On July 31, Brandy shared one of her most personal works to date with the release of her seventh album “B7”. Throughout the album, Brandy details her struggles with mental health and now she’s become even more candid in an interview with People.
“I was a little bit lost eight years ago musically, creatively, spiritually,” she said. “I had to pull myself together, I had to pull it all together and make it all make sense.”
Brandy is known for her over 20 year career that’s brought about such hits like “I Wanna Be Down”, “The Boy Is Mine” and “Sittin’ Up in My Room”. At 41 years old, it’s no surprise that Brandy’s journey has been filled with ups and downs. One series of major incidents even led her to a dark place.
In 2006, she was involved in a car accident that claimed the life of a 38-year-old woman. Brandy wasn’t criminally charged and she settled out of court with the woman’s family. Still, the incident took quite a tole on her. This along with the heartbreak of failed relationships caused Brandy to contemplate suicide, according to People.
“I remember laying in bed super depressed,” she told the magazine. “I [told] myself, ‘So, you’re just going to go out like this? That’s wack. You have a daughter. If you can’t do it for yourself, do it for her because this is not the way to leave a mark in her life.’”
Brandy says her daughter Sy’rai, now 18, helped pull her out of a dark place.
“If Sy’rai wasn’t here, I wouldn’t be either,” she says. “The place that I was in, it just felt like I wasn’t going to make it through.” https://www.youtube.com/embed/vr2r3H477uY?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent
Brandy welcomed Sy’rai in 2002 with her then partner, producer Robert Smith. The couple would split a year later and Smith eventually reveal that he and Brandy were never married, despite what they’d portrayed while filming a reality TV show during her pregnancy. “It changed people’s perspective of me,” Brandy says of becoming a mother and her involvement with Smith, “but I had to focus on what was important, which was Sy’rai.”
Brandy has filled her album “B7” with personal revelations that she was initially scared to share.
“I was thinking, ‘Did I go too deep? Did I go too far in what I was singing about?’ But I didn’t dwell on those thoughts,” she says. Brandy continues to monitor her mental health via therapy, meditation, journaling and her faith.
“I’m in a place now where I can be proud of moving in the right direction,” Brandy said.
English (United States) 
