April 6, 2026 • 9 mins
It has been a long journey from Sacramento to the top of the charts, and Victoria Monét is finally getting her well-deserved flowers. In this exclusive sit-down, she joins DJ Pup Dawg to reflect on a career defined by patience, "delusional" trust, and the art of the craft.
Victoria opens up about the "bow and arrow" tension of her career—being pulled back for years before finally being released into the massive success of the past year, including her major Grammy and iHeartRadio Award wins. She also dives deep into her process as a world-class songwriter, explaining why she sometimes has to "fill her cup" with life experiences before she can pour them back into the music.
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Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, straight from Pakistan to La to Boston in the studio.
It's been like four or five years and making she's
in the studio, Victoria.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Monet, what up, Welcome back the journeyss.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I feel great, I feel amazing. How about you?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
I'm great. I remember seeing you that night.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
You are such a star and I'm so glad the
world can see how talented. And you're super sweet too,
by the way, your whole team was super sweet. And yeah,
it's just great to see you just getting all your
flowers and just killing it.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Man.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Thank you so much. I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
What was it like when you got that that nomination?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I know you won them too, but like when you
got nominated for Grammys and iHeart Awards and all that,
all that started happening. It started happening quick. So talk
about where you were and how long you were working,
because I know we talked about this earlier, how long
you it took to get to where you were, and
then when it came, it like.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
It went, it went crazy. So for me, I always
like to compare it to the Bow and Arrow. I
felt like there was so much ten in my career
and I was being pulled back like a bow and arrow,
and as soon as the arrow God let go, it
was time to go, and was fast and it was far,
and so sometimes you're flying through the air that way
and you don't really get to sit and enjoy and
really experience what you had been trying to manifest all along.
(01:17):
So now I'm kind of in a reflective space where
this past year I did a lot of shedding and
I was able to slow down a bit and work
on the next album and really reflect and appreciate all
the momentum that I had while I was soaring and
try to replicate that same thing again as really the goal.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
You're that kind of artist that I feel like that
was perfect, like how you kind of did your thing
and then you disappear. Because you're a writer. You're an
amazing writer, you know. So I don't think you just
write out of nowhere, like it's got to come from somewhere.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
You have to have the life experience in order to write,
Otherwise you may be writing someone else's story at a point,
or you feel a little bit empty as a creative,
so you have to go back and fill your cup,
experience things that bring about the emotions that you want
to write about.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
But you're also you do write for other people too.
So when you write for other people, are you writing
your story or are you like studying them and then
writing their story.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
It's a bit of both, right. It's when I'm in
the studio with someone who I'm writing for, I'm asking
their experience, almost like a therapist would ask, so, har,
how do you feel today? And it based on what
I know about them and what they tell me. I
kind of, you know, inhale that in a way, and
then I shine that back out into a song. It
seems like a bit of a prism effect, like it
(02:27):
will be their story through my lens, through my style,
through my experiences also, so there's a bit of me
in it in the DNA, But ultimately my goal is
to be vulnerable enough and submissive enough to accept whatever
their story is and not try to interject in that
creative process. But I'm just I would just be the
vessel at that point. Now, when it's for me, it's all,
(02:47):
you know, I could say anything and everything and nothing
is against the rules really because it's my own expression.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
That's amazing. Victoria, money is in your right now.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
And now going back to you you started in the
writing world, right, like that, that's how you really came up.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
You think I would say that I always was an artist.
I was just writing my own music. So I was
always writing, yes, but I actually started writing just for myself.
I grew up in Sacramento and I didn't know of
anyone who would write for me. So I just felt
like a natural thing to do to If you want
to make music, then you go make it and you write.
And then when I got more into the knowledge of
(03:23):
the music industry, I discovered at the time they were
calling it ghostwriting.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Like you should be a ghostwriter.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
I'm like, oh, I've never okay, cool, I never heard that.
I always assume like if I heard Mariah sing it,
if I heard Michael Jackson sing it, they wrote it.
So just digging more into the information of that, I
found that it was a whole career and I was
very interested in it because not everything that I have
to say I should be said with my voice. You know,
I want to paint with other colors. So it's really
(03:48):
cool to be able to tell someone else's story through
your melodies, through your style, or really be in the
studio with other voices and hear your style on what
if I want to do a rock song and I
get to hear someone like, you know, Teddy Swim's voice
that I don't sing that way, but my lyrics and
things can be conveyed in a different way by giving
him my lyrics. So I enjoy both.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Got it a lot.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
And the reason I asked this because a lot of
times when you get to a certain level and your
pen game is so strong, a lot of I'm talking
to some of the new artists that are listening right
now too, because their pen game is strong, but they
don't know how to go that direction.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
And sometimes when you get to a.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Place that'll be like, yo, just just worry about your
pen we'll get we'll get the placements.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
And stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
So I didn't know if you ever went through that
where just keep giving us music. We'll worry about your
artist stuff later when we know they worry about that
really later.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Percent I think based on algorithms, based on amounts of
followers at the time, based on investments, like it would
be more profitable for somebody to tell you at a
certain point you need to give this song to a
bigger artist because it's going to reach more people, and
it's going to go further and you're going to make
more income. We all will benefit more from this artist
(04:57):
singing it versus you, because no one knows who you are.
So definitely how gone through that? My answer to that
is that everything starts as a seed and then it
becomes a plan, and it becomes a tree. Then it grows.
So if you don't give yourself the opportunity to be watered,
then you won't become a tree. You can't just give
all of your fruit to the trees. You have to
become one on your own. Maybe evenly distribute your creative process.
(05:20):
Do some for you, do some for other people, because
you know logistically you will have to make income, make
ends meet. Yeah, and if that's bringing you money, it
makes sense to do. But better if you still need
to invest in yourself with your time and your creativity
so that you feel fulfilled and inspired still, because that
can become resentful a bit. You can become resentful to
(05:42):
other artists and labels and people who are telling you
to give your art to other people.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Especially if it's working and it's it's connecting everywhere else,
it's like, oh yeah, let's just keep doing.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
That right, It's like, so you like me, but you
don't like me as me. You like me through like
the wizard of ozway. You know, you only like me
through the lens of wizardry, like my voice and my
look and my style. So it is very important to
stay true to yourself and make sure that no one
is able to tell you no when it's your work
and you're only doing things that feel the best for you.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
I love that Victoria mone is here right now.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
You saw how long the elevator ride was, right, It's
like maybe about a minute and a half maybe, So
say you go back down right now. You got to
get to You got your next event. You got to
get to. You meet the Victoria monet in the elevator
going down, and she asked for advice. Yeah, in that
minute and a half, because you got to go. You
can't stay. What are you telling Victoria Money from fifteen
years ago in the elevator?
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Ooh, I would say trust And when I the quickest
way to explain trust is trust in every way it
be trust in your in your gut feelings, trust in
your intentions, trust in God, trust in the process, trust
in the timing of everything it trust is a big
I guess it would be like uh, ego death, because
(06:57):
your ego would tell you when things are supposed to
and what they're supposed to look like, and the comparisons
and all of that, and the question of why am
I not and why isn't it me and all of
those things. But it goes back down to the base
of trust. And if you have trust in yourself and
your craft and all of that, you'll keep going and
you'll fight through all of those narratives and you'll find
(07:19):
yourself exactly where you need to be.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I love that. Do you think you had that trust
at fifteen years ago? Did you have that?
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Because when we were younger, you want it right away,
And the same thing with me as a DJ getting
now it's easy. You know, we sound like people that
were above us are older than us saying yo, you
got to just wait for your time, But when you're
fifteen years ago, you're like, it's my.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Time right now. Oh yeah, So how was that?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Like?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
How did you pass that delusion?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
You have to be actually delusional, like in a positive way.
You have to be so crazy that your dreams might
scare you and it might scare the people around you.
To and try to steer you against it. But if
you start feeling that and like the jump is big,
you're probably in the right space. But delusion will allow
(08:02):
you to kind of sustain the belief that you it
will happen today, because maybe it will happen today for you.
For example, I feel like Little nas ICs it was
his first song or two that was very successful for him,
and then in my case, it took fifteen years for
a Grammy. So it depends like would you The question
(08:22):
is to yourself, are you down for the ride if
it doesn't happen today or if someone told you it's
not going to happen for another twenty years, would you
still work just as hard today as you would if
if someone told you it is happening today. And so
every day you wake up with the delusion or the
illusion that you it will happen today, and it might.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
So you have to.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Operate in that headspace and manifest it because technically it
could in this world, but it may not right. But yeah,
I think I've just had to be a little bit crazy.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I always know I can be. I always talk about
the twenty year artist. There's a you know you're that artist?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
You know when we talk about like the longevity of
these artists didn't happen overnight, all of them, Like all
the ones that I've come that set right there, you know,
have told me about this long. And then the ones
that come in, you know, with a real big record,
it's like Instagram, they pop off real quick, and then
you can't sustain that. It's hard to sustain that because
there's a lot of work behind the scenes that needs
to be done. Yeah, and you've worked it, man,
Yeah, straight from Pakistan to La to Boston in the studio.
It's been like four or five years and making she's
in the studio, Victoria.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Monet, what up, Welcome back the journeyss.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I feel great, I feel amazing. How about you?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
I'm great. I remember seeing you that night.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
You are such a star and I'm so glad the
world can see how talented. And you're super sweet too,
by the way, your whole team was super sweet. And yeah,
it's just great to see you just getting all your
flowers and just killing it.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Man.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Thank you so much. I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
What was it like when you got that that nomination?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I know you won them too, but like when you
got nominated for Grammys and iHeart Awards and all that,
all that started happening. It started happening quick. So talk
about where you were and how long you were working,
because I know we talked about this earlier, how long
you it took to get to where you were, and
then when it came, it like.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
It went, it went crazy. So for me, I always
like to compare it to the Bow and Arrow. I
felt like there was so much ten in my career
and I was being pulled back like a bow and arrow,
and as soon as the arrow God let go, it
was time to go, and was fast and it was far,
and so sometimes you're flying through the air that way
and you don't really get to sit and enjoy and
really experience what you had been trying to manifest all along.
(01:17):
So now I'm kind of in a reflective space where
this past year I did a lot of shedding and
I was able to slow down a bit and work
on the next album and really reflect and appreciate all
the momentum that I had while I was soaring and
try to replicate that same thing again as really the goal.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
You're that kind of artist that I feel like that
was perfect, like how you kind of did your thing
and then you disappear. Because you're a writer. You're an
amazing writer, you know. So I don't think you just
write out of nowhere, like it's got to come from somewhere.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
You have to have the life experience in order to write,
Otherwise you may be writing someone else's story at a point,
or you feel a little bit empty as a creative,
so you have to go back and fill your cup,
experience things that bring about the emotions that you want
to write about.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
But you're also you do write for other people too.
So when you write for other people, are you writing
your story or are you like studying them and then
writing their story.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
It's a bit of both, right. It's when I'm in
the studio with someone who I'm writing for, I'm asking
their experience, almost like a therapist would ask, so, har,
how do you feel today? And it based on what
I know about them and what they tell me. I
kind of, you know, inhale that in a way, and
then I shine that back out into a song. It
seems like a bit of a prism effect, like it
(02:27):
will be their story through my lens, through my style,
through my experiences also, so there's a bit of me
in it in the DNA, But ultimately my goal is
to be vulnerable enough and submissive enough to accept whatever
their story is and not try to interject in that
creative process. But I'm just I would just be the
vessel at that point. Now, when it's for me, it's all,
(02:47):
you know, I could say anything and everything and nothing
is against the rules really because it's my own expression.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
That's amazing. Victoria, money is in your right now.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
And now going back to you you started in the
writing world, right, like that, that's how you really came up.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
You think I would say that I always was an artist.
I was just writing my own music. So I was
always writing, yes, but I actually started writing just for myself.
I grew up in Sacramento and I didn't know of
anyone who would write for me. So I just felt
like a natural thing to do to If you want
to make music, then you go make it and you write.
And then when I got more into the knowledge of
(03:23):
the music industry, I discovered at the time they were
calling it ghostwriting.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Like you should be a ghostwriter.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
I'm like, oh, I've never okay, cool, I never heard that.
I always assume like if I heard Mariah sing it,
if I heard Michael Jackson sing it, they wrote it.
So just digging more into the information of that, I
found that it was a whole career and I was
very interested in it because not everything that I have
to say I should be said with my voice. You know,
I want to paint with other colors. So it's really
(03:48):
cool to be able to tell someone else's story through
your melodies, through your style, or really be in the
studio with other voices and hear your style on what
if I want to do a rock song and I
get to hear someone like, you know, Teddy Swim's voice
that I don't sing that way, but my lyrics and
things can be conveyed in a different way by giving
him my lyrics. So I enjoy both.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Got it a lot.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
And the reason I asked this because a lot of
times when you get to a certain level and your
pen game is so strong, a lot of I'm talking
to some of the new artists that are listening right
now too, because their pen game is strong, but they
don't know how to go that direction.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
And sometimes when you get to a.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Place that'll be like, yo, just just worry about your
pen we'll get we'll get the placements.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
And stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
So I didn't know if you ever went through that
where just keep giving us music. We'll worry about your
artist stuff later when we know they worry about that
really later.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Percent I think based on algorithms, based on amounts of
followers at the time, based on investments, like it would
be more profitable for somebody to tell you at a
certain point you need to give this song to a
bigger artist because it's going to reach more people, and
it's going to go further and you're going to make
more income. We all will benefit more from this artist
(04:57):
singing it versus you, because no one knows who you are.
So definitely how gone through that? My answer to that
is that everything starts as a seed and then it
becomes a plan, and it becomes a tree. Then it grows.
So if you don't give yourself the opportunity to be watered,
then you won't become a tree. You can't just give
all of your fruit to the trees. You have to
become one on your own. Maybe evenly distribute your creative process.
(05:20):
Do some for you, do some for other people, because
you know logistically you will have to make income, make
ends meet. Yeah, and if that's bringing you money, it
makes sense to do. But better if you still need
to invest in yourself with your time and your creativity
so that you feel fulfilled and inspired still, because that
can become resentful a bit. You can become resentful to
(05:42):
other artists and labels and people who are telling you
to give your art to other people.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Especially if it's working and it's it's connecting everywhere else,
it's like, oh yeah, let's just keep doing.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
That right, It's like, so you like me, but you
don't like me as me. You like me through like
the wizard of ozway. You know, you only like me
through the lens of wizardry, like my voice and my
look and my style. So it is very important to
stay true to yourself and make sure that no one
is able to tell you no when it's your work
and you're only doing things that feel the best for you.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
I love that Victoria mone is here right now.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
You saw how long the elevator ride was, right, It's
like maybe about a minute and a half maybe, So
say you go back down right now. You got to
get to You got your next event. You got to
get to. You meet the Victoria monet in the elevator
going down, and she asked for advice. Yeah, in that
minute and a half, because you got to go. You
can't stay. What are you telling Victoria Money from fifteen
years ago in the elevator?
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Ooh, I would say trust And when I the quickest
way to explain trust is trust in every way it
be trust in your in your gut feelings, trust in
your intentions, trust in God, trust in the process, trust
in the timing of everything it trust is a big
I guess it would be like uh, ego death, because
(06:57):
your ego would tell you when things are supposed to
and what they're supposed to look like, and the comparisons
and all of that, and the question of why am
I not and why isn't it me and all of
those things. But it goes back down to the base
of trust. And if you have trust in yourself and
your craft and all of that, you'll keep going and
you'll fight through all of those narratives and you'll find
(07:19):
yourself exactly where you need to be.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I love that. Do you think you had that trust
at fifteen years ago? Did you have that?
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Because when we were younger, you want it right away,
And the same thing with me as a DJ getting
now it's easy. You know, we sound like people that
were above us are older than us saying yo, you
got to just wait for your time, But when you're
fifteen years ago, you're like, it's my.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Time right now. Oh yeah, So how was that?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Like?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
How did you pass that delusion?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
You have to be actually delusional, like in a positive way.
You have to be so crazy that your dreams might
scare you and it might scare the people around you.
To and try to steer you against it. But if
you start feeling that and like the jump is big,
you're probably in the right space. But delusion will allow
(08:02):
you to kind of sustain the belief that you it
will happen today, because maybe it will happen today for you.
For example, I feel like Little nas ICs it was
his first song or two that was very successful for him,
and then in my case, it took fifteen years for
a Grammy. So it depends like would you The question
(08:22):
is to yourself, are you down for the ride if
it doesn't happen today or if someone told you it's
not going to happen for another twenty years, would you
still work just as hard today as you would if
if someone told you it is happening today. And so
every day you wake up with the delusion or the
illusion that you it will happen today, and it might.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
So you have to.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Operate in that headspace and manifest it because technically it
could in this world, but it may not right. But yeah,
I think I've just had to be a little bit crazy.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I always know I can be. I always talk about
the twenty year artist. There's a you know you're that artist?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
You know when we talk about like the longevity of
these artists didn't happen overnight, all of them, Like all
the ones that I've come that set right there, you know,
have told me about this long. And then the ones
that come in, you know, with a real big record,
it's like Instagram, they pop off real quick, and then
you can't sustain that. It's hard to sustain that because
there's a lot of work behind the scenes that needs
to be done. Yeah, and you've worked it, man,
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