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Armed with young beauty, talented producers, and an angelic voice, 15-year-old Brandy immediately caught everyone's attention when she released her self-titled debut album in 1994. Her first single, “I Wanna Be Down,” stayed at No. 1 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop charts for four weeks and peaked at number No. 6 on the Hot 100. The singer quickly proved she wasn’t a one-hit wonder either, rolling with the hits throughout the ‘90s.
Brandy's talent allowed her to work with the biggest of stars throughout her career. She had collaborations with Whitney Houston, Chaka Khan, and Gladys Knight on her résumé before she was 20, and that wasn’t the only thing that made her stand out. Brandy has been able to transform herself and remain relevant for close to 20 years. She made the change from baby-faced star to young diva on Never Say Never, then to bonafide songstress on Full Moon and stayed in the mix with multiple hits on Afrodisiac.
Now Brandy is back with new single “Put It Down,” a track featuring Chris Brown that’s sure to make it on club playlists. The record is off her upcoming effort Two Eleven, which Brandy describes as “futuristic R&B.” But before stepping into the future, Brandy spoke to Complex about her classics.
As told to Brian Josephs (@Bklyn_Rock)
Brandy, “I Wanna Be Down” (1994)
Producer: Keith Crouch
Album: Brandy
Label: Atlantic
“‘I Wanna Be Down’ was interesting. I didn’t really get it at first, but I was young and I didn’t really know what worked at radio or what it was. I liked the song, but I just didn’t get it being the first thing that people heard from me. But it worked out well and I did a video for it.
“I was so excited about the video. I got a chance to work with some great people like Frank Gatson. All my friends were in the video. My brother was in the video. It was just a great experience.
“He was there and we had this little dance, and that became really popular. That was a fun time. I was so excited because my dream was coming through right before my eyes... at the age of 15.
“It took a little time because I was a new artist. But I heard it on the radio, I was on the way to Del Taco-it’s a fast food place in L.A-and I heard it on the radio and I was like ‘Oh my God. This is not real.' After I heard it on the radio, it just went.”
Brandy f/ MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, & Yo-Yo, “I Wanna Be Down (Remix)” (1994)
Producer: Keith Crouch
Album: The Best of Brandy
Label: Atlantic
“With Queen Latifah, I kept annoying them all, asking for their autographs, to take some pictures... I was really a fan, but at the same time I’m working with them. So it was interesting having to switch hats because I couldn’t hold my composure, but I had to because I had to be able to [work]. But working with people like that early on in my career taught me how to be both.
“I don’t keep it cool. Like last night we were eating somewhere and we saw Beanie Sigel and I was like ‘Oh my God! That’s Beanie Sigel.’ I was so embarrassed because of my manager and boyfriend, but I was really excited to see him because I’ve never met him. I just saw him on TV, so that was a moment.”
Brandy, “Baby” (1995)
Producer: Keith Crouch
Album: Brandy
Label: Atlantic
“‘Baby’ was fun. It was right after the ‘I Wanna Be Down’ remix. That hit right away because it had Queen Latifah, MC Lite, and Yo-Yo on the remix. The remix was on the B-side of ‘Baby.’
“It was fun because I got a chance to shoot a video in the middle of Times Square. So all these people were passing by and were like ‘Who’s this girl on stage in the middle of Times Square?’ I had a great time shooting the video. I could just feel myself really starting to open up, really come out of my shell and find myself as a young artist."
Brandy, “Best Friend” (1995)
Producer: Keith Crouch
Album: Brandy
Label: Atlantic
“I loved ‘Best Friend.’ I actually think that was the song that should’ve been the first single, because it was about my brother Ray J and he was in the video. It was so much fun just working with him, because it never feels like work when we work together. We were just young and we had so much fun doing that. It was great to do a song about him, because he means everything to me.
“It was just about our relationship. We were not going through anything at the time. I just wanted to dedicate a song to him that meant something to me. It was like one of [the ‘I Dedicate’ skits] but it was a full song. The dedication interludes were about people who inspire me from the legends and greats to the people that were just people that I grew up with.”
Brandy, “Brokenhearted” (1995)
Producer: Keith Crouch
Album: Brandy
Label: Atlantic
“My mom and my dad always told me I had something. My dad always told me never look to the left or to the left. Just stay low and keep it moving, and what he meant by stay low was keep moving and pay attention to you and don’t worry about anyone else because no one else can’t be you. So I kept that in my head.
“Plus, before that, in school and the things that I went through in school kind of helped me build a character and build a strength for this business. I mean when you can sing ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ in front of your peers and the whole school is laughing at you, then you keep going, you’re built for something. And I think I was built for this business.”
Quincy Jones f/ Brandy & Heavy D, “Rock With You” (1996)
Producer: Quincy Jones
Album: Q's Jook Joint
Label: Qwest Records
“To be able to do a Michael Jackson song that I love, and to do it with Quincy Jones who did it him, and to do it with Heavy D? These are legends to me... I was so amazed. Recently I just tweaking a song, and I was in the same exact room that I was in when I was recording ‘Rock With You.’ I could see Quincy Jones over here. I could see Heavy D walking in the room getting ready to do his part. It was an amazing flashback for me. Amazing memory."
Brandy, “Sitting Up in My Room” (1996)
Producer: Babyface
Album: Waiting to Exhale
Label: Arista
“It’s so funny because Babyface was like the hottest producer at the time, and I just wanted to work with him so bad. So I finally got a chance to work with him and I was in the studio with him, and all I wanted to do was impress him. I was doing the most and he had to tell me to calm down, because I was doing too much. So that dream came true, and to be on a soundtrack with so many great artists like CeCe Winans and Mary J. Blige... Whitney Houston, of course. It was her soundtrack.
“To be on that soundtrack was like, ‘Wow, this is really happening. This is dope. Like God is really hooking me up right now.’ And I loved the song.
“The video was fun too. I had a great relationship with Hype Williams. He had done the ‘Baby’ video and the ‘I Wanna Be Down’ remix video, so we were very familiar with each other. I love working with him and that was a fun video. One of the actors in ‘Waiting to Exhale’ [Donald Faison] was in the video. So I wanted to meet him and hang out with him. It was a a great video, dance and everything. It was dope.”
Brandy, “Missing You” (1997)
Producer: Barry Eastmond
Album: Set It Off
Label: EastWest Records
“It was so great to work with Gradys Knight and Tamia. I was a little bit irritated though because I wanted to be in the movie. We were shooting the video with Gary Gray and I’m like, ‘Why didn’t you put me in that movie.’ But the song was good enough. I was just like I could handle the song. I could just be cool with that."
Brandy & Whitney Houston, “Impossible” (1997)
Producer: Richard Rodgers
Album: Cinderella Sountrack
Label: N/A
“It was unbelievable. I grew up watching Whitney. To meet her and to work with her was just like a dream come true. Like to look at her and to talk to her and realize that she was a real person was so surreal to me.
“I had a dream about Cinderella [one] night. I had a dream that we were redoing Cinderella, even though I’m too old to be Cinderella right now [laughs].
“That was really a moment for me: to be the first African-American princess for one, and to be chosen by my idol, my mentor, someone that means everything to me and still does, to be part of a multi-cultural cast, and to work with legends like Whoopi Goldberg, Bernadette Peters. It was a fairytale. I was really living the dream.
“It was so challenging because the music was so different than anything that I had ever done. It wasn’t R&B... It was a different sound for me, and it was a challenge for me to find which voice to use. There was different things I was doing. I learned how to waltz. All this stuff was just amazing. It was as if I was on Broadway, but it was a film.
“I was nervous. My voice wasn’t fully developed, and even if it was fully developed, I wasn’t gonna be on Whitney’s level. It’s funny because there’s a video of us recording ‘Impossible’ on YouTube. It’s so funny. I’m like ‘I’m gonna move from the mic and you go forward, or I’m gonna come forward and you move back so I can be heard.’ It was fun and I was able to just get comfortable with her. After a while, she was just my friend. We had a good time, but I was nervous because I wanted to impress her.
“She used to always say, ‘I just want to shake your stomach so you could sing louder. Sing from your gut,’ because she always felt like I was singing [from the chest], and I was. She just would always shake my stomach so i could sing louder.
“There’s so much that she said to me. But the one about my voice... I’m like everybody can’t sing as loud as you. Leave me alone [laughs]. I’m just trying to do me.”
Brandy & Monica, “The Boy is Mine” (1998)
Producer: Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins
Album: Never Say Never
Label: Atlantic
“We were in the studio together at first. But ‘The Boy is Mine’ was already done without Monica, and I was like ‘Mhm, this song needs Monica on it.’ At that time we hadn’t really met and we hadn’t really known each other at all, but people were putting us against each other. They were making us into a rivalry. I was like this was the perfect song to continue that. It just made sense because people already thought we didn’t like each other, so we had this song and it was the perfect song to keep that going.
“She got on the song, she did so good, and she just made the song what it needed to be. It came out and did what it did, and I was like ‘Woah, this is pretty big.’ I’ve never had a number one single on the Billboard Hot 100. We did R&B charts and we got to the top on those, but we didn’t get all the way to number one on the Hot 100. That’s an accomplishment, because you want to see number one in the red.
“They brought into it too much to the point where it’s like now we really don’t like each other. People still send me tweets today, I’m sure Monica will tell you the same thing, “So whose boy was it?” People really buy into that stuff. But we never were really fighting over a boy. We didn’t even know each other to not like each other. So it was one of those phenomenons that kind of just made sense, I guess, to everyone.”
Brandy f/ Ma$e, “Top of the World” (1998)
Producer: Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins
Album: Never Say Never
Label: Atlantic
“That was an interesting method. It was much different than ‘The Boy is Mine,’ but it was still produced by Rodney Jerkins. We were just trying different things and what we were trying was working. We just thought that Ma$e would be perfect for the record, and it kinda sounded like a little bit like Bad Boy mixed with what Rodney and I was doing. It just worked.
“We were in the zone, Rodney and I, in that era. I miss that zone... I miss the ‘90s too, but I don’t wanna go back [laughs].
“I loved Bad Boy. I loved the Ma$e records, I loved the Biggie records, I loved Total, I loved Faith, everything they were doing. I had everybody’s album. Then I’m a hip-hop head, so I loved all of that stuff. It was a movement, it was a force, and I was just so happy to work with Ma$e and get a shoutout in one of Biggie’s songs. I felt like I was on top of the world when Biggie said my name in one of his songs [‘Another’ f/ Lil Kim]. I was like, ‘Yes honey, I’m hot.’
“I felt so good about myself because Biggie was like the hottest artist ever. It was great, and again I’m a fan, so to be around all of it... these were great, great artists. Puffy did his thing.”
Brandy, “Have You Ever?” (1998)
Producer: David Foster
Album: Never Say Never
Label: Atlantic
“I’ve experienced what the song is about. I was in love with someone and it didn’t work out, and I cried and everything that the song said, so it was appropriate to do that song. I was 18, so it was time to get into my womanhood. It was a great experience working with them.
“I was challenged because David Foster taught me about Money Notes. He was like you gotta go on up there. Money Notes, you got to hit them notes because that’s where the money is. That’s where you get the Holy Ghost and stuff like that-hitting the money notes. So I had to deliver that for him, and he really helped me get to that point where I felt confident enough to try. I would always say if I crack, don’t laugh, but I’m gonna try. I cracked a couple of times, but we got the notes on wax.
“It didn’t take a lot of takes, but definitely they have you do a couple of takes a choose from the best. But again, I was so in awe of these people. I think that helped me, because I wanted to do good. I wanted to impress them. So I would just try anything. I wasn’t afraid to embarrass myself, that’s something that I’ve never been afraid to do. I would crack, I would hit a wrong note, but I’m gonna try. That’s something that I’ve always done. But I tried to impress them, and impressing them was what helped me get what they needed. Who doesn’t want to make David Foster proud?"
Brandy, “Angel in Disguise” (1999)
Producer: Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins
Album: Never Say Never
Label: Atlantic
“‘Angel in Disguise’ was one of my favorite songs. When I heard this, I was like, ‘Oh my God. A song like this exist?’ And Joe was already on it. Joe is the one going ‘And I love you baby.’ I love Joe, he’s amazing. So just to have a little sample of him on the song, I was like yes, that’s hot... At first it was an interlude. I was like, ‘Ya’ll crazy, we got to turn this into a real song.’"
Brandy, “Almost Doesn’t Count” (1999)
Producer: Guy Roche
Album: Never Say Never
Label: Atlantic
“I love performing that song live. Guy Roche did that song. I think I wanted to go somewhere with my friends that day, so I got in the studio and I loved the song immediately. I just sang it from my heart, and I left. I did it quick because I wanted to go somewhere. Plus I loved the song, and when I love a song so much, it goes fast. I got that out the way, and went to the mall somewhere [laughs].”
Brandy, “U Don’t Know Me (Like U Used To)” (1999)
Producer: Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins
Album: Never Say Never
Label: Atlantic
“To find Rodney Jerkins was rare. They don’t come around like that everyday. To find him, it was a match made in heaven, and it still is. We have so much more that we can do together. He was special for me, he did a lot for me, and he believed in me. He helped me to be versatile.
“The first album sounds nothing like Never Say Never. But I was blessed to find a Keith Crouch for the first album. There was a chemistry there, and there a chemistry with Rodney. That’s so important in music: to have a chemistry with your producer. I was able to do a lot of different type of records with Rodney. He helped me find my voice.”
“I knew what a classic was but, I didn’t know what my classic would sound like. Creativity is an energy, it’s a spirit. When you follow it, it brings great things. I think on Never Say Never we followed it. We were not afraid to follow that guidance, and it was all for the right reasons.
“It was really for the people. When you do music for others, which is why you should do music, it should never be about you... It’s not right. If you coming out doing this because ‘I wanna win’ and ‘I’m about to kill the game,’ that’s when you get in your head and it becomes about being successful first. Everybody wants to be successful, but it shouldn’t be the main [objective]. It should be about the people.
“This is not about you, you’re here of service. God gives you a gift to share with those, and if you don’t think about the other people, then it’s not going to work. All artist should know that. That’s top secret number one.”
Brandy, Mary J. Blige, Faith Hill, Whitney Houston, & Chaka Khan, “I’m Every Woman” (1999)
Producer: N/A
Album: VH1 Divas Live '99
Label: VH1
“I was nervous that day because I had lost my voice. I was really hoarse that day, but I pulled through. It was great to share a stage with Tina Turner, Whitney Houston... that was something. It was like what am I even doing here. I’m too young for this [laughs].
“You’re always afraid to hit the Money Notes live, because you don’t want to make a mistake. You want to make people feel good and hit the right notes. Every singer will tell that they want to hit the right notes all the time.
“I believe that was the last time I worked with Whitney professionally. That’s so sad... I didn’t care if it was professionally or personal. I just wanted to be in her life. I just wanted to be around her.”
Brandy, “What About Us?” (2002)
Producer: Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins
Album: Full Moon
Label: Atlantic
“There was no pressure at all. I just know it took me a minute to find out what I wanted to do, because Never Say Never was a hard act to follow. People responded to that album well; I actually loved that album, as well. I just wanted my work to be just as good, and I wanted it to be up a notched.
“I was comfortable. I was in a zone with a team that I’d did Never Say Never with, from LaShana Daniels, to Rodney Jerkins to Fred Jerkins. We were all there, and it was interesting because Rodney was doing Michael Jackson [Invincible] at the time and we were all in the same place. I didn’t get a chance to see Michael a lot, but a lot of the energy he was giving Michael, he shared it with me. I felt comfortable.
“We were in Miami and it was definitely a step up from Never Say Never. I’d say [Full Moon] is my favorite album that I’d ever done.”
Brandy, “Full Moon” (2002)
Producer: Mike City
Album: Full Moon
Label: Atlantic
“As soon as I heard the song-Mike City, the producer, played it for me-I was like this is it. No one will be expecting this, it was just new. I was so in love with the song. No one got it but me. It was like nobody got it. I’m like ‘This is it, what are you people hearing?’ I believed in it so much.
“I remember Ryan Shapiro, he was running Atlantic at the time, called me and was like, ‘It looks like you knew what you were talking about. Full Moon is a hit.’ I was like, ‘Yes! Finally somebody is listening to me.’
“It was just different. The lyrical content was amazing; it was so poetic. And the sound of it: I was able to do different things with my voice and not be limited to one particular way of singing. It was so different and people loved it.”
Brandy f/ Kanye West, “Talk About Our Love” (2004)
Producer: Kanye West
Album: Afrodisiac
Label: Atlantic
“Kanye’s cool. He knows exactly what he wants. When you work with people like that, you have to be as clear as they are. So we had a great time at the video shoot, he was basically helping with directing the video as well. It was fun working with him.
“No offense, but ‘Talk About Our Love’ was never really my choice to come out with. I had created a creative energy and a creative bond with Timbaland. What we were trying to do for the album, it was a completely different sound than ‘Talk About Our Love.’ It was just a little bit interesting for me, and I just wanted to keep the same consistency. But also, Kanye was hot at the time and I wanted to work with him too, but for me it was really what I was trying to create a creative bond with Timbaland. So that wasn’t my choice to come out with that first.”
Brandy, “Afrodisiac” (2004)
Producer: Timbaland
Album: Afrodisiac
Label: Atlantic
“When I first heard that track I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ It was different. I’m not trying to do what I did before. I’m trying to do something different, but still have the same elements that people know me for. And that’s what Afrodisiac was. It was the most critically acclaimed of all my albums. It’s not the most successful, but my fans, that’s like their favorite album.
“It was great to do a record like that with Timbaland. He was one of my favorite producers, so to work with him was a dream come true.”
Brandy f/ Chris Brown, “Put It Down” (2012)
Producer: Bangladesh
Album: Two Eleven
Label: RCA
“Chris Brown has always been a fan. He’s always been supportive of me, and he heard the song and got on it. Tina Davis has been down with me as well, so it was just a perfect thing. Plus, Chris Brown is a writer on the album so he was able to hear the song and just express himself. He really got in there and did his thing. I had no clue he was gonna rap and sing. So when I heard it I was like, ‘Oh well, this is hot. I guess I’ll be doing a song with Chris Brown.’ Can’t take him off of it. It’s too hot [laughs].
“Some of the upbeat songs [on Two Eleven] are very much like ‘Put It Down.’ But then you have the classic... me on the album as well. It definitely has an edge and grit to it, kind of like what Afrodisiac had. It’s definitely futuristic R&B. I’m happy to work with people like Sean Garrett, Rico Love, Ester Dean, Frank Ocean and Chris Brown."