‘She is the blueprint:’ Issa Rare gives Brandy her flowers at Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony
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The television mogul was among the notable speakers for Brandy’s Hollywood Walk of Fame event, including Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds and Brandy herself.
Brandy may be widely credited as the “Vocal Bible,” but she means even more than that to Issa Rae.
The “Insecure” creator and television mogul was on hand Monday as the R&B star received the honor of all honors on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Joined by guests such as Babyface and Kehlani, Rae used her remarks to pay tribute to another Brandy project that inspired plenty of teen women during the ’90s, “Moesha.”
“I’m so honored to be here, I’ve never said yes faster to a text from my publicist,” Rae began. “I talk about Brandy in all of my interviews. The first time I saw Brandy, I had no idea how much I needed to see Brandy.”
Rae opened up about the first tape she ever bought with her own money, “I Wanna Be Down,” and how Brandy was indirectly responsible for her first heartbreak. But the true impact she left on her came in the form of the ’90s sitcom that went on to create its own TV universe in South Central, Los Angeles.
“It was really ‘Moesha’ that made me understand what was possible,” Rae continued. “It was the first show I’d ever seen told from an ordinary Black girl’s point of view. Brandy made Moesha someone I wanted to befriend, the girl I wanted to be. At a time when beauty standards on television looked nothing like us, Brandy was the standard.”
She added, “She was cool without trying and beautiful without apology. Moesha gave me confidence, sometimes overconfidence and she made it all look effortless. The most inspirational part of her career is just how she had no lane. As her career progressed, so did her ambitions. She didn’t need to stay in one lane.”
“To me, Brandy was and is the blueprint,” Rae said. “Without Brandy as ‘Moesha,’ there’s no ‘Parkers’, there’s no ‘Girlfriends.’ There’s no ‘Insecure,’ and honestly, without ‘Moesha’ there’s no me as a writer.”
“Moesha” premiered on UPN in January 1996 and ran for six seasons before concluding with a cliffhanger in May 2001. Over the course of its 127 episodes, the series dealt with many social issues, including premarital sex, teen pregnancy, race relations, drug use, sexuality and infidelity. The show would spawn one notable, “The Parkers,” which ran from 1999 to 2004 and two loose spinoffs that exist in the same universe, “Girlfriends” and “The Game.”
Among the other guests to attend the ceremony were the cast of “Moesha,” Brandy’s daughter Sy’rai, her “The Boy Is Mine” duet partner Monica, her mother, father and others.
“A star on the Walk of Fame is a definition of legacy,” Brandy said just before the star was unveiled. “It doesn’t just celebrate your success; it cements your story. It doesn’t just honor your work; it immortalizes your light. It is a symbol that says you didn’t just arrive, you endured. You didn’t just dream, you became. It means you made it in a way that stands the test of time. Not just in popularity, not just in the moment, but in a way that leaves fingerprints on culture, on art and on history. Dreams don’t have an expiration date. … So today, I stand grateful, humbled, inspired and most of all, I stand as living proof that what you speak over your life with faith, consistency and belief can one day meet you in reality.”