Raop is the debut album by German rapperCro. It was released on 6 July 2012 through Chimperator Productions. It sold 60,000 copies units in Germany in its first week.[1]
On 23 March, the first single off the album, "Easy", was released. In June 2012, "Easy" was certificatedgold. The music video to the song has over 50 million views onYouTube.[2] From 29 June to 1 July 2012, 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 theGerman single charts.[4]
Cro worked on the album for one and a half months.[5] On 19 April 2012 it was announced the album would be released on 6 July 2012.[6] It was titledRaop after Cro's description of his music genre. He says it is a mixture between rap and pop.[7] On 24 May 2012 the album cover was first uncovered.[8]
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]
Raop was mostly produced by Cro himself. While he had often usedsamples 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]
Three songs from the album were released as singles. These were released on three consecutive days.[14] "Du" was released on 29 June 2012. "King of Raop" was released as apromotional single on 30 June. "Meine Zeit" was released on 1 July as the last promotional single. Music videos were also made for all of the three songs. On 28 June 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 calledFormzwei.[16] The video for "Meine Zeit" was released byJuice Magazine. Parts of the video were filmed on the roof terrace ofChimperator Productions.[17] On 27 October, Cro released the music video for his fifth single "Einmal um die Welt" which was released on 2 November.[18][19][20] The song previously appeared on his Mixtape "Meine Musik" in early 2011.[21]
On 5 July 2013, a new extended version of the album was released titledRaop +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".
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
