FIVE QUESTIONS WITH COCO JONES

High Standardz/Def Jam's Coco Jones is the year's biggest arrival in R&B, and as her single "ICU" makes waves, the Grammy chatter around her gets louder. For some reason, she agreed to answer some of our annoying questions.

There’s a lot of buzz surrounding a Best New Artist Grammy nod for you. What would that mean to you?

Winning Best New Artist at the Grammys would be a dream come true. It would be life-changing to have such a respected platform acknowledge my talent. Even to be nominated is surreal to me.

You’ve had a lot of wins over the last few years; what would be the most important one to you?

The most important win is representation. As a dark-skinned Black girl, I’ve always wanted to see more women who looked like me. To now have more representation is a win, because I know it's inspiring all of the women who look like me.

As your star continues to rise, what is the most valuable lesson you’re learning about the entertainment industry?

You can’t take things personally. A lot of the time there are outside circumstances that have nothing to do with your talent and value. You have to love the creative aspect of it but respect the business aspect of it as well.

This year you were able to juggle an acting career and your skyrocketing music career. Was that a difficult balance?

Juggling acting and music is difficult because, in a sense, they are two clashing entities. I can only be at one place at a time, so juggling both is challenging but not impossible. As long as I show up as the best version of myself, I feel like things will work out, because I’ve shown up fully.

You earned your first platinum record with “ICU.” What does that song mean to you on a personal level? And do you feel the song really helped you break through to the next level?

Hearing that “ICU” is platinum still is unreal to me. The song to me is vulnerable and truly feels nostalgic in a sense, because when I was coming up and auditioning, I would always sing the most vulnerable songs, so it feels like a full-circle moment putting my take on a style of music that has helped me get into many doors. I can tangibly feel that “ICU” has helped me break through to another level. I feel like it’s gained notoriety as well as respect for me as an artist, respect that I definitely did not have before.