We asked our readers/followers whether or not we should make this available and the answer was yes.

Ameriie’s second album, Touch, turned out to be a big deal for her as it proved that her first album had not been a fluke and managed to bypass the sophomore curse, but it also made it essential that she follow it up with something just as good (if not stronger).

As we stated before, Because I Love It is a great album, but it never got an American release.  One of the reason (we feel) for that is because, despite her second album coming out less than a year earlier, she and her management decided to release a mixtape (or two, depending on where you live in the world) before the official release and name it the same thing and include the lead single.  This likely led to some confusion about the album’s actually release date (another year later).  While this kind of release schedule isn’t unusual overseas (or in the US for less well-known artists), it did turn off a lot of American listeners and led some people to ignore the actual album release.

While there are tracks consisting of refixes of other songs like Ludacris’ Money In The Bank and Money Maker and Shalamar’s Weekend Love, most of the set is original material.  It’s also interesting to note that Take Control and an alternate version of Losing You are only tracks that appear on both this and the official album version.

This mixtape isn’t available too many places outside of Japan…for some reason.  We’re making it available here because, well, it’s great.  It’s an odd footnote that this is the only version many people remember of this era in the artist’s career, but it’s a testament to her abilities that it is one that people still enjoy.

Click the arrow in the player to download this for free (for a limited time).