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Brand and Monica Verzuz

Source: Verzuz Live / Verzuz Tv

The conversation around Brandy and Monica’s Verzuz battle was layered and varied. People wanted to know had the two really put the past behind them? Were they taking slight jabs at one another? Would they ever go on tour together, and lastly is Monica trying to get back with her ex Corey Miller aka C Murder.

Thankfully, Monica addressed all of those inquiries in a recent interview with V103’s Kenny Burns.

Check out the highlights from their interview in the video below.

Resolution

We hadn’t even seen each other in eight years. We hadn’t spoken in eight years. Communication is key. That’s in anything. People don’t realize how important that is in a working relationship. If the foundation is good, you can’t start messing with the wall and things fall apart. The foundation is still there. I just think our foundation needed work. We just had a real dope conversation. She explained some things, why she felt a certain way about certain things and I was able to do the same and just move forward.

And it’s funny because the stuff that happened off camera was bigger for me, just the human side of me, than what was actually on camera. On camera we’re thinking about the songs, the things we need to do, making sure we do it in a certain amount of time. So you didn’t really get to see the authenticity of us having a real conversation as adult women. And I just hope that the back and forth dies out.

People saying Monica won or Brandy won. There was no winner. We didn’t get paid to be there. We wanted to be in that same room together in that moment, in that space, period.

It’s really difficult but I have long learned that public perception is going to typically be the opposite of what’s really happening. And I’m ok with that as long as the younger group of artists got to see that if we can come together and figure it out for something we wanted to do. Anybody else can.

I would never disclose what she said to me but what she said to me was the comfortability that I needed. Because I’m always cool with being accountable when something is me. And that was something we both took a beat to do. There’s accountability on both parts.

People also don’t understand how they make it worse. So we had to figure out, if they make it worse, how do we make it better. I’m over here raising kids, I’m going through a whole lot of different things. She’s raising a beautiful daughter. She has all these things going on. We’re really not thinking about each other like you guys think we are. But when we’re together, the friction starts over like it’s 1998, 1999 again. And that’s what I want to end.

Brandy And Monica Were All Smiles At The 41St Annual Grammy Awards

Source: Ron Wolfson / Getty

People want to be body language analysts and all of that. You can’t do that. My initial saying ‘No, I don’t think it’s a good idea’ was only because I knew that people would still say something was wrong.

We were listening to my song, we were dancing. We were talking. People have no idea. But I’ve learned to be okay with people not knowing or not understanding. If you know what your intentions are, you can’t get caught up on the perceptions of it and lose sight of what your intentions are. My intentions were to say, ‘We’re both here and we are serious about acknowledging each other’s legacies and saying job well done on both parts.’

I always did what I wanted to do. But that was something that Brandy was really open about last night. She was like, ‘Mo, a lot of what I did was because I always held things in.’ Now, I let everything out and then I’m able to move on. And then we were able to talk about all the great things that have come from our growth and bring them together.

Brandy’s father

What stuck out to me on the Verzuz was when she said, ‘Mo, that’s my dad singing with me at the beginning.

A lot of people would never know that Mr. Norwood—listen I’m in full support that when you’re with your people, you hold your people down. So when we were not on the best of terms, I was treated as such by her people. And I’m okay with that. I’m not saying that in a negative way. I’m in full support. When you’re with your people, you hold your people down. But her father was always, always so genuine towards me. And he told me one time, when I was really young, I was about 17 or 18. He said, ‘I can look at you and see that you’ve been through a lot and see why you feel a lot of the things that you feel.’ And he really spoke to my spirit. And I’m all heart. Stuff like that is what matters to me. She said, ‘It’s funny that that’s one of my favorite records and you’ve never seen me and not asked about my father.’ There’s so much history there that so many people won’t ever know but that’s the way she and I like it. It was the real thing at Verzuz.

 

Why they stayed seated during the Verzuz

I wanted to perform so bad. I would love to do an unplugged live where we could really sing, sing and play our songs. I had moments where I would jump up and then think about what I was told and be like, ‘Wait a minute.’

A possible tour

My prayer would be—if we were to ever tour—that people come have fun. You can like both. Anything is possible because we had a real conversation. We opened the doors that had been closed for many years. It just opened so many amazing musical doors, you have no idea. I just want people to have fun. How can you have fun arguing? How can you have fun fussing? How?

C-Murder

I’m very serious about helping him to become free. And this isn’t a contingency about anything pertaining to me. And I was like disappointed that the narrative ended up going that direction. Because the truth is, the goal is just simply that. He has daughters that, when he was arrested, were children and are full grown women now. I’ve looked at what it’s done not only to them but him and that pushed me to step into this place and to start speaking out on his behalf was to apply pressure to those that had such a big part in not just incarcerating him but the incarceration that happens all over this world, especially to our men when there’s no evidence and there’s no proper reasoning for them to be there.

I was never trying to discredit anyone else. I did not know Kim well. I knew her in passing. And I started watching before reaching out to her. I researched. I researched her father and why this was important to her…I did not know her the way I know her now.

Studying this case and talking about the specifics of it with his lawyers Tim and Jessica, there’s so much evidence that says that he should be a free man. It pushed me to say if I do have a voice and I do have a platform, it should be used for the things I believe in. And I believe in him.

And the relationship piece of it, of course that’s how we knew each other. But we weren’t together when he was arrested and we weren’t together during his incarceration but it never changed our friendship. And it was kind of unfair when other people got brought up.

For instance, my ex husband, I never did anything that was disrespectful in that light. Every time I went to New Orleans, he went as well. You know I handle my business in a certain way. I don’t do anything I wouldn’t want done to me. So this wasn’t about relationship. This was about freedom.

Now, I joke about the other stuff a lot. But this is about what’s right and what’s wrong. And he is not the only person this has happened to. He just happens to be the person I know and love.

I could care less about who else has been in his life because right now he is property of the state of Louisiana and until that changes, I don’t care about anything else. I’m built different. I’m made different. You can come for me, you can throw stones but I know my purpose in his life, I know my purpose in this case.

And for Kim to sit down and read every detail of his case—she can tell you things that even I had not seen in almost 19 years. And hopefully after we can help him, we can help a lot more people.

 

 

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