AMG Review of Cassie

Andy Kellman
All Music Guide

By the time Cassie's first album was released in August 2006, her first single had been on the ~Billboard pop chart for nearly four months and reached nine million plays through her /MySpace page. The page, set up in late 2005, was part of a strategy that sparked a lot of chatter and eventually landed the model-turned-vocalist on Diddy's Bad Boy label. With plenty of anticipation already in place, Diddy stepped aside, and allowed his new signing -- along with her musical partner, Ryan Leslie, a studio do-it-all with credits on songs by Britney Spears and Donell Jones -- to run her course. "Me&U," the decidedly unwholesome track that excited so many /MySpace users, became one of the spring/summer hits of 2006, following the likes of Ciara's "Goodies" and Teairra Marí's "Make Her Feel Good" as a sexy, assertive single with an intricate and space-filled arrangement that doesn't batter the ears into submission. The looming synthesizer patterns, along with Cassie's upfront vocal, combine with an ice-cream-truck melody to give it a slightly twisted and threatening edge contained by none of its like-sounding predecessors. The second single, the snapping and swirling "Long Way 2 Go," is just as irresistible in its flippant playfulness. Cassie scolds a hopeless suitor with such cutting nonchalance -- she's basically swatting a fly -- that you can see her delivering the lines by cellphone as she eyes a display of designer shoes. As a vocalist, Cassie has enough character and ability to sell her material without fail. And there will never not be a need for a vocalist who doesn't handle each stage of a relationship as if her life depends on it.