Decades after ‘The Boy Is Mine,’ Brandy and Monica face off yet again

Do you wanna be down? Nineties R&B icons Brandy and Monica are battling it out Monday night and potentially putting an end to their decades-long feud over a boy.

The singers, who famously collaborated on the 1998 hit “The Boy Is Mine,” will hit the Verzuz stage at 5 p.m. Pacific time. The livestream from Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta kicks off on Instagram Live and will likely go for about two hours on your phone, tablet or streaming device.

The musical melee will also be available on Apple Music and Apple TV.

Theirs is the latest Verzuz battle. The platform kicked off amid the COVID-19 pandemic in March with a showdown between Grammy-winning rapper-producers Timbaland and Swizz Beatz, who created and launched the web series.

Verzuz has since featured lyrical throwdowns between rappers DMX and Snoop Dogg, Ludacris and Nelly, and has expanded past the hip-hop genre. Other good-natured faces-offs have featured Jill Scott and Erykah Badu, 112 and Jagged Edge, as well as a memorable, Juneteenth piano duel between Alicia Keys and John Legend.

But the anticipation of Brandy and Monica’s Verzuz has had fans in a tizzy since it was announced earlier this month due to their personal history.

The two launched their careers as teenagers. Brandy broke through with the 1994 single “I Wanna Be Down.” Monica had already been in the industry but claimed her first hit with her 1995 debut single “Don’t Take It Personal (Just One of Dem Days).” The two were perpetually pitted against each other in a never-ending media feud that hit a fever pitch when they joined forces on the smash single “The Boy Is Mine.”

The song topped the charts for weeks and, at the time, was Billboard’s Hot 100 top-performing duet by two women in its history. It also earned them both a Grammy Award.

“The Boy Is Mine” song solidified the battle as the two powerhouses continued to put out hit singles and built out their catalogs, which they’ll perform Monday. Brandy put out the hits “Brokenhearted,” “Have You Ever?” and “What About Us?” And Monica remained on the charts with “Angel of Mine” and “So Gone.”

Though their careers seemingly lulled over time, partly for personal reasons, the women reunited in 2012 on the track “It All Belongs to Me,” but their relationship has often been described as hot and cold.