Monie Love - In A Word Or 2

What the hell happened Monie Love? Your first album, the wonderful Down To Earth, was awash in Native Tongues positive vibes and sweet production from Afrika Baby Bam and FYC, giving it a retro sound while staying totally funky and danceable. Your rhymes were intelligent and well put, giving the perspective of a conscious young woman who was on the right track. So why did you decide to record an album with skeezy rap songs like Wheel Of Fortune and Greasy? Was it in the plan to record sappy R&B with Prince? Why is the best song on the album a holdover from the Class Act soundtrack of all things? These are all questions I've never heard the answers to, nor do I expect answers, but it's an interesting example of how artists, scenes and careers can change over the course of three short years, which is all it was between 1990 and 1993.

Record label politics were most likely part of the problem for Monie as the US and UK versions of the album, while featuring mostly the same tracks, had their sides flipped for unspecified reasons, although it was probably a regional detail. In the UK you get the positive, conscious tracks first, starting with the commercial house of Full Term Love, followed by the R&B-tinged Born 2 B.R.E.E.D., the first of two collaborations with Prince, and after that the title cut, a quiet-storm love jam with Monie whisper-speaking the lyrics. Full Term Love, while dated as hell, is still catchy and bouncy, whereas the Prince tracks are of that generic era when he seemed to give songs to anyone with a pulse. It's worth noting that Monie contributed lyrics to Carmen Electra's Prince-produced album, notably Everybody Get On Up which contains the suspect lyric "My name is Carmen Electra and I ain't in the middle". The rest of this side are songs about improving the world and blah blah blah. Nothing wrong with saving the world, but who wants to drive around listening to it? As if Swiney Swiney wasn't bad enough.

The other side of the album, definitely the focus in the US, is an attempt at purely American hip-hop stylings with Marley Marl providing the beats, but it comes off like Monie is a split personality rather than a strong, independent woman. Wheel Of Fortune finds her looking for a man although she already seems ready to turn down every option coming her way. Not saying that ignoring the drug dealer is a bad idea but still, there isn't a positive view to the song at all. Greasy finds her backpedaling only to start giving passes to men with no game that have tons of cash. She does all of this without giving the listener a moment to catch their breath as the choruses are quickly repeated phrases and there is practically no dead space until the end of the track, giving them the feel that she picked a few cuts from one of Marley's beat tapes and just kept rhyming till the record was done. What passes as hooks couldn't survive in any listening environment. Some tracks are better than others, with Sex U All being a funky attack on a rumor spreading woman scheming to take her man, but overall the hard stuff feels soft.

Whatever the reasons behind Monie's split-personality, her label people, at least in the US, did a crap job of promoting her. Check out the astonishingly awful cover art! I'd love to know who gets the blame for it and what Monie thought about it at the time. The album was also promoted with the infinitely ridiculous tag line, "This Mother Wears Combat Boots!" (see page 159 of ego trip's Book Of Rap Lists for this and other ridiculous, no bonus this year, first at the unemployment line, Lyor Cohen won't return your calls examples). This album's failure effectively ended Monie's rap career with her returning to DJ status on radio and MTV's Lip Service. She didn't record again until around the end of the decade. Monie can be great but I have no idea what went wrong here. If you want to hear the Prince songs or are a Marley Marl collector, grab this for completist reasons, but if you're hoping for classic Monie you're gonna be heartbroken. Monie, no hate here, we love you, come back and bring that classic flow with you!


Monie Love - In A Word Or 2 (US Version)

01 Wheel Of Fortune
02 Greasy
03 Sex U All
04 Mo' Monie
05 I'm A Believer
06 Let A Woman B A Woman
07 Full Term Love
08 Born 2 B.R.E.E.D.
09 In A Word Or 2
10 There's A Better Way
11 4 The Children
12 Born 2 B.R.E.E.D. (Hip-Hop Mix)



And for your viewing pleasure...











This last video is an incredible interview with Monie about the origins of Monie In The Middle. This is the Monie that I love and I know everyone else does too. Take care Monie and love your life! And if you are reading this, I hope you don't take offense to any of the text here, I'm just calling it as I see it. A lot of people I've spoken with aren't even aware this album exists!