The Makings Of Me

Monica has replenished the set of her talents

Despite her relatively young age, 26 years, Monica Denise Arnold, professionally known as simply Monica, has already more than a decade of professional music career behind her and has seen much more than many of her coevals. Her career, too, has not always been flawlessly fine, with great public acclaim in the 1990s and a comparably unsuccessful period in the beginning of the XXI century. The singer’s plan to release the third album All Eyez On Me in 2002 failed, mainly for the reason of personal ordeals including the suicide of her boyfriend. Nevertheless, she preserved her strong spirit and did unleash the third studio work called After The Storm in June 2003. This October Monica gladly presented us her fourth record The Makings Of Me, which has been produced by Missy Elliott, Jermaine Dupri, Bryan Michael Cox, The Underdogs, Swiss Beatz and Anthony Dent. The Makings Of Me is generally an R&B album, with a couple of tracks being of quite danceable hip-hop style. Monica’s singing skills have definitely improved; she has given a lot of emotion to all her soulful songs and has added the ability to rap to the set of her talents.

The Makings Of Me impresses with its harmonicity

As before, Monica’s new album has a very personal character, telling us of all the troubles Monica has been through lately and inspiring everyone who hasn’t been to lucky with love to remain strong and believe in oneself. The Makings Of Me opens with the most danceable and up-beat composition Everytime Tha Beat Drop featuring Dem Franchize Boyz, and from the first hearing the track might seem the odd one out here. Yet later it is impossible to imagine the album without this song. A beautiful romantic track A Dozen Roses (You Remind Me) is build around the sample of Curtis Mayfield’s creation and echoes with the name of the record. Melodious song Sideline Ho is very emotional and to some extent even rude, telling about the boys’ disparagement of their girlfriends, and on Why Her Monica addresses the boyfriend who has left her for another girl and she’s trying to find out the reason for it. Another impetuous composition Hell Now (Leave Home) performed with rapper Twista is absolutely unique with the fact that here the singer manages to rap with the same speed as her musical counterpart, which is a real achievement for her as a professional. The songs devoted to happiness in relations are My Everything and Doin Me Right, produced by Missy Elliott, wheras Raw, refined by rap from Swizz Beatz is really a catchy danceable song, which is sure to become one of your favorites. The final piano ballad Getaway completes the picture called The Makings Of Me impressing with its harmonicity.

Monica is quite content with her life

Today it is not too easy for young singers to achieve public recognition, and there are always those among them, who get the long awaited popularity quicker due to a luckier concatenation of circumstances. The story of Monica shows that it is very important to remain strong whatever happens and trust those who are around, as she considers Missy Elliott and Jermaine Dupri to be her close friends. Due to this support the singer has never lost her heart and kept working on new songs all the time. The result of her stubbornness is a brilliant album that has become a worthy continuation of her career. Monica is brave enough to open new opportunities for her, like trying her hand in rapping, and apparently strives for the best sounding of her vocals. She is a real professional, and all the life difficulties only harden her giving an impetus to make more than before. The Makings Of Me illustrates what has happened to the artist during the last years, and the most careful listeners are going to catch that in spite of all hardships, Monica is quite content with her life. Last year she gave birth to her son, and there seems finally to start a happy line in her life. Hopefully, this peace will inspire her to another brilliant work and soon we hear from her again.