Monica Biography

Monica Denise Arnold (born October 24, 1980) professionally known as Monica, is an American R&B singer and entertainer, who has sold over five million albums in the United States and over 15 million worldwide. Born and raised in College Park, Georgia, Arnold was a member of Charles Thompson and the Majestics, a traveling 12-piece gospel choir prior to signing a solo recording contract with Arista Records in 1995.

Guided by Rowdy head Dallas Austin and proteges' Tim & Bob, she came to prominence following her debut album Miss Thang (1995) whose first two singles made her the youngest recording act to ever have two consecutive chart-topping hits on the U.S. Billboard Top R&B Singles chart.

Following a major success with "The Boy Is Mine", a duet with singer Brandy, and a same-titled second album in 1998, she established her position as one of the most successful of the urban R&B female vocalists to emerge in the mid 1990s.

However, Arnold's popularity began to decline in the early 2000s, during which time she dealt with more personal tribulations including the suicide of her boyfriend, a tumultuous relationship with former fiancé Corey "C-Murder" Miller and the delay of her heavily-bootlegged third album, All Eyez on Me (2002). In 2003, Monica eventually released her fourth album After the Storm, and after an unsuccessful period, she scored her fifth number one single, "So Gone." Her latest album Still Standing, whose recording was tracked by her co-produced BET reality series of the same name, was released in 2010 and produced the hit single "Everything to Me."

Arnold was born in College Park, a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. She is the eldest child of Marilyn Best, a former church singer and Delta Air Lines customer service representative, and M.C. Arnold Jr., a mechanic working for an Atlanta freight company. She has one brother named Montez (born 1983), and two maternal half-brothers, Tron and Cypress.

At the age of two Arnold followed in her mother's footsteps with regular performances in public at the Jones Hill Chapel United Methodist Church in Newnan, GA. While growing up in the modest circumstances of a single-parent home, after her parents' separation in 1984 and their divorce in 1987, Monica continued training herself in singing. She became the youngest member of Charles Thompson and the Majestics, a traveling 12-piece gospel choir, by the time she was ten. Monica also became a frequent talent show contestant, winning over twenty local singing competitions throughout her early teenage years.

In 1991, at the age of eleven, Arnold was discovered by music producer Dallas Austin at the Center Stage auditorium in Atlanta performing Whitney Houston 1986's "Greatest Love of All." Amazed by her voice, Dallas offered her a record deal with his Arista-distributed label Rowdy Records and consulted rapper Queen Latifah to work as Monica's first manager. Shortly afterwards Dallas and then staff producers Tim & Bob entered the studio with Arnold to start writing and producing her debut Miss Thang which was eventually released in July 1995 and scored number thirty-six on the U.S. Billboard 200 and number seven on the Top R&B Albums chart. It went on to sell one and a half million copies in the United States, and produced three top ten singles, including debut single "Don't Take It Personal (Just One of Dem Days)" and "Before You Walk out of My Life," both of which made Arnold the youngest artist ever to have two consecutive chart-topping hits on the U.S. Billboard Hot R&B Singles chart. Miss Thang subsequently won Monica a Billboard Music Award and garnered her an American Music Award nomination in the Favorite Soul/R&B New Artist caregory.

After a label change to Clive Davis's Arista Records, Arnold's mainstream success was boosted, when Diane Warren-written "For You I Will," from the Space Jam soundtrack, became her next top ten pop hit. The following year she was asked to team up with singer Brandy and producer Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins to record "The Boy Is Mine," the first single from both of their second albums. Released in May 1998, surrounding highly publicized rumors about a real-life catfight between both singers, the duet became both the biggest hit of the summer and the biggest hit of 1998 in general in America, spending record-breaking thirteen weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It earned the pair a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal" and garnered multi-platinum sales (to date, it remains as one of the top twenty most successful American singles in history based on Billboard chart success).

Jermaine Dupri, David Foster and Austin consulted on the album The Boy Is Mine, which was released later that year and eventually became Monica’s biggest-selling album, selling over two million copies in the United States alone. It yielded another two U.S. number-one hits with "The First Night" and "Angel of Mine," a cover of Eternal's 1997 single, as well as a remake of Richard Marx' "Right Here Waiting." Rolling Stone Magazine proclaimed it as "closer to soul's source... hearking back past hip-hop songbirds like Mary J. Blige and adult-contemporary sirens like Toni Braxton," while Allmusic called the album an "irresistible sounding [and] immaculately crafted musical backdrop as good as mainstream urban R&B gets in 1998."

In 2000, Monica contributed chorus vocals for "I've Got to Have It", a collaboration with Jermaine Dupri and rapper Nas. Released as the Big Momma's House theme song, the song saw minor success in the United States only. The following year, she released the Ric Wake production track "Just Another Girl", recorded for the Down to Earth soundtrack, as a single.

A year later, Arnold channeled much of her heavily media-discussed experiences into the production of her third studio album, All Eyez on Me, her first release on mentor Clive Davis newly-founded J Records label. "I just wanted to give the people back something that had personal passion, instead of just, 'Oh, let's dance to this record,'" she said about the issues worked into the tracks. The first single "All Eyez on Me," a Rodney Jerkins-produced R&B-dance track, which saw minor to moderate success on the charts. It reached the top forty in Australia and New Zealand but failed to enter the higher half of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. A follow-up song, "Too Hood," also got a lukewarm response and as a result, the album's tentative release was pushed back several times. "I don't think people wanted to hear a big fun record from me, after knowing all the things that I had personally experienced," Monica second-guessed her new material which saw both early and heavy bootlegging via internet at that time.

After the Japan-wide release of All Eyez on Me Monica was asked to substantially reconstruct the record with a host of new producers, and as a result the singer re-entered recording studios to start work with songwriters Kanye West, Jazze Pha, Andre "mrDEYO" Deyo, Bam & Ryan and Dupri-replacing executive producer Missy Elliott. Finally released in June 2003, After the Storm debuted at number one on Billboard`s Top R&B/Hip-Hop albums chart, and on top of the official Billboard 200, with sales of 186,000 copies emerging as Monica's first and only number-one album to date. it eventually received a gold certification, and has sold over one million copies domestically. Media reception of the CD was generally enthusiastic, with the Allmusic saying the album "has all the assuredness and smart developments that should keep Monica's younger longtime followers behind her — all the while holding the ability to appeal to a wider spectrum of R&B and hip-hop fans." The album's lead single, Elliott-penned "So Gone", was one of Monica's biggest commercial successes in years, becoming her first top ten single since 1999's "Angel of Mine". In addition, it reached the top position of the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Tracks and Hot Dance Club Play charts. Subsequently, After the Storm spawned another three singles, with final single "U Should've Known Better" reaching number nineteen on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Returning from yet another musical hiatus, Arnold's fifth studio album The Makings of Me was released in October 2006 in the United States. Titled after Curtis Mayfield's song "The Makings of You," the ten tracks short album saw her particularly reuniting with Elliott, Dupri, and Bryan Michael Cox. Monica who described it her most mature and versatile effort to date, considered the album a breakaway from its predecessors: "Now, at 26, the way I look at things, even relationships, I was really able to involve more of my life experiences in the album," she told MTV News. The Makings of Me received a positive reception from most professional music critics, with Allmusic calling it a "concise and mostly sweet set of songs," and Entertainment Weekly declaring it "a solid addition" to Monica's discography.

While it debuted at number one on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop albums chart, and at number eight on the official Billboard 200, sales never boosted and eventually stagnated at 300,000 copies, making The Makings of Me Monica's lowest-selling effort as of 2010. Singles such as snap-influenced "Everytime Tha Beat Drop" featuring Dem Franchize Boyz and Elliott-produced "A Dozen Roses (You Remind Me)" failed to reach the top forty of the regular pop charts.

In 2009, Arnold teamed up for the ballad "Trust," a duet with Keyshia Cole that peaked in the top five on Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. A year later, her sixth album Still Standing was released, involving production by Cox, Elliott and new collaborators such as Stargate and Polow da Don. The album marked Monica's expectations to follow in early album's musical footsteps, reprising the sound of her signature hits. The album's lead single, "Everything to Me", became one of Monica's biggest commercial successes in years and reached the top position of the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Tracks charts, becoming her first chart topper single since 2003's "So Gone."

Monica graduated from high school at age sixteen with a 4.0 GPA in 1997.

Monica's career saw troubles in 1999, during which time she dealt with more personal tribulations including an up-and-down relationship with former fiancé Corey "C-Murder" Miller and the suicide of her boyfriend Jarvis "Knot" Weems, a local drug dealer and her childhood friend. On July 18, 2000, the couple was together at the graveside of Weems's brother Troy, who had died in an automobile accident at age 25 in 1998, when Weems, without warning, put a gun to his head and shot himself to death. Devastated, Monica spent the first few months after his death in denial and depression, later lessened by spiritual guidance from her parents. "Afterward, I felt, 'What else could I have done?' You replay that situation over and over and you switch it around: Maybe if I had said this, or if I would have done that,'" she said in an interview with the Enquirer the following year. "It's just something that it's never possible for me to go back and change."

Having previously refreshed her on and off-going relationship with rapper Rodney "Rocko" Hill, Jr., whom she had actually dated since the age of nineteen, the couple welcomed a son into the world on May 21, 2005. Nicknamed "Lil' Rocko", the child was officially named Rodney Ramone Hill III, after his father. Arnold and Hill became officially engaged on Christmas Eve 2007. On January 8, 2008, the singer gave birth to her second child, a son named Romelo Montez , who was named after Monica's younger brother. In March 2010, Monica confirmed via Twitter that she and fiancé Rocko split over personal reasons.

Monica has stated that she does not have many close friends in the industry; however, she has close relationships with fellow R&B singer Keyshia Cole, who is the godmother of her second child Romelo, rapper Mia X and has been known to be friends with Mary J. Blige, Missy Elliott, Keri Hilson, Brandy and Ciara. Ludacris is her cousin by marriage and while music producer Polow da Don is her biological cousin.