The ex-One Direction member signed a record deal with Sony RCA last week. Here, we make some predictions for Zayn’s solo album. Us, overexcited? Never!
This afternoon, we’ve stumbled across something rather intriguing on Twitter. This may or may not be (it’s really probably not) the leaked track listing for Zayn Malik’s solo debut album. Supposedly called “The Rise”, the proposed track list includes features by Drake, The Weeknd, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Frank Ocean, Jhene Aiko and Chris Brown. Not ambitious at all. The cynic in us wants to rip this apart, stamp on the pieces and shout at whoever’s responsible for creating such a silly rumour, but the Zayn fangirl locked away inside us is accepting this wholeheartedly (whilst on the brink of hyperventilation). The fangirl wins for now. We’re piecing together all the evidence we’ve got available to deduce what could be on the cards for Zayn’s debut solo album. Yes he was only signed five days ago, that just means you’re already five days behind us.
THERE’S GOING TO BE AS MUCH RAPPING AS SINGING
Not necessarily by Zayn but if the supposed features are anything to go by alongside this cover of Rae Srummund’s “No Type” with some questionable ‘Dot Cotton’ rapping from Mic Righteous then it looks as though Mr Malik’s headed down a little more R&B route. Could we ask for me? We love One Direction’s chart-ready hits, but we’ve still got them to swoon over and hopefully we’ll be getting something completely different from Zayn.
THERE’S GOING TO BE A BIG NAME PRODUCER TRUSTED WITH THIS JOB
The insinuation that Frank Ocean is going to be making an appearance on album one isn’t all that ridiculous when you consider that Zayn’s been in the studio with his producer, Malay who Instagrammed a picture of the singer with his adorable daughter. We’ve all given up on Naughty Boy after that Twitter spat but 50 Cent has been shouting about how much he wants to work with Zayn, declaring how much money he can make him (er, little problematic now he’s filed for bankruptcy?) and telling The Mirror, “He needs to be working with the right artists, producers and people in the genre. Some of the pop star rappers are a little cringe and he doesn’t want that.”
A LITTLE MIX APPEARANCE (in our dreams)
Let’s all pray to the Gods of Pop for a Perrie feature, or even Little Mix in their entirety. Why didn’t this happen when Zayn was still with One Direction anyway?! Imagine the dance routines a collab like that could produce. This is definitely us being dreamers but there’s going to be a world tour, no doubt about it, when the album does arrive. We can imagine Zayn bringing Perrie on stage for a stripped back emotional moment a nod back to his cute boy band days now he’s an independent man.
LET’S OVERANALYSE 1D’S NEW SONG
After dismissing all insistence of a rift between himself and the band, Zayn stated he’d never felt more in control after leaving 1D. So surely it’s fair to reason that means musical differences, his tweet after signing with Sony certainly seems to suggest that with the accompanying hashtag #realmusic, did anyone else spot that sly dig there? We’re going to out on a limb and say 1D’s latest track, the surprise reveal, “Drag Me Down” is going to be the complete opposite of what Zayn’s set to release. They’ve put themselves in a bit of an arms race now and plenty of people have been quick to suggest this is a diss track aimed at the ex-member. Awkward.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO “I WON’T MIND”?
If you haven’t heard the demo for “I Won’t Mind”, you’re a few months behind, it’s a slow number from Zayn and Naughty Boy. Forgive us for saying so, but we kind of hope it won’t make it onto the album now they’ve fallen out. We don’t want slow and sweet Zayn unless he’s serenading us, we’ve seen it all before, we want to see badass Zayn writing hits for dance floors and showing the world what he can do without One Direction.