The Verzuz battles curated by Swizz Beatz and Timbaland has been one of the best forms of entertainment throughout the quarantine. We’ve seen producers and songwriters who are responsible for the soundtracks of our childhood go hit-for-hit on Instagram live, but now it’s time to do it for the ladies.
Many fans advocated for a Verzuz battle between Brandy and Monica, but the Georgia singer isn’t interested in turning “this into 1998 again.” She did an interview with Atlanta’s V103 and responded to the burning question about a possible IG live battle. “I doubt it. I guess I kind of feel, I understand the idea of it and I think it’s really, really entertaining and it is an incredible idea. Now what I do like is that it is turning into a celebration, I can handle a celebration. I think a battle’s one thing. That’s 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 that us being polar opposites makes it dope and I tell people all the time, the only battle that they want to see is between me and Brandy.”
She continued pointing out that the two singers have been “battling” since they were teenagers, and she’s pretty much over it. “The reality is people have put us against each other for 20 something years. I think “The 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 would make sense to me because I’ve been trying to tell people for about 25 years, you can like both. You gonna turn this into 1998 all over again and I have no interest in that.”
Monica noted that Sean Garrett’s battle with The-Dream got a little tense, and she wants to avoid that. She’d prefer a celebratory battle similar to Babyface and Teddy Riley’s, even Johnta Austin and Ne-Yo’s. “If there’s a way to do a real celebration then that would be dope because Teddy [Riley] and Babyface were really celebrating each other. They knew each other’s records and they gave each other love the whole time and I think that’s what made it so dope. After a while a was a little scared watching Sean [Garrett] and The Dream like, hey fellas are we serious here? 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 have to be I don’t see it in any other way.”
Brandy’s brother, Ray J, wants to see the battle go down too and he made it clear on a virtual appearance on The Wendy Show.
