Before the Party received positive reviews from music critics, that praised its sound, the performances and its songwriting.[2] It received a great success, becoming one of the most listened and downloaded free mixtapes on DatPiff ever.[3]
The mixtape was re-released as a commercial mixtape exclusively on the streaming platforms Tidal and Amazon Music on August 15, 2017, in its entirety.[4]
Release
On October 13, 2015, Brown announced that his upcoming album Royalty would've been released on November 27, 2015.[5][6] After it was revealed that the album has been pushed back to December 18, 2015,[7] in exchange on November 27, 2015, he released a free 34-track mixtape, called Before the Party, as a prelude to Royalty. The cover art was created by visual artist McFlyy,[8] and features an anime depiction of Brown, posing stoically in a Bape coat, floating in the universe with a woman with bountiful cleavage and a Transfomer head.[9]
The mixtape was re-released as a commercial mixtape exclusively on the streaming platforms Tidal and Amazon Music on August 15, 2017, in its entirety.[4]
Before the Party received positive reviews from music critics, some of them even said that the mixtape was a better work than his album Royalty, which the mixtape was supposed to be a prelude to.[10]HotNewHipHop's Nicholas DG expressed a positive response, praising it for being "an impressive massive mixtape", saying that the track "Holy Angel" is one of Brown's best songs ever, expressing how "is bent on collecting the hardships and sins he has faced throughout his lifetime".[11] Other tracks praised by the critic were "Play Me", because of his "slowly crescendoing orchestral sound and a hypnotic drum beat", "Desperado", being a "perfect musical embodiment to the song's narrator's feeling of never-ending betrayal", "Gotta Get Up", describing it as a "Michael Jackson's heavily inspired track", and "FAN (Freak at Night)" because of his blending genres of rock, hip-hop and electro.[12] Jules Blackolm of Rolling Stone commented that "the gangsta side of the mixtape is enjoyable on songs like "Ghetto Tales" and "All I Need", but where the mixtape sounds stunning is on his soft side, with songs like "Matter", "Roses Turn Blue", "Play Me" and "Start It Slow" thanks to their profound songwriting and Brown's impeccable quavered harmonize".
John Roother of The A.V. Club calld the mixtape a "quite and delicate R&B masterpiece" stating that Brown went "experimental" on songs like "Just So You Know" and "FAN" and that he "did his best on the funky "Go", "Gotta Get Up" and "Come Home Tonight", touching the sky with the hypnotic "Start It Slow". Digital Spy's Ian Sandwell said that the mixtape was "better than expectations", praising tracks like "Holy Angel", "Counterfeit", "Text Message" and "Hell of a Night".[13]The Daily Reveille's Sarah LeBoeuf wrote that she was "a bit disappointed" from the mixtape, saying that "Holy Angel", "Counterfeit", "Go" and "Sex" were highlights from the mixtape, but other songs like "Swallow Me Down" or "Hell of a Night" were unnecessary, saying that the mixtape at some points was "too repetitive, removing its filler tracks would've made this one of Brown's best works to date".[14]
Commercial performance
It received a great success being one of the most listened and downloaded free mixtapes on DatPiff, being certified double platinum by the site's standards, reaching over 500,000 downloads and over 3,000,000 full listens.[15]
