Monday Mix Tapes: Revisiting Miss Thang & Moesha

I have to admit, it was with more than a little glee that I discovered today that Monica and Brandy have a new single.

Don't even try to pretend you didn't immediately think of "The Boy is Mine" video. Just don't even.

But before we get to this new song, I think we need to talk about some things. Like my love of Brandy and Monica, particularly from the years of approximately 1994 through 2000. Yeah, I was young—we don't need to get into specifics, do we?—but so were they! I loved them.

First, I met Brandy:

I had to share the album cover, because I loved it so wholeheartedly. I wanted nothing more than to be this hip. The hat! The boots! The attitude!

Sure, my brother Jay kept talking about how she looked like a goldfish, but I didn't care. He made fun of just about everything I liked at around this point in our lives, so I took his snarky comments as confirmation of her awesomeness. Besides, who cared? She was singing this:



Soon after, Miss Thang entered my life. Who didn't love "Don't Take it Personal (Just One of Dem Days)" in 1995?



I will admit, Brandy might have had a slightly bigger space in my adolescent heart than Monica. But I think we all know why, right?

Mo to the E to the ...



Now, as it happens, my love for Monica and Brandy has changed over the years. I haven't bought or listened to any of their recent albums (the last Brandy album I got was Full Moon, if that tells you anything). However, I may or may not have occasionally watched "Brandy & Ray J: A Family Business" on my days off the summer I moved back in with my dad. I found it hilarious. Leave me alone.

Oddly enough, I randomly listened to "Miss Thang" in its entirety as I was getting ready to go out on Friday night, and I still loved every minute of it. I mean, "Before You Walk Out of My Life"? "Why I Love You So Much?" There was a reason Monica was the youngest artist to have two consecutive Billboard chart-topping hits.

So it's probably also time we listen to this Monica hit:



That said, I wasn't quite sure what to expect with the new Monica and Brandy duet. Over at NPR (I'm keeping up with Monica and Brandy via NPR now? Good lord), Frannie Kelley writes of the song:

Brandy and Monica, who, like Usher, have been making R&B hits since they were teenagers in the late 1990s, team up for a rematch of "The Boy Is Mine." Here they're on the same side and they're a little more grown up. The accoutrement certainly is; the styling on the video, from the gowns to the vehicles, is luxe. Maybe so luxe it distracts from the chesty alto Brandy's working and the perfectly calibrated runs Monica lays down.

I definitely agree about "the chesty alto Brandy's working and the perfectly calibrated runs Monica lays down" and sure, the video is "luxe," even if I did keep thinking, when the hell is Mekhi Phifer gonna show up?

But, um. We need to talk about a few things. Watch and listen, will you?



LOG OFF YOUR FACEBOOK! CLOSE THAT MACBOOK! THAT SHIT BELONGS TO ME!

Well, I now know what makes me laugh harder than listening to Ray-J talk. Every time "log off your Facebook" or "that Macbook" was mentioned, I busted out laughing in my cubicle.

Even so, I still like the song. I really do. I can't help it. My 14-year-old self would disown me if I didn't. But if you think this song (or video) will ever top this, you must be trippin.