Brandy released her first musical effort in eight years entitled, B7. The singer revealed that the hiatus was a result of an ongoing battle with depression. “I was a little bit lost eight years ago musically, creatively, spiritually,” she tells PEOPLE.

Brandy was literally the “it girl” when she stepped on the scene at the age of 15-years-old. She went on to win a Grammy, portrayed the first Black Cinderella, and starred in a successful coming-of-age sitcom, Moesha.

She became a mom in 2002 and split with Robert Smith a year after welcoming their daughter, Sy’rai. Brandy admitted they were never married despite their false portrayal on reality television. “It changed people’s perspective of me,” she says about the situation with Smith, “but I had to focus on what was important, which was Sy’rai.”

A few years later, Brandy’s life changed forever when she was involved in a fatal car crash that took the life of a 38-year-old woman. She wasn’t charged criminally and settled with the family outside of court. But the situation still ate at her.

Brandy even considered taking her own life after the tragedy. “I remember laying in bed super depressed,” she says. “I [told] myself, ‘So, you’re just going to go out like this? That’s wack. You have a daughter. If you can’t do it for yourself, do it for her because this is not the way to leave a mark in her life.’”

Brandy credits her daughter, who is now 18-years-old and a High School graduate, for pulling her out the darkness. “If Sy’rai wasn’t here, I wouldn’t be either,” she says. “The place that I was in, it just felt like I wasn’t going to make it through.”