Ray J says late 90s' brawl between singer sisters Brandy and Monica 'was 100% real'
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Ray J is opening up about his sister Brandy and Monica’s beef back in the late 90s.
The singer assured that the fight between the two was "real," saying, "That was 100% real. Whatever it is, I don't know."
Ray J said the fight was an outcome of "competitiveness," and squad support.
"I just think being competitive. I don't know anything other than that — but just the competitiveness of it and then you got your squad and her squad both supporting each side. But then you have the one record that can't pretty much be touched," he explained during his appearance on the ‘Club Shay Shay’ podcast.
Brandy and Monica's physical altercation
The two came up together for ‘The Boy Is Mine’ hit song in 1998, but soon after its release, Brandy and Monica didn’t see each other in the eyes.
As per E! the singers had a fight backstage while rehearsing for a performance at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards.
Interestingly, Monica even admitted in a 2021 interview that a physical altercation happened between them.
However, the both of them once again collaborated months later for ‘It All Belongs to Me'.
In 2020, they appeared in an epic Verzuz battle and shared that they hadn’t spoken to each other for eight years before appearing on the show.
"Well, here's the thing. People, you know, were picking apart every second of every facial expression, right? How we moved and what we said, but you realize that's the first time we had been in each other's space — in any capacity — for almost a decade," Monica told People.
She continued, "But what I love about it is it opened the floodgates to the conversations that needed to be had between the two of us.
“Brandy is a legend. She is an icon and she is to be respected," said Monica.
Monica talked about her beef with Brandy
Monica also reflected on their troublesome past, and said that the people "were putting us against each other before we ever were in the same room."
"As we got older, we realized that we could control what that narrative was. And we kind of took the bull by the horns after Verzuz," she added.
Before they went on with the show, Monica chatted with Brandy and shared her feelings.
"The more we were talked about, the more it came to be difficult, unnecessarily. I really, really am a straight shooter and I really do admire what you've done musically and what you've had to endure personally," she said during the friendly battle, to which Brandy responded, "I have the utmost love and respect for you as well, for somebody to start at 12 years old. The longevity of your career, nobody [knows] what you've been through."
