Monica's Not So Sure She's Interested In A "Verzuz" Battle With Brandy
Brandy’s “Open” To It, But Monica’s Not Sure About A “Verzuz” Battle: “You’re Going To Turn This Into 1998 All Over Again And I Have No Interest In That”
Source: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage / WENN
People are absolutely thrilled about the opportunity to partake in a “Verzuz” battle between R&B/soul legends Erykah Badu and Jill Scott next weekend. Who’s next?
One battle that hasn’t been confirmed but that fans would love to see afterward, seems to be Monica versus Brandy. The “Full Moon” singer’s brother may have been one of the first to bring it up not just as social media chatter, but as a serious idea. While speaking with Wendy Williams this week, Ray J said that he couldn’t do a “Verzuz” with anybody because his catalog of hits wasn’t steep enough; but his sister’s? She’s got many classics.
“Brandy, she could battle,” he said. “A good Brandy and Monica battle? Ooooooh.”
When the idea was brought to Monica though, she said she wouldn’t be interested in a “Verzuz” necessarily, but could see herself and her “Boy Is Mine” collaborator doing a positive playback “celebration” instead. For the record, when asked if she wanted to do a Verzuz in general, with anybody, Brandy or not, she told V-103, “I doubt it.”
“I guess I kind of feel like, I understand the idea of it and I think it’s really, really entertaining and an incredible idea,” she said. “What I do like is it’s kind of turning into a celebration. I can handle a celebration. I think battles, one thing that has happened to me my whole career, is being put against someone else that I’m not even remotely similar to. I think the reality is, us being polar opposites makes it dope. And I tell people all the time, because the only battle or Verzuz they want to see with me is me against Brandy, and the reality is, people have put us against each other for twentysomething years. The reality is, I think ‘Boy Is Mine’ is such a phenomenal record because we’re polar opposites. And I think that’s dope. And she’s one of the greatest artists of our time as well, so could we do a celebration or something of that sort? That would be the only thing that makes sense to me. Because I’ve been trying to tell people for about 25 years, you can like both! You’re going to turn this into 1998 all over again and I have no interest in that.”
She noted that she’d seen the positive sides of the battles, as well as the negative, and she had no desire to partake in anything that would go the latter route.
“If there’s a way to do a real celebration then that would be dope, because Teddy and Babyface were really celebrating each other. They knew each other’s records, they gave each other love the whole time and I think that’s what made it so dope,” she said. “After a while, I was a little scared watching Sean [Garrett] and The-Dream. Like, hey fellas, are we serious here? [laughs] It just got a little bit intense, and those are two producers that I absolutely adore. So for me, it would have to be a celebratory form of it. It would just have to be. I just don’t see it any other way.”
As for Brandy, who just released a new single called “Baby Mama” on Friday, she wasn’t against the idea. During a Facebook Live chat with Essence on Friday afternoon, she said she was open to doing a “Verzuz” battle in general, including with Monica, whose name was brought up as a suggestion.
“I’m open to it but I haven’t really thought about it,” she said. “I don’t know. I’m open. I’m open for sure. I’m not closed-minded.”
While we think having the chance to hear both ladies share the stories behind their biggest hits would be wonderful, if it were to turn into anything negative, including an ugly back and forth between their fans, we can go without it.
Check out what the fans have to say about the possibility of the ladies going head to head musically for our entertainment by hitting the flip.
