Victoria Monét has admitted that her music career has been an "uphill battle".
The On Your Mama singer has opened up about trying to make a name for herself as a solo artist.
"It was a very difficult, uphill battle trying to get people to understand there's a duality to me, that my relevance wasn't only based on my proximity to somebody else," Victoria told Billboard.
The musician is known for working on a number of other artists' songs, including Ariana Grande's smash hits Thank U, Next and 7 Rings.
"Interview after interview, questions were snuck in about the artists I worked with," the 34-year-old continued. "I just wanted to be a stand-alone artist with my own reputation."
Victoria, who began working as a songwriter in 2010, has also penned tracks for the likes of Blackpink, Chloe x Halle and Fifth Harmony.
Elsewhere in the interview, the hitmaker said Academy Award-winning record producer and songwriter D'Mile has been a key supporter of her solo music career.
"It's very hard to ask somebody to invest their time when you don't have a label to push it through, a production or video budget," she told the publication. "But D'Mile was like, 'I don't care about that. I think you're talented and love your voice... We got this.'"
D'Mile is best known for working with Rihanna, Celine Dion, Alicia Keys and Usher, among others.
