2010 saw the comeback of Monica to the music scene. Her album “Still Standing” was well received by both fans and critics, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Album. Though the song “Superman” was not a single, it was a song that instantly grabbed the attention of many listeners. Producer Kendrick Dean talked about the making of the song in a previous interview we did with him:
KD: “Superman” first started at the home of Johnta Austin. Bryan and I went over to work on that record for Monica. Bryan and I started the track and we didn’t know what the theme of the song was going to be. Johnta is incredibly amazing at writing a song without looking like he’s writing a song. Bryan and I were doing track in one room and Johnta was in another room watching College Football. He comes in the room and says “Load it up”. He goes in the booth and one takes the entire song down. It’s something amazing. I hear Jay-Z does that, so he’s like the Jay-Z of songwriting. He came up with the record Superman. Of course at the same time, we were taping this reality show for Monica’s Still Standing. Bryan and I played the record for her and she fell in love with it from first listen. She was like “I need this. This is what I need to cut right now”. At that point, I had also not just been creating and writing with Bryan, I had been doing the majority of her vocal production. Of course it was my turn to do the vocal production on this particular record and seeing it all the way through. It was just Monica and me. We have a chemistry that’s unbreakable. She’s like a sister to me. She understands the way I sing and I say that because I’m not a great singer, but she can interpret what I’m trying to do and make it work and make it hers. That’s very important in vocal production and producing, is being able to communicate with the artist. Whatever language you use to express what you want them to do, make sure it’s a language they’ll be able to understand. We were blessed that we had done so many records together that we knew each others’ language and the beauty was in the song. That was a great record.