BOOMBAYAH

Wait can the African pop stans let me in on the tea, do Ayra and Tyla have secret beef?

I feel bad for my sister, but I think she shouldn't have aired all this out on social media. She could've done a PR People Magazine announcement through a representative saying they broke up due to scheduling conflicts. Now she's going to be bullied over this online by Barbz and Shaderoom residents.

Russell is a unicorn lmao, Ciara lucked out. Even with real people/non=celebrities, finding a straight man who's as compassionate, loving, and willing to push back against toxic masculinity (just look at how much he was/is clowned by other men for being a stepfather and "soft") as Russell is a rarity. One of the insults Future and his stans would hurl at him constantly was that he was a square.

She was pregnant, but there was also a whole bunch of other mess with her faking a marriage so it did not look like she was pregnant out of wedlock (which basically put the nail on the coffin on her next album Afrodisiac-and mainstream career-because the sham marriage was exposed):

It's Not Worth It and I Thought have hit potential and are pretty accessible despite the experimental elements (I mean to the GP What About Us? is as pots and pans as you can get and that was a cute top 10). I think All In Me would've been a great Europe-exclusive single too, since UK garage was incredibly popular at that time. Love Wouldn't Count Me Out as a final single to close the era off could also be a good idea; it's a beautifully underrated ballad.

(Off topic) I find it interesting how FM and Afrodisiac are grouped into the same "alternative R&B" category in online discourse around this album, when Afrodisiac sounds so generic to me (not bad either). I enjoy some songs on it, but it's just your bang-average pop-R&B Timbaland sound. The Kanye tracks, as controversial as they are, are the only fresh sounds on the album, and even those are just high-quality contemporary 00s R&B, not electro-fuelled, edgy R&B.

Brandy's Full Moon is now widely regarded as one of the best albums of the 2000s, with many people calling it the best alternative R&B album ever, or at the very least a foundational record within that canon. Looking back at "What About Us?", it's clear that Brandy was still hot and highly anticipated in the early 2000s, despite some people framing the period between Never Say Never and Full Moon as a steep decline in interest. The lead single, "What About Us?", peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and charted for 18 weeks, Full Moon the album debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 with around 150,000 first-week sales. Do you think that if Brandy had been able to fully promote the album, she would have gone on to have a stronger mainstream career? The album's constant cultural and critical resurgence proves that the material was there for more singles. This was also pre-solo-Beyoncé mania, so at the very least, a full album cycle would have meant she didn't have to compete directly with Beyoncé or feel pressured by her image and sound (as she later did during Afrodisiac).

HIDE IN ME, I'LL BE YOUR SECRET PLACE

LET ME BE THE REASON YOU GET THROUGH YOUR DAY

The "centre-left" tends to fall apart when the discussion shifts to geopolitics. What leftist, or even average liberal, is vehemently anti-China in 2026, or willing to criticize a POC Western woman for representing her country of origin?

I've grown to like the remix but whenever I go back to the OG I'm reminded of how absolutely genius it is…kinda pinks best song a shame it didn't go anywhere as a standalone solo single.

Right? It's so crazy how she went from being so quiet and shy to giving full pop girl charisma. Nice to see her develop into more of a performer and still keep her artistry.

PUSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH