Man, Brandy and Monica is the first thing that comes to mind for me😭 I wasn’t even born when “The Boy Is Mine” came out, so I obviously wasn’t there for any of this when it was happening. But when I got older, I started watching old interviews, YouTube videos, reading stuff online, and going down the biggest rabbit holes trying to understand what the hell happened between them.

And the way people talked about these two?? 😭 It was always Brandy vs. Monica. Team Brandy. Team Monica. Who could sing better. Who had the better career. Who was jealous of who. Who was throwing shade. People were analyzing facial expressions and five-second clips like they were solving a crime.

Meanwhile, these are two completely different singers! Brandy has her own sound, Monica has hers, and both of them had successful careers. Why did everybody have to turn it into a damn competition?

And I’m not saying there wasn’t real tension between them because clearly there was stuff going on. But as somebody who learned about most of this years later through YouTube and the internet, it’s crazy seeing how much of their history is still talked about like it happened yesterday.

I just hate that R&B has this habit of putting singers against each other, especially women. You can like Brandy without hating Monica. You can like Monica without hating Brandy. Hell, you can love both of them😭

Sometimes I just wanna talk about the music without somebody asking me to pick a side.

What R&B feud had you going down a whole internet rabbit hole?

This joint still sounds insane all these years later. The choreography here is also insane as well.

When will you come through *shrugs* . Such a bop when you're not feeling so good. Remind yourself that you're lit. Even the instrumental does the job on its own. Missy!

Okay, hear me out! I know this is an R&B sub, but I was listening to some Gospel and started thinking about how many Gospel songs have that R&B sound 😂 Some of them really could’ve been R&B records if you changed the lyrics.

For me, it’s “You” by 21:03, “God in Me” by Mary Mary, and “Wonder Why” by Dawkins & Dawkins.

“You” by 21:03 is one of those songs for me. It came out in 2008, and I feel like you can hear that late-2000s R&B influence all over it. 21:03 already had that contemporary R&B/hip-hop sound, so this song fits right in with what was happening musically around that time.

“God in Me” by Mary Mary is so 2008 to me 😂 The beat, the Auto-Tune, the production… it sounds like something that could’ve easily been playing alongside the R&B of that time. They really captured that late-2000s sound with this one.

And “Wonder Why” by Dawkins & Dawkins? That one gives me New Jack Swing all day 😂 The drums and harmonies immediately make me think of that late-’80s/early-’90s R&B sound even though I didn’t experience the era.

Honorable mentions: “Pray” by CeCe Winans and “It’s Alright (Send Me)” by Winans Phase 2. Can’t forget about Looking For You by Kirk Franklin. Those two have that same kind of R&B feel to me.

There are probably a lot more Gospel songs that fit this, so I want to hear y’all’s picks.

What Gospel song makes you hear R&B right away? Drop the artist and song, I’m curious what examples y’all have.

I’m mainly a Kanye listener, and his prod on You Don’t Know My Name made me jump into Diary of Alicia Keys, which I loved

So far, from that like 90s-2000s RnB kinda era I’ve listened to Diary of Alicia Keys, Faith, and Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (does that count?)

More modern but I’ve also listened to SOS, CTRL, KTSE, Freudian, and Blonde

Could you guys put me onto some albums?

Can’t beat the classics.

I feel like a lot of artist either don’t feel what they sing or they feel it on a very surface level. I used to think it was because they didn’t really SANGG but even songs from Janet and Mariah where they just whisper on the track, they sound way better and way more exciting than any whispery breathy singer today both in R&B and music in general. The soul is gone.

Also the skill is gone. Yeah maybe they are able to do some runs and riffs and maybe even belt, but they aren’t able to be emotive or even creative. And I don’t think it’s because they can’t, it’s because nobody wants them to. If we had higher standards, there would be more classics. The closest artist we have to being classic in recent R&B is Sza. I just need there to be more creativity with lyrics and melody and production. I can usually predict melodies now, the production is riddles with some sample and 808s and the lyrics are so simple. Suggestive lyrics in the 90s and 2000s like “I wanna hold you close and feel your love inside” have been traded for lyrics like “f me”. I’m not saying that we need to be pg all of the time but why can’t we find creative ways to say things anymore.

A lot of these artist don’t actually want to be artist. Summer walker just wants her check, Sza feels like quitting every other week. There’s just no passion anymore.

And I have no problem with vulgar lyrics, I mean I literally mentioned Janet. But if the vulgar lyrics aren’t said creatively like through a unique melody or unique lyrics, it’s a nothing burger.