 Expressing her interest in reteaming with the core musicians she had worked with on her second album – including frequent collaborators Dallas Austin, Rodney Jerkins, David Foster, Daryl Simmons, and Jermaine Dupri – the singer expected the album to be released in the first quarter of 2001 following her involvement with Oscar Mayer's "Jingle Jam Talent Search" contest and the filming of her first major motion picture, "Love Song" (2001).The following month, personal tribulations put a temporary halt on the album's production when her former boyfriend Jarvis "Knot" Weems committed suicide.In July 2000, Monica and Weems were together at the graveside of Weems's brother, who had died in an automobile accident at age 25 in 1998, when Weems, without warning, put a gun to his head and shot himself to death.