The Fly Girl Guide: Artist Spotlight: Interview with Monica

Monica and I

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to interview Ms. Monica while she was in D.C. at The Butler-Wyatt Boys and Girls Club for their community day event. With newly red hair, she is cute as a button and very sweet with her Atlanta swag. We chatted about the great things she has in store for 09 and how without moisturizer in the winter, a girl can never be fly.

Carla: “What’s new with Monica?”

Monica: “Everything. We’ve been busy but in a good way. I have two children now, so we formulated a clothing line around them. Rocko and Romelo, are very young but I noticed when I would be looking for things for them, I could never find the hot stuff for little boys. You know, you see a ton of things for girls, so I sat down and came up with a clothing line, it will be launching at the top of the year along with the album. So, just doing those two things simultaneously and working on a television show that just got picked up about three weeks ago. A lot of blessings have been stowed upon this family over here in the last two months.”

Carla: “What will your television show be about?”

Monica: “It’s reality television but in a different way. I think over the years, I figured out that my purpose is a lot bigger than just the music. Some of the things I’ve experienced are your not usual situations for artists and entertainers but they are usual situations for kids in the intercity that come from nothing and know what that life is like and what its about. So, I’m just going to venturing out, city to city and meeting with young guys, young girls, that like myself that don’t believe that they can do or be whatever it is that they want to. It will be a lot different than everything that your seeing, we’re not going to cat fight and play on T.V. and waste air time, its going to be a serious show where I can do what I feel like I really was put here to do.”

Carla: “With that being said, did you vote?”

Monica: “ Absolutely, even my three-year-old little Rocko says it, ‘Mama, you vote Obama!’ I stood in that line early in the morning.”

Carla: “Was it a long line?”

Monica: “It wasn’t bad, they let my mom stand in it for a little while, until I got off work and came there, so it was cool, we just traded shifts. But, I would have done anything to make sure I was apart of that. I mean this is history, its going to be something that we can tell our grandkids and great grandkids about, so I never would have sat outside of the ring to watch that take place.”

Carla: “How do you feel that Obama will influence your sons, and with your T.V. show, will Obama inspire change and the belief that you can be anything?”

Monica: “I definitely think that because they have seen something that they never saw before, that’s all apart of believing that change is possible. When you see things that you don’t normally see, you don’t normally see girls that come from where I come from do what I do. You have me, you have, Keyshia, you have Mary, but still very few, it’s a small circle, so the more they see it, the more they can believe it. And Obama is a big part of that, I mean sometimes I feel sorry for him because he has a lot of pressure on his shoulders but he also has a lot of support.”

Carla: “Speaking of Keyshia Cole, how was it working with her on the song, ‘Trust’?”

Monica: “That was easy, anytime you work with your friends, it’s a different level. I think our relationship outside of music, made it pretty much, just like another day. I mean, we recorded the song, in like five or six hours and then took the kids to Universal studios. We were done with the song, long before it hit the airwaves because we’re family.”

Carla: “How has motherhood changed you?”

Monica: “It changed everything, because it changes the things that your conscious of. Now, I’m more conscious of what I may do, what I may say, where I may go, who I may go with. I mean your just conscious of everything, but I mean I love my children; they were the best things that could have happened to me. Doing what I do, you forget what’s its like to just really love and be genuine at all costs and they brought that back into my life.”

Carla: “Lots of change talk, how has the music industry changed since you started in the nineties?”

Monica: “Nothings the same, we used to run to the store and buy people’s records and read the cover to see who they thanked and its not like that now and everything is different. But I’m also a person that I don’t trip off of change, I’m cool with it, we have to do different things to make happen, now-a-days, so we just multitask.”

Carla: “With your first single in 1995, ‘Just one of those days (Don’t Take it Personal)’, when was the last time, you had one of those personal days?”

Monica: “I think you stop having those days when you have kids. Especially since they travel with me, its no joke, I don’t even get in that zone, that’s a little too selfish. I was twelve when I recorded that record so it was cool to have one of those days, now my days are about others.”

Carla: “What does Monica thinks makes a fly girl?”

Monica: “To me, what I think what makes a girl fly, is not feeling like you have to do things a certain way. Perfect example, red hair is not the most common thing you’ll see, most people don’t take a chance like that and do this to themselves. You know, most people will buy a piece and try it, cause you wanna see what people at work are going to say or what your friends may say. I believe that really being fly is believing that if it works for you, then you can radiate greatness every time you step out. If I have on sweats, I’m comfortable, if I have on a headscarf, I’m comfortable, if I make-up artists or not, I’m comfortable because I feel like I’m doing what’s working for me. I think I missed a whole lot of trends, if you think about it, I cut my hair short and spiked it and flipped in 95, so as I see things come back around, its kinda funny. But I really feel like, if you do what you feel, if the girl sitting in the cubical next to you don’t like it, she might just be mad that she can’t do it. Stop putting so much weight on what other people think and you’ll be fly at all times.”

Carla: “What’s one thing a fly girl needs?”

Monica: “I think cause its winter time, moisturizer. An ashy girl can never be fly baby!”

Monica’s working on her last sessions for her album, Still Standing, which is dropping in the first quarter of the New Year and she’s working with Polow da Don and her friend Missy. She stated that she won’t work during the holidays because it’s all about her family, chilling and eating good.

Click to listen to the hot track, 'Trust' where both Monica and Keyshia go hard.