![]() And even as she’s matured into a successor to quiet-storm divas like Toni Braxton and Whitney Houston, Monica has continually looked to hip-hop for fresh inspiration-most notably on the 2015 single “Just Right for Me,” which threads a dreamy Smokey Robinson sample with a snapping trap beat and gritty guest verses from Lil Wayne. That experience informed the soothingly therapeutic, dusty-grooved sound and new-leaf narratives of 2003’s After the Storm, where her old-school influences received a 21st-century future-soul makeover from a team of producers that included Missy Elliott and a budding Kanye West. But at the height of her success, Monica was waylaid by tragedy, when she bore witness to the gunshot suicide of an ex-boyfriend in 2000. It was Monicas third consecutive Top 10 on Billboards Hot 100, and also peaked at 3 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Monica’s soulful poise made her the perfect femme fatale to square off against Brandy’s woman scorned on the pre-eminent R&B cage match of 1998, “The Boy Is Mine,” and Monica’s multiplatinum album of the same name further mined the song’s tension between emotionally charged lyrics and sophisticated symphonic production. ![]() But even as her 1995 debut, Miss Thing, heralded the Atlanta native’s graduation from the church to the club-making her the youngest artist ever to top the Billboard R&B charts with two consecutive singles-those gospel roots were never far from the surface. ![]() ![]() Like her peers Brandy and Aaliyah, Monica (born Monica Denise Arnold in 1980) was a former choir kid who blossomed into a bona fide R&B teen queen. ![]()
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