Created over a period of three years, in which Monica experienced personal struggles and its original version, All Eyez on Me, was delayed numerous times following the moderate success of single "All Eyez on Me" as well as the leak to Internet file-sharing services and heavy bootlegging after its Japan-wide release, Monica decided to scrap most of the album in favor of new material for which she consulted new collaborators such as Missy Elliott, who would receive executive producer credit due to her predominant share of contributions on the album.

[4] In an interview with MTV News amid promotion for Oscar Mayer's Jingle Jam Talent Search contest in June 2000, Monica revealed that she was planning to start work on her third album throughout the summer season, with a first single to be released by October of the same year.

[7] She eventually resumed work on her third album in fall 2001, involving her usual stable of producers such as Dallas Austin, production team Soulshock & Karlin, Jermaine Dupri, and Rodney Jerkins and his Darkchild crew.

[11] After the commercial failure of original lead single "All Eyez on Me"—a sunny, upbeat groove with a pop feel that the label thought had misled audiences into believing that she was trying to break away from her core R&B fan base[11]—Monica agreed that she would once again return to the studio, significantly raising the financial stakes of the project.

[11] While the pair had never worked together before, Monica, who had felt increasingly frustrated that the album still did not reflect where she wanted to go artistically after a series of unfruitful recording sessions, connected with Elliott after their first night in a studio in Miami where the rapper had played demos with old-school soul sounds to her.

[6] Additional recording sessions were set up with producers BAM & Ryan, Jasper DaFatso, and Jazze Pha,[6] with rappers DMX, Dirtbag, Busta Rhymes and Mia X, and singers Tweet and Tyrese joining.

[16] After the Storm then launches into the Elliott-crafted song "Get It Off", a club-friendly,[17] percussive,[1] 1980s-style jam with a percolating groove,[18] that samples American hip hop group Strafe's single "Set It Off" (1984) and features uncredited vocals from rapper Dirtbag.

[11] Third track "So Gone", another retro-soul song,[18] has a 1970s soul groove that samples from American vocal group the Whispers' "You Are Number One" (1976) and is built upon old-school touches including horns and vinyl surface noise.

[19] The singer explores a painful personal relationship on "U Should've Known Better",[20] a Jermaine Dupri-produced slow jam, set against a pulsating backbeat, about a girl who stands by her man during his jail term.

[22] "Breaks My Heart", produced by Danish duo Soulshock and Karlin, is a "heartbreaking personal lament" in which "a classic slow rhythm-and-blues piano rolls",[20] while the singer "apologizes to the man who stayed with her despite her affairs".

[24] Eighth track "I Wrote This Song", neatly set off by a sample from American singer Shuggie Otis' "Aht Uh Mi Hed" (1970), deals with Weems' suicide.

[26] On pop ballad "Hurts the Most", another Soulshock and Karlin contribution, consisting of acoustic guitars and an understated drum pattern,[26] Monica says goodbye to a former lover who has entered a new relationship since their last meeting, though she still pines for him.

Rather than come across as if there's lost time being made up, the album has all the assuredness and smart developments that should keep Monica's younger longtime followers behind her – all the while holding the ability to appeal to a wider spectrum of R&B and hip-hop fans [...] with just the right amount of swagger added to the singer's more wide-eyed personality of the '90s.

"[29] Caroline Sullivan from The Guardian commented that while "executive producer Missy Elliott is reliably ebullient on the burbling party number "Get It Off", and her enthusiasm clearly rubbed off on Monica [...] things plod a bit in the second half, though, making After the Storm more it'll-do than must-buy.

"[16] Vanessa Jones from Entertainment Weekly also called the non-Elliott-produced material mediocre, noting that "super producer Missy Elliott tarts things up with a trio of streetwise party anthems.

Only on a four-track bonus CD do vocals and music achieve equal footing as the singer moves beyond hackneyed beats to explore gospel, hip-hop, and quiet-storm grooves.