Monica

Atlanta R&B vocalist Monica debuted in 1995 with the platinum Top Ten singles "Don't Take It Personal (Just One of Dem Days)" and "Before You Walk Out of My Life." After appearing on LL Cool J's Mr. Smith later that year, she recorded another killer duet with Brandy, "The Boy Is Mine," which spent several weeks at the top of the singles charts during summer 1998. Her second album, also titled The Boy Is Mine, was released in July 1998. She scored a few more chart successes through the following spring, but a long period of silence marked time between albums. The much-delayed After the Storm finally hit stores in the spring of 2003 and reached the top of the Billboard 200, while the following Makings of Me took three years to materialize and hardly suffered for it, reaching the Top Ten. Still Standing, released in 2010, was preceded by a BET reality series of the same name, which debuted the previous October. It was her second consecutive number one R&B album, and her fourth consecutive Top Ten Billboard 200 release. She quickly followed that success in 2011 with New Life. ~ John Bush, Rovi