CD Flashback Review: Brandy’s Hit Album “Never Say Never” Still A Classic Nine Years Later

The year 1998 Brandy Norwood was only nineteen years old she was nervous prior to the release of her second solo album “Never Say Never”. Four long years passed since Brandy’s quarduple platinum debut. The music industry was changing and becoming more “market driven” then ever before. Monica and Aalyiah were challenging Brandy and she needed another hit album to solidify her place as the princess of R&B music.

Unlike a lot of artists Brandy was heavily involved in the songwriting process of “Never Say Never” writing most of the songs on the album. Brandy also has a songwriting credit on the number one smash hit “The Boy Is Mine”. “Never Say Never” is Brandy’s best and most successful album to date selling over fourteen million copies worldwide.

“Never Say Never” made Brandy an international superstar. Every single song has a purpose such as the thumping “Angel In Disguise”, the heartbreaking number one hit smash “Have You Ever?” and the soulful “One Voice”. Brandy proved on this album she should be taken seriously as a singer and a songwriter.

“Never Say Never” was Brandy’s breakthrough internationally introducing Brandy to new markets in Europe, Australia, South Africa, and Asia. Brandy also won a Grammy award for the song she wrote “The Boy Is Mine”. Brandy proved she was a force in the music industry with her talent.

Roger Federer The Supreme number 1 for the Fourth Consecutive Year In A Row!!!

           Tennis God Roger Federer always bounce back from a shocking defeat. Last week Roger suffered a horrible loss of concentration and was defeated by David Nalbandian at the Madrid Masters.  Roger appeared tired at times making lots of unforced errors in that strange twisted bizarre loss. Roger was clearly suffering due to a lack of energy and David was able to win.  Roger was  physically and psychologically exhausted he tried his best that day.  David was extremely lucky to pull through with the shocking earth shattering upset victory. People seem to forget Roger tends to make the finals in just about every single event he plays that’s a lot of tennis and stress on the body. 

      However, this week the result was different.  Roger won his seventh ATP tour title this year easily beating Finn Jarkko Nieminen in straight sets 6-3 6-4 in about an hour.  Roger was in total control blasting powerful serves, groundstrokes, and Jarkko clearly was out of his league. You could tell by watching the match that Jarkko just doesn’t have the consistency or the ability to really bother Roger. Nobody on the ATP Tour can beat Roger Federer when he plays his best even when Roger isn’t 100%  he still is such a superior player. We are in the Federer era folks an era of grace, talent, and complete domination.

      Roger looked a bit bored in today’s match but the end result was never in doubt.  Now for the fourth year in a row Roger Federer will maintain the world number one ranking on the ATP Tour.  On the entry ranking system Roger is well ahead of Rafael Nadal by over 2000 points. However, the ATP tour  calculates the “Champions Race Points”  from the  grand slams, Masters events, and regular ATP tour tournaments into account. For instance, if Roger did not win Basel today he could of been in jeapordy of losing his number one ranking. I find the ATP tour “Champions Race” flawed. The  final year end rankings should only be based on the entry point system.

       Roger should be number one anyway given the fact he reached all four grand slam finals this year and he won three out of the four slams. Roger’s dominance over the ATP Tour is already legendary. Roger is the supreme number one I have ever seen  in men’s tennis.  Sure Lendl, Connors, McEnroe had a shorter periods of dominance but those champions are clearly not in Roger’s league. Only Borg is similar to Roger Federer in his ability to completely dominate the competition. Roger as everyone already knows this year tied Borg’s record winning Wimbledon five years in a row. However, Borg never won the US OPEN and Roger has won the US OPEN four consecutive years in a row. Roger is the first man since American Bill Tilden in the 1920s to have won the US OPEN four years in a row. Roger is also the first man to have won Australian Open, Wimbledon, and US OPEN at least three times in his career in the Open era.

         Roger is destroying the competition with ease.  Even on the slow European clay courts Roger still has an incredible record. Roger loves clay although its considered his weakest surface Roger is still very consistent on the clay.

        Although American Pete Sampras holds the the record of  winning fourteen grand slam singles titles Sampras was never consistent like Roger Federer. Sampras was also lazy at times he simply did not take clay court tennis seriously. Sampras never put the effort Roger Federer puts into playing clay court events.

           Sampras was also known for losing early in a plethora of events  to nobodies all the time. Sampras also never reached the French Open finals. Sampras also lost to Roger Federer the only time they played in the year 2001 when Roger was only nineteen years old at Wimbledon. A lot of people seem to forget that result. Roger needs to win the French Open only once to become the undisputed greatest male tennis player of all time. Roger’s dominance is similar to Monica Seles, Steffi Graf, and the Williams Sisters dominance of the WTA Tour. Roger simply owns the competition they are afraid and terrified when they play Roger he already has an aura of supremacy over all the players on the ATP tour.

              In fact, Roger has the longest streak at being number one in tennis by any player male or female. Roger has been number one on the ATP Tour since February 2004 for over 196 consecutive weeks. Roger Federer has been dominating the ATP Tour with an iron fist for the past four years and its so nice to see him defend his title in his hometown of Basel.