Time-tested classics are never meant to be tampered with, only enshrined within memories of those who relished them or replicated by those with enough skill to. Over twenty-five years since acclaimed singers Brandy and Monica released their 1998 single “The Boy Is Mine”, the saucy ballad remains a paragon of a masterly duet, a nostalgia-invoking piece of music history and visceral moments of time for millennials.
Grammy-winning pop star Ariana Grande has done the seemingly forbidden in getting her fingerprints on the song and interrupting the fossilization of the record by recreating a remix of it. However, the Florida canary’s version is not only a tribute to the original, but a quaint interpretation that sees her attempt to finesse the pair and make off with the man.
“The Boy Is Mine (Remix)” is an R&B offering layered with synths, slinky chimes, and undulating harmonies braided together to reimagine a 90s rhythm-and-blues feel with a contemporary touch. Ariana pulled a stroke of genius by inviting the original members of the first song, who helped to anchor the song’s vision to its initial, quarrelsome spirit. The instrumentation, lyrical arrangement, as well as the delivery in Grande’s version of the cut sets it planets apart from the 1998 single, a quality that stands the song in good stead because the sound distances it from preconceived judgements whilst breathing new life to it.
Ariana Grande
In the song, the “Thank U, Next” hitmaker assumes the villianous role of the woman steered into the arms of an out-of-bounds man by the unseen forces of life (“Something about him is made for somebody like me”) and the metaphysical (“The stars, they aligned / The boy is mine”). Borrowing from the initial concept Brandy and Monica ran with on their song, the remix spices up the altercation by making the fight for the forbidden fruit a three-way contest among the trio of songbirds.
The triple threat vocal match between Grande, Monica, and Brandy is a controlled affair in which all three women profess their feelings. Although Ariana doesn’t have a verse per se, her omnipresent interjections cut through Monica and Brandy’s auditions for the man’s heart, twisting the song into an emotional scuffle that is as petty as it is scandalous.
“The Boy Is Mine (Remix)” is a respectful revisit of an R&B one-of-a-kind that explores what the song would’ve turned out to be if reincarnated in an alternate universe where the base song was slathered with inordinate helpings of spite and sass.
Watch “The Boy Is Mine (Remix)”:
