1.
Single (music)
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In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record, an album or an EP record. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats, in most cases, a single is a song that is released separately from an album, although it usually also appears on an album. Typically, these are the songs from albums that are released separately for promotional uses such as digital download or commercial radio airplay and are expected to be the most popular, in other cases a recording released as a single may not appear on an album. As digital downloading and audio streaming have become prevalent, it is often possible for every track on an album to also be available separately. Nevertheless, the concept of a single for an album has been retained as an identification of a heavily promoted or more popular song within an album collection. Despite being referred to as a single, singles can include up to as many as three tracks on them. The biggest digital music distributor, iTunes, accepts as many as three tracks less than ten minutes each as a single, as well as popular music player Spotify also following in this trend. Any more than three tracks on a release or longer than thirty minutes in total running time is either an Extended Play or if over six tracks long. The basic specifications of the single were made in the late 19th century. Gramophone discs were manufactured with a range of speeds and in several sizes. By about 1910, however, the 10-inch,78 rpm shellac disc had become the most commonly used format, the inherent technical limitations of the gramophone disc defined the standard format for commercial recordings in the early 20th century.26 rpm. With these factors applied to the 10-inch format, songwriters and performers increasingly tailored their output to fit the new medium, the breakthrough came with Bob Dylans Like a Rolling Stone. Singles have been issued in various formats, including 7-inch, 10-inch, other, less common, formats include singles on digital compact cassette, DVD, and LD, as well as many non-standard sizes of vinyl disc. Some artist release singles on records, a more common in musical subcultures. The most common form of the single is the 45 or 7-inch. The names are derived from its speed,45 rpm. The 7-inch 45 rpm record was released 31 March 1949 by RCA Victor as a smaller, more durable, the first 45 rpm records were monaural, with recordings on both sides of the disc. As stereo recordings became popular in the 1960s, almost all 45 rpm records were produced in stereo by the early 1970s
2.
Ludacris
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Christopher Brian Chris Bridges, better known by his stage name Ludacris, is an American hip hop recording artist and actor from Atlanta, Georgia. Alongside his manager, Chaka Zulu, Ludacris is the co-founder of Disturbing tha Peace, throughout his career, Ludacris has won Screen Actors Guild, Critics Choice, MTV, and Grammy Awards. Along with fellow Atlanta-based rappers Big Boi and André3000 of OutKast, born in Champaign, Illinois, Ludacris moved to Atlanta at age nine, where he began rapping. In 2001, he released Word of Mouf, followed by Chicken-n-Beer in 2003 and he took a more serious approach with his next two albums, Release Therapy, and Theater of the Mind. His next record, Battle of the Sexes, was released in 2010, Ludaversal was released on March 31,2015. As an actor, he has appeared in films including Crash, Gamer, and New Years Eve, but is best known for playing Tej Parker in the The Fast and the Furious film series. Ludacris was born as Christopher Brian Bridges in Champaign, Illinois and he later moved to the Chicago area, where he attended Emerson Middle School in Oak Park, and Oak Park & River Forest High School for one year. He then moved to Centreville, Virginia and attended Centreville High School for one year and he attended Banneker High School in Atlanta, Georgia and graduated in 1995. From 1998 to 1999, he studied management at Georgia State University. His parents were both African-American, and he also has some English and Native American ancestry and he is a distant cousin of late comedian Richard Pryor. Bridges wrote his first rap song at age nine when moving to Atlanta, Bridges served as an intern and then a DJ at Atlantas Hot 97.5 under the name Chris Lova Lova. He was also known for DJing during Freaknik at one point, Ludacris collaborated with Timbaland on the track Phat Rabbit from his album Tims Bio, Life from da Bassment. This song was a hit in many countries, in Ludacris early music career he collaborated with Dallas Austin and Jermaine Dupri. In 1998, Ludacris began to record his debut album Incognegro and this album was the defining example of Ludacris fast, wild, and comedic flow, a unique style for southern rappers. Timbaland handled part of the production, despite its poor sales, it was never deleted and is still sold today. Ludacris also appeared on Timbalands 1998 debut on Phat Rabbit, a track that would later be used on his re-issue of Incognegro called Back For The First Time, in 2000, Ludacris released his major label debut, Back for the First Time. It was produced with the help of the underground producer Sessy Melia, the album reached as high as #4 on the U. S. Billboard 200, and was a major success. Ludacris made his mark on the industry with such as Southern Hospitality and Whats Your Fantasy, along with his first ever single the Phat Rabbit
3.
Word of Mouf
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Word of Mouf is the second studio album by American rapper Ludacris, it was released on November 27,2001, by Disturbing tha Peace and Def Jam South. It contains the singles, Rollout, Area Codes, Move Bitch, however, he felt that amid all of these various team-ups you do lose a little bit of the sincere, personal edge that had characterized much of Ludacris debut. Even his skits are funny enough that they could serve as the foundation for a comedy album. for sales of over 3 million copies. As of July 2014, the album has sold over 3,674,000 copies in the United States to date. This is Ludacris best selling album and it was nominated at the 45th Grammy Awards for Best Rap Album, but lost to The Eminem Show. All tracks are co-written by Christopher Bridges Coming 2 America Requiem,9, From the New World, 4th movement by Antonín Dvořák Rollout Yay Boy by Africando Area Codes Do It by B. T. Express Growing Pains I Forgot To Be Your Lover by William Bell Welcome to Atlanta Five Minutes of Funk by Whodini Do it baby by The Miracles
4.
CD single
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This article is about the 12cm single. Not to be confused with 8cm single, the standard in the Red Book for the term CD single. A CD single is a single in the form of a standard size compact disc. It is not to be confused with the Mini CD single, the format was introduced in the mid-1980s but did not gain its place in the market until the early 1990s. With the rise in digital downloads in the early 2010s, sales of CD singles have decreased, commercially released CD singles can vary in length from two songs up to six songs like an EP. Some contain multiple mixes of one or more songs, in the tradition of 12 vinyl singles, depending on the nation, there may be limits on the number of songs and total length for sales to count in singles charts. Containing four tracks, it had a limited print run. CD singles were first made eligible for the UK Singles Chart in 1987, the Mini CD single format was originally created for use for singles in the late 1980s, but met with limited success, particularly in the US. The smaller CDs were more successful in Japan and have become more common in Europe. By 1989, the CD3 was in decline in the US and it was common in the 1990s for US record companies to release both a two-track CD and a multi-track maxi CD. In the UK, record companies would also release two CDs but, usually, these consisted of three tracks or more each. Pressure from record labels made singles charts in some countries become song charts, allowing album cuts to chart based only on airplay, without a single ever being released. At the end of the 1990s, the CD was the single format in the UK, but in the US. In Australia, the Herald Sun reported the CD single is set to become extinct, while CD singles no longer maintain their own section of the store, copies are still distributed but placed with the artists albums. That is predominantly the case for popular Australian artists such as Jessica Mauboy, Kylie Minogue and, most recently, Delta Goodrem, the ARIA Singles Chart are now predominantly compiled from legal downloads, and ARIA also stopped compiling their physical singles sales chart. On a Mission by Gabriella Cilmi was the last CD single to be stocked in Kmart, Target and Big W, sanity Entertainment, having resisted the decline for longer than the other major outlets, has also ceased selling CD singles. In Greece and Cyprus, the term CD single is used to describe a play in which there may be anywhere from three to six different tracks. These releases charted on the Greek Singles Chart with songs released as singles, in September 2003, there was talk of ringtones for mobile phones outstripping CD singles sales for the year 2004
5.
Crunk
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Crunk is a subgenre of hip hop music that emerged in the early 1990s and gained mainstream success during the mid 2000s. Performers of crunk music are sometimes referred to as crunkmeisters, Crunk is often up-tempo and one of Southern hip hops more dance and club oriented subgenres. An archetypal crunk track frequently uses a main groove consisting of layered keyboard synths, a drum rhythm, heavy basslines. The term crunk is also used as a term to denote any style of Southern hip hop. The word derives from its African-American slang past-participle form, crunk, the genre is almost always excessively sexual, profane, and obscene. The term has been attributed mainly to African-American slang, in which it holds various meanings and it most commonly refers to the verb phrase to crank up. In publications, crunk can be traced back to 1972 in the Dr. Seuss book Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now and he uses the term Crunk-Car without any given definition. The term has also traced to usage in the 1980s coming out of Atlanta, Georgia nightclubs. In the mid-1990s, crunk was variously defined either as hype, phat, rolling Stone magazine published glossary of Dirty South slang, where to crunk was defined as to get excited. The term was in part popularized on Late Night with Conan OBrien in 1993, though it was spelled differently, krunk became a recurring theme on the show between Conan and various guests. Ice-T was one of the first guests to use the word on air, as it was joked that the word was not offensive sounding enough, outkast has been attributed as the first artist to use the term in mainstream music, in the 1993 track Players Ball. Artist Lil Jon was instrumental in bringing the term further into the mainstream with his 1997 album titled Get Crunk, Who U Wit, Da Album. He later released songs and albums using the term, and has been credited by other artists. Lil Jon further popularized the word with his 2004 album Crunk Juice and this use of crunk became synonymous with the meaning crazy drunk. Non-alcoholic drinks, to which alcohol could be added, were manufactured and marketed under the Crunk brand name, the term has continued to evolve, taking on a negative stigma with police, parents and the media. In 2011, the company which manufactured Crunk drink brought out a version named Crunk Juice. The mainstream media began publishing stories in which the term crunk was used to refer to crazy, musically, crunk borrows heavily from bass music and 1980s-era call-and-response hip hop. Heavy use of synthesized instruments and sparse, truncated 808 drums are staples of the crunk sound, looped, stripped-down drum machine rhythms are usually used
6.
Video
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Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video systems vary greatly in the resolution of the display and refresh rate, video can be carried on a variety of media, including radio broadcast, tapes, DVDs, computer files etc. Video was originally exclusively a live technology, charles Ginsburg led an Ampex research team developing one of the first practical video tape recorder. In 1951 the first video tape recorder captured live images from television cameras by converting the electrical impulses. Video recorders were sold for $50,000 in 1956, however, prices gradually dropped over the years, in 1971, Sony began selling videocassette recorder decks and tapes into the consumer market. The use of techniques in video created digital video, which allowed higher quality and, eventually. After the invention of the DVD in 1997 and Blu-ray Disc in 2006, sales of videotape, the advent of digital broadcasting and the subsequent digital television transition is in the process of relegating analog video to the status of a legacy technology in most parts of the world. PAL standards and SECAM specify 25 frame/s, while NTSC standards specify 29.97 frames, film is shot at the slower frame rate of 24 frames per second, which slightly complicates the process of transferring a cinematic motion picture to video. The minimum frame rate to achieve a comfortable illusion of an image is about sixteen frames per second. Video can be interlaced or progressive, analog display devices reproduce each frame in the same way, effectively doubling the frame rate as far as perceptible overall flicker is concerned. NTSC, PAL and SECAM are interlaced formats, abbreviated video resolution specifications often include an i to indicate interlacing. For example, PAL video format is specified as 576i50, where 576 indicates the total number of horizontal scan lines, i indicates interlacing. In progressive scan systems, each refresh period updates all scan lines in each frame in sequence, when displaying a natively progressive broadcast or recorded signal, the result is optimum spatial resolution of both the stationary and moving parts of the image. Deinterlacing cannot, however, produce video quality that is equivalent to true progressive scan source material, aspect ratio describes the dimensions of video screens and video picture elements. All popular video formats are rectilinear, and so can be described by a ratio between width and height, the screen aspect ratio of a traditional television screen is 4,3, or about 1.33,1. High definition televisions use a ratio of 16,9. The aspect ratio of a full 35 mm film frame with soundtrack is 1.375,1. Therefore, a 720 by 480 pixel NTSC DV image displayes with the 4,3 aspect ratio if the pixels are thin, the popularity of viewing video on mobile phones has led to the growth of vertical video
7.
Disturbing tha Peace
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Disturbing tha Peace is an American record label founded by Christopher Ludacris Bridges, his manager Chaka Zulu and Zulus brother Jeff Dixon. Today it operates as a subsidiary of Def Jam, a division of Universal Music Group, Disturbing tha Peace was founded in 2000 by Christopher Ludacris Bridges, manager Chaka Zulu, and Zulus brother Jeff Dixon. Incorporating all aspects of A&R Guidance, Marketing/Publicity, Promotions, Creative Sponsorship Opportunities, Touring and Performance set-up and that same year the label released Ludacris independent album Incognegro which it sold more than 50,000 copies that Ludacris sold himself out of the trunk of his car. The album was certified 2x Platinum becoming Ludacris best-selling album to date with sales of over 3,616,000 copies in the United States, as of July,2009. In 2003 the label released the soundtrack to the movie 2 Fast 2 Furious it spawned three hit singles Act a Fool, Pick Up the Phone, and Pump It Up. That same year the label home to St. Louis rapper Chingy who released his platinum debut album Jackpot on the label. After a dispute over royalties, Chingy abruptly left the label, in late 2003 the label released Ludacris third album Chicken-n-Beer his first to reach number one on the Billboard 200. Chicken -n- Beer brought with it another series of hits, including the Hot 100 number-one, Kanye West produced Stand Up and number-six Splash Waterfalls. In 2004 the label released Shawnnas debut album Worth tha Weight it spawned two singles Shake Dat Shit and Weight a Minute the album has sold 380,000 copies to date and that same year the label released I-20s debut album. The album spawned two singles Fightin in the Club and Break Bread, in 2005, the label released Valentinos self-titled debut album Bobby Valentino. A Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart-topper, it spawned three singles Slow Down, Tell Me and My Angel, the sultry Slow Down announced the singers rebirth as a DTP member in early 2005 and soon became a BET and radio favorite. As the ballad was landing on numerous schools prom ballots, the album spawned two singles Georgia and Gettin Some, the album was certified Gold. In 2006 the label released Shawnnas second album Block Music the album immediately follows Gettin Some a highlight from the second Disturbing tha Peace album, the second single was Damn featuring Smoke of Field Mob. The album has so far sold over 240,000 copies in the U. S and that same year Field Mob released third album and their first under the label Light Poles and Pine Trees. It spawned one single the Jazze Pha produced song So What featuring Ciara. This has become the duos most successful hit to date, climbing to #10 on the US Billboard Hot 100, the album itself achieved #1 on the US Billboard Top Rap Albums and #7 on the US Billboard 200. It has sold over 200,000 copies, the albums success has been at least partially attributed to better promotion of the group by DTP than that at their previous label, MCA Records. In late 2006 the label released Ludacris Grammy Award-winning fifth album Release Therapy an introspective album on which he vowed that he would be more seriously than in the past
8.
Def Jam Recordings
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Def Jam Recordings is an American record label, focused predominantly on hip hop and urban music, owned by Universal Music Group. In the UK, the takes on the name Def Jam UK and is operated through Virgin EMI, while in Japan. The label distributes various record labels, including Kanye Wests GOOD Music, Ludacris Disturbing Tha Peace, Def Jam was founded by Rick Rubin in his dormitory in Weinstein Hall at New York University and its first release was a single by his punk-rock group Hose. Russell Simmons joined Rubin shortly after they were introduced to other, according to one story. Another cites DJ Jazzy Jay as their connector, Rubin has said he met Simmons on the TV show, Graffiti Rock and recognized him then as the face of hip hop, He was five years older than me, and he was already established in the music business. And I had no experience whatsoever, the first single released with the Def Jam Recordings logo was T La Rock & Jazzy Jays Its Yours. The first releases with Def Jam Recordings catalog numbers were LL Cool Js I Need a Beat, the singles sold well, eventually leading to a distribution deal with CBS Records through Columbia Records the following year. A few years later, Russell Simmons and Lyor Cohen started a label called Rush Associated Labels to handle Def Jam. RAL became the home to Nice & Smooth and EPMD after both acts were acquired due to the folding of their former label Sleeping Bag Records, other acts under the RAL umbrella included Redman, Onyx, Flatlinerz, Domino, Warren G and Jayo Felony. As the decade drew to a close, the label signed Public Enemy, Lyor Cohen became president of Def Jam/RAL in 1988, after winning a power struggle with Rubin, who would shortly thereafter leave the company to form Def American Recordings. Rubin would take Slayer with him to Def American in its initial stages, by 1992, despite recent multi-platinum selling releases from Public Enemy, and EPMD, Def Jam ran into severe financial troubles and was faced with folding. However, in 1994, PolyGram purchased Sonys 50% stake in Def Jam Recordings — subsequently bringing the label into its fold, following PolyGrams purchase, Def Jam distributed the Violator Records-signed artist Warren Gs Regulate. G Funk Era album, which went triple platinum and brought much-needed revenue to Def Jam through its distribution deal with Violator, PolyGram acquired an additional 10% in Def Jam Recordings in 1996, further strengthening its ownership of Def Jam. Shortly thereafter, Rush Associated Labels was renamed Def Jam Music Group, the label remained profitable as its veteran star LL Cool J released his successful album Mr. Smith in 1995. The label later signed Foxy Brown, whose debut album Ill Na Na became a seller in 1997. In 1998, PolyGram was purchased by Seagram and merged with the MCA family of labels and it then purchased the remaining interest of Def Jam Recordings from Russell Simmons for a reported $100 million. UMG merged 14+ record labels including, Def Jam, Island Records, despite the formation of IDJMG, the Def Jam, Mercury, and Island labels continued to operate as separate imprints underneath the bigger umbrella. Lyor Cohen was appointed co-president of IDJMG, and Kevin Liles succeeded him as president of Def Jam, Def Soul also issued recordings by Musiq, Montell Jordan, Case,112, Patti LaBelle, and Christina Milian
9.
Songwriter
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A songwriter is an individual who writes the lyrics, melodies and chord progressions for songs, typically for a popular music genre such as rock or country music. A songwriter can also be called a composer, although the term tends to be used mainly for individuals from the classical music genre. The pressure from the industry to produce popular hits means that songwriting is often an activity for which the tasks are distributed between a number of people. For example, a songwriter who excels at writing lyrics might be paired with a songwriter with a gift for creating original melodies, pop songs may be written by group members from the band or by staff writers – songwriters directly employed by music publishers. Some songwriters serve as their own publishers, while others have outside publishers. The old-style apprenticeship approach to learning how to write songs is being supplemented by university degrees and college diplomas, a knowledge of modern music technology, songwriting elements and business skills are necessary requirements to make a songwriting career in the 2010s. Several music colleges offer songwriting diplomas and degrees with music business modules, the legal power to grant these permissions may be bought, sold or transferred. This is governed by international copyright law, song pitching can be done on a songwriters behalf by their publisher or independently using tip sheets like RowFax, the MusicRow publication and SongQuarters. Skills associated with song-writing include entrepreneurism and creativity, songwriters who sign an exclusive songwriting agreement with a publisher are called staff writers. In the Nashville country music scene, there is a staff writer culture where contracted writers work normal 9-to-5 hours at the publishing office and are paid a regular salary. This salary is in effect the writers draw, an advance on future earnings, the publisher owns the copyright of songs written during the term of the agreement for a designated period, after which the songwriter can reclaim the copyright. In an interview with HitQuarters, songwriter Dave Berg extolled the benefits of the set-up, unlike contracted writers, some staff writers operate as employees for their respective publishers. Under the terms of work for hire agreements, the compositions created are fully owned by the publisher. In Nashville, young writers are often encouraged to avoid these types of contracts. Staff writers are common across the industry, but without the more office-like working arrangements favored in Nashville. All the major publishers employ writers under contract, songwriter Allan Eshuijs described his staff writer contract at Universal Music Publishing as a starter deal. His success under the arrangement eventually allowed him to found his own publishing company, so that he could. keep as much as possible, songwriters are also often skilled musicians. In addition to selling their songs and musical concepts for other artists to sing, songwriters need to create a number of elements for a song
10.
Record producer
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A record producer or music producer oversees and manages the sound recording and production of a band or performers music, which may range from recording one song to recording a lengthy concept album. A producer has many roles during the recording process, the roles of a producer vary. The producer may perform these roles himself, or help select the engineer, the producer may also pay session musicians and engineers and ensure that the entire project is completed within the record companies budget. A record producer or music producer has a broad role in overseeing and managing the recording. Producers also often take on an entrepreneurial role, with responsibility for the budget, schedules, contracts. In the 2010s, the industry has two kinds of producers with different roles, executive producer and music producer. Executive producers oversee project finances while music producers oversee the process of recording songs or albums. In most cases the producer is also a competent arranger, composer. The producer will also liaise with the engineer who concentrates on the technical aspects of recording. Noted producer Phil Ek described his role as the person who creatively guides or directs the process of making a record, indeed, in Bollywood music, the designation actually is music director. The music producers job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music, at the beginning of record industry, producer role was technically limited to record, in one shot, artists performing live. The role of producers changed progressively over the 1950s and 1960s due to technological developments, the development of multitrack recording caused a major change in the recording process. Before multitracking, all the elements of a song had to be performed simultaneously, all of these singers and musicians had to be assembled in a large studio and the performance had to be recorded. As well, for a song that used 20 instruments, it was no longer necessary to get all the players in the studio at the same time. Examples include the rock sound effects of the 1960s, e. g. playing back the sound of recorded instruments backwards or clanging the tape to produce unique sound effects. These new instruments were electric or electronic, and thus they used instrument amplifiers, new technologies like multitracking changed the goal of recording, A producer could blend together multiple takes and edit together different sections to create the desired sound. For example, in jazz fusion Bandleader-composer Miles Davis album Bitches Brew, producers like Phil Spector and George Martin were soon creating recordings that were, in practical terms, almost impossible to realise in live performance. Producers became creative figures in the studio, other examples of such engineers includes Joe Meek, Teo Macero, Brian Wilson, and Biddu
11.
Why Don't We Fall in Love
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Why Dont We Fall in Love is a song written and produced by Rich Harrison for American R&B singer Ameries debut album, All I Have. It performed moderately elsewhere, peaking at forty in the United Kingdom. The song is used for the promo of the CBS soap opera The Young. It is also one of the used in the American version of Donkey Konga 2. The singles music video was directed by Benny Boom and released in June 2002. S. and Japanese editions of the album
12.
Billboard Hot 100
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The Billboard Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for singles, published weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales, radio play and online streaming, the weekly sales period was originally Monday to Sunday, when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but was changed to Friday to Thursday in July 2015. Radio airplay, which, unlike sales figures and streaming data, is available on a real-time basis. A new chart is compiled and officially released to the public by Billboard on Tuesdays, as of the issue for the week ending on April 15,2017, the Hot 100 has had 1,061 different number one hits. The current number one song is Shape of You by Ed Sheeran, prior to 1955, Billboard did not have a unified, all-encompassing popularity chart, instead measuring songs by individual metrics. At the start of the era in 1955, three such charts existed, Best Sellers in Stores was the first Billboard chart, established in 1936. This chart ranked the biggest selling singles in retail stores, as reported by merchants surveyed throughout the country, Most Played by Jockeys was Billboards original airplay chart. It ranked the most played songs on United States radio stations, as reported by radio disc jockeys, Most Played in Jukeboxes ranked the most played songs in jukeboxes across the United States. On the week ending November 12,1955, Billboard published The Top 100 for the first time, the Top 100 combined all aspects of a singles performance, based on a point system that typically gave sales more weight than radio airplay. The Best Sellers In Stores, Most Played by Jockeys and Most Played in Jukeboxes charts continued to be published concurrently with the new Top 100 chart. The week ending July 28,1958 was the publication of the Most Played By Jockeys and Top 100 charts. On August 4,1958, Billboard premiered one main all-genre singles chart, the Hot 100 quickly became the industry standard and Billboard discontinued the Best Sellers In Stores chart on October 13,1958. The Billboard Hot 100 is still the standard by which a songs popularity is measured in the United States, the Hot 100 is ranked by radio airplay audience impressions as measured by Nielsen BDS, sales data compiled by Nielsen Soundscan and streaming activity provided by online music sources. There are several component charts that contribute to the calculation of the Hot 100. Charts are ranked by number of gross audience impressions, computed by cross-referencing exact times of radio airplay with Arbitron listener data. Hot Singles Sales, the top selling singles compiled from a sample of retail store, mass merchant and internet sales reports collected, compiled. The chart is released weekly and measures sales of commercial singles. With the decline in sales of singles in the US
13.
Castle (TV series)
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Castle is an American crime-comedy-drama television series, which aired on ABC for a total of eight seasons from March 9,2009 to May 16,2016. The series is produced jointly by Beacon Pictures and ABC Studios, Detective Beckett is initially infuriated at the thought of working with a writer and goes to great lengths to keep him out of her way. However, the two soon start developing feelings for each other, the overarching plot of the series focused on the romance between the two lead characters and their ongoing investigation of the murder of Becketts mother. On May 12,2016, it was announced that some cast members signing one-year contracts for a potential ninth season. Richard Castle is a mystery novelist. Bored and suffering writers block, he kills off the main character in his successful book series. He is brought in by the NYPD for questioning regarding a copy-cat murder based on one of his novels and he is intrigued by Kate Beckett, the detective assigned to the case. Castle decides to use Beckett as his muse for Nikki Heat, Castles exuberant man child personality clashes with Becketts more reserved and professional demeanor, but the two eventually become friends and then lovers. A recurring plot line deals with the murder of Becketts mother years before, an investigation which leads to an increasingly sprawling. Nathan Fillion as Richard Castle/Richard Rodgers, a mystery writer. Castles unusual theories sometimes irritate his coworkers, but often help solve the case, Stana Katic as Katherine Kate Beckett, an NYPD homicide detective who is promoted to captain in Season 8. She becomes the inspiration for Castles bestselling Nikki Heat novels, jon Huertas as Detective Javier Javi Esposito, a former Army Special Forces soldier who now works in the homicide division as part of Becketts team. Seamus Dever as Detective Kevin Ryan, a narcotics detective who works as part of Becketts team. He is best friends with Detective Esposito, Tamala Jones as Dr. Lanie Parish, a medical examiner and a friend of Beckett and on-again-off-again love interest for Esposito. Ruben Santiago-Hudson as Captain Roy Montgomery, Becketts boss and captain of the 12th Precinct, molly Quinn as Alexis Castle, Castles daughter by his first wife, Meredith. Susan Sullivan as Martha Rodgers, Castles mother, an actress on, penny Johnson Jerald as Captain Victoria Gates, Captain Montgomerys replacement, formerly with Internal Affairs. Toks Olagundoye as Hayley Shipton, a quick-witted, free-spirited former MPS cop, in the sixth season, she gives birth to their daughter Sara Grace. In the eighth season, she gives birth to their son and she is regularly portrayed as self-centered and dramatic
