AHEAD of the release of her new album B7 due out this Friday, multiple-award winning singer Brandy joins Zane Lowe on Apple Music to run through her At Home With playlist. 

The singer told Apple Music: “I love where the music is, I love where the music sits. And although I’ve overcome a lot of the experiences that I sing about on this album, I love that I was brave enough to go there.” During the chat, she talks about returning to music, reflects on the success of her massive 1998 collab with Monica “The Boy Is Mine” and her relationship with the late Whitney Houston. She also talks about working with Chance The Rapper and Daniel Caesar on new music, achieving success at such a young age, parenthood, the healing power of music, and more. 
 
Highlights and key quotes from the interview,  feel free to use and credit Zane Lowe on Apple Music. Check out all of the artist-curated ‘At Home With’ playlists on Apple Music HERE. 
 
Brandy Tells Apple Music About Her Return To Music…
 
It’s just, when you’ve been away from music such a long time, it just felt like something was missing in my life. I just wanted to get back to it. I just felt inspired. I felt like it was time to tell my story through music and get back at it. And it’s just such a great time, such a great journey.
 
Well, I would have to say that music doesn’t really stop. I’m always singing, I’m always creating, just not in the studio, not on a certain project, you know what I mean? But like I said, I’m always singing. And then I’m always finding ways to satisfy that hunger to be passionate about something. I’m acting, of course, creating with my daughter, raising her, and just living life. But to just really sit down and focus on a project, that’s when it’s something else, it’s something serious. Or you think about all the other things that you’ve done and try to do something that’s more evolved and reinvents yourself, and that’s where it gets you start to really think about it and try to put something together, put a body of work together, that you can be proud of.
 
Brandy Tells Apple Music About Striving For Honesty With Her Forthcoming Album B7…
 
I felt like I wanted to just be as honest as possible with this new project. I wanted to approach this project like if this was my last chance, if this was my last shot at creating music, what would this project be about? What would it sound like? Would I just bare it all? Would I tell my story as deep as I could tell it? And I wanted to, of course, stay true to R&B but at the same time go outside of the box. So I wanted to work with someone that could understand that and that’s why I was able to connect and have that chemistry with a DJ Camper. And we just had such a great chemistry. And then also with LeShawn Daniels who I’ve worked with for many, many years, who’s no longer with us. But he was such a crucial part, such an instrument in how I was able to push forward and writing and producing with this music.
 
Brandy Tells Apple Music About The Success of Her 1998 Hit Collab With Monica “The Boy Is Mine”…
 
Oh my God, that’s the biggest song of my entire career, I think. What an amazing record. I think when I first heard the record with Rodney Jerkins, I couldn’t believe to hear the instruments that he used in that song. I was blown away by it. I knew that just with the topic of the song, it needed Monica on it. I thought that she just brought such an amazing flavor, an amazing swag to the song and every time I hear it, it sounds fresh and new to this day.
 
And I want to say this. After that duet, I remember Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey then doing a duet. I always say that it was because of “The Boy Is Mine” my two favorite artists got together to do a duet. I always feel like me and Monica had something to do with that.
 
And I think, especially when you say Monica and myself, I mean, that song was about a boy and it was about us competing over a boy. And so naturally people are going to put us against each other even more because of the topic of the song and what we’re speaking about. So we played into the competitiveness of it.
 
Brandy Tells Apple Music About Collaborating With Chance The Rapper on “Baby Mama”…
 
Well, “Baby Mama” is my cool point song. That’s my I need my mama points. Just to do a song about her, to do a song expressing my love for her, and then just my independence as a mom, a single mom. And I think a lot of moms out there, single moms don’t get the credit. When people say baby mom, that’s like a negative. Yeah, but it is not. It’s definitely a triumph. I love being a mom.
 
He FaceTimed me before we did the song. And he told me all about that story and his family. And that’s one of the reasons why I wanted him to be a part of the song because I just thought his story was amazing. And he’s just a great artist in general. And then also, like I said, the cool points.
 
Brandy Tells Apple Music About Working with Daniel Caesar…
 
Oh my God, Daniel, his voice. He’s just anointed, just a magical, anointed artist. And so just like I said before, about chance, it’s like the chemistry was just not forced. We just came together and his team, they just got me and we just were able to put together a great song and I absolutely loved what he wrote. And just to see him go into the booth and for that song to just pour out of him, to work with him was just a dream. It was great. And to see him that young, it’s like just an old, old soul. I’m like, “You’re really in your twenties, dude? Is this really true?”
 
Brandy Tells Apple Music About Her Relationship With Whitney Houston…
 
Yeah. I mean, she had a very, very tough time, especially in the end of her life. What she was able to, not only accomplished, but what she was able to do and experience with her voice is unmatched. And I really wished that that’s what she could be remembered for more so than anything, is how she was able to touch us with her voice. I mean, her voice is just, I mean…
 
When I first met her, I couldn’t believe that she was even a real person. I’ve saw her. I ran away from her and I was screaming and I just couldn’t believe it. And she embraced me and she asked me about just how I was taking everything. And I just remember just having a conversation with her and just her being a really down-to-earth person. And immediately, she just made me feel comfortable to just be myself. And we just had so many great moments like that.  I remember being in the studio with her and just singing with her and feeling like I’m singing with my idol.
 
I never would’ve thought. I just wanted to meet her. I never thought I would be able to just be in the studio and to share a mic with her. Of course, she was breathtaking. I mean, to see someone that looked like you, I don’t even think I can describe it. I can say this. She never represented that it was impossible. It always felt like what she did and what she accomplished was possible. That was the magic of Whitney Houston, even though it was impossible what she did, it always felt like…
 
Brandy Tells Apple Music About Early Ambitions and Achieving Success At A Young Age…
 
Well, singing was all I had going for me. That’s the only thing that I really believed in that I had, and that was fueled by always performing in church and always being around my dad who encouraged me to sing. That was it for me. And then I was always motivated by people around me that said that I wouldn’t do anything. I wouldn’t make it. I was bullied a lot as well. So that encouraged me to prove people wrong. And that was my drive.
 
Oh my God, I was having so much fun, my dreams were just coming through like that. It was like, “Is this really happening?” I went from being in high school one semester and then on TV the next. I just couldn’t believe what was happening to me. I was just having the time of my life. To be at taco bell and to hear your song on the radio, it’s like, “What’s really going on?” And it was just a beautiful time for me. No you dreamt it. I dreamt it. I wanted to be everywhere I could be. I was a kid that listened to the radio all the time and I wanted to be popular.
 
 I was just singing love songs at that time. And I really didn’t know what love was. I had my puppy loves and my crushes here and there, but I had no idea what heartbreak was at that time.
 
Brandy Tells Apple Music About The Most Challenging Part of Making The Album and The Healing Power of Music…
 
For me, it was my struggle with heartbreak and finding my self love. That was difficult for me, just always looking for love in someone else and needing someone else to fill a void that I needed to fill for myself. And it could sound cliche, but it’s really not. It was really something that I really needed to face within myself, is to find that true love within me, because looking for it in other people and looking for it in relationships…
 
And it was a long road, it took so many years for me to realize that. Thank God for music, because without music I feel like I could journal about it, I could get counseling on it, all of that helps, but music is like for me to really use music as a way to heal, and it really helped me discover that, along with everything else that I did to work through it.
 
Brandy Tells Apple Music About Self Reflection and Finding Her Voice During Her Time Away From Music…
 
Brandy: Self reflection, solitude, truly doing the work to be honest with yourself, it’s just I took the time to really set myself free in the last eight years.
Zane: From what? When did you realize that, if you could look back on it now…
Brandy: Well fame, and everybody else’s opinion, and all of that, it’s not real. And the validation from every person in your life, that only lasts for so long. You need your own voice to outweigh everyone else’s voice. And like I said, when you can sit with yourself, when you can really sit in your own solitude, and really get in touch with your higher you, the better part of yourself, that becomes the voice that rings true. That becomes the voice that you listen to. That still small voice within yourself, that becomes the most important voice. And when you get in touch with that, that voice becomes louder and louder.
 
Brandy Tells Apple Music About The Perils of Fame and Addiction…
 
Brandy: Well, I’ve come through a lot when it comes to fame. I’ve endured a lot when it’s come to fame. I’ve been through my struggles with that. I’ve been blessed to come out the other side of it but it’s a very dangerous thing. It’s very scary and I don’t like fame, fame. I don’t like it at all. I think that there should be rules to it. My daughter, she wants to follow in my footsteps in terms of music and getting out there. I’m really afraid for her to do that, very overprotective, because fame, it could kill you. It really can.
 
Zane: Alcohol is survival. Prescription medication is survival. Addiction, it’s survival. It’s like, “How do I know myself through this experience which is so hyper acutely focused and then attach to business?” How’d you get through it? How did you get through it?
 
Brandy: A lot of work, a lot of self work, a lot of counseling, a lot of family. You have to also want to make it too. You have to want to be better. You have to want to be the best version of yourself. I don’t have a choice either. I have a daughter. She’s everything to me. It’s either get it right or mess up her life. I don’t choose to mess up her life so I choose to be what I have to be to be the example that I need to be. That’s all I can really say
 
Brandy Tells Apple Music About Parenthood…
 
It is very scary because as a parent, you lead by example and what you do affects them because they’re watching you, and that’s how you teach, is by what you do. But at the same time, you don’t want to be dishonest, you’re not perfect, you have to be open with them so they can understand that through the things that you do, through the trials and the areas of life you learn and you grow and you overcome. And one of the beautiful things that I believe that I’m happy to share with my daughter is that I was able to go through a lot of the things that I’ve gone through, but I was able to overcome them as well.
 
I could look back on those things and truly that I’ve learned and I’ve come out on the other side. There’s really light at the end, at the end of the tunnel. So she can see that, and she’s also proud of that as well. Just seeing her go through her trials and her errors in life she can look to me and say, “Well, my mom came through a lot, I can come through it as well?
 
The hardest thing for me, I would say is just because you have to lead by example. I don’t like when she sees me down. I don’t like when we have to argue or when I’m in the wrong. And I have no problem with apologizing. I have no problem with that. But I just don’t like when she has to see me, when I’m not my best, you know what I mean? But I can’t, because again, I’m not perfect. I’m a human being. And I always let her know that. Oh yeah. Yeah, I’ve had those moments, of course. I mean we all go through depression. We all have moments where we’re not feeling the best, but I just don’t like for her to see me when I’m not my best.