While growing up, the only active R&B artist Trey Songz paid any mind to was R.
Kelly.
The inspirations were few, but this didn't prevent him from being inspired enough to impress Troy Taylor, a producer and multi-instrumentalist who has worked with Boyz II Men, SWV, B2K, and Whitney Houston.
Songz was taken under Taylor's wing for a few years, leading up to this debut album, released when the singer was just 20 years old.
While Songz is hopefully shaking off his obvious indebtedness to Kelly here (a couple clumsy sexual metaphors, some strikingly similar vocal cadences, a few jarring swings from pimping to praying), I Gotta Make It is both very enjoyable and full of promise, carrying a fine balance between throwback and modern hip-hop soul.
You can always sense that Songz is excited to be making an album; he doesn't even bother to affect a distant sense of cool, unlike so many of his youthful contemporaries, which is a definite asset.
He has all the personality and talent necessary to have a long, productive career, which is firmly established with this album.
Others obviously believe in his future; he worked with Gerald Levert and Trick Daddy prior to making the album, and Aretha Franklin starts it off with some wisdom.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cheat on You | Trey Songz | Play | 03:45 | 8 MB | 0 MB |
| 2 | Gotta Go | Trey Songz | Play | 04:39 | 10 MB | 0 MB |
| 3 | OooC. "DJ Smooth" Henderson | Trey Songz | Play | 03:37 | 8 MB | 0 MB |
| 4 | All the Ifs | Trey Songz | Play | 05:05 | 11 MB | 0 MB |
| 5 | Ur BehindB.T. Green | Trey Songz | Play | 03:18 | 7 MB | 0 MB |
| 6 | From a Woman's Hand | Trey Songz | Play | 04:23 | 10 MB | 0 MB |
| 7 | Kinda Lovin | Trey Songz | Play | 03:39 | 8 MB | 0 MB |
| 8 | Comin' for YouP. Brown | Trey Songz | Play | 03:54 | 8 MB | 0 MB |
| 9 | Just Wanna Cut (Prelude) | Trey Songz | Play | 00:46 | 1 MB | 0 MB |
| 10 | Just Wanna Cut | Trey Songz | Play | 03:57 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 11 | In the Middle | Trey Songz | Play | 04:00 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 12 | Make Love Tonight | Trey Songz | Play | 04:15 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 13 | Hatin Love | Trey Songz | Play | 03:46 | 8 MB | 0 MB |
| 14 | Gotta Go (Reprise) | Trey Songz | Play | 02:28 | 5 MB | 0 MB |
| 15 | A Message from Aretha Franklin | Trey Songz | Play | 00:30 | 1 MB | 0 MB |
| 16 | Gotta Make It (feat. Twista) | Trey Songz, Twista | Play | 04:05 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 17 | Gotta Make It Remix (feat. Aretha Franklin & Juvenile) | Trey Songz, Aretha Franklin, Juvenile | Play | 04:12 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 18 | You Can Get It (feat. T.I.) | Trey Songz | Play | 04:05 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 64 mins | 147 MB | |||||
| 0 mins | 0 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aaron Bay-Schuck | Artist Coordination |
| 2 | BeatBanggahz | Producer |
| 3 | P. Brown | Composer |
| 4 | Gregory Gigendad Burke | Art Direction, Design |
| 5 | Warryn Campbell | Producer |
| 6 | Mike Caren | A&R, Engineer, Executive Producer |
| 7 | Alisha Crutchfield | Stylist |
| 8 | Kevin KD Davis | Mixing |
| 9 | Sean Davis | Engineer |
| 10 | Greg "Buggyeye" Desilus | Producer |
| 11 | Aretha Franklin | Featured Artist, Guest Artist, Main Personnel, Vocals |
| 12 | Fynch MoneyBaggz | Vocals (Background) |
| 13 | DJ Ron G. | Instrumentation, Producer |
| 14 | Brian "Big Bass" Gardner | Mastering |
| 15 | Robert Gold | Art Producer |
| 16 | T. Gray | Composer |
| 17 | B.T. Green | Composer |
| 18 | Dana Hammond | Producer |
| 19 | Dionnee Harper | Product Manager |
| 20 | Shawn Harris | Vocals (Background) |
| 21 | Mike Hartnett | Guitar, Main Personnel |
| 22 | C. "DJ Smooth" Henderson | Composer |
| 23 | Hornz Unlimited | Horn, Main Personnel |
| 24 | Jean-Marie Horvat | Mixing, Vocal Mixing |
| 25 | Stuart Johnson | Bass, Bass Instrument, Main Personnel |
| 26 | Juvenile | Featured Artist, Guest Artist, Main Personnel, Primary Artist, Rap |
| 27 | Kookie | Main Personnel, Various Instruments, Vocals (Background) |
| 28 | Kookie | Instrumentation, Producer |
| 29 | Christian Lantry | Photography |
| 30 | Ezekiel Lewis | Vocals (Background) |
| 31 | Paul Logus | Mixing |
| 32 | James Lopez | Marketing Consultant |
| 33 | Bei Maejor | Instrumentation, Main Personnel, Producer, Various Instruments |
| 34 | Manny Marroquin | Mixing |
| 35 | Michael Me | Arranger, Instrumentation, Main Personnel, Producer, Various Instruments |
| 36 | C.C. Mitchell | Composer |
| 37 | Robert Pozen | Engineer |
| 38 | Frank Ramonoe | Guitar |
| 39 | Steffon Reed | Main Personnel, Various Instruments |
| 40 | Steffon "SteffNasty" Reed | Arranger, Instrumentation, Keyboards, Producer |
| 41 | Dave Robbins | Keyboards, Main Personnel |
| 42 | J.R. Rotem | Producer |
| 43 | Jamie Seyberth | Engineer |
| 44 | Scott Storch | Producer |
| 45 | Ian Suddarth | Engineer |
| 46 | Troy Taylor | Arranger, Audio Production, Engineer, Executive Producer, Instrumentation, Main Personnel, Producer, Various Instruments, Vocal Engineer, Vocal Producer, Vocals (Background) |
| 47 | Trey Songz | Main Personnel, Primary Artist, Vocals |
| 48 | Twista | Featured Artist |
| 49 | Eric Walls | Guitar, Main Personnel |
| 50 | Rick Williams | Guitar, Main Personnel |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |