UB Celebrates: 20th Anniversary of Brooke Valentine’s Debut

Today March 15th is the 20th Anniversary of, one of our favorites Brooke Valentine‘s debut album release “Chain Letter.”

In 2005, fans and critics alike were enthralled by music sensation Brooke Valentine.

It all started with her break-out hit single, “Girlfight,” featuring Lil Jon and Big Boi. The debut album was released via Subliminal Entertainment/Virgin Records.

The single helped propel album sales to 2.5 million copies worldwide.

At 19 years old, the single, “Girlfight,” stepped into the uncharted territory of how girls physically challenge each other.

The Houston native wrote the song in 10 minutes at a Lil Jon party in Miami. “I had a couple fights during my day,” Brooke stated to Billboard at the time. “But no one has really touched on the subject of how girls fight. [The inspiration] could have even come from the girls or the vibe at the party.”

A remix of “Girlfight” was released featuring Da Brat, Ms. B and Remy Ma.

Brooke Valentine wrote or co-wrote all 15 tracks on “Chain Letter.”

Other producers on the project included Soul Diggaz, Bink! of One Shot Deal, Solomon of Conjunction Productions, Heatmakerz and Bloodshy & Avant of Murlyn Music.

“Chain Letter” entered the Billboard 200 at #16 and bowed on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart at #3.

Brooke‘s career started in 1998 when she met Deja, president of Subliminal Entertainment in Los Angeles. He executive produced “Chain Letter,” along with Virgin chairman/CEO Matt Serletic and Virgin A&R exec Josh Deutsch.

Deja originally put Brooke in a girl group called Best Kept Secret. When the act disbanded, Brooke, who was managed by Interface Visions, began work on her solo career.

A couple of songs ended up in the hands of Serletic, who flew to Los Angeles to hear her. “Her live performance wowed us and got us really interested in signing her,” Serletic recalled. “One of Brooke’s strengths is that she is not limited by a narrow genre. She is a very powerful, engaging artist with a wide range of musical tastes.”

From “Blah, Blah, Blah,” a fun, bouncy song about nagging lovers featuring the late Dirt McGirt (aka 0l’ Dirty Bastard), to “I Want You Dead,” a sinister, scorned-woman anthem, Brooke‘s album leaped among genres ranging from Pop, Rock and Alternative to Dance, Hip-Hop and R&B. “I love all types of music. I have fun dibbing and dabbing in all genres.”

Brooke credited Alanis Morissette, Anita Baker, Blondie, Pat Benatar, Al Green, Luther Vandross and Tina Turner as her influences.

“I am not a crunk’n’B artist. I am not an R&B artist,” Brooke stated. “I do it all. Do not put me in a category, because you are going to get disappointed every time.”

However after such a monster (Brooke’s definition of the hit) simmered down the label released “Long as You Come Home“, that single failed to chart higher than #72 on the Billboard Charts.

Later that year Brooke, had a single entitled “Boogie Oogie Oogie” featured on the soundtrack to the film Roll Bounce.

Brooke can currently be seen on “Love & Hip Hop: Miami,” every Monday at 8/7c on VH1.

UB spoke to the multi-talented Brooke Valentine in 2012, and of course we had to touch on “Girlfight” and “Chain Letter.”

Brooke surprised us, by getting candid about that time in her life, from label politics to depression.

UrbanBridgez.com: What have you been up to since your last release, I know you had a baby?
Brooke Valentine: Well..I’m going to give you the phrase, to make a long story short. I had to take a life break! I was getting away from myself, I had lost myself. At some point after Chain Letter, I just kind of flew out of there. I feel like one of those flights I took, I took off. I lost myself and kind of never returned, I was auto-pilot. I was just like what’s the next city, what are we doing, let’s do it. Let’s hit the stage, get off, hit the plane. I was like a little robot and I didn’t wake up till I was back in Houston. I went back home I had just got there and had this sick feeling. Like what is on my mind, I was uneasy and sure enough I found out my cousin was murdered that night. My little cousin and oh my god it’s like if anything is going to wake you up & snap you out of it, it would be something like that. So just having to go to my Uncles house and being there when they broke the news to him, just to hold hands with my family and hold them, touch them and cry with them. That right there just slowed me all the way down. It was like you know what, just cancel the shows I need to take a break I need to deal with this right now. So I just stayed home and kicked it with family and slept on my Grandmothers couch. I cooked, went to the park and just really chilled. It felt really good, to just be a kid again almost. You know, I even went to Chuck E. Cheese I was like let me just chill (laughs). I did my grocery shopping again, I was like I’m not gonna have a personal assistant do this, I’m going to pay my own bills this month. I was grinding since I was like 13 album and came out with my album when I was 19, I needed to just go grow up. I needed to see what life was all about. During that time, I had my son which is such a blessing! During labor, I has post partum hemorrhage, I almost died. I almost lost my son, he had a stroke at birth.

UrbanBridgez.com: Wow!
Brooke Valentine: Yeah, it was really a trying time. It’s like it turned something so beautiful into something so scary. I remember being on my way to the hospital like oh my god I’m finally going to have my son. So happy, then being there and wondering if we’re going to go home. Like are we going to make it out of here and leave the hospital? So once I got my son home and with all of that, everybody was like so do you want to put this album out now? I was like no, honestly I didn’t. I was still creating and working with other artists, writing with alot of new artists. Helping develop them and sharpening their craft. However as far as me putting out an album at that time, that’s not where I was. I was more about taking care of my son and family and keeping things together. I felt like I wasn’t ready yet, I needed more development personally. Before I did this business thing, luckily my son loves music so much, he kind of brought me back to it. He made me look at it a different way and now I know I’m doing Forever for my son. To show him not to give up or get carried away from your dreams. You gotta keep things in order. The best way to teach him that is to show him. So that’s basically what I’m trying to do now, I’m trying to spread my little love all over the world. One kiss, one hug and one wave at a time (both laugh)!

UrbanBridgez.com: Well we are happy you’re back! “Girlfight” was so huge for you!
Brooke Valentine: Oh my god, that was such a fun song! Now that monster, I call Girlfight a monster! I knew I was in trouble when I went to this big Church, I’m not going to say which one because you will know what pastor I’m talking about. So I’m in there and just really trying to be in the cut in the back. Then he said, I see my girl back there, it’s about to be a what…I was like noooo! Did the pastor just say that (laughs). So that’s when I knew and the album was really fresh out. So I’m thinking some people know and some people don’t, so I knew then the song was a beast. Then I remember the video for Girlfight, from everybody who came out like the celebrities. Like everybody was out there jammin to the record and knew the words. That song was bigger than me, it was just like wow. I still can’t believe it, like when I look at pictures and me and my dancers tell stories. Like girl, did that really happen. they’re like yeah it really happened! It went down, we partied hard (laughs).

UrbanBridgez.com: You mentioned having to fight with Virgin Records to be released from your contract, where did it go wrong for you at that label?
Brooke Valentine: You know, it’s kind of no secret that Virgin Records just kind of…you know. It’s like what happened, like everybody knows something happened but it just kind of crashed! They revamped, fired everybody and got all new staff. Then it’s all the artists on the roster saying, like who’s my product manager now, who’s my this and that and my new media now? They were just like, oh we’ll let you know, we’ll let you know. So with just all of the uncertainties and meeting people who was working on your project and honestly some of them just didn’t care. Like their heart wasn’t in it, it was just a job to them. A lot of the things I’m saying a lot of artists don’t talk about, this is like a forbidden fruit! It’s like don’t talk about the real, but if you ask Brooke, she’s gon tell you the truth! A lot of these people at these labels just sit behind their desk and they do their job. They don’t really care if you pay your rent, they don’t care what really happens with you. They just need to meet their quota, look good doing it and then once it blows up, they want to be like yeah I was behind her. No you was not, you was just doing what you was told to. My name was on the calendar on your desk and you was like well let me do this right quick. So you know with that, I was just not feeling them honestly. I just felt like their hearts wasn’t really into it, I felt like it was a lot of button pressing.

UrbanBridgez.com: Wow!
Brooke Valentine: One day I got this email and it had who they were going to put me in the studio with and they was going to have me go on a date with this person for publicity. I was like whoa, I just pulled the plug! I was not going to turn into one of those people, I wasn’t going to do no fake stuff and mislead my fans. I wasn’t going shopping with ole girl to make it seem like we were best friends (laughs). It just got real plastic for me. I’m not a good liar, so I don’t do it. And I was like my fans are going to read me right away and say she’s fake. I couldn’t let that happen, so before it did I just quit! Along with what was also going on with me personally with my family, it was the perfect time to say no more. Once we were going to create Physical Education, which was the title of that album going back listening to it…the features on there and everything, everybody would be surprised it wasn’t released. It was a good album, but I call it a paper album. Again from them like this is who you’re working with, this is the sound we’re going for, etc. Although we did get great music out of it, I like it I just feel like it could be way more organic. Way more real, I like to just float into the studio and hang around and create. When I’m tired I leave or if not, I’m staying for like 3 days and just jammin out. With that album, it was none of that. It was 9 to 5. Like we start at 9, end at 5. I said all of that to say…it was time to go! That relationship was over, I didn’t feel the love. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t happy what they did with Janet! Her album came out before mine, I watched that whole thing happen like what this is Janet Jackson! I’m like y’all need to pull up and get it together. Once I seen that, I was like I am not turning this album in (laughs). I never turned the album in and what happens then is there is no album to put out.

UrbanBridgez.com: Crazy!
Brooke Valentine: Yeah, and I apologize to the fans because they were just simply waiting for it. And they never got it, so for that I apologize! But now I am happy to set the record straight and to let everybody know and that it wasn’t I fell out of love with music. It was the system that I fell out of love with. I needed to just regroup!

The things you hear and see on them you will be surprised, I did alot of creating and thinking for this album on the elevator. Don’t check me into the hospital, it works (laughs).

Take A Trip Down Memory Lane with “Chain Letter!”