Victoria Monet is back at Genius to break down her hit song “On My Mama,” which has been streamed over 54 million times on Spotify to date! The song was nominated for two of the seven GRAMMYs Victoria Monet is nominated for this year, making her one of the most-nominated artists at the upcoming 2024 GRAMMY Awards. Monet is not new to the music industry despite her Best New Artist GRAMMY nomination, she has written for artist like Ariana Grande, Chloe x Halle, Nas, and more.
On today’s episode of Verified, learn why the song is so special for the singer-songwriter after going through her own postpartum and doubting herself after becoming a mom.
“For it to be one of the biggest things to ever happen to me. It just shows me God laughs at you. He’s like ‘You don’t know anything, watch this!’”
On today’s episode of Verified, learn why the song is so special for the singer-songwriter after going through her own postpartum and doubting herself after becoming a mom.
“For it to be one of the biggest things to ever happen to me. It just shows me God laughs at you. He’s like ‘You don’t know anything, watch this!’”
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MusicTranscript
00:00 When I wrote "On My Mama," I didn't feel like any of the lyrics.
00:04 To go into the studio with a mindset of self-doubt, self-judgment, and then for it to be one of
00:10 the biggest things to ever happen to me, it just shows me that God just laughs at you.
00:14 He's like, "You don't know anything.
00:16 Watch this."
00:16 "On My Mama" is really like a positive affirmation song that you can twerk to.
00:28 When I got pregnant, niggas was scared.
00:31 I was like, "What am I going to do?
00:32 What does it mean for my career?
00:33 What does it mean for my body, my lifestyle?"
00:36 It was like a godsend for that record to be about moms and celebrating my mom and then
00:42 hopefully one day my daughter was singing about me.
00:44 That lyric specifically is about everything that you can get genetically and mentally
00:57 from the way you were raised.
00:58 My mom instilled so many strong attributes in me, her being a single mom, taking care
01:05 of my crazy ass.
01:07 She just killed it.
01:09 We're going to go through the definition of humble.
01:17 It's having or showing a modest or low estimate of one's own importance.
01:22 Weak.
01:23 The way that we describe humble culturally is like, "Oh, they're just so nice."
01:27 They're nicer than they should be because at their success level, they should be kind
01:31 of mean, which I don't feel like I'll ever be.
01:33 But as far as humble and viewing myself as less than and lower than, none of that.
01:39 We can cut that out.
01:40 Just take the word humble and slap that shit out of here.
01:53 When I think of a fantasy, a waterfall is flowing, beautiful sunlight, lots of big asses
01:58 twerking ambiently in a jungle.
02:02 That's the world that we should try to create and live in.
02:04 I don't know if I'll ever get ambient twerking in a jungle, but we're going to try.
02:07 A lot of times when people think of the word pimp, they think of a male.
02:20 So I feel like it was important to try to change what the vision of pimp looks like.
02:25 Just like Jay-Z said, "Ladies is pimps too."
02:28 I don't necessarily mean getting money and heart breaking and slapping bitches, but I
02:33 do mean just doing what it is that we want to do, having autonomy, feeling like the boss
02:38 of this shit.
02:39 Probably not just tonight.
02:41 All nights.
02:42 I put that on my own mama, on my hood.
02:48 I look fly, I look good.
02:51 You can't touch my bag, wish you could.
02:55 I look fly, I look too good.
02:58 When you put something on your mom or somebody that you love, it means you're definitely
03:02 not lying.
03:03 If you put it on them and you're lying, something bad's going to happen to them and you don't
03:05 want that, right?
03:06 I'm so deep in my bag like a grandma with a peppermint.
03:11 They say, "Ooh, she smell good."
03:13 That's just because I'm heaven sent.
03:14 I grew up in church.
03:16 Sometimes it was so long that you get hungry.
03:18 If you asked for something to just help your blood sugar, grandma already always has it
03:25 in her bag.
03:26 It's a peppermint or one of those caramel candies and it's always at the bottom.
03:30 You know it's deep in there because it's covered by other shit.
03:32 So yeah, that's how deep in my bag I was.
03:36 Sex game go stupid, snapping like a toothpick.
03:40 If you're trying to consider what everybody else thinks before yourself, you're going
03:46 to go crazy.
03:47 It's almost like having a million voices in your head.
03:49 I feel like it's just super important to have one voice, the most important voice at the
03:55 top.
03:56 If you think you look fly and you look good, chances are that's what you're exuding.
03:59 But I, I know you think I'm fine, yawn, yawn.
04:02 My beat too fine to hit it from behind, yawn, yawn.
04:05 Reflection in the mirror, don't decline, yawn.
04:08 I can't even lie, lie, lie.
04:10 The crazy part about the second verse and the second pre-hook is that I wrote that part
04:17 long after I wrote the first part.
04:19 By then, I was in a better head space.
04:21 I was a bit over postpartum.
04:22 So I feel like maybe that's why you hear the difference between the first verse where I'm
04:26 trying to talk myself out of being humble and then the next verse is like, "I know you
04:30 think I'm fine."
04:31 Because after you come back from a pregnancy, there's no way you're not fine.
04:35 Even just because you're able to create life and still be sane.
04:39 That makes you so attractive.
04:40 Every mother is just so fine.
04:42 My mom loved the record since I played it for her, especially since the first line is
04:48 she get it from her mom and she was like, "This my favorite one."
04:52 She was in the video killing it.
04:54 When she first got on set, she was like, "Oh, I don't know.
04:56 What do you want me to do?"
04:58 I was like, "Just be you, mom."
05:00 So the director goes, "And go."
05:02 And she's all of a sudden a whole different mom.
05:06 Hazel was persuaded to be in the video by a lollipop.
05:08 It was great.
05:09 It was such a fun time.
05:10 It almost feels like a home video but shot by a professional.
05:14 Just like I'll always have that.
05:15 My mom and her granddaughter in the same visual.