MTV: Monica Talks About Why You See Her With Brandy, Then You Don’t [1998]

Monica, who currently holds part of the number one song in the country in the form of her duet with Brandy “The Boy is Mine” , is set to release an album of the same name on July 14.

When MTV News caught up with Monica last weekend on her home turf of Atlanta, the R&B singer told why she and Brandy were a good match, despite the fact that their personalities are so different.

“I’ve always been the exact opposite (from her),” Monica said, “and I think that’s what made us collaborate so well together, because we are opposites. People see me as sassy, more attitude-oriented, and I do a lot of things like that everyday. So (my part of the song) was all the things that are me.”

On the other hand, Monica said that she wasn’t all that thrilled when Brandy performed the song by herself on a recent installment of the “Tonight Show.”

“I thought that it was better than performing the song without me,” she said, “like she did on ‘Jay Leno.’ At first it was hurtful to me. It not only hurt my feelings, but I thought that it hurt our song. I thought it would be better that people see us together performing the song, but it didn’t work out that way.”

Brandy’s camp told MTV News that Monica was indeed invited to perform on “The Tonight Show,” but a source close to Monica said that the conditions of the invitation (including an issue over billing) were not acceptable.

Monica’s first single from her upcoming album will be the Jermaine Dupri-produced “The First Night,” the video of which she’s shooting this week.