Welcome to Victoria Monét’s Jaguar universe. It took a while to get to what she calls her “level-up” period, however the whiz songwriter-turned-superstar-soloist is lastly able to unleash her long-awaited album “Jaguar II.”

Monét’s new LP, the second and last installment in her sequence, releases on Aug. 25, slightly over three years after the unique arrived within the midst of the pandemic. Each influenced and impressed by certainly one of her favourite eras, the funk and soul of the Seventies, the “Smoke” singer calls “Jaguar II” the “extra developed, assured, positive, higher older sister.” And she or he’s prepared for it to have its mammoth second.

Not like the sequel — which has already been lauded as one of the vital anticipated R&B releases of the yr — Monét wasn’t capable of embrace the fullness of its predecessor’s arrival in the summertime of 2020 as a result of her profession was on pause, together with the remainder of the world in quarantine. She did, nevertheless, make time to nurture one other new addition in her life: her first little one, a daughter named Hazel.

Monét — well-known for penning hits for Ariana Grande, Chloe x Halle, Fifth Concord, and extra stars — tells POPSUGAR that changing into a mother has been the “greatest” change in her life since dropping her final undertaking. It is also helped the R&B songstress really feel “actually impressed” whereas crafting “Jaguar II.” “Having a child round that views every little thing as model new can actually re-inspire you and make you admire sure issues that you could have taken without any consideration, like rainfall, or slightly butterfly, or any of the issues that we see a lot that we neglect how lovely they’re,” Monét shares. “Residing life generally has been reinvigorated with the toddler round. Making an attempt to show her and stroll her by every little thing reminds myself of every little thing that it takes to be right here.”

At this time, Monét affirms that she feels good and blissful. Although this wasn’t all the time the case after she gave beginning to her child woman, whom she welcomed with companion John Gaines on Feb. 21, 2021. “I went by a section, to be sincere, the place I used to be going by postpartum despair,” the three-time Grammy-nominated artist says. “It is actually a lonely place that is not talked about an excessive amount of. Folks point out it if you get pregnant however chances are you’ll be as little as depressed afterward, and to the depth and the way you pull your self out of it, there is not any blueprint to that.”

Monét says she needed to “actually work by” her postpartum and leaned on a “nice group of different mothers” (together with her personal) to seek out assist. She’s grateful the pandemic gave her area to do it. And now that she’s on the opposite facet of it, the singer says she’s pouring all her vitality into getting “Jaguar II” “out to the world.”

Arising with the album’s title got here straightforward to Monét. In keeping with her, the unique plan was to roll out a three-part Jaguar sequence, although she did not anticipate a three-year hole between the 2020 and 2023 initiatives on account of the pandemic — so she minimize the undertaking trio right down to a duo. “I used to be wanting to ascertain myself as an artist, and I believed the easiest way to do this was to create this universe that may be the world of Jaguar, however give it to individuals in microdoses,” Monét explains, including that the thought was to “make individuals really feel actually full over the course of time.” Nevertheless, an excessive amount of time had handed and he or she felt like she “would not be in the identical head area for a 3rd half.”

Nonetheless, Monét discovered a solution to give her followers a hearty second serving to of her Jaguar period with one other undertaking that continues her nostalgia theme, as evidenced by her enchanting, tribute-filled visuals to this point. She additionally teamed up with earlier collaborators like producers D’Mile and Tim Suby and musicians like Peter Lee Johnson and Kyla Moscovich to make sure “Jaguar II” was minimize from “the identical material” and created with “the identical intention” as the primary undertaking. “I am actually, actually happy with what ‘Jaguar II’ is,” says Monét.

The singer shares that some components of recording her new album “began with a dream,” like securing a “full-circle” characteristic from the legendary Earth, Wind & Fireplace. “I by no means actually thought that it might occur,” she confesses. “After I first began making any of the Jaguar music, I referenced Earth, Wind & Fireplace and listened to their music a lot and was so impressed by them. In order that they’re the premise of the muse of the Jaguar [projects], interval.”

Monét’s visceral attraction to the ’70s, she says, stems from what she heard rising up. “I take into consideration what my grandma was listening to, the Motown period, or what my household would play at household reunions, barbecues, or events — or what my mother would play on a great Sunday cleansing day, simply feel-good vibes,” she recollects of her childhood. “I believe it is hardwired in my mind to essentially like it, even when it is unconscious.”

Quick-forward to at the moment, when it got here to recording “Jaguar” and “Jaguar II,” Monét was impressed to go “again into these crates and rediscover songs and who they have been by” to mould her modern-day imaginative and prescient. “Simply revisiting sure issues and realizing how nice it was for Black music,” she notes. “What number of completely different artists there have been that have been mainstream . . . They have been doing soul music, but it surely was thought of pop, they usually have been very ingenious and performing some recent stuff and issues that felt new for the time. So I am actually impressed by how that felt.”

Followers will quickly hear what Monét has brewed up for “Jaguar II.” She launched small choices within the first half of 2023 together with her three singles — “Smoke,” “Get together Ladies,” and “On My Mama” — however is “tremendous excited” for the world to listen to the remainder of her 11-track LP. With options from Fortunate Daye and Buju Banton, manufacturing from Kaytranada, and a small cameo from daughter Hazel, the singer hopes all her listeners will stroll away listening to one thing significant.

“My first precedence is individuals having fun with it and discovering them in the suitable moments and in the suitable headspace,” Monét says. “[I hope] it is one thing that they actually wish to come again to and that they really feel actually good about.” The R&B star additionally hopes “individuals discover themselves within the album.” “As a result of I’ve mentioned my piece, mirrored on what I really feel, and what I wish to say,” she says. “So I am hoping that the songs within the album replicate what individuals wish to hear and what they wish to say that they did not say themselves.”

“Jaguar II” is not the one huge factor Monét has queued up. Beginning in September, the singer will embark on her first-ever solo headlining tour, which offered out in mere minutes. And regardless of her years-long tenure within the music business, Monét does not thoughts that she’s nonetheless engaging in “firsts” at this stage of her profession. “I really feel actually grateful each time the alternatives come,” she notes. “Clearly, in my life span, I do not really feel like a ‘new artist.’ I have been an artist since I used to be 17. So I am by no means actually shocked at doing new issues nonetheless . . . I believe every little thing occurs when it is speculated to.”

For Monét, the journey has all the time been extra essential than the vacation spot. So now, all she desires to do is embrace “the level-up.” “I have been working so laborious, and so many issues have occurred behind the scenes to make for these moments, however I really feel like this vitality and this frequency that I am on that’s like the subsequent degree is coming and the issues that I have been wishing for are on the best way. So I really feel actually good about this period, of what is to return after ‘Jaguar II.'”