August 31, 2020 will go down forever in music history as the day internet broke because Rhythm and Blues icons, Brandy and Monica faced off on Verzuz. On Monday, the singers competed in a hit-for-hit battle that made the world stop; with unprecedented records for not only the Live show but for Apple Music charts.
In the past few months, Verzuz has hosted tête-à-têtes between DMX and Snoop Dogg, 2 Chainz and Rick Ross, and many others. But no battle has been as iconic as this one.
With careers that started before their sweet 16s, Monica Arnold and Brandy Norwood can be credited for creating the blueprint many of our R&B faves follow today.
So it was no surprise when 1.2 million viewers, including celebs like Lenny Kravitz, Erykah Badu, and Jhene Aiko; tuned into the record-breaking Instagram live battle. And the competing music veterans delivered, playing some of their greatest hits from their classic catalogs.
According to Swizz’s latest numbers which he shared on his Instagram the day after the live battle, more than 6 million people tuned in for the broadcast. The show was also simulcast through Apple Music as part of their partnership contract.
Check out the groundbreaking stats below:
Furthermore, the battle raised $250,000 for Michele Obama’s When We All Vote initiative. It also generated 5 million impressions worldwide across all social media platforms.There were 1.9 million tweets, 1 million in the US alone; making it the most-tweeted about Verzuz battle ever!
Immediately after the Verzuz battle, three of Brandy’s albums skyrocketed to the top 10 on Apple Music charts. Monica’s Miss Thang and The Boy Is Mine charted in the 6th and 9th positions. Monica also shared a new song called Trenches, featuring Lil Baby.
It ended, of course, with The Boy Is Mine and the promise of an upcoming tour. This episode has served to reintroduce Monica and Brandy into the public consciousness.
The battle
On cordially starting the livestream after years of subtle feuding, Brandy admitted that the two have “so much to give” together; and the songstresses revealed that it had been eight years since they had been in a room together; triggering fans to wonder why.
Dedicating her hit Missing You to fallen stars, Brandy got emotional reading a poem she prepared to honour Kobe and Gianna Bryant, Chadwick Boseman, Nipsey Hussle, Whitney Houston, and Michael Jackson. Monica came with her own tribute; sharing that her Space Jam track, For You I Will is a favourite of Vanessa Bryant’s. “And she knows anything, anything for her, I will,” she said.
Naturally, the two women also discussed their feud and opened up about their mutual respect for each other. “I really am a straight shooter and I really do admire what you do musically,” Monica said. Brandy responded, “I just need you to know that I have the utmost love and respect for you, no matter the times where it seemed like I didn’t.”
There were moments where their interactions became momentarily tense. After Monica talked about a phase in her life when she was “kickin’ in doors,” Brandy joked about the physical altercation they had had several years prior. Monica did not take kindly to this and Brandy apologised.
For the most part, they traded stories, sang each other’s songs (harmonizing with each other on Sideline Ho); and expressed deep admiration for each other’s work.
With the excitement surrounding the episode being hinged on the long and difficult history between the two R&B titans; it is impossible to talk about its massive impact without exploring Brandy and Monica’s supposed rivalry and beef.
So let’s dive into their history
Brandy
Since her 1994 debut album, singer, songwriter, and producer Brandy Norwood has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide with over 8.62 million albums sold in the United States alone. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Brandy has 10.5 million certified units. Her duet with Monica, The Boy Is Mine, is also one of the longest running number one songs in the US, and is one of the best selling duets of all time.
In 1996, Brandy began starring in the UPN sitcom Moesha as the title character; which lasted six seasons and resulted in numerous other roles. Her second album, Never Say Never, featured two number one singles, and earned Brandy her first Grammy Award.
In 1999, Billboard ranked Brandy in the top 20 of the Top Pop Artists of the 90s. In 2010, Billboard included Brandy in their Top 50 R&B and Hip Hop Artists list of the past 25 years. Brandy was one of the youngest artists nominated for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Her second album Never Say Never appeared in the Top 100 Certified Albums list by the RIAA.
Additionally, many musicians think of Brandy as a talented artiste that music producers and songwriters have used to enhance their own artistic and creative energies.
Monica
American singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman Monica Denise Arnold rose to prominence after she signed with Rowdy Records in 1993 and released her debut album Miss Thang two years later.
She followed it with a series of successful albums, including the global bestseller The Boy Is Mine (1998) ; and number-one albums After the Storm (2003), The Makings of Me (2006) and Still Standing (2010). Throughout her career, several of Monica’s singles became number-one hits on the pop and R&B charts.
Monica’s popularity was further enhanced by her roles in television series such as Living Single (1996), Felicity (2001), and American Dreams (2003); and films including Boys and Girls (2000), Love Song (2000), and Pastor Brown (2009).
Monica has sold 5.3 million albums in the United States and she is recognized as one of the most successful urban R&B female vocalists to emerge in the mid to late 1990s. According to Billboard, she is the youngest recording act to ever have two consecutive chart-topping hits on the Billboard Top R&B Singles chart.
She is also the first artist to top the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart over the span of three consecutive decades (1990s, 2000s, and 2010s).
In 2010, Billboard listed Monica at number 24 on its list of the Top 50 R&B and Hip Hop Artists of the past 25 years. A four-time nominee, she won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for The Boy Is Mine at the 41st awards ceremony. In addition to that, Monica has been the recipient of one Billboard Music Award, one BET Award, and two BMI Pop Awards.
Brandy and Monica’s joint hit single The Boy Is Mine came out back in 1998. In July, Brandy released B7, her first studio LP since 2012’s Two Eleven. Monica’s most recent record was 2015’s Code Red.
Feud
For the last 22 years, instead of being celebrated for having the bestselling female duet of all time, Brandy and Monica have been synonymous with beef.
The comparisons never really made sense, as the singers are very different in style, content, and personality. The only similarities were their closeness in age and that they launched their careers at about the same time.
Brandy and Monica insisted, at different moments, that it was all manufactured drama, a creation of the media and fans; which is occurs more often with female celebrities.
Some well-known cases of comparison are Nicki Minaj vs. Cardi B or Mariah Carey vs the late Whitney Houston, or the constant comparison between Beyonce and everyone else.
The main issue is that when a so-called “beef” starts up, for no apparent reason, fans start to pick sides. Fans and tabloids love the drama of a “cat fight” between girls and tend to put fuel to the flame.
However, there was absolutely real smoke between Brandy and Monica in the beginning. That initial feud set the foundation that fans continue to build on today. In recent years, IG subs and live lyric changes suggest that the rivalry has been renewed; though there’s still no concrete reason why.
So when super-producers Swizz Beatz and Timbaland launched their Verzuz IG series, fans immediately added the two vocalists to the list of most-wanted matches. The internet wanted drama and the opposing fandoms projected draggings, destruction, and mess. Understandably, the two were hesitant because they didn’t want to perpetuate the idea of a rivalry.
The Song is Mine
Dallas Austin, the co-producer of The Boy is Mine revealed that Monica had to record her vocals for the hit song separately because she and Brandy could not be in the same room. Austin felt like Monica couldn’t reach her full potential when they were in the studio at the same time.
Rodney Jerkins, Executive Producer of Never Say Never, shared in 2007 that the tension was so thick by the time they shot the video, they had to keep the girls at a distance on set.
“I think what made that song so special is that they really didn’t like each other and we took that reality and put it right on the record,” Jerkins told Rap Up in an interview. “They almost got into a fight, so I had to remove them from each other.”
“It was reality TV before it happened.”
Brandy’s Never Say Never dropped in June 1998, with Monica’s album scheduled to follow in July. By several accounts, it shocked and angered Brandy when Monica announced that she named her whole LP The Boy is Mine.
This was because Brandy claimed she owned the song first, then featured Monica; whom she believed was piggybacking on her own fame. At the time, Brandy not only had a music career. She also had the starring role on the now-rested American sitcom Moesha.
But musically, Brandy and Monica were pretty close in their successes. Brandy’s album debuted higher. Despite that, they both scored multiple number ones on the R&B chart, cracked the top 10 on both the Hot 100 and Rhythm charts, and had both charted at Top 40.
In possible retaliation for the album title, Brandy performed the hit solo on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, the biggest primetime TV platform back then, and allegedly asked Atlantic to release her solo version of the song, which they shut down for contractual reasons.
Things got physical
Despite the dominance of The Boy is Mine throughout the summer of 1998, Monica and Brandy only performed the song together once; at the MTV VMAs that September. Reports broke that Monica and Brandy even got into a fight at rehearsals.
The representatives of both teams trying to cover up the situation, but Dallas Austin revealed years later that Monica had “decked Brandy on sight” before their VMAs performance.
Fortunately, the performance configuration kept the two at opposite ends of the stage for most of the song. Monica, who formerly denied the rumour, also confirmed this in 2012; saying that she was an immature teen at the time. She was 18 years old.
Whitney is Mine (Not Yours)
A weird but steady undercurrent of conflict between the two R&B singers has been their respective relationships with Whitney Houston. Houston was a mentor to both girls and an inspiration to many.
She even handpicked Brandy to star alongside her in the reimagined Disney classic Cinderella; so she was her “fairy godmother” in more ways than one.
Whitney Houston was also a postitive force for Monica during her teenage years and she came to rely on her too. Apparently, there was the perception that Whitney was passing the metaphorical torch to one of them; and there was a division concerning who that was.
So Gone
After reuniting in 2012 for It All Belongs to Me, Brandy and Monica both maintained that they had squashed their beef and it was silly to begin with. They also shared that they were now closer; as they lost Whitney Houston. Also, they had both grown up and become mothers.
Apparently, the truce didn’t last long. When asked about Monica in 2015, Brandy responded, “I don’t talk to Monica. We are on different paths.”
In 2016, a viral challenge around Monica’s 2003 Missy Elliot-produced hit So Gone, swept Instagram. Monica herself and stars including Chance the Rapper offered their renditions of the song’s rap verse.
A fan asked Brandy if she’d also be participating in the #SoGoneChallenge. When she responded with a dismissive “Chile bye,” the internet went wild. That one “Chile bye” was enough to kick off a whole new era in Brandy vs. Monica. As fans reacted to and analyzed Brandy’s possible diss, Brandy mocked the response and Monica ignored.
Soul Train shade
In 2016, Brandy staged a dynamic greatest hits medley for her Lady of Soul honour at Centric’s Soul Train Awards. During her performance of Talk About Our Love, Brandy shaded Monica with her lyrics:
“It’s always something. Talking ish again, then your whole fan base jumps in. Now the whole ’gram’s buzzing.”
Viewers picked up on it immediately, and the whole Instagram was, indeed, buzzing. Monica jumped in to ask both sets of fans to calm down. Brandy, in turn, defended herself; saying she refused to be bullied.
In spite of two decades of strife and comparison, the Verzuz battle made it clear that they were both icons in their own right. And one cannot help but wonder how much more magic they would have made together without all the bad blood between them.
The Underrated Range of R&B
This Verzuz episode has also reignited conversations about whether the music industry is devaluing R&B artistes; and, specifically, talented women of colour. Brandy and Monica should be more prominent for being actual living legends. But for years, they both did not get the attention they deserved.
Brandy’s vocal stylings have had a significant impact on the music industry; most notably with contemporary R&B, pop and gospel genres, where she got the title “Vocal Bible“.
Her work has influenced numerous artists, including Jessie J, JoJo, Bridget Kelly, Olivia, Ariana Grande, Emeli Sandé, Jordin Sparks, Ryan Destiny, Tank, Teyana Taylor, Lil’ Mo, Megan Rochell, and Elle Varner.
Both Brandy and Monica have received praise from several of their peers, including Natasha Bedingfield, Missy Elliott, Jennifer Hudson; Syleena Johnson, Gladys Knight, Brian McKnight, Jill Scott, Angie Stone, Tamia, Ty Dolla Sign, and Tamar Braxton among others.
But despite all of this, their albums don’t do as good as they should on the charts or at awards.
And they are not alone in this; Sevyn Streeter, SZA, Kehlani, and Mary J. Blige have also released superior major-label projects in the past few years; only to find a muted reception on the pop charts.
The successful June release of SZA’s Ctrl came after long label delays and her own creative anxiety 
Tinashe’s controversial comments on colorism in The Guardian overshadowed her critique of an industry where space for black women’s success feels limited at best. 
H.E.R got 5 Grammy nominations while being virtually unknown by most pop fans 
Normani dropped her first solo single over a year ago with no subsequent works. Fans speculate she is being blackballed like Tinashe 
Ariana Grande has frequently been referred to as “the new Mariah Carey” much to the annoyance of Carey’s fans
The irony is that, as a genre, R&B has never been healthier. It is just underrated. A product of multiple genres itself, it is overflowing with variety, so much so that it ought to have its own defined subcategories.
The range shifts from the neon-hazed, synthesized romance of H.E.R., to the sun-dappled hip-hop funk of Anderson.Paak; to the gauzy teenage fantasies of Khalid, and the airy, siren songs of Chloe x Halle.
Add that to the wildly diverse sounds of Summer Walker, Jhene Aiko, Ari Lennox, Tinashe, Doja Cat, Normani, Ella Mai, Janelle Monae, Teyana Taylor, Jorja Smith, Victoria Monet, Snoh Aalegra… We could go on and on.
Todays’s R&B is diverse; no longer limited to the binary debate between “jiggy” urban pop and earthy neo-soul that dominated at the dawn of the 2000s. That said, isn’t it about time the music industry paid attention and expanded charts and award categories to accommodate this boiling pot of talent; instead of lumping in all soulful black vocalists together?
Black women and women of colour truly expand the genre’s vocabulary. Many of them have evolved into musical diarists. No longer limiting themselves to the endless tumult of love and sexual relationships, they write about their fears with disarming vulnerability.
With the resurgence of the classic R&B of 90s and early 2000s thanks to Brandy and Monica, hopefully attention can be drawn to the fact that there is a lot to love about and learn from this dynamic and confessional genre.
The new school of Black women who grew up listening to Brandy and Monica continue to make the genre relevant, regardless of what the charts and awards are saying. And the fact that they are both still relevant with their 25-year long careers is a testament to the tenacity and adaptability of Black women in music.
The fact that this R&B Verzuz got more views than the VMAs was ironic considering how the music industry disregards the eclectic genre. This should serve as a wakeup call.
It is too soon to tell the significance of the Brandy vs Monica Verzuz episode. Nevertheless, there has been a shift of seismic proportions in the music industry. Everybody can feel it, and soon enough, we will be able to document it for you.
