The three-year stretch between Jackman. and Monica marks the longest gap between albums in Jack Harlow’s career. During an interview with Apple Music in March 2025, the rapper explained the unusual hiatus: “I’m trying to transcend,” he said. “I want to do something I’ve never done, and I’m just slowly starting to accept that it is going to take me longer than any of my past projects if I want it to be like nothing I’ve ever done.” Meanwhile, the Louisville native uprooted his life in Kentucky and settled into his new home in New York City, where he began recording his fourth album at Greenwich Village’s legendary Electric Lady Studios. Maybe it was the change of scenery, or the change in attitude, but on Monica, the once-boyish rapper emerges as a sultry R&B crooner. Here Harlow steps away from rap entirely for moody soul grooves devoted to love and its many complications. The contemplative Casanova is frequently lost in reverie: “Prague” finds him daydreaming about a crush from the other side of the Atlantic, while “Trade Places” has Harlow fantasizing about transforming into the lamppost that his lover’s leaning on while Hammond B-3 runs and jazz drums set the mood. Passions intensify, then things get complicated, though this doesn’t deter Harlow from being a hopeless romantic. “All of my friends say I keep falling/Falling in love way too often/Telling me slow down and be cautious,” he sings on “All of My Friends.” “But if I had you…”