Words by Bailey Alexander
25 years ago, Brandy dared to Never Say Never, and in doing so finally came of age.
There’s always a bit of pressure when it comes to sophomore albums. Will it be as good as the first album? Will it chart as high? These are the questions that every major label artist has to ask themselves. Come 1998, there had been a four year wait between Brandy’s 1994 eponymous debut album and her follow-up second album, Never Say Never. For the public, they wanted Brandy’s new album to answer one thing: is she here to stay, or destined to fade away?
Some context: with her debut album, a then-14-year-old Brandy had enjoyed some relative chart success. The album peaked in the top 20, and spawned successful singles such as now-certified-classics ‘I Wanna Be Down’ and ‘Baby’. Between albums, Brandy continued to find success on the charts, most notably with ‘Sittin’ Up In My Room’, peaking at #2 and stolen of the coveted #1 spot by one of Brandy’s idols, Mariah Carey, with mega-hit ‘One Sweet Day’.
Armed with a vocal ability that has seen her referred to as the Vocal Bible over the years, and with chart success on lock, it was clear that Brandy could hold her own, and demand for a new album naturally followed. At the time, a four year wait for a sophomore album was essentially unheard of, but Brandy had good reason. In an unprecedented move, Brandy (more or less) dropped the mic, opting to continue her education and graduate from high school. Not one to shy away from hard work, she also landed a role as the lead of a brand new sitcom.
Debuting in 1996, Moesha starred Brandy in the titular role, focusing on the life of a middle-class Black teenage girl in a Los Angeles suburb. The show was a hit, bringing Brandy fame beyond her music, airing for 5 years, and even birthing an equally successful spin-off. Film studios wanted a piece too: Brandy went on to star in I Know What You Did Last Summer’s sequel alongside Jennifer Love-Hewitt and Jack Black.
Acting had become Brandy’s focus, and her greatest role is undoubtedly her turn as Cinderella, starring alongside her ultimate idol Whitney Houston as the Fairy Godmother. It would be an understatement to merely describe the movie as ‘a hit’: it garnered over 60 million initial views. At first, reviews weren’t all that glowing, but since being re-evaluated more recently, the movie has found itself lauded for its pioneering diversity.
So, it’s fair to say that no one could really argue that Brandy had spent four years doing nothing between albums. Her image, however, had tilted from ‘singer’ to ‘actress’, with Brandy herself admitting to having some qualms about the shift: “Not having any music out has caused some people to recognize me more as an actress than a singer because of ‘Moesha’ and ‘Cinderella.’ But I’m a singer first.”
It would seem that Brandy had made herself nervous: could she still produce a project that would connect with the fans? It’s a lot of pressure to put on anyone, especially a 19-year-old. However, she was aware that circumstances had changed since her first album, and that they would have to be reflected in the new project: “I’m not the little girl I was when I made my first record. My voice is a strong instrument now; my vocals come from both my heart and diaphragm. My heart because I’ve matured in the four years since the last album; I’m more emotionally there”.
Brandy had a palpable desire to move in a more adult direction, so who better to turn to than Rodney ‘Darkchild’ Jerkins, the industry’s hottest upcoming producer, who had just wrapped up production on Mary J. Blige’s 1997 effort, Share My World. Brandy’s initial team-up with Darkchild would lay the foundations for them to become one of R&B’s most iconic electric duos (the pair would stick together for a while, eventually crafting Brandy’s 2002 album Full Moon together).
The album kicks off with ‘Angel in Disguise’, a showcase of the Brandy x Darkchild magic to come. Anchored by its mid-tempo, infidelity-concerned lyrics, and R&B crooner Joe on backing vocals, the album opener reintroduces Brandy with the newfound maturity she was keen to showcase.
This maturity continues with tracks like ‘Learn the Hard Way’ and ‘Almost Doesn’t Count’, seeing Brandy asserting that she’s old enough and wise enough to recognise what real love is… and what it isn’t. That said, on duet ‘The Boy is Mine’, the album’s standout single and Brandy’s biggest song ever (it was her first #1, earned her a Grammy, and has since become a hallmark of most karaoke nights), she shows her age, fighting with fellow teen-star Monica over a boy: “When will you get the picture? / You’re the past, I’m the future / Get away, it’s my time to shine / If you didn’t know, the boy is mine”.
So, sure, maybe the album does show a woman with a desire to be seen as an adult, but it also shows Brandy’s conflict with her quite literal teenage status and image. When you really pick it all apart, you find an artist trying to find her voice and make it heard.
Brandy’s concerns and frustrations perhaps roar loudest on ‘Top of the World’, the Ma$e-featured track that sees Brandy lamenting how she’s perceived: “A little dough cannot erase my problems / Me, like you, I have to try and solve them / Yes, everything is quite the same”. In effect, another conflict arises: the fantasy vs. the reality. Everyone thinks Brandy’s success has changed her, but she’d beg to differ. Come to think of it, Brandy’s assertion that fame hasn’t changed her may in fact be the most adult thing she delivers on Never Say Never, in the sense that most teenagers wouldn’t be too concerned with keeping their feet on the ground.
That’s the thing, the album is quite adult. I emphasise ‘quite’ because it’s at times hard to escape the fact that she’s still a 19-year-old girl, and that’s a good thing. Despite her best efforts to shed her adolescent image, Brandy ends up crafting the perfect blend of girl-next-door and young woman, and its a thing of beauty. The track that perhaps best represents this blend is ‘Have You Ever?’. Written by Diane-Warren, the mastermind behind adult hits like Toni Braxton’s ‘Unbreak My Heart’ and LeAnn Rimes’ ‘How Do I Live?’, ‘Have You Ever?’ saw Brandy nab herself another #1 hit, following in the footsteps of ‘The Boy is Mine’.
‘Have You Ever?’ can be a bit puzzling. The partnering of a 19-year-old with words like, “Have you ever loved somebody / So much it makes you cry / Have you ever needed something / So bad you can’t sleep at night”, feels somewhat nonsensical at first, because how could a teenager feel this heartbroken? The thing is: this is how every teenager feels. Love feels like everything to a teen, just as losing it feels like the end of everything, a notion that Brandy could understand.
That said, where the main disorientating element of ‘Have You Ever?’ comes into play is in how it is sung. Brandy doesn’t opt to sing it like a teenager, lovesick over the boy she can’t have, no: she sings it like a woman, and not just any woman, a woman with experience and clarity. This is the point on the album that Brandy most leans into her new found adulthood, and the result is a classic breakup jam.
Brandy’s ability to sing and convey emotions like a woman at least 10 years her senior is laudable: her voice is her instrument and her best friend, and on Never Say Never they mature together. By the album’s sound, it’s clear she’d studied her two favourite diva maestras: ‘Put That on Everything’ is eerily like something you would have found on Mariah Carey’s 1995 Daydream, whilst ‘One Voice’ harkens back to Whitney Houston’s gospel roots. It’s with this album, that Brandy ascended to the same heights as her idols.
Never Say Never was a memo to the industry – ‘Brandy is here to stay’ – and any doubts, either within herself or from the public, that she was better suited to acting than singing were swiftly quashed. Never Say Never has since been certified quadruple platinum, selling over 16 million copies worldwide, but its legacy goes beyond the sales. Described by Vibe as her magnum opus, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera have cited it as an influence on their debut albums, and the album also accelerated Darkchild’s career, securing him opportunities with the likes of Michael Jackson and Beyoncé. Never Say Never quite simply is integral to the culture.