This is one outlet's own report from Billboard — the article as it was filed.
AIPROPX ReportBillboard · 2h ago
Coco Jones’ Early Success in Music: A Blessing, a Burden, or a Little Bit of Both? ‘Am I Stuck? I Don’t Know.
Coco Jones is all about having the freedom to express herself as an artist. Ahead of releasing “Body So Tea” in July, Jones definitely spilled some tea about her concerns with her career and her artistry.
She posted a video diary where she candidly spoke about not having her sound figured out yet, despite being crazy talented. We know Coco as a Grammy winner, a powerhouse vocalist and an artist who has been working toward this moment for years. But even with all of that, she still finds herself asking the same question: What exactly is my sound?
“I never came into this game knowing exactly what I do,” she says. “I knew I could sing my ass off, that was pretty clear and that was pretty much the only consistent, but I didn’t really have a ‘thing.’ Personality? Sure. Relatable, I guess? I don’t know. Anyway, I think it’s biting me in the ass right now.”
That honesty was in reference to the singles she released following her debut album, Why Not More?
Coco is currently in a new album run, and I actually spoke to Jones about her debut album Why Not More? last year. At the time, she told me , “I’m really trying to push the boundaries of what R&B can be. I have so many influences — I have what my mom taught me as a kid, Disney Channel influences, and then I have me as a young adult. I feel like I blend genres naturally as a personality. I wanted to match that energy with the album and continue to show the versatility of R&B.”
Her breakout EP, What I Didn’t Tell You , was about introductions. Why Not More? was about deepening the connection.
What I Didn’t Tell You earned her a Grammy for best R&B performance for her 2022 track “ICU” and introduced the world to her powerhouse vocals and unapologetic storytelling. And that’s what people wanted Coco to keep giving them. But that’s not exactly what she wants.
Why Not More? launched at No. 12 on Top Album Sales, No. 16 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, No. 25 on Vinyl Albums and No. 59 on the Billboard 200. So it’s not like the album did terribly. But commercially, critically and creatively, Coco still found herself in a weird place: People knew what they wanted from her, while she was still figuring out what she wanted from herself.
In her video diary, she continued, “With this album, I feel like the reception that I’m getting in the world is confusion. Obviously, I get that — because in the inner world, it’s confusion. Not specifically about what I stand for, what I’m trying to talk about and things of that nature. But really more like… how is it supposed to sound? What is the sound?”
Coco is continuing to push the boundaries of what R&B can be for her in 2026, from “LUVAGIRL” in March to “Body So Tea” in July. But her fans haven’t exactly been happy with the direction, which is where that “confusion” comes from.
In our 2025 interview, she told me, “I think I have built up a good rapport with my fans. I’ve learned a lot about them, they’ve learned about me — and I can kind of let my hair down and be riskier.”
So it makes sense why she felt secure enough to post these revealing videos. She has spent years building a relationship with her fans, and now she’s letting them see a side of her that doesn’t have all the answers.
Being a Coco fan since around 2011, I needed to chop it up with the Texas native and get a bit more details about what’s really going on — what she’s trying to figure out, what she feels like she owes her fans, and whether “ICU” has become a blessing, a burden or a little bit of both.
You recently said you’ve spent a lot of your career feeling like you’re “almost there.” Has anything changed since you shared that, or do you still wake up feeling that way?
i feel like it depends on the day. There are some days where I’m like, “Well, I learned the answer through trial and error, I guess.” And then there are these other days where I’m like, “I just refuse for that to be the answer.” If the answer is, okay, you only make the same song in different fonts , because that’s all people want from me — then I guess some days it’s like, “All right, this is a job. I’m a singer, and that’s my occupation…” And then there are other days where I’m like, “But there’s a first to everything. I could be the first of this lane.” And then the next young girl could say, “I wanna do what Coco did. She did this and this and this and this,” you know? I look at Whitney Houston, there was no limit to what she could do. It was gospel, it was pop, it was R&B, it was everything. All of the above. So the answer changes every day. I think at the end of the day, if I’m being honest with myself, the answer is, I got to live my life. I really do. Hopefully I look back and whatever I did, I did it enjoying myself.
So your goal is to do what? Different genres of music or just different sounds of the same thing?
I think my goal is to combine more than it just be one or the other. You’re either pop or you’re R&B or you’re this or you’re that. That’s just so limiting. I feel like naturally I gravitate towards things that aren’t super traditional all the time. Yes, I sing R&B, but I was signed at 14 years old. That was a completely different world of music I was in. That was only pop, bubblegum pop. I was not singing no R&B songs at 12, 13. It wasn’t giving that. And even though I had gotten in the room with those songs, it was like, “Okay, now that you’re here, you do this now.” I liked it, I did. I liked a lot of those elements, so I just wanna combine them. I don’t wanna have to pick. And I really hope that I can expand my fan base with this goal. If you’re doing the same thing over and over again, how do you expect to grow?
Are you aware of Destin Conrad? Dropped an R&B album, then a jazz, now he’s doing a reggae album.
Yes. I love that freedom. I love that. I think he is the through line… He seems like very sure of who he is. I think that I kind of skipped steps...
Coco Jones’ Early SuccessMusicA BlessingBurdenLittle BitBothAm I StuckAfterICUCoco JonesAheadBody So Tea
AIPROPX is an independent multi-source news index — we track, compare, and connect coverage from across the web into one place you won't find anywhere else.
