13 JANUARY 1-7, 2026 westword.com WESTWORD | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | FIND MORE MUSIC COVERAGE AT WESTWORD.COM/MUSIC People to Watch KEEP YOUR EYES AND EARS ON MONICA THE GREAT IN 2026. BY EMILY FERGUSON “La Reina! La Jefa!” That’s what people shout when Monica The Great is on stage. The fi rst-generation Mexican American artist has only released a handful of songs, but she’s already amassing a major following, as it should be — everything she’s put out is a banger. This summer, her song “Delusional” went viral, leading to an offer from UniversalMasters. The original TikTok video of her rapping a few bars, just hours after she wrote the song while crying on the bathroom fl oor at work, has garnered more than 350,000 views. She wouldn’t have guessed that the pain- ful breakup that inspired “Delusional” would lead to some of the biggest opportunities of her life. But true artists can alchemize their experiences, from the beautiful to the ter- rible, into groundbreaking work. “It’s surreal,” she admits. She’s just fi n- ished a full day at the clinic where she works, and is putting on makeup in the bathroom before heading to church. She has a big year to refl ect on, and a lot to tell us about what’s next. “I’m excited and scared and super-ner- vous about all the music that I’ve been mak- ing and what we have planned out,” she says, fl icking concealer under her eyes. Monica grew up in Rialto, a city outside of Los Angeles that’s part of what’s known as the Inland Empire, the largest county in the U.S. (hence the “IE” ahead of “MTG” in her Instagram handle). “There’s a lot of gangs and stuff,” she says. “There was literally shootings every night. It was mostly Black and brown; that’s really all I knew. The whole Inland Empire is really... it’s a lot.” Her interest in music was born in church, where she grew up doing choir and theater. “I was recording with friends for fun,” she recalls. “People were writing songs for me and I was just trying to rap. And I was just like, ‘Actually, I’m too scared.’ So I didn’t take it too seriously then.” She sought a change of scenery in Denver, where she moved around 2018. And then heartbreak — one of the great muses — spurred inspiration. “My fi rst boyfriend, he cheated on me,” Monica recalls. “I was like, ‘Goodbye, see ya later.’ And I didn’t talk to him again. But the girl he cheated on me with, they ended up together. She was stalking my page and she was bullying me and sending her friends to bully me.” So, Monica decided to poke a little fun, too. “I was like, ‘I’m just going to write a little rap and put it on the internet,’” she says. It went: Broke bitches always fuckin’ fol- lowing me / They want to look up to me, they want to know how I’m getting this bread / And I bet you didn’t know your man’s still on my head / If it ain’t the Franks in his wallet, I don’t need it, ‘cause I don’t want to hear it The bars, which she posted to Instagram, re- sulted in exactly what Monica wanted: The girl was now questioning whether her boyfriend was cheating. But it also showed something else: Monica could really rap. “Everyone was like, ‘Wait, you got something here,’” she recalls, pow- dering her face. The powder then erupts onto her black shirt. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she says with a laugh. Makeup can be messy, and so can music. And sometimes music is about fi nagling a mess until it’s cleared up and sings just right. Monica takes her time — she isn’t one to rush the process. After encouragement from her friends in Audio Push, a California group, she began writing and rapping in earnest; in Den- ver, she started meeting fellow artists such as Danae Simone, Kayla Ray, Trev Rich and TheyCallHimAP. Under the moniker MTG, she released her fi rst album, The Innerview. “I ended up doing some pretty big shows,” she says, such as A3C in Atlanta. She went on to attend LAAMP, the Los Angeles Academy for Artists & Music Production, where she was mentored by Stargate in 2023. It was there that she changed her name from the acronym to its full meaning: Monica The Great, which hadn’t been claimed by any other artist. It was also where her music really began to blossom, as she placed more emphasis on her cultural heritage. Because she grew up in the metal scene as well as hip- hop, Monica had a lot of sonic experiences from which to draw. Too many options can be a little overwhelming, but through the cacophony, she found her sound. “I became more open to whatever I was creating,” Monica says. “After LAAMP, I think I became who I’ve always wanted to be, which was very open. Before, I didn’t know how to freely bring my culture into my music.” After she changed her name, Monica’s manager, Lila Paulsen, asked what she con- sidered her vision. “The vision was to draft a song called ‘Mala Vida,’” she recalls. “That song changed my life.” “Mala Vida” is a bilingual hit that pulls to- gether Latin rhythms and hip-hop; it’s almost like the beat is pulling puppet strings that make you move. And when she premiered the song at the legendary House of Blues in Anaheim to a sold-out crowd, it was “insane,” Monica recalls. “That song brought so many bigger opportunities for me. It played on the radio here and in California, there’s people from major radio stations that are following me because of that.” After LAAMP, she returned to Denver in 2024 with more than eighty songs, which are stowed away in files. But the tracks she has released, such as the nostalgic bop “Tamagotchi,” have resonated far and wide through her social media. Monica will vlog from her car, where she’ll preview songs like “Delusional,” which completely took off. “’Delusional’ is what got me signed to UnitedMasters,” she says. “The song wasn’t even done yet, and I told my producer, ‘Bro, it’s going viral.’ We were like, ‘Oh, my God, we’ve got to fi nish this.’ We were in the studio that night, every night, until it was done.” Finishing took about three weeks, but it was worth it: Her following on TikTok mul- tiplied intensely, grow- ing from 3,000 to 33,000 followers, with more to come. She’s been recog- nized a few times now when she’s been around downtown, with people asking for photos with her. “It’s crazy,” she says. “The power of TikTok is very real.” And then she got a DM from UnitedMasters: “Hey Monica, big fan of your music. Can we talk?” She gaped at the blue checkmark. It was real. She was with her man- ager, she says, “and we were screaming in the car, and I’m literally cry- ing my eyes out.” Not long after, she opened at the Marquis Theater for Amir Obe, who asked if she wanted to join the tour. “And it was crazy, because Unit- edMasters had just sent me an email asking if I wanted to sign at the label in Brooklyn,” she says, “and it just so hap- pened to be the same time as the Amir Obe show in New York.” To paraphrase Paulo Coelho, the universe conspires in your favor. She went to the label’s offi ce, where she played some of the songs she’d recorded at LAAMP. “And they were just blown away,” she says with a grin. “It was so surreal. Right after that meeting, I went to the airport and I came straight here and after I landed, I grabbed my car and I went straight to church, because I was like, ‘I need to thank God for everything that’s happening right now.’” Her makeup complete, that’s where Mon- ica’s heading now. She has a lot to be grateful for, after all. “Delusional,” which was written after another heartbreaking breakup, was her most vulnerable song: “There’s been so much growth since this breakup,” she says. “Things that I didn’t know I was capable of, or maybe just didn’t allow myself to be capable of, that I’m doing now.” And Monica The Great is just getting started. She’ll debut more new songs this year, leading up to an EP that she hopes will drop in February. And while she’s prioritiz- ing releases over concerts, she’ll always say yes to shows that support community. “My whole life, I’ve always been a big advocate for the people,” Monica says. “This is what I love to do,” she concludes. “So I’m going to keep doing it.” Email the author at [email protected]. Monica The Great is just getting started. MUSIC CHRISTIAN HUNDLEY
