Jaguar II

About

Victoria Monét is known throughout the industry for her songwriting skill, the brains behind hits for Ariana Grande, BLACKPINK, Chloe x Halle, and many more. “I moved to LA to pursue artistry and just all of the things that I dreamed for myself, and life takes you in different turn, so I ended up songwriting a lot more than recording my own music,” she tells Apple Music. Although the Sacramento native spent most of her career writing, she still released music independently with her 2014 and 2018 EP series <i>Nightmares & Lullabies</i> and <i>Life After Love</i>, but it wasn’t until 2020’s <i>JAGUAR</i> that Monét came into her own as an artist of the same stature as the ones she’d worked for. Named after the fierce jungle cat—known for lurking undetected until they’re ready to pounce—the project introduced a motif that Monét created to show her transition from illustrious songwriter to full-fledged R&B star. “<i>JAGUAR I</i> and <i>II</i> are relative, but you see, <i>JAGUAR II</i> is an older, more developed, voluptuous older sister,” she say. “I just really wanted to make it in my eyes better than <i>JAGUAR I</i>, which I feel like I’ve done.” Co-produced by longtime collaborator D’Mile, <i>JAGUAR II</i> is a seamless continuation enlisting live musicians and delving further into the psychedelic sounds of the 1970s—an era that influenced and inspired both album. Still, Monét takes it further by guiding listeners through different soundscapes of funk, pop, R&B, and reggae while capturing the different moods she wanted to create. Instead of songs about her experiences as a new mom and being in love, Monét decided to showcase the full spectrum of emotions that women feel, whether she’s singing about her affinity for cannabis on the Lucky Daye-assisted “Smoke,” being outside on the flirty party anthem “Party Girl,” or women’s empowerment on “Cadillac (A Pimp’s Anthem).” “I'm trying to listen to it from a fan's perspective, and I would think that people would be like, oh, she's going to talk about just being completely in love and wanting to get married and having kid, this white-picket-fence life,” she say. “And it's not that I feel like even making the album with my relationship, I had the freedom to discuss things that I may not feel currently, but they came up in the making of this album, even though I'm not necessarily in that mindset right now.” .

via Apple Music

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