(TIML TEA) Chatty Patty season has officially begun….Dallas Austin has been spilling lots of tea about artists including Brandy, Monica, Boys II Men, TLC and more. In an interview with Vlad TV, the Grammy-winning producer revealed that he once saw Monica punch Brandy before a performance of “The Boy Is Mine.”

The Atlanta native was the co-producer behind  “The Boy Is Mine,” and also signed Monica to his Rowdy Records imprint. According to Austin, the R&B stars “never” liked each other, namely because Brandy looked down on Monica as being “ghetto.”

Austin claims that he had to convince Monica to collaborate with Brandy. The two recorded the song separately and eventually shot a music video, but their beef came to head prior to an awards show performance.

“The first time they actually saw each other [in person], I think it was the American Music Awards or something, and before they could actually get to the stage Monica decked [Brandy] in the face backstage. I went ‘oh my God!’ This is before the performance so everybody’s [trying to] figure out how we’re going to have a performance that looks like they’re not at war with each other.”

But the tensions ended up being a good thing, Austin recalled. “It worked out because they were supposed to be at war with each other, so nobody could really tell that [Monica] had punched [Brandy] in the face before the performance.”

He added, “They just never really liked each other in the first place.”

“The Boy Is Mine” was the second single and title track off Monica’s double-platinum selling sophomore album. The Grammy-winning single spent 13 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and became the best-selling song of 1998.

On a positive note, the long rumored tension between the two appears to have simmered down after Brandy seemingly reignited the drama  when she changed the chorus from “the boy is mine” to “the song is mine,” during a performance at the Essence Music Festival last year.

Watch Austin’s interview below.