Atlanta 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, while the following Makings of Me took three years to materialize.

Born and raised in Atlanta's College Park, Monica's musical ambitions have always been supported by her family. Monica began singing in her local church choir at the tender age of four, and quickly rose from the chorus to a soloist. Word of the child prodigy with phenomenal skills began to filter around Atlanta. Vocally inspired by the likes of Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, and Rachelle Farrell, Monica was encouraged to enter local talent contests and eventually won over twenty of them. It was at one of these shows that fate, in the persona of Dallas Austin, intervened. Dallas' rep is well known. A bit of a wunderkind himself at twenty-three, his list of credits is diverse: Madonna, Joi, TLC, Boyz II Men, Grace Jones and Highland Place Mobsters, to name a few. Noted for his visionary approach to soul and pop, Dallas saw and heard that "certain something" in Monica and immediately offered her a deal with his Arista-distributed Rowdy Records label.

"Working with Dallas was hard work, but he made it fun. He really helped me feel the meaning of the songs and bring my own point of view in," Monica says of her "daddy" Dallas, who claims, "Monica is the most gifted and innately talented singer I've ever worked with. Her phrasing and interpretation came very naturally."

Monica's got the wisdom, the attitude and most of all, the voice to deliver. Monica is a real singer, with serious talent, and she is a young woman that has a lot to say and her own unique way of saying it.