Monica Ain't Nothing But... Tweet
Tuesday. 8.29.06 10:25 am
Monica Ain't Nothing But... Tweet
Do you remember the first time you heard "Don't Take It Personal (Just One Of Dem Days)" by Monica. That album was release July 18, 1995. Back then she was young and sassy yet sophisticated. Then Arista Records executive Clive Davis had done it again. He plucked a young girl from Atlanta obscurity similar to the way he plucked Whitney Houston from all her Newark glory and “packaged” her for a career as golden as her voice.
Back then Monica sang songs that many criticized as being too mature. The rumor mill said that, “There is no way she can be 14.” Three years later (July 14, 1998), Monica released The Boy Is Mine, her sophomore CD. With favorites like “Misty Blue,” “Street Symphony,” “Angel of Mine” and of course the title track, a duet with Brandy. Monica went on to earn a Grammy Award despite how silly everyone thought it was for her to name the CD The Boy is Mine knowing that most of the world considered the chart-topping song to be Brandy’s since it too was the first single from her album which was released a full month earlier (June 9, 1998).
The media perpetuated a feud between Brandy and Monica. Rumors flew that two didn’t get along or that Brandy had her vocals turned up higher than Monica’s on her album’s version of the duet. However rumors or no rumors, feuds or no feuds, they pulled of a flawless performance of the song on the 1998 MTV VMAs.
Somewhere around the new millennium things got kind of… shaky. There was a suicide of a loved one, a baby, a marriage and a little something that was to become the gift and curse of Monica’s subsequent CDs… MISSY ELLIOT! (not in any particular order)
When Monica released “So Gone” from After The Storm I immediately gave both her and Missy kudos. Missy had ushered Monica into a maturity that seemed fitting. Monica spread her wings a bit and let her “urban” sensibility surface a bit more. She was rapping on her first single. She even stopped covering the tattoos (covering them was something I think was more the label’s idea than hers). But After The Storm kinda came and went… like the tide, never making the impact that her nemesis Brandy did with Full Moon — the most perfect album in it’s category in all of 2002. Full Moon is a masterpiece but that is an argument for another day.
(if you blank space, blame YouTube)
All of this should bring us to the present. Monica is set to release her fourth studio album. She has received lukewarm reviews to the first single, “Every Time the Beat Drops.” Her original Sept 26th released date has been moved back a bit so that “Beat Drop” can either marinate or drop off the face of the Earth. I am sure the label will release another single before releasing the album. And if my instincts are correct, she will release one of those horrible Missy Elliot-produced singles. Which one you ask???? Take your pick. They are all mediocre to horrible in that there is no sense of growth. Rather than being a worldly Grammy Award winner, Monica comes off more like a talent show winner at the local Teddy T (ask Dig what the Teddy T is). A good friend of mine made a comment that Missy is stuck where R&B is concerned. Her concoctions for Monica… the Monica…. Clive Davis’ Monica… ain’t nothing but Tweet-esque tracks. Play any of the new Monica and then play Tweet’s second CD… Notice any similarities?
Someone in the comment section said it best, "Monica should try to cultivate Mary J. Blige's audience, rather than let her blueprint be the antithesis of her groundbreaking success." Besides… we don’t see or hear from Tweet these days for a reason. She too should have cut the Missy strings one album sooner.
Categories: MUSIC BUZZ [t]
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