00:00Hi Essence Family, this is Yolanda Sanguini, Entertainment Editor at Essence.com.
00:08Welcome to Coffee Talk, your weekly dose of what's hot on Essence.com.
00:13This week we hung out with one of our favorite singers, Monica, who talked to us about her current album, New Life.
00:19New Life was me basically saying the more I embraced that was changing in my life,
00:25or embraced the things that were changing in my life, the better it had been.
00:28I think fear is something that is natural, the fear of the unknown and things changing is always something that's hard.
00:35But for me it's been the best thing that's happened over the last decade of my life.
00:39So New Life is just me saying, embarking upon new things worked out to be exactly what I needed.
00:45It was definitely deliberate on my part to make the album mid-ballot heavy,
00:50where I could kind of go in depth in certain subjects.
00:53You know, I wanted it to be a very R&B driven record all across the board,
00:57because R&B soul music is something that I really, I live every day.
01:01I sing it when I'm not actually recording it or working, so I wanted the album to display just that.
01:06But I also tried to make attempts at making sure it still had a fresh energy,
01:11because I like a lot of different new things.
01:13For instance, Rico Love did a song for me called Man Who Has Everything, and it has a reggae feel,
01:18which is something I've never done before.
01:20And I have Daddy's Good Girl, which is a whole different feel.
01:24You know, in the subject matter, it leaves some things to the imagination,
01:28but kind of states the obvious in a way.
01:30So I definitely mixed it up, but tried to keep it very true to the R&B and soul of me.
01:35Monica also talked to us about her relationship with Brandi and working with her again on their new song.
01:40In 98, my first time meeting Brandi was when I walked into the session for The Boy Is Mine.
01:46And a lot of people don't know that.
01:48And they, it's natural, I think, sometimes for people to try to put females against one another.
01:53That's just a natural thing.
01:55And with us being at that point in high school, not really understanding a lot about the industry,
02:00we kind of fell into it a little bit.
02:02So The Boy Is Mine was something that we never promoted.
02:05We never went on the road.
02:06We only sang the song one time, and that was for the MTV Awards.
02:10So this time it's totally different because she's my girlfriend.
02:14So it's different when you're working with somebody that you care about and somebody that you know more about.
02:18In the 14 years, we learned a lot.
02:20We experienced some of the same things.
02:22Death, love, you know, tragedy, heartbreak, falling in love all over again, having children.
02:29So we have all these different things that give us common ground, so it was totally different.
02:34We recorded in Miami.
02:35We had a good time.
02:36We get out.
02:37We promote the record.
02:38We do things together.
02:39That is a totally different thing than the first time.
02:43She also talked to us about losing her dear friend, Whitney Houston.
02:47You know, it's hard to explain how the loss of somebody changes you because you recognize more and more things are different every day.
02:57When things happen in my life, I can't pick up the phone and call her anymore or ask her advice or just get a good laugh because she liked to have fun.
03:07Those are the things that I miss the most.
03:09I mean, of course, she left us with some of the most amazing music that will be known by our grandkids' grandkids.
03:15There will never be another voice like hers.
03:17The impact for me is more personal.
03:19I think that I'm more grateful for the fact that I had two days to spend with her before.
03:25And we had time to share in some things and talk about some things that I'll be able to carry with me throughout my life.
03:30But it's just hard to describe that type of pain.
03:33And two weeks later, my uncle passed.
03:35So real life is happening every day.
03:37I try to stay encouraged.
03:38I try to seek the positive in all things that take place.
03:41She didn't get peace in the midst of her life here on Earth.
03:44So I think that it's best that she have that peace in her death and always get the respect that's deserved from that end.
03:51Hi, I'm Monica, and you're watching Essence TV.
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