Brandy and Monica Have Always Been on the Same Page

Hi, Vogue, I m Brandy.

And I m Monica.

And we re about to go through the decades with you.

This is Life in Looks.

Yes, come on, Life in Looks.

[gentle music]

Yes, I remember this.

My first album cover, I wanted to be different.

I wanted to showcase my braids.

I loved hats at the time, so I wanted to have that hat swag.

Don t really know what the boots were doing.

That wasn t my choice, but I loved everything else.

It just felt effortless.

You know, there are very important things in this photo

that really carried all throughout

the first half of her career.

First of all, the braids.

[Brandy] Wow.

That was the thing.

And anybody that got them thought of you.

Thank you.

So that made it very much a signature moment.

Thank you. Yes. [laughs]

[laughs] So this is my first album cover.

It was shot in New York,

even though I m from the south side of Atlanta.

I have always been a,

I would say in my younger days, a rebellious soul,

but now I just look at it like I m very free.

I decide what I wanna do.

We had already shot my video

and all-

For Don t Take It Personal?

For Don t Take It Personal.

Just one of them days.

We had everything done.

I had long hair and I left one day

and I told Dallas, I m like, Pops, I ma gonna go

and just, I want some streets.

And he co-signs the streets.

So your hair was long?

Very long.

And I come back with short blonde hair.

What? And he s like,

You re costing us millions.

Back then, you were supposed to like look the same

so people could relate and know who you were.

So he s giving me this speech

and I m sitting there like.

[Brandy] I m gonna do what I wanna do.

And then he said,

Monica, you have not even turned 13 yet.

And now you ve cut your hair up.

And I still wear over-the-knee boots

even though this one doesn t have a heel.

My first album is probably my favorite

because it embodied all things me.

Nobody could tamper with, touch, talk to.

That little girl was so fearless

that I still respect her today at 45-years old.

Oh, my God, I m nervous about the pages.

Yes. Iconic!

Baby, the white shoes.

Come on, shoe.

If I could recall who picked them out.

God, those shoes.

I would give them a call.

Mo. Do you understand me?

Who had you in those shoes?

I have no idea.

They got it right until they got to my feet.

Before You Walk Out Of My Life

is one of my absolute favorite songs of my own.

Even when I perform this song, there s a feeling

that I get that I can t explain.

And I joke a lot about the white shoe.

You do. I ve seen that.

I do, cause I really don t care.

Please stop talking about children.

That was a child in those shoes on the curb.

And tell y all aunties to stop buying them.

They should not still be around in 2025.

I seen some of y all aunties down

to the stove in these shoes.

Right.

Okay, so when you laughing at me,

you laughing at your own folks.

At yourself. At yourself.

Ooh, cute.

This was a moment that I remember

because I had come of age for my mom to be open

to me having different colors in my braid.

It s like a brown, blonde moment in the front.

Moesha and Brandy were like almost parallel.

Like I didn t really change.

It was like this image of good girl and straight A s

and this, that, and the third.

So it wasn t really much different,

it s just that I could sing and she couldn t.

That was really the only difference.

Cinderella.

Didn t know that this would be so impactful

on people s lives.

Yeah, it definitely made any young black female

feel like I can.

Wow.

That s what I always think of when I think about it.

Wow.

When I think, or even when I see you

in this gown in particular,

the tiara, the whole, it s just one of those things

that you don t forget.

It s just a level of major that has to be acknowledged.

I was so excited to work with Whitney Houston.

Like I spent most of my childhood

trying to get a record deal and trying to meet her.

The fact that she was so supportive

and was able to see something in me

that I didn t see in myself,

like becoming a black princess.

That meant everything to me.

But it was all about working with her.

My first time meeting Whitney, I was a mess.

It s actually on You Tube,

it s like I run from her.

I m crying, I can t believe she s real.

It s really, it s a lot.

You know me.

I always say God aligns things.

I sang The Greatest Love Of All

and that s actually the song I was signed for singing that.

That is how and why Whitney and I met,

she saw something in me that made her want

to remind me to always be me.

Mm-hm, absolutely.

Because I think she felt like she had done a lot

of changing for others.

Of course, and probably for herself too.

For sure. Yeah.

And so she spent a lot of time talking to me

about stay the way you are.

Wow. That s who she really was.

And people didn t always get a chance to see that

and how much she gave up herself.

[Brandy] Yes!

Excuse me, I was talking for a-

[Brandy] I m excited.

The Boy is Mine.

Yeah, my daughter makes this exact face.

It s like sassy is in the DNA.

But it was necessary in this moment

where we re on the phone.

Oh, you brought this out-

One wall In this video.

I remember she had a Jerry Springer obsession.

Absolutely. I love Jerry Springer.

So, and there was a part in there

where you see him on the screen.

[Brandy] when you pay tribute to Jerry Springer Show.

I was able to see this when nobody else could see it.

Like nobody thought that we could do something together

and create something together magical.

I didn t know how big The Boy is Mine was gonna be,

but I knew that it would be something special.

I just felt it.

And so to see this with you 27 years later is unbelievable.

It s like-

I can t believe it s 27 years ago.

They re still asking today.

[Brandy] True.

So who got the boy? Right.

There was no boy.

It s like people really, like y all bought that?

It s a song, have fun, enjoy.

[Brandy] Yes. Okay.

So as we see at this point, I am married to the bust down.

What that mean?

A center part.

Typically when people say it now

they re talking about a wig.

But I definitely didn t have one of those.

[Brandy] Yeah, that ain t a wig.

Nah, I was rocking all me at this point.

[Brandy] Wow.

But what stands out to me most is I did another thing

without anyone s permission and got a tattoo.

It was my form of self-expressing.

[Brandy] Yeah.

You were just being yourself,

Yeah, it ended up being-

Thinking about the image.

A armband.

And then it became a thing where I wore them

and we created so many

that people started doing it all the time.

It didn t look like you were hiding a tattoo,

like you made it a thing.

Okay, have you ever?

This is a moment where I added hair to my braids.

I loved it, I felt different.

I felt like I was trying something new

and I just wanted to just do something different.

I had a lot of fun this day.

I love the fact that I felt a little bit older.

Mm.

You know, when you young, you wanna be grown.

I felt a little bit grown in this video.

I felt like I had a little bit more freedom.

Yes, Mo, wow.

As you see here, another smooth straight hair.

This is when I started to wear more

of like the vamp colors, makeup wise.

I started to have this affection

for long skirts and I would pull those every chance I got.

Was this connected to your ring?

Yes. Yeah, that s dope.

So that it wouldn t drag.

So it was almost like when you extended your arm,

it was connected.

That s the Grammys.

I remember we got outta the car-

[Brandy] That s me, goosies.

And just locked hands and walked.

Did we ride together?

No.

Oh, damn, it would ve been a great story.

[Brandy and Monica laugh]

I was really excited this day

and was excited to like go to the Grammy s with you

and like, what you looking at?

I m looking at.

Oh, okay, that s a wrinkle.

A wrinkle where?

[Brandy] I m like, now I know that s not my undergarments.

[Monica] You see here and here.

[Brandy] You didn t try undergarments at this age,

did you?

Absolutely, we 18, you need undergarments.

Right, I thought you meant like a Spanx.

No, back then we would ve had on a slip.

I didn t try on very much.

I have always hated trying on clothes,

which does not go together, since I love fashion.

Yeah, you just said the other day,

I don t do formal things, I m like, oh my God.

Like how do you know what you gonna wear?

Well, you create relationship.

And so I can look at something on a hanger

and be like.

I was really a diehard fashion girl.

I was in Chanel Runway.

Derek Khan was always reminding me like,

You re built like a model.

Right.

You can do the love honey.

He would just be giving it up, okay.

And this same year,

I actually went with the late Carl Lagerfeld.

Wow.

And I was so, so honored to be his muse

and be there in Paris

and exploring the house of Chanel

and everything that was all around was just next level.

I m looking mad that you didn t take me with you

to Paris to meet all of the Chanel people.

I mean, come on, yeah.

A fitting with the Carl Lagerfeld

is just something you don t forget.

Yeah, it s once in a lifetime.

And every time I touch something created by Chanel,

I m not lying, I think of him.

Wow.

[Monica laughs]

Don t laugh at my outfit.

I think I don t-

That s your reaction.

Okay, I don t know where this was.

I wanna say it was the Source Awards.

I thought I needed to be a little, you know, hip hop.

And I don t know if I got it right in this moment,

but that s my intention,

was to be a little bit more Source Awards.

Now, wow.

Full Moon? Pregnant?

I m not sure if I was trying to hide my pregnancy.

I don t think I was at that time.

It s like you can t, but my clothes were made

for the way my body was at that time.

[Monica] Okay.

But I was very happy here.

This is one of my favorite songs.

I loved the concept of the video.

I loved the way I felt, I had my baby with me.

I just felt like it was just a beautiful time.

Probably felt empowered.

In my life, yes, very empowered.

And I felt beautiful here.

This is when we getting into the real meat,

is that we getting all the way into it,

because I am still wearing short shorts

and over-the-knee boots.

It is a go-to for me.

I will absolutely still kick down the door.

Smack the chick in my... Not in real life.

Oh, my.

I am retired.

This song was created off of a phone call of mine.

And what happened was, Missy, I told her I needed

to take the call and I thought the mic was off

and the mic wasn t off.

I was reading down, I was giving.

Like the mic was off.

I was giving Yangtse tea back then.

And she was like, Yo, the mic was on, the mic, the mic.

I go to the studio the next day.

This is the song, So Gone. Wow.

So this was actually my favorite look

from the So Gone video shoot.

I love the hat.

[Monica] You ve been sexy.

I felt like I was coming back to music at this time.

I think this was TRL

and I was promoting the talk about our love song.

Yeah, I felt like I had just gotten my body back.

[Monica] You look great. Thank you,

And I felt like I was in a different kind of back,

like a sexy kind of vibe.

Never felt sexy before,

you know, that wasn t my thing.

So I was like growing into that.

Let s see.

Over-the-knee boots, live for die for.

Wow.

They could even bury me in a pair if need be, okay.

Even if you can t see my feet.

Just know over-the-knee boots are serious for me.

It was a tribute to a woman that I absolutely adore.

I was singing Not Going To Cry, for Mary,

the Mary J Blige. Wow.

I have an affection for her that is hard to explain.

She s always really vulnerable with me,

and we can talk about whatever

and it never leaves one another,

but we don t talk all the time.

Right.

So when they asked me to do this tribute,

it was an automatic yes.

I love nothing more than saying I should have left your ass

long time ago.

with this dark rouge lip, shades on.

Did you keep the shades on the entire time

you performed this song?

Absolutely, I was committed.

And 20 years later I can look at this picture

and think of all the memories she and I have.

This was the Grammys and this dress,

it was classy, but it was edgy.

And that s what I loved about it.

Hence the bat wings on my shoulder there.

[Brandy] I love the shoulders.

For me, it was me getting hot

and sliding this hat back, looking like Laura Farquhar

by the time the verses was over.

It started in the right place.

But then, as I got hot, it started going in this direction.

Wow.

So, [laughs] but what we did was

we bought multiple Fendi trench coats,

this bustier and the jacket and the hat

were all made from the trench coats.

I was happy to hear the songs together.

[Monica] Oh yeah.

Back and forth, like it was magical for me.

I was so happy when you played, He is.

I can t believe you like that song.

He Is, is. Yeah.

I never had a He is until now.

I know.

So now it s really in rotation.

I know.

My favorite Monica song.

Which Angel?

Mine.

Oh, wow, that is definitely the sweeter side of me.

Girl, you sweet. Just is what it is.

Yeah, I tried to tell people that.

Just because you sassy don t mean you re not sweet.

Thank you, you gotta say it, clock it.

Boom, well down.

This is the Ariana, the Boy is Mine

remix moment. Remix.

And I love that we walked in with the same vibe,

the same gloves.

we had on all black.

All black. From home to toe.

I had on [indistinct].

We were news anchors.

So we re giving the news and Ariana is out like Cat Woman.

But this was for me the moment when I said, you know what,

we could definitely go on tour.

We could do this, you know.

And that was the first time that we were able

to just have a real conversation with one another.

Welcome to my dream moment.

I don t like that everybody missed

the intention of us like working together

and coming together and sonically

and creatively being a part of something together.

I think one of the hardest parts when it comes

to our relationship has always been people

having something to say or people telling the story

and they never tell it right.

Right.

That s the part that drives me crazy.

That s true.

The facts don t be facting.

And some of the facts that people think are facts.

They were not facts at all. At all.

They were myths, they were feelings, they were untruths.

And this is where we started to just talk.

The evolution, the moment.

What I love about these strait jackets,

we re wrapped up in microphone cords.

Yes. And headset cords.

And that s what we ve been wrapped up in all of our lives.

Singing, working, performing.

This is something you have to do because you love it

and you re willing to sacrifice for it.

I m just happy that it finally happened

because this is something that like

I could just, I could see it, I could feel it.

It was necessary.

And I think before I left this earth,

this is something that I wanted to do.

And to be able to finally get to do it s just,

it s mind blowing.

This has been a long time coming.

We re here in those 27 years later now.

And being able to just go on the road,

take our kids and do our thing, it s going to be next level

and it s not the last thing that we do.

You heard it here first on Vogue

that this will not be the last thing.

Oh, it s not the last.

Thank you, guys, for being there throughout the years.

Back then and now, clock it.

We did that. We did it.

Come on. We gonna keep doing it.

Yes. Ooh.

Stop reading mine.

Oh, no, we re at work now.

[Monica laughs]

[gentle music]