Bernadette Cooper - Drama According To Bernadette Cooper (1990)

DRAMA ACCORDING TO BERNADETTE COOPER
1989 ”At this point, Solar record, now constellation records had merged with MCA records. MCA A&R Head, Louil Silas Jr approached Bernadette Cooper with a record contract. In 1990, she signed with MCA Records. While working on Madame X, Cooper, was also working on her debut Album 'Drama According To Bernadette Cooper'. Cooper was famous for booking out two rooms in a studio with two separate engineers and simultaneously producing projects. Drama According to Bernadette Cooper was a project that included such artist and entertainers as unaccredited Lenny Kravitz as well as her good friend Teena Marie, Chuckii Booker, John Patitucci and Rob Bacon, the Waters and a host of other performers.
With some completed material and a lot of ideas, Cooper went the familiar ground of Studio Masters. “That’s where lots of the SOLAR acts worked; I had a relationship with them and I was used to the place.” It was also the spot where Funkadelic, Bootsy’s Rubber Band, and Diana Ross recorded. Cooper recruited engineer Gerry Brown, who also worked with her on Madame X.
According to the LA times,"Cooper's sense of humor may be cartoon-like, but her musical instincts are real-life sophisticated, and there's no other black female singer-songwriter-producer you can compare her to. If anything, she comes across as the audacious, self-absorbed female equivalent of Morris Day. Designed to be high-concept, this album is lacking in the drama department, save for "The Agency Sent Me," on which a harried social worker, frustrated by the court system and bureaucratic red tape, finds herself responding to a battered child who tells her I was born to be fierce, Born to be happy, Born to be free, Are you from the agency? Lady, would you help me? That cut is a poignant surprise from someone you don't associate with such serious concerns, and it's about as high-minded as Cooper gets. Actually, she's most convincing on "I Look Good," the best piece of self-promoting comedic-funk since Day and the Time cut "Cool" back in 1982. That track alone encapsulates everything you need to know about Cooper and her wonderfully wacky sense of musical invention.
In the spring of 1990, after handing in Drama, things began changing at MCA. Louil Silas left to start his own label and his replacement Ernest Singleton seemed indifferent to Cooper’s project. Though it was decided that the first single would be the campy funk of “I Look Good,” a track that recalled the retro-pop goofiness of Cab Calloway by way of Kid Creole and the Coconuts, not much was done in the way of promotion. “We shot a video, but at the same time, Ernie, was telling me he didn’t believe in videos,” Cooper says. “I think ‘I Look Good’ was a good record, but we were going into the hip-hop era and the sound of music was changing. It was more about rap and Teddy Riley’s new jack swing sound. What I was creating was different, a little more sophisticated.
With the single, MCA decided that the music wasn’t “Black enough,” switching her abruptly to the alternative division. “The alternative people had no idea what to do with me, so I just got caught-up in a little ball of confusion.” After releasing the second single “Stupid,” about a woman so sprung that she buys her man a Ferrari while putting his name on her checking account, the record was virtually ignored within the company and soon faded to black. Her control over the project and her vision bring to mind Michael Jackson and Prince, who also clearly influenced her urban pop style.

Tracklist:
1.01 - Bernadette Cooper - I Look Good (An Interview With Bernadette Cooper) (5:05)
1.02 - Bernadette Cooper - Do You Really Know What Love Is (3:37)
1.03 - Bernadette Cooper - Stupid (6:09)
1.04 - Bernadette Cooper - The Underground (4:02)
1.05 - Bernadette Cooper - The Agency Sent Me (4:52)
1.06 - Bernadette Cooper - Let's Be Discreet (7:46)
1.07 - Bernadette Cooper - Drama According To Bernadette Cooper (5:21)
1.08 - Bernadette Cooper - I'm That Girl (7:38)
1.09 - Bernadette Cooper - The Howard Hughes Sitcom (5:01)
1.10 - Bernadette Cooper - Straight Jacket (Love Affair) (5:06)
1.11 - Bernadette Cooper - Nothin' You Can Do (4:27)