It was the first time listeners were introduced to Brandy’s impressive vocal stacking, a technique that would become a mainstay in Brandy’s music and influence the sound of future R&B music. The album is also a testament to Brandy’s growth as a vocalist. Never Say Never doesn’t only stand out for its more adult themes, though. Although vying for a man’s attention is a fruitless endeavor, Brandy and Monica make it a groovy, sonically-pleasing competition of their voices. “ The Boy is Mine,” which features R&B star and Brandy’s friend-turned-rival-turned-friend Monica, is the ultimate battle royale of budding R&B divas. Contrary to the song’s title, Brandy’s just “tryna be me, doing what I gotta do.” But the song, of course, isn’t the only notable collaboration on the album. With Bad Boys star Mase, Brandy apprises listeners on how fame has influenced how she’s perceived by those around her.
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Have you ever loved somebody/So much it makes you cry.Įlsewhere on the album, Brandy tackles the complexities of becoming on “ Top of the World” at such a young age, a refrain from the album’s love songs. How straightforward can one be about their love for someone than the highly relatable chorus on “Have You Ever?” Ballads like “ Truthfully” and “ Put That on Everything” and the chart-topping “ Have You Ever?” toward the end of the album juxtapose the record’s earlier songs by plainly depicting a young adult who is deeply in love, regardless of what anyone else thinks. The first half of the album includes songs like “ Learn the Hard Way” and “ Almost Doesn’t Count” that see the singer venting about not receiving the respect she deserves in a relationship (“Can’t keep on tryin’ if you’re looking for more/Than all that I could give you,” she sings on the chorus of the latter). The teenage naiveté that was pervasive on her debut album seamlessly evolved into themes of intense yet often unrequited love on Never Say Never, which was helped by the late songwriter LaShawn Daniels. She was able to sing about more mature topics, but on her terms. That theme wasn’t at all the fault of any of the aforementioned artists but the fault of a society, including the adults surrounding those artists at the time, that leaves Black teens, especially Black girls, unprotected and forcing them to grow up before they should.Īlthough Brandy escaped that trend, Never Say Never proved that she was more than just a teen star. Usher was just three months shy of his 16th birthday when he sang about the same thing on “ Can U Get Wit It” (“Can you get with it, it’s like that/It’s only a sexual thing”) and Aaliyah was 15 when her debut album Age Ain’t Nothin but a Number dropped. Monica was only 14 when she sang about becoming intimate with a partner for the first time (“I want to/ We ought to be sure/But if we can’t prove our love/Like this and like that, I’m gonna move along”) on “ Like This and Like That”. Black teen musicians in the 90’s were often hypersexualized. The show, which premiered in 1996, depicted Mitchell as a California teenager who juggled often complicated relationships with her parents, friends and romantic interests.īrandy’s debut album and her role in Moesha set the tone for her to have a conservative image, which made Brandy an outlier among her contemporaries like Monica, Usher and Aaliyah, who were also teens at the time but their music was catered to a more mature audience. Moesha Mitchell, the beloved protagonist of Moesha, was the sentient form of Brandy’s debut album. The album, which dropped when Brandy was only 15, embraced age-appropriate themes such as having a teenage crush (“I Wanna Be Down”), appreciating a best friend’s support (“Best Friend,” who, in her case, was her brother) and thanking her family and influences for her success (“I Dedicate”- parts 1, 2 and 3). Brandy was approaching superstardom.īut, prior to the release of Never Say Never, public perception of Brandy as solely a teen sensation stunted that development.īrandy graced the ears of future fans with the release of her eponymous debut album in 1994. So, the release of Never Say Never, her second album, was just the icing on the cake.
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Brandy was handpicked by Whitney Houston to play the role. The third season of her hit UPN show Moesha ended the month before and nearly a year before that, she made her film debut in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, becoming the first Black actress to portray Cinderella. By the time Never Say Never was released in June of 1998, Brandy was at the height of her career.