Deputy is the songwriter and producer behind one of 2023’s top tracks, “On My Mama” by Victoria Monét, and has now earned Grammy nominations for both Record of the Year and Best R&B Song. Deputy, who was also the producer for Rihanna’s “B—- Better Have My Money” continues to show that he is the go-to hitmaker for the women of R&B.
Deputy spoke with rolling out about how “On My Mama” was created, and what inspired the chorus.
How did the “On My Mama” track come about?
Victoria and I started the JAGUAR process maybe about four years ago. Our very first session was “Jaguar” the actual title song, and then that turned into JAGUAR and JAGUAR II. She went off and did records with D’Mile, but we’ve had this creative synergy since then. Coming into JAGUAR II, we went back into the studio as we have always done prior, and it was a moment where Jeff Gitty and I started the beat and Victoria started writing. Once she started writing, the magic just happened. It’s just us getting back into the studio and continuing our creative synergy and just getting outside of any creative boxes and exploring.
Where did the idea for the chorus come from?
We did the beat and Victoria started writing and while she was writing, we got to the hook or she got to the hook, and in my mind out of nowhere, I started hearing Chalie Boy’s “On my momma, on my hood.” I started hearing that, and when I thought about it I was like, “Yo, this sounds crazy.” So I turned to Victoria and I said, “Vic, what if we — you know?” And I started singing it to her. Her genius was she took the words, and repurposed it into her own melody for the hook. It was just this magical moment of the song came into my mind and Victoria’s verse was so amazing and so self-empowering in terms of what she was saying, it just made sense. The first couple of words were “When they say, she get it from her mama” and that probably sparked the idea. So constantly, in my mind when the hook came, I heard “On my mama” then she repurposed it, and here we are.
