Moni C

Normani has emerged from a pop girl group with no artistic control to a solo tour de force beaming with confidence and sensuality. Dopamine's 13 songs are for everyone. Her vocals ride the beat from trap to hip-hop to quietstorm love to house music to RnB to pop to alternative RnB. Not so much an intro to Normani (we've been with her thru experimentation from Motivation thru Fair) but more of a statement on her true self and RnB soul. She has delivered a debut no-skip album in a time of great competition, with an industry lacking true RnB. Normani fills this void with her whole chest, and it is welcome. Her influences are here. Janet, Brandi (backing her with luscious harmonies on Insomnia) Aaliyah, and Bey should be proud of their student. Normani has come thru personal hardships and used her time to focus on her love of music, melodies and soul. I would name the stand outs, but they all are special --some dark, some sexy, some fun and playful and a few just waiting to be visualized with her incomparable choreo. Miss Hamilton has grown up and given us a masterpiece.