Monie Love

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Monie Love is the stage name of Simone Johnson, born Simone Gooden on 2 July 1970. She is a British rapper, actress and radio presenter. She is regarded as a pioneer among female MCs and was nominated twice for a Grammy, the first British female hip hop artist to be so.

Music and breakthrough

In the late 1980s she became known through guest appearances. She rapped the woman's response on a 1989 remix of Fine Young Cannibals' She Drives Me Crazy, and appeared on United on Praise, Inner City's third album. Her debut album Down to Earth appeared in 1990, with the singles Monie in the Middle, about a woman's right to decide for herself what she wants in a relationship, and It's a Shame (My Sister), which samples a song by the Spinners that Stevie Wonder wrote. House vocalist Ultra Naté also sang on it. In 1991 she rapped on the remix of Whitney Houston's My Name Is Not Susan and appeared in the video.

Influence

In 1992 came Full-Term Love, from the film Class Act. She made her second album, In a Word or 2 (1993), with Marley Marl, and it included Born To B.R.E.E.D., a single produced by Prince. Prince also asked her to write lyrics for Carmen Electra's album. Her last single as lead artist was Slice of da Pie in 2000. Later she worked as a radio presenter in the United States, including in Philadelphia and Atlanta.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1990Down to Earth
• 1993In a Word or 2
• 2025Love Notes

See also

• Down to Earth