Introducing your challengers! One is a multi-million dollar R&B female heavyweight champion, and the other… SAME.

In 1998, Brandy & Monica took the archetypal girlfight to a whole new level with “The Boy Is Mine.” Of course, the bar wasn’t very high when it came to battling things out lyrically over the opposite sex. Back in 1982, Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson inspired this track with theirs titled “The Girl Is Mine,” and it is truly exactly what you’d expect from a diminutive British man and one who named a child Blanket. (READ: NOT a fight.)

But Brandy & Monica came out swinging. I mean, the video opens on a Jerry Springer episode. The song starts up silky smooth, and you watch each lady tell her side of the story while she mopes alone or vents to her girls. But the lyrics are confrontational from jump, and dare I say WorldStar worthy. A funky bass line keeps the rhythm punchy while personal insults and jabs below the belt fly between the duo.

Oh, but then we see why! The object of their affection is played by none other than the talented Mehki Phifer. OK. The drama quickly escalates between the two songstresses, in the video and vocally while they spar against each other and flex their talents with crazy runs. Which is a great place to take a moment to recognize that to this day, Brandy and Monica are some of the most vocally talented women in entertainment. Critics have referred to Brandy as “The Vocal Bible” for her impressive range and skill, and the only reason Monica doesn’t have a catchy nickname is that personal tragedy forced her to prioritize her mental health over her career.

The video drama doesn’t stop there, though. When the ladies finally realize that their anger is misdirected, the video delivers us one of the best endings in music video history. It’s perfect, and even though it probably seems trite now, back then it was a perfect mic drop moment to match the song’s acapella ending.

Less perfect was Monica & Brandy’s livestreamed Verzuz battle in 2020. Their fictional drama was resolved in “The Boy Is Mine,” but some real drama that unfolded behind the scenes had clearly festered for over 20 years and Monica was noticeably less than thrilled to be there. Nobody likes the idea of two queens at each other’s throats, but with over 1.2 million people tuning in for these two R&B sweethearts who hadn’t performed together since their press tour for “The Boy Is Mine,” you gotta admit, we love to see it.

---