Monica followed up with a dual A-side single that consisted of the Toni Braxton Secrets extra “Before You Walk Out My Life” and the Mr. While none of the singles from Miss Thang peaked at the pole position on the Hot 100, their true chart dominance occurred on R&B soil. Had Monica’s era-launcher displaced one of the two aforementioned Hot 100 leaders, it would have put her name in the history books as the youngest female singer to achieve this feat. The platinum-selling song also put up a good fight on the Hot 100, vying for the number one spot against chart-topper contenders Bryan Adams (“Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman”) and TLC (“Waterfalls”). In between helping brand Monica as a cultural lifestyle artist, Austin reinforced the idea of preserving the important cultural markers, particularly language, that reflect the Black identity.įollowing its April 1995 radio release, “Don’t Take It Personal” rocketed to the top of the Billboard Hot R&B Singles chart the week of June 10. We say it’s one of ‘dem days’.’”Īustin’s advocacy to normalize hip-hop aesthetics and intellectual property law of Black people isn’t to be taken lightly. “But I said, ‘That’s not what we say in the environment. “He says, ‘I don’t understand why say ‘Dem Days’ instead of ‘Those Days’” (laughs),” Austin told SongwriterUniverse in 2019. He says the music mogul not only asked about the absence of the bridge but the reason slang existed in the title of Monica’s first single. With the growing influence of hip-hop, and its ability to sound and look like the various hoods that birth the genre, R&B songwriters started to take note, whereas executives couldn’t catch on.Īrtista Records’ head Clive Davis was seemingly out of touch with pop culture, according to Austin. “Don’t Take it Personal” acts as a sort of mood piece itself - not only describing the emotional periods she endures but also touching briefly on the idea that men have those days, too. Monica continued to make a strong argument for complexity as a female adolescent on the album’s lead single, “Don’t Take It Personal (Just One of Dem Days).” Decorated in a collage of rugged hip-hop backbeats from the likes of LL Cool J and Public Enemy, Monica simply tells it like it is to her man about the turbulent mood swings she and many women alike experience from time to time. Still, the sassy song came off respectful enough that it didn’t offend her elders. Vocally, she had an aggressively confident tone that made listeners her age see themselves as authoritative figures in the world. It masterfully used an unspoken latchkey kid relation to add mature depth to her unique tale of young adulthood. Miss Thang applied the palpable sense of intergenerational wisdom and experience that Monica absorbed from her lineage and Atlanta heritage.įor instance, the album opened with the assertive title track that explicitly defined her innate tough-girl persona and featured a funky instrumental that had an affinity for Blaxploitation films. In fact, it was the respected title of the 14-year-old’s breakthrough debut album an introduction that she made into the high society of music in the summer of 1995.Īs the R&B scene evolved from its traditional soul nature in the early 1990s, it was fresh, hip, and blazed a trail for new tenants of the genre to be their most authentic selves.īy the time Monica released her first album, a couple of other young, gifted and Black female acts had shaken up the airwaves and spawned phenomenal success for their sonically diverse sounds: A pristine new jack swing swag and a good girl-next-door narrative.įor Dallas Austin, who served as executive producer on Miss Thang, mapping out a definitive album concept for the burgeoning singer under those conditions had to be a concern at some point.Īustin and Monica ultimately opted to pursue a logical progression lyrically and thematically from the teen idols that preceded her debut. Long before Monica earned the beloved alias Mo, she was simply Miss Thang.
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