Victoria Monét Says She No Longer Thinks She Has To Earn Love

Victoria Monét says making Frequency of Love changed how she sees love: she no longer feels she has to earn it.

In a recent interview with People, she described a record shaped by dating, motherhood and growth.

“So I like to look at the album as a diary entry that I can even read back to myself,” she said. Monét welcomed vulnerability in the music. “I actually celebrate it,” she said.

The album arrived October 2 through Lovett Music/RCA Records. Its 22-song track list puts her alongside several R&B peers while also bringing her daughter into the record.

Leon Thomas and Hazel Monét appear on “You Mean the World to Me.” SZA joins “See You in My Dreams,” while Bruno Mars appears on “That’s Why I Love You.”

Lucky Daye contributes to “Maybe,” Bryson Tiller joins “Single” and Chlöe appears on “Lose Myself.” The guests sit among songs such as “You Hurt Me Too,” “Come Back to You” and “For You.”

She told People that writing the songs revealed a new understanding of love and how she views attraction.

“It all is adjustable by what decision you make and what you decide to feel and project. I’m learning to embody it and really understand that it is a choice of mine versus a reaction to what is happening to me,” she says.

The new reflections also connect to Monét’s long path from writing hooks to singing her own stories.

Earlier this week, AllHipHop covered her account of Nas helping that move. On The Jennifer Hudson Show, she recalled making herself useful in studios by writing and singing hooks that artists would want to keep.

“Around the industry, I became like the girl people would call for hooks,” she said on the show.

Nas retained her vocals on Life Is Good. He later brought her onto The Arsenio Hall Show to perform with him. She credited that support, along with encouragement from other artists, with helping her trust her voice.

Her work with Nas gives the album a direct link to her Hip-Hop roots. She once sought a place on another artist’s record. Now, her own project features a roster of guests, with room for the feelings she described in her latest interview.

Monét’s next step is the Frequency of Love Tour, which opens October 27 at Raleigh’s Red Hat Amphitheater. Fans can add $1 at checkout to support her foundation’s community gardens for children.

The tour is scheduled to close December 17 at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium.