It's About Time (Christina Milian Album) - Production and Composition

Production and Composition

Milian traveled the world to record the album, working with the popular producers of the time. The album featured production from Bloodshy & Avant, "Darkchild", Cory Rooney, Warryn Campbell, Bryan-Michael Cox and Poli Paul. Basing her lyrics on past personal experiences, Milian wrote seven songs on the album. Milian later explained that she wrote what she thought other people would like, rather than writing for herself and what she liked. When promoting the album, Milian said that she was excited about the album because she had matured since her last album, and it was "nice for people to see this change".

Compared to her "bubble-gum pop" debut album, Milian described the genre of It's About Time as more R&B. Discussing the change of genre between her lead singles, Milian said that the "first single off my last album, 'AM to PM', was more of a kiddie kind of thing, very pop. is more R&B, kind of a club/party kind of vibe." An issue Milian had with the album was that it did not flow. The various pop and urban influences in that album, she found, confused the audience. For her next studio album, Milian said that she wanted a more consistent feel.

For "Dip It Low"'s music video, Milian danced in a bed of black paint. Milian explained that body art was common in the 1960s: "they would dip in paint and they would roll around on a canvas and make art on the canvas. So I kind of 'dip' in the paint and do the same thing." The song's lyrics are about putting an effort into the relationship as a female: "if you wanna be a little more sexy, you gotta dip it low". Several years after the release of It's About Time, Milian admitted that her new image for "Dip It Low" and the whole album was mainly for shock value. She had to make her way back into the US market, and by choosing a sexier image, she made a name for herself. "Dip It Low" was also meant to show that she was not the same eighteen year old girl in the "AM to PM" video. To create her new image, Milian also decided to change her appearance and lightened her hair. Taking inspiration from Janet Jackson who constantly changed her image, Milian thought to herself, "'When did I like Janet Jackson the most?' It was when she had her lightened hair."

The style and sound of the album was compared to that of Beyoncé, Paula Abdul and Jennifer Lopez by several critics, as well as Britney Spears, Aaliyah and Ashanti. After several comparisons to Beyoncé Knowles in regards to appearance, Milian said "I think she is a lovely artist, very talented but the only reason I changed my color hair is because I was getting bored of my same old look and I wanted to do something different." Elysa Gardner of USA Today found that with Milian's "slight, sweet vocals and blithe, breezy pop-soul sensibility", the genre of the album was more pop than R&B. Andy Kellman of Allmusic described "Dip It Low" as "a clever and ubiquitous slice of high-class raunch", and thought that the style was urban and dance-pop. Eric R. Danton of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said "Dip It Low" had the "plinking of an unusual Far Eastern-sounding stringed instrument", and "Whatever U Want" "rolls on a bass-and-drum combo". Danton found the rest of the album to be "simply bland padding, with plodding, canned beats and half-hearted hooks".