(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Don’t tell Monica that R&B is dead. The 31-year-old veteran vocalist, who recently dropped her critically-acclaimed seventh studio album New Life, believes there is still a place in music for uncompromising vocalists.
Her choices for singles offered a look into her attention to sound quality.
“I think when I released ‘Everything To Me’ that’s when I recognized that people still love songs that are sung from the depth of your soul,” Monica told CBS Local, about her first single from New Life. “It will be scary for a certain type of R&B artist if they are not okay with understanding that there is a core that will love and be dedicated to your music if you continue to give them what they love.”
Much has been made of the collaboration with former rival Brandy for the female empowerment anthem “It All Belongs To Me.” The single is a two-fisted break-up song that serves as a mature flipside to the duo’s Grammy winning global smash “The Boy Is Mine.”
“It made more sense for us to do a song where we were united instead of doing a song similar to what we did in ’98 when we were at odds,” Monica said of the Rico Love-produced song. “We have grown so much since then both as women and as mothers. But the problem was people would always compare whatever record we did with ‘The Boy Is Mine.’ There’s a huge history with that song and we did not want anybody to think we were trying to duplicate it. Once Brandy called me to do a second record, the hardest part was finding a song that fit. We finally found that with ‘It All Belongs To Me.’”
Monica previously said she was looking forward to a possible joint tour with Brandy, but in a recent interview Brandy said she’s considering tour plans that may not include Monica.
“We haven’t really talked about it since we stopped promoting ‘It All Belongs to Me,’” Brandy said. “I just honestly think Monica and I are in different places in our music. And my vibe is a little bit different this time around so I don’t know. I kind of wanna do my own thing.”
–Keith Murphy, CBS Local
TAGS: Monica, Brandy
