I’ve been following Victory Jones for a few months now and she is a quintessential superstar; A singer, dancer, entertainer, yogi, and all around amazing human being. Victory is made to be on the cover of magazines and selling out stadiums… it’s only a matter of time before that happens. I had to interview her before she blew up.
Victory Jones, invited us to her lovely home by Liberty State Park that she shares with her hubby and her pup. I had a blast hearing her story and it honestly felt like I’ve known her for years and we were just catching up.
I found out during the interview that she used to be in a girl group that was signed to Missy Elliott, one of my idols! how cool is that?!
What is your name?
Victory Jones.
What do you do?
I am a singer, songwriter, voice actor, and I moonlight as a print model.
Wow, you do a lot! An entertainer. You’re fabulous.
Thank you, so are you!
You know who you remind me of? Jada Pinkett. You really do. Like, 10 years ago. Super fab, does her own thing, free spirit.
I’m a rock-and-roller at heart, I think. Kind of a hippie rock-and-roller.
I see that. That’s dope. And you live in Jersey City?
Yeah!
So you’re a singer, entertainer, beautiful person. How long have you been in the entertainment industry?
For about fifteen years now. I’ve always been able to sing, but I never really saw that as a viable career option until recently. It wasn’t until the last 10-15 years when I took it seriously because I wasn’t raised that way. My parents were hardcore West Indian, so it was always, “You go to school and get a job!” I was always super creative, so I always had outlets to express the creativity. It wasn’t until I got asked to be a member of a girl group, which actually ended up getting signed to Missy, that I was like, “Holy shit, this is real.”
What was the name of the group?
It started out as Hearsay, but it was around the same time that Ciara was in a group and they ended up having the same name, so we had to change it. We changed it a couple of times and ended up changing it to Namebrand. We were like, “Eh…” because we were wearing all of her Adidas stuff when she launched her line. And then she said, “I’m just going to call you guys The Girlz.” That’s what it ended up being.
How was working with Missy?
That lady is like a machine. She does not sleep! Her work ethic is crazy. I respect her work ethic so much. She was fun, she used to take us on trips. She worked us… There was no autotune. You do everything until you get it right. Steps, songwriting, singing, everything. I would spend hours in the booth. It was crazy.
Crazy. So you joined a band. From there, what happened?
That route didn’t end up working out. We were very young and there was a lot of interpersonal turmoil that ended up breaking the group up. We couldn’t really handle what was going on. Even though, creatively, we were all individually amazing. And then our synergy, creatively, on records was amazing. That kind of imploded. About a year and a half later, I was helping another songwriter friend of mine put together a girl group and I thought I was A&R, producing, and writing by helping him put it together. It turns out he actually had me as one of the lead girls in his mind the whole time. I was raging against the machine because I just got out of a situation like that. It’s almost like a relationship – when you break up, you’re like, “I’m not ready to date again.” So we started writing these records, I started demoing the records. I was like, “Yo, this music is amazing.” Then we put together the vision for the group and it was like Fifth Harmony and Pussycat Dolls on steroids, but there were only four girls. We danced like B2K, but as girls. It was like four baby Ciaras.
So there was me, a black girl whose dad is Indian, then an Indian girl whose dad is black but she looked more Indian. One girl was Asian and Irish, but she looked more Asian. Another girl, who was actually Russian and Venezuelan, she was blonde. It was like an international Bratz doll girl group and we sang everything live, no lip-syncing, and we danced our asses off. We went through seven months of artist development boot camp in Atlanta, media training, physical training. It was intense, and that group was amazing. No overlap, interpersonal turmoil, none of that. It turns out the business ended up being bad. It just didn’t work out. What they wanted to do and what we wanted to do ended up being different, but right before we broke up, we ended up landing in Ne-Yo’s camp’s lap. We were working with Compound Entertainment, we almost signed with them, and that was amazing. After that break up, I was like, “Okay, I need to chill because this is too much ‘girl group’ going on for me.” I took a break from music because I was questioning my purpose. Then I thought, “You know what? I can’t stop writing because I write every day.” So I said I’ll just be a songwriter. It didn’t work out because I had too much to say.
You’re a performer! You need to be in the spotlight. Somebody like you needs to be on a stage in Madison Square Garden, just killing it.
I want to do festivals. I want DJs. 500,000 people. It’s happening. When I was in Atlanta, right before I came back to New York after the second girl group, I christened myself Victory Jones. I didn’t even have money for gas. It was just a horrible situation. I think everything happens for a reason, so everything fell apart to come back together.
I had a conversation with myself, laying on the floor, having a moment. Then I started crying, but it wasn’t sad tears. It was like when you get emotionally overwhelmed. I was just like, “I just want to win.” The fire in me, it’s never going to die. It’s like a flame that won’t go out. I just want to win. So I christened myself Victory Jones.
Victory Jones is not your real name?
It’s not my real name. It’s like a Clark Kent/Superman thing.
I love Victory Jones, though. It’s great.
It’s who I am and I’ve always been that way. I go hard on everything I do until the wheels fall off, every single time.
What’s your genre of music?
I would classify my genre as Bass Culture, Electro, and Future Bass mixed.
I love it. So how long have you been in Jersey City?
I’ve been in Jersey City for seven years now.
How did you get here?
I pretty much lived everywhere in New York except Staten Island and the Bronx. When I was living in Queens and I was working three jobs, back in the Missy days, I was commuting through Queens to Manhattan and to Jersey because all the producers lived in New Jersey. After working two shifts and then coming, staying the night, getting up early, I was like, “I’m just going to move to Jersey, this is exhausting.” When I first moved to Jersey, I was living in the Bloomfield/North Newark area, which is where some of my friends lived and one of the girls from the group. I ended up moving to Jersey City when I came back from Atlanta because I just really loved Jersey. I love that it’s quieter, greener, cheaper. I can park my car. The people are more chill.
It’s Chilltown!
Yeah! I was actually living closer to Journal Square about five years ago and then I moved over here with my husband. I actually came to see this place during Hurricane Irene. It was crazy because everyone was like, “Hurricane, shmurricane, it’s not going to happen.” And I’m in the car driving, thinking, “Oh my god, this is crazy.” I was already here, so I figured I would just see it for an hour. As I was in here, the hurricane started while I was getting a tour.
I love this place, it’s great. It has good energy.
And the high ceilings are bomb.
So what are your favorite Jersey City hangout spots?
I am obsessed right now with Koro Koro. I hang out there, I eat there all the time. This weekend, I think I’m going to hit up The Archer. I haven’t been there yet, but I love the menu. I like Porta and the rooftop in the summertime. I love Dullboy, too. It’s kind of sexy! I really loved The Kitchen, but they’re not open anymore. I also like to go over to the Marina, and I love Surf City. I really like the vibe over there.
So what is your creative process? You mentioned you write every day.
I write something every day. It might not be a song, it might just be thoughts, a poem, stuff that I write in my head that I text to myself on my phone. My creative process towards music-making… it’s almost like a meditative mode. When I get music or when I sit down with somebody to write, even without music or when I’m creating it from scratch, I try to breathe, clear my head, and let whatever comes to me flow through me. Almost like a stream of consciousness, like when you freewrite, it’s the same thing. I freeflow. As far as melody or concept, I mold it from this amoebic state until it takes form. Most of the time, when I write, I actually don’t really write. I just freestyle it until it starts to make sense. It’s like a puzzle that I’m putting together but I don’t know all the pieces. They’re coming to me one at a time.
People who write songs, for me… I can’t imagine it.
It’s really cool, actually. The first time I had ever written a song was the first girl group I was in with the producer who was working with us. He was like, “Alright, I only work with artists who have something to say. I need you to write your song. I’m not writing it for you.” There were three of us and we just looked at each other. He literally gave us three pads and three pens, locked us in a room, and said he’ll be back in two hours. So we had water, pads, each other – that was it. It was my first time writing a song. I had always written poetry, so I thought maybe it was the same thing. It sucked, but it was our first song. You know, you just keep practicing over the years to the place where you don’t have to write. You literally just freeflow and it becomes its own thing.
So I know you perform at Transmission. You want to talk about that?
Actually, that’s one of the places I like to hang out at! I love the space. I’m a fan of the whole industrial vibe, which is why I live in an old factory. One of my neighbors was working there at one time. She was part-time bartending and she introduced me to the manager at the time and the owner, Howard. Before the backroom was done, he was telling me about it and I loved that it was like a speakeasy style! He was telling me they wanted to have some performers and were trying to figure it out. I had sent them my website, some footage, and some records. For the opening of the backroom, he was like, “Hey, I’d love for you to come and perform. You’re perfect, we’d love to have you!” We had a really great turnout. It was myself and The Illustrious Blacks, who were big house DJs/performers on Afropunk. That was a pretty good first show at Transmission.
Then I performed there again recently. I love the space and I love Howard’s vibe – he’s such a nice guy. He’s the same way, he just has this vision and wants to create something, create a space. He’s like, “I’m making something that I love and hopefully other people will love it,” which is the same thing that I do every day. I’m just creating stuff. Whatever comes out, it’s for me to love and whoever gravitates to that and if it resonates with you, bomb. If it doesn’t, I’m still going to keep making shit.
I love that. Are you looking to do more gigs in Jersey City?
For sure. I just met somebody who was telling me about JC Underground, which I haven’t been to yet. I’m not even sure what it’s like. I was trying to get in there before it even opened. I have to check that out.
We’ll talk and have some events!
Yes, let’s do it!
So your body’s amazing. What do you do?
I’m a member at Base. That’s one of my favorite hangouts.
Well, I teach hip hop at Base every Wednesday. You need to come! I’ve been teaching there for six years.
I didn’t know! I thought I saw you in there once, just randomly.
Maybe if you come tonight, I’ll put a Missy Elliott song. Pass That Dutch?
Her music is so good to dance to! She taught me so much.
She’s an inspiration, for sure. So any last words?
I’d love for people to know that I’m finishing my album. I have four songs right now, and we’re going to do about 10-12 more. The album will probably be eleven songs. Eleven is my lucky number. In the interim, I’ll drop a couple of ear gems, some sonic candy, and a video or two. I actually just got the final cut of my next video for a song that I have out now – Animal Bass. It’s really fun. A little flirty kind of vibe. And there’s a project: my best friend, Tori Jennings, and I just did a project called The Colored Girl (TCG). We wanted to take something that was historically seen as derogatory and flip it to make it empowering. We have all different shades of black women, women of African heritage, together. Some of us are island girls, some just American, and some of us are actually African – West African.
We did a photo shoot, and it was like a hair and beauty photo shoot. Everybody had different body types, different skin complexions, different hair, just to celebrate brown girls. We wanted to start from our own authentic perspective. That’s the only experience we know, being brown girls, so we started there until we could launch the brand, which is TCG. Essence Magazine picked it up and The Fashion Bomb Daily picked it up, as well. Now people are reposting it like crazy. We started a page, The C Girl Inc., and the engagement is amazing. I must’ve gotten 400 followers overnight.
It’s crazy! I’m excited. My friend’s like me, a hippie at heart. Anything we do, we’re about positivity, uplifting, and empowerment. It could still be glam, it could still be fierce. It doesn’t have to be corny. It’s about all women. It’s about elevating yourself. Vibrate higher. That’s our whole thing. We live like that, so it’s like, “What can we do that’s cool that tells our story to use as a springboard into something greater? Oh, we’ll start here!” And she’s a marketer and PR person, and I’m a musician, but we combined our efforts and we both have good eyes for fashion, hair, beauty, that kind of thing. I’m working on music and TCG right now.
I love that, that’s awesome!
Keep up with Victory and her projects on social media! –
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