Raop is the debut album by German singer-songwriter Cro. The album was released on July 6, 2012 through Chimperator Productions. It sold 60,000 copies units in Germany in its first week.[1] On March 23, the first single off the album, "Easy" was released. In June 2012, Cro's single "Easy" was certificated as Gold. Also, the music video has over 50.000.000 views on YouTube.[2] From June 29 until July 1, Cro released one single each day, "Du", "King of Raop", and "Meine Zeit".[3] Music videos were also filmed for every single. All of his five released Singles were placed in the Top 100 in the German Single-Charts.[4]
Background
Cro worked on the album for one and a half months.[5] On April 19, 2012 it was announced the album would be released on July 6, 2012.[6] It was titled Raop after Cro's description of his music genre. He says it is a mixture between rap and pop.[7] On May 24, 2012 the album cover was first uncovered.[8]
Versions
The album was released in five different versions, a standard version, including 13 songs,[9] a Vinyl LP, also including the 13 songs,[10] a premium edition, including 2 more songs, 4 remixes, and a DVD of the making-of the album, Road to Raop,[11] a limited "Panda Banda Deluxe" edition, which includes the 13 songs, 2 bonus songs, 4 remixes, the DVD and instrumentals of all of the songs,[12] and an exclusive Amazon edition, which includes the 13 songs, 2 bonus songs, 4 remixes, the DVDs, instrumentals of all of the songs, a T-shirt, and a playbutton which can play all of the 13 songs.[13]
Production
Raop was mostly produced by Cro himself. While he had often used samples for his earlier mixtapes he had to waive using portions of other songs. The reason was the short production progress which led to him not having enough time to obtain consent for using samples. Cro changed his working procedure to recording his own melodies.[5]
Promotion
Singles
Three songs from the album were released as singles. These were released on three consecutive days.[14] "Du" was released on June 29, 2012. "King of Raop" was released as a promotional single on June 30. "Meine Zeit" was released on July 1 as the last promotional single. Music videos were also made for all of the three songs. On June 28, 2012 the music video for "Du" was published on tape.tv.[15] Following that, was the video for "King of Raop" which was filmed by a company from Stuttgart called Formzwei.[16] The video for "Meine Zeit" was released by Juice Magazine. Parts of the video were filmed on the roof terrace of Chimperator Productions.[17] On October 27, Cro released the music video for his fifth single "Einmal um die Welt" which was released on November 2.[18][19][20]
On 5 July 2013, a new extended version of the album was released titled Raop +5 that included the 15 songs of the Premium Edition plus five additional tracks including the single "Whatever" and "Chillin", "Bei dir", "Ab jetzt" and "Wie du".
