page_title: The Dutchess
section_title: Recording and production
hierarchical_section_title: The Dutchess / Recording and production
caption_attribution_description: will.i.am, Hollywood, CA on August 14, 2012 - Photo by Glenn Francis of www.PacificProDigital.com
context_page_description: The Dutchess is the debut studio album by American singer Fergie. It was released on September 13, 2006 through A&M Records and the will.i.am Music Group as her first solo album since the break from her band The Black Eyed Peas. The album was recorded between The Black Eyed Peas' tour in 2005, and the songs were written throughout the last eight years that preceded its release. While developing the album, Fergie wanted to create an autobiographical album that would be more intimate between her and the listener. By doing so, the album experiments with different music genres, including pop, hip hop, R&B, reggae, punk rock and soul. Lyrically, The Dutchess has themes about love and critics, while also dealing with her drug abuse and addiction.
  Upon its release, The Dutchess received mixed reviews from music critics, with many praising its production, calling it one of the most eclectic and adventurous albums of 2006, but some criticized the album's lyrical content and believed the material was not strong enough for her voice.
context_section_description: The Dutchess was initially recorded in 2005, among promotion from The Black Eyed Peas' album Monkey Business. Great part of the album was recorded on the John Lennon studio bus while touring with the band. As stated by Fergie, "We'd go in a couple of hours before going on stage and that's how it got done. The songs span a seven-year period. Some were done before I was in the Black Eyed Peas – we just updated them, and some were done in this one-month span that we took off from touring, which is very rare for us. Will and I moved into this studio house in Malibu called Morningview. It's like a ranch. It was very serene-complete opposite to the chaos of touring. I was alone a lot, which is something that doesn't happen to me on tour, so I got to find these emotions that are a little bit deeper than the surface. [For example], 'The Makeup Song (All That I Got)' and 'Velvet' are very intimate lyrically and feeling-wise. I wanted [the latter] to sound like velvet feels-very smooth-and I wanted it to be sensual."
  According to Fergie, the songs on the album are "from a seven-year period, but [Interscope CEO] Jimmy Iovine heard some [tracks] and was like, 'This is great, let's put it out'. One of the album's executive producers and fellow Black Eyed Peas member will.i.am stated that she was "writing about her personal struggles and casting her demons away and feminine power. [It's] her singing for young girls to be strong, and what they're going through in life, just growing up in this world of uncertainty." Ludacris, John Legend, B Real from Cypress Hill and Rita Marley, Bob Marley's widow, were also confirmed on the album. B Real was set to appear on a track called "Thriller Man", an homage to Cypress Hill's "How I Could Just Kill a Man,", with B Real stating, "It's pretty hot. Basically she took the song and switched the story around to suit it to her and put the female touch on it. She did the same chorus, she even did my same rhyme style, but she sung it. It's hard to describe it, you just got to hear it – she did it justice." However, "Thriller Man" was not included on the album. Ron Fair and DJ Mormile were also the album's executive producers, with Fair, chairman of Geffen Records, expressing, "Once people get this album and hear what she's capable of as a singer and writer, I think that's when the roof blows off it. That's when she's not just a little trifling pop girl doing disposable hits." It was also announced that the album would feature samples from Little Richard, The Commodores and The Temptations.
caption: will.i.am, fellow member of The Black Eyed Peas, is the album's executive producer and produced eight songs.
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