[5][6] After it was revealed that the album has been pushed back to December 18, 2015,[7] in exchange on November 27, 2015, he released a free 34-track mixtape, called Before the Party, as a prelude to Royalty.

The cover art was created by visual artist McFlyy,[8] and features an anime depiction of Brown, posing stoically in a Bape coat, floating in the universe with a woman with bountiful cleavage and a Gundam head.

[11] Other tracks praised by the critic were "Play Me", because of his "slowly crescendoing orchestral sound and a hypnotic drum beat", "Desperado", being a "perfect musical embodiment to the song's narrator's feeling of never-ending betrayal", "Gotta Get Up", describing it as a "Michael Jackson's heavily inspired track", and "FAN (Freak at Night)" because of his blending genres of rock, hip-hop and electro.

Club called the mixtape a "quite and delicate R&B masterpiece" stating that Brown went "experimental" on songs like "Just So You Know" and "FAN" and that he "did his best on the funky "Go", "Gotta Get Up" and "Come Home Tonight", touching the sky with the hypnotic "Start It Slow".

Digital Spy's Ian Sandwell said that the mixtape was "better than expectations", praising tracks like "Holy Angel", "Counterfeit", "Text Message" and "Hell of a Night".