t get lost or damaged.

Michele, on the other hand, is all depth; it’s her music’s exterior that some think needs some more gloss. A classic neo-soul artist like her forebear Jill Scott and her current producer, Ne-Yo, she won a Grammy for her 2007 debut, “I Am,” but not much commercial success. “Epiphany” adds stronger beats and a few more effects to pianist Michele’s John Legend-like sound, but Ne-Yo doesn’t betray his protégé’s character: “Epiphany” is a quiet pleasure that unfolds upon repeated listening.

Unlike Ciara’s action-movie dance pop, “Epiphany” requires work. Only the Rodney Jerkins-produced “Playin’ Our Song” will get heads bobbing; mostly the tempos are mid, and the mood is fine and mellow. What makes this slow-grower of a disc appealing is the sophistication of Michele’s singing. She’s wise beyond her 26 years, able to mine the depths of love’s contradictions instead of turning them into come-ons and kiss-offs.

Michele uses jazz- and blues-based techniques to cover a wide range of emotions in each song: fear turning into hope on the title breakup song; seductiveness with a twist of anxiety on “Fragile” and the Lauryn Hill-inspired “Mr. Right”; resignation turning into hope on “Another One.” Blessed with a curvy, Billie Holiday-like vocal timbre and an exquisite sense of melody, Michele consistently rejects melodrama (take some notes, Amy Winehouse!), instead going further into the nuances of meaningful expression. Ne-Yo adds a bit of sharkskin shine to her classicism, but doesn’t undermine her.

This is ground previously trod not only by singers like Scott but novelists such as Terry McMillan and even the Empress of the Healthy Self, Oprah Winfrey. But Michele is more wry than most feel-good sisters, and never sentimental. She doesn’t offer any solutions to the predicament of women caught up in sweet, rough love; like those blues queens of yore, she just takes you there. The journey is gift enough.

–Ann Powers

Ciara
Fantasy Ride
LaFace/Zomba
Two and a half stars

Chrisette Michele
Epiphany
Island/Def Jam
Three and a half stars

Photo, top left: Ciara / Assoicated Press. Top right: Chrisette Michelle / Island Def Jam
latimes.com

Photo by Derek Blanks/DBlanks.com

In a cover interview with Billboard magazine this month, Ciara revealed her break up with longtime manager Phillana Williams. I reached out to several of my sources for the details on what happened between the two longtime friends. What I learned surprised me because, apparently, Ciara is not the person we thought she was.

It’s beginning to look like Ciara’s sweet public persona was a carefully cultivated front for something darker.

When I first heard these allegations about Ciara, I thought long and hard about putting them out there. Ciara is a friend of this site and she was one of the few celebs whose reputation seemed infallible. But on the other hand, I can’t show favoritism while dishing dirt on every other celebrity, can I?

According to one of my sources, Ciara fired Williams mainly because she failed to create the “supermodel” image that Ciara so desperately wanted. My source said Ciara is “obsessed” with the successes of both Beyonce and Rihanna, and get this, Ciara believes she’s bigger than both of them.

Friends say Ciara has gone “beyond Hollywood” and that her unrealistic desire to be a superstar on the level of Beyonce, is beginning to distance her from her closest friends. “All of Ciara’s people were brought in by Phillana,” said the source, who added, “Ciara’s people LOVED Phillana. They are heartbroken that she’s gone”

The source, who belongs to Ciara’s close circle of friends, puts the blame for Ciara’s change in attitude squarely on the shoulders of her boyfriend, rapper 50 Cent. “She really believes she’s doing something by dating him,” said the source. “She sees the both of them as a superstar couple on the level of Jay Z and Beyonce or Chris Brown and Rihanna. They can’t even leave the house because people are out to kill him,” said the source. “Who would want to date a man who has to wear a bulletproof vest everywhere he goes? Ciara has lost her mind!”

The source described the atmosphere surrounding Ciara as “tense” and her entourage as “walking on egg shells around her.” As an example of Ciara’s fragile ego, the source described an incident during Riihanna’s Good Girl Gone Bad tour late last year.

Ciara, who didn’t have a stylist with her on tour, called her management from the road angrily demanding that a stylist be hired for her and a whole new wardrobe sent to her hotel. Ciara was livid at all the attention Rihanna was receiving from the blogs and Ci thought Rihanna’s style was the reason.

“She obsessed with ,” said the source. “She stays on the blogs 24/7. ‘why am I not on here? Why aren’t they talking about me?’”, said the source. According to the source, other celebrities don’t know what to make of Ciara’s dark side. “Big time celebrities don’t want to work with her because she’s a beast. They’re wondering what’s wrong with her,” said the source.

Ciara is set to release her third album,“Fantasy Ride” in November. But, according to my source, Ciara’s last album, 2006’s Ciara: The Evolution, flopped because she tried to take her image in a completely different direction. “Her fans knew Ciara for her dancing, her baggy jeans and her Timbs, but she wanted to be Beyonce,” said the source. “Ciara picked the songs . She sat down with Phillana and Phillana asked, ’so, what are your goals for this album?’ and Ciara said, ‘I want to be a supermodel’”.

Williams helped CiCi secure a contract with the Wilhelmina Model agency, but Ciara still wasn’t satisfied. A recent effort to increase paparazzi interest in her by staging candid photos of Ci at a recording studio, failed. “What celebrity leaves the studio and goes outside to a Coke machine?,” said the source. (source sandrarose)

Ciara graces the cover of Billboard Mag’s August issue rockin a sophisticated look and feel. Her third album, “Fantasy Ride” is set to drop next month.