Scorpio Sessions

Scorpio Sessions is the 2nd album by American Independent Singer-songwriter Stanley Ray, released on October 24, 2021, independently through EmuBands. The album contains 10 tracks and produced 3 singles, "CRUSH", "love on me", and it's title track "Scorpio Sessions". Stanley solely wrote each song and the albums producers are Zohair Beats, JeeJuh Beats, Tone Jonez, Soulis, and the albums main producer Jacob "Jay-Play" Thompson. He was very strategic with his choice of producers with this album, revealing he wanted to avoid potential copyright issues, particularly with content ID on YouTube and also wanting to avoid having a fully registered copyrighted song that has the same beat as a song someone else has, being that most producers only allow artists to lease certain beats online, rather than allowing full exclusive rights, which is the only option that would avoid sharing the same beat to a song with another separate artist. Therefore, he had Jacob "Jay-Play" Thompson custom make most of the albums beats, allowing him more freedom from copyright issues. Ray began production for the album in October of 2020 while still promoting his debut album BabyBoy. He already had the title Scorpio Sessions stashed away in his mind but was at first hesitant about using it but ended up deciding to do so. It was strictly intentional to go in more of a raunchy direction this time around, with Stanley explaining the albums vibe and sound as being "Grown and Sexy". It also stems from the fact that the Scorpio zodiac is always known and labeled as the most sexually charged zodiac, hence why Ray felt it went perfect with his raunchy grown and sexy concept he had came up with. It contains a mixture of soultry R&B sounds, along with lo-fi, Hip Hop, and adult contemporary as well. Ray made it clear this time around that he was gonna keep the mixing and overall production and mastering of the album very simple, which in the end, he said he was more happy and satisfied with the outcome of this albums sound and production style. Ray's singing style and technique for this album ranges from very vocally demanding songs like "A Miracle", "WarriorMan", and some parts of "Scorpio Sessions", to simple smooth vocals on "CRUSH", "love on me", and "Cry No More", while also showcasing his use of whistle notes in songs like "tell me you love me", "Scorpiolie", and also "WarriorMan". He held close the same musical influences for his debut for this albums sound also, like Bruno Mars, TLC, Usher, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, and additional influences from Teyana Taylor and Ariana Grande, whom along with Janet Jackson, he credits for the influence and use of strong sexual and raunchy lyrics in some of the songs, as well as for the overall concept for the album. The album didn't seem to move as fast in the first couple months but soon began picking up in the algorithm on streaming services once he began dropping each music video for all 3 singles, which eventually resulted in him getting put onto multiple Spotify playlists, Spotify's Release Radar, and being placed more than once onto Spotify's Discover Weekly. His song "CRUSH" also got played live on air for a little over a week on a couple radio stations, such as Desert Storm Radio, owned by DJ CULTURE, DJ CEAS, and DJ CLUE, increasing interest and engagement for the album.