At a time when Black millennials are watching each model of the “American Dream” crumble, Brandy and Monica asserting their first-ever tour isn’t simply an iconic second in music; it’s a strong reminder that some issues we thought had been misplaced can nonetheless come again to us, that pleasure isn’t simply nostalgia, and that reconciliation, therapeutic, and Black womanhood can co-exist within the highlight—and alter us within the course of.
For therefore many people, the concept these two legends would ever stand facet by facet once more was extra fantasy than truth. We’d resigned ourselves to whispers, missed moments, and rumors of what may’ve been. When Ariana Grande dropped the “The Boy Is Mine” remix, we felt the glint. When the Grammy nomination got here, it stoked the hearth of risk, however nonetheless, we dared not hope. And now, right here it’s. The tour. The dream. The reunion.
It’s greater than music. It’s a risk mannequin, particularly for Black millennials who’ve accomplished the whole lot “proper” and nonetheless ended up with debt, exhaustion, and curated pleasure for social media. For these of us spending our weekends in $1000 sections, elevating $300 bottles to flee the burden of what we by no means obtained, the dream didn’t ship. However Brandy and Monica? They got here again for us.
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I do know it would sound additional to make this a lot of a tour, however I used to be born in 1982. I watched each step of their careers—the highs, the heartbreaks, and the silence. When “It All Belongs to Me” dropped, I believed possibly. However then Whitney handed. And the grief we carried for her additionally turned grief for the longer term we imagined for Brandy and Monica.
Their first and solely Grammy got here from their collaboration. Two solo powerhouses who reached their highest award-winning heights collectively. And now, a long time later, they return—not in rivalry, however in reclamation.
This tour is proof that point doesn’t kill what’s actual.
Success alone gained’t maintain an genuine relationship, and Black girls, it doesn’t matter what, will discover their means again to one another. I usually take into consideration what it means for 2 daughters of Whitney Houston to guide us now. Not simply musically, however emotionally. Spiritually. Communally.
We’ve Grown Up With Them—And Via Them
Should you’re underneath 45, Brandy and Monica are the soundtrack to your life.
Brandy raised us along with her runs. I spent years in a jail cell studying each advert lib from Full Moon with my pal TJ. “By no means Say By no means” was the balm for each a part of me that felt unseen. Brandy was Cinderella. Whitney was her fairy godmother. And I believed, really, that desires would possibly nonetheless come true due to them.
After I went by a divorce in 2018, Monica’s “Nonetheless Standing” turned my lifeline. Her voice—this teenage lady singing about ache I solely got here to know in my late 30s—helped me bear in mind I used to be nonetheless alive. That I may nonetheless love once more. Nonetheless hope once more.
What They’ve Taught Us About The Politics Of Chance
As an activist, I consider music can shift the world. If there’s chaos in a room and I can press play on “Again That Azz Up,” that room will be unified. That’s the sacred energy of our music.
It’s the identical magic that strikes by “The Boy Is Mine,” “Have You Ever,” “All the pieces to Me,” “Simply Certainly one of Them Days,” or something off Full Moon. Black pleasure. Black catharsis. Black reminiscence.
And now, with Monica’s youngsters rising into themselves, and Brandy’s daughter Sy’rai entering into her personal gentle—we are actually witnessing the legacy proceed. We’re not simply followers anymore. We’re witnesses.
This Was By no means Simply About Them—It Was All the time About Us
Let’s be sincere: the basis of their “feud” was by no means simply them; it was patriarchy. It was media. It was Brandy’s little brother on The Breakfast Membership. A technology of males helped craft a story of rivalry between these two younger women earlier than they even had an opportunity to form their very own story.
“The Boy Is Mine” was 99% male-produced—from lyrics to studio politics. On a latest podcast, Rodney Jerkins admitted that the producers engineered the collaboration assuming the ladies would conflict. Earlier than Brandy or Monica even heard the tune, grown males had been already scripting rigidity between two youngsters—pushed by fandom, worry, and the assumption that there’s solely room for one.
As a result of the world nonetheless believes that two QUEENS can’t discover a room massive sufficient to carry two thrones.
However right here they’re. Sharing the stage. Holding area. Refusing to shrink.
They usually’re not coming alone. They’ve introduced Kelly Rowland—one of many youngsters of Future—and Muni Lengthy, a pupil of Brandy, Mariah, and Whitney. The lineup is an ecosystem of Black girl excellence, bridging generations and legacies with intention. This isn’t nostalgia. That is reclamation.
This Is Our Ceasefire
In a second when our icons are dying or disappointing us, Brandy and Monica have given us a ceasefire. A sacred providing. A imaginative and prescient of what’s nonetheless potential when Black girls select therapeutic over historical past, energy over pettiness, and the folks over notion.
And that’s why I consider it issues to place activist language, tutorial principle, and liberation technique into the moments the world would inform us are “only a live performance.” As a result of if we dismiss this as trivial, we miss the miracle.
This isn’t only a present. That is resistance. That is restoration. That is revolution.
And the boy?
He was by no means the purpose.
The women are.
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