it's nice to finally meet you man i've been a fan from a distance for a long time nice to meet you too but i'm really happy that we get a chance to do it albeit in this kind of q zone this kind of quarantine isolation thing we're all getting to normalized by i think no good to meet you zane yeah you too congratulations that's that tone we were
looking for that's that voice unmistakable as soon as you stretch out into a space that inspires you no one sounds like you it's crazy and this song really is another perfect example of that um how did you know how did you know this was something that you were going to write on and it was going to be yours
this piece of music this vibe you know it's just uh when you've been away from music for such a long time i mean you just you know it just felt like a you know something was missing in my life you know i just wanted to get back to it you know i just felt inspired i felt like it was time to you know tell
my story through music and and get back at it and it's just such a great time such a great journey i always wonder with artists who are so intrinsically linked to the to the need to create what space feels like when you're not creating and and how the the time flies like that how it goes eight years you know between projects
and and i know life carries on but i suppose before we even talk about the the structure of what you do how it feels well i i i would have to say that music doesn't really stop you know i'm always singing i'm always um creating um just not in the studio not you know on a certain project you know what i mean but
i'm all like i said i'm always singing and then i'm always uh finding ways to to satisfy that that that hunger to just um to be passionate about something you know i'm acting you know of course creating with my daughter raising her and just living life but to just really sit down and focus on a project that's when it that's when it's
something else it's something serious and you know where you you think about uh you know all that all the other things that you've done and try to do something um that's that's more evolved and reinvent yourself and you know that's where it gets uh you start to really think about it and uh try to put something together put a
body of work together that you can be proud of it's easy to get lost in that i mean you start sitting there and kind of trying to sort of play comparative data with your own head and so what i've done to where i want to go can be a crazy situation and how did you how did you find you know what were some of the important moments that helped you
create a clearing well for me um i felt like i wanted to uh just be as honest as possible uh with this new project i wanted to approach this project like if this was my last chance if this was my last shot at creating music like what would this project be about what it what would it sound like you know would i just
you know bear it all would i um you know just tell my story as deep as i could tell it and i wanted to of course you know stay true to r b but at the same time go outside of the box so i wanted to you know work with someone that could understand that and that's why i um was able to connect and have that chemistry with
dj camper uh and and we just had such a great chemistry and then also with lashawn daniels who i've worked with for for many many years who's no longer with us but uh he was such a crucial part such a you know an instrument and and how i was able to push forward and in writing and producing with this with this with this music it
must have been really tough it's tough to lose somebody at that moment you know someone who's been there for you at such a crucial a crucial point in your career to able to help you get to a place where you can be at your most honest and vulnerable and then not be able to share in the reward with that person must have been really tough
yeah it's still really tough it's still really tough but i just i just pray you know that i that i was able to make him proud and you know i i went with a lot of the songs that he stamped and that he felt felt positive about uh but i try to you know hear his voice in my mind and in my heart and and hopefully i can carry out you know
his legacy and and do the things that he would he would approve of yours is such a fascinating story your life story is um so i'm for the books i tell you you know that early success yeah of course look i mean where you came from achieving that kind of early success recognizing the gift that god gave you
making the most of it somehow coming out the other end of that continuing to build a foundation of a career going through challenge to triumph and now somehow finding yourself at a point being a mom and ready to tell your story um can i ask you how old your daughter is my daughter's 18. so she's old enough to know the story
and she knows the story and um and i wonder how that kind of impacts your writing when you have a teenager i have two how you have a teenager and you know that you know the stories you can't hide away from me anymore you gotta tell them tell them straight up because that's that lesson you have to teach your kids is be honest
and i wonder you know how what the balance was between fact and fear in this process you know because it's scary doing that it is very scary because you know as a parent you you lead by example and you know what you do affects them you know because they're watching you and that's how you uh teach is by what you do
um but at the same time you don't want to be dishonest you want to um you're not perfect you have to um you know be open with them so they can understand that you know through the things that you do you know through the trials and the errors of life you learn and you grow and you overcome and one of the beautiful things that i believe that
you know i'm i'm happy to share with my daughter is that i was able to go through a lot of the things that i've gone through but i was able to overcome them as well i could look back on those things and and and and truly say that i've learned and i've i've come out you know on the other side there's there's really light at the end
at the end of the tunnel so um she can see that and and she's also proud of that as well and um just seeing her go through her trials and her errors in life you know she can look to me and say well my mom came through a lot i could i can come through it as well so what was the most challenging
and emotional subject to face down on this project what was the one that really you really needed to find that courage to find the words to put it out there it was my struggle with uh with heartbreak and finding my my self love um that was difficult for me just always looking for love in someone else and needing someone else to feel um
a void that i needed to feel for myself and you know i i it could sound cliche but it but it's really not it was really something that i really needed to uh to to face with within myself is to um find that that true true love within me because looking for it in other people and looking forward and in relationships
success ambition all the things you try to put it into you won't find it there you won't find it there at all and it was a long road it took so many um years for me to to realize that um but thank god for music because without music um i feel like i could journal about it i could you know get counseling on it
you know all of that helps but music is like for me to really you know use music as a way to heal and and you know it it really helped me discover that you know along with everything else that i did to work through it well when did you realize that if you can look back on it now because every story needs to be traced back as closely as
possible to in order to understand the work that needs to be done and i wonder like as a as a young person if you can kind of put it into context as to as to when you start to realize that the love you were seeking was a distorted form of love based on that kind of the you know what what your success and talent gets you versus
something that's real that can be that can be harvested within and shared with others it's a genuine gift that is a transient gift it's a beautiful one it's like a bump of adrenaline but it's transient when did you looking back on it why what fractured there that that made you realize that that was the love you were seeking you know
fame and you know everybody else's opinion and uh you know all of that all of that you know it's it's it's not it's not real you know and validation from [Music] every person in your life you know that only that only lasts for so long you know you you need your you need your own um voice to outweigh everyone else's voice
um and like i said when you when you can sit with yourself when you can you know really sit in your own solitude and and really basically you know get in touch with your your higher you the better part of yourself um that becomes the voice that that that rings true that becomes the voice that you listen to that that still small voice
within yourself that becomes the most important voice and when you when you get in touch with that that voice becomes louder and louder and louder we're playing music as well that you've handpicked and i realize now that there's so many so many really relevant touch points in this playlist that refer to the conversation we've already started i
mean we just kicked things off i had to rearrange a few things i hope you don't mind i took a few liberties based on what we're doing in real time right now you know and i had to kick things off with the first ever single you know and uh because it just felt like we were taking it back to that moment where it's like
the whole journey began and who was brandy back then like when you realized that you were caught lightning in a bottle at such a young age it's uh how was that looking back on that now with the benefit of hindsight and wisdom what was that feeling like and and who was the who was the child really that
was experiencing that success oh my god i was having so much fun just like my dreams were just coming true like like that it was like is this really is this really happening you know i went from you know being in high school one semester and then on tv the next it's like i just i just couldn't believe what was happening to
me i was just having the time of my life you know um you know to you know be it taco bell and to hear your song on the radio it's like what's really going on you know and it's it was it was like a really um just a beautiful time for me yeah but you couldn't have seen what was coming right i mean you just couldn't i mean you
dreamt it i dreamt it i i i wanted to be you know everywhere i could be you know i was a kid that listened to the radio all the time and you know wanted to be popular what was driving that ambition though brandy though to be popular what is the ambition that drives you when your peers are out there just
playing sports doing the math trying to get to a different point in life to do other things and your ambition your fire in you is to go and become a household name around the world and to start this crazy journey what is it that prompts that do you think looking back on well sinking was all i had going for me
that that's that's the only thing that i i really believed in you know that i that i had you know and that was fueled by just um you know always performing in church and you know always being around my dad who encouraged me to to you know uh to to sing because that that's that was it for me you know and then just you know i was always uh motivated by
you know people around me that said you know that i wouldn't i wouldn't do anything i wouldn't make it you know i was bullied a lot as well so that that encouraged me to to prove people wrong so that was a that was a lot of common yeah that was a lot of my you know that was my drive brandi i'm looking at this list of songs
that you've given us in amongst some really important touch points in your career you've chosen some really poignant songs by other artists as well and um i want to talk about this is gonna be a tough one straight in but you know someone who didn't someone who didn't get through the other side of it and i was not able to get to a point
where they could find a way out was whitney um you know and you've chosen a couple of whitney houston songs on this playlist and uh you know it must resonate with you somebody who i know you idolized and admired and got to know um they came out the other side of that and it just couldn't couldn't make it yeah she she
had a very very um tough time especially in the end of her life um but what she was able to not only accomplish but what she was able to um do and experience with her voice um is unmatched i mean and i i really wish that that's what she could be remembered for more so than anything it's how she was able to touch us with
her with her voice that's guys go there tell us a story about like a memory because that's how we do it you replace all of the stuff that that that becomes the short-lived tale you replace it with the long tail which is the talent and the human with stories so tell us a really great story a really great story
wow um well a lot of my really great stories are all on youtube when like when i first met her like i i couldn't believe that she was even a real person i saw her i ran away from her and i i was screaming and i just i just couldn't believe it she embraced me and she asked me about you know just how this you know how i was taking everything and
i just remember just having a conversation with her and just her being like a really down-to-earth person and immediately she just made me feel comfortable to just be myself um and we just had so many great moments like that um i remember being in the studio with her and just singing with her and feeling like you know i'm singing with my
my idol you know i i never would have thought that i just wanted to meet her i never thought i would be able to just uh be in the studio and just to share mike with her of course you know she was just breathtaking you know she represents so much to the world in terms of i wouldn't even say what is possible
because what whitney houston accomplished to your point is not possible for anybody else like that is just it's god's gift but also what she represented to female artists and then what she represented to black female artists at the time and the ability of what was possible as someone who took that inspiration and followed to
some degree in her footsteps and was inspired to take risks and be ambitious can you elaborate on that what it meant to be a black female artist at the time watching whitney houston come out of the shadows i mean to see someone that looks like you like it i don't even think i can describe it i can i can say this she never
she never looked like someone she never represented like that it was impossible it always felt like what she did and what she accomplished was possible that was the magic of whitney houston even though it was impossible what she did you know it always felt like it was inspiring yeah it was inspiring and that and that
was what was so amazing about her is that as as huge as as she was as big as she was as many people as she reached it it always felt like you can do it too just just just do you know just take the the steps that i took you know um even though it was impossible but you know she uh she benefited and suffered at the hands of
one of modern life's most interesting and intense opportunities which is fame the idea of fame and what it's become and now it's at the hands of everybody and you can become infinite infamous for an hour or a minute it's crazy um she really was one of the modern modern modern life's first uber famous human beings and um
and you yourself have been through that we talked a bit about it from a young age um making mistakes going through challenges in life things that happen life happens but when it happens to you when you're famous like how how do you even deal with them it happens to people all the time but it happens them in private
and i wonder like what that what what your feelings about fame are now that you are at a point in your life where things seem balanced at least to me listening to the music in our conversation how does fame even rash how does it even equate to balance well i've i've come through a lot you know when it comes to fame i've endured
a lot when it's when when it's come to fame um i've been through my my my struggles with that you know um i've been i've been blessed to um come out the other side of it you know um but it's a very dangerous thing it's very scary i don't like fame zane i don't like it at all i think that it should be it should be rules to it
i think that i'm i'm like my daughter she wants to follow in my footsteps in terms of music and getting out there like i'm i'm really afraid for her to do that you know very overprotective because fame can can it could kill you it really can if you're not careful so and i want to talk a little bit about
um i have to talk about it because it was a life-changing moment what's your relationship with the boy's mind now what is your relationship with that song how's that song changed shape for you oh my god that's one of the that's the biggest song of my entire career i think um you know what an amazing just record i think when i first heard
the record with rodney jerkins he i i couldn't believe to hear you know the instrument the instruments that he used in that song i just was i was blown away by it i knew that it you know just with the the topic of the song it needed you know uh it needed monica on it i thought that you know she just brought such an amazing flavor a major
amazing swag to the song and you know it just it every time i hear it it just it sounds it sounds fresh and new to this day i love it that duet is a game-changing moment that duet was like two young female artists in a competitive landscape coming together to share the success that changed the game people forget that
that was one of the first of its kind i i i believe so and i i want to say this i after that duet um i remember whitney houston and mariah carey then doing a duet i always say that it was because of the boy's mine my two favorite artists got together to do a duet i always take i always feel like you know
me and monica has something to do with that definitely you did always i always say that like i always you know take a little credit for that why is it why is there this kind of unspoken competition in particular i was talking to another female artist about this the other day why is there this unsp this kind of competition foisted upon
female artists like there has to be some kind of drama i think the entire music industry is competitive i mean you got charts you have positions on charts you have music genres i mean everything is competitive and i think it's just it's just always like that it's always been like that and i think especially with um you know when you say
you know monica and myself i mean that song was about a boy and it was about us competing over a boy and so naturally you know people are going to put us you know against each other even more because of the the topic of the song and what we're speaking about so we kind of played into you know the competitiveness of it so yeah you own
the narrative yeah so that that's just the way that's just the way things go where are you at with the concept of trust in terms of trusting all of it i mean let's take a look at life you have to have a huge amount of trust in an industry is going to have your best interest not always i don't i don't trust the industry
exactly then you've got this opportunity to trust in your audience and even some of them will get it wrong and pile on top then you have to trust relationships that's never easy and everyone goes through the ups and downs of that so i wonder kind of how you look you know what does the future feel like on that level
as in the work that you're doing i trust in me i trust in god i trust in my my family my team and i trust in the work that i'm doing as long as i'm honest in my work that that i feel i feel i feel good you know i can't control everything else i can only control you know what i can control and i trust that and everything else i have to just let
go and and let god you know randy it was been really fun talking with you you're a great um person to talk to thank you i really enjoyed it and in the future i hope we get a chance to do it again i know that this doesn't isn't something you do very often but you can trust me so we'll do it again hopefully you