LAY (Lay Zhang) has given his fans yet another body of work in 2020, this time releasing the final six songs of his twelve-track album LIT.
This unique method of album release had LAY releasing the first six songs of the album at the end of May, and concluding the album release on July 20. All six tracks were co-written and co-produced by LAY himself, with production assisted by GRAMMY Award-winning producers Scott Storch (50 Cent, Beyoncé, DJ Khaled, Snoop Dogg) and Murda Beatz (Travis Scott, Gucci Mane, Drake).
LAY has broken barriers while working all around the world as an artist. He got his start in the music industry in South Korea, debuting with K-Pop group EXO and releasing Korean pop, and eventually releasing solo music in Chinese as well as English, promoting in both China and the United States.
LAY has never been one to shy away from using traditional elements in his songs and LIT yet again embraces his heritage, using traditional “peking opera” and Chinese instruments to immerse the listeners into the musical experience. The album combines the traditional instrumentation with Hip-Hop and Pop concepts to create unique pieces of work throughout.
As LIT is LAY’s fifth body of work as a solo artist, he has gotten to explore many different concepts, but he has seemed to really find his stride an artist with LIT. The sound of the album is distinct but familiar, and fits LAY well. Clearly, audiences agreed as the first half of the album received 9 certifications from China’s music platform QQMusic, and had over 1.5 million preorders before the album was even released.
