Monopoly

Album: NBA 2K20 soundtrack (2019)
Charted: 23 69
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This celebratory song references the famous board game Monopoly, which consists of players buying, trading and developing properties with the aim of bankrupting their opponents.

    Treat my goals like property
    Collect them like Monopoly
    I probably won't come if there's not a fee
    And if they try come stoppin' me


    The bouncy track is a duet between Ariana Grande and her best friend and long-term collaborator Victoria Monét. The pair, who wrote the tune while on tour, are likening their growing success to accumulating properties in the song's eponymous board game.
  • "Monopoly" was produced by Social House who also worked on "Thank U, Next and "7 Rings." Grande and Monét said in an interview on the Zach Sang Show that they often play Monopoly alongside Social House and their games are very competitive.
  • The song features a lyric about bisexuality on the post-chorus, which Monét sings first and Grande repeats later:

    I like women and men

    The lyric prompted fans to speculate that Grande was coming out as bisexual but it's more likely that the lyric was written by Monét, who is openly bi. Also, Grande's brother, Frankie, is gay, and the pop star has long allied herself with the LGBTQ community.
  • Grande also addresses reports that she had to give up 90% of the songwriting royalties from "7 Rings" to the estate of Rodgers and Hammerstein.

    You'd be straight for life if I gave you my PIN
    Even though we gave up that 90% for the win, go


    Grande's label Republic Records forged a deal with Imagem/Concord Music, which owns the Rodgers & Hammerstein back catalogue in order to grant the pop star their license to sample the Sound of Music song "My Favorite Things." Though she forfeited 90% of the royalties, and had to share the remaining 10% with the other seven songwriters she still has more than enough money.
  • Victoria Monét originally wrote this anthem about the power of friendship for herself. She told Genius that when Ariana Grande said they should do a song together based on their fun relationship she thought of "Monopoly." Monét played it for her friend and five lines in, Grande was exclaiming, "Let's do it. Let's do it."
  • Grande booked a studio in Washington DC where she was playing a concert, and they recorded the song there one Saturday. "Super fun, drinking wine," Monét recalled. "We changed a couple lines. Literally, when I originally did the song, it was the same thing twice, so we repeated it, but had her change a couple lines just to fit her better and what we're talking about."

    The producers Social House, who were opening for Grande completed the beat, and the singer and Monét added an outro and bridge.
  • Monét admitted she hates playing Monopoly as "it's really a five hour game that you 99.999% of the time end up losing." She added that she and Grande "thought it was really funny to have a song called Monopoly because she knows if anytime she asks me to play, I'm going to say, 'No, thank you. Thank you, next.'"

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

We Will Rock You (To Sleep): Pop Stars Who Recorded Kids' Albums

We Will Rock You (To Sleep): Pop Stars Who Recorded Kids' AlbumsSong Writing

With the rise of Kindie rock, more musicians are embracing their inner child with tunes for tots - here, we look at pop stars who recorded kids' albums.

Ed Roland of Collective Soul

Ed Roland of Collective SoulSongwriter Interviews

The stories behind "Shine," "December," "The World I Know" and other Collective Soul hits.

Joe Ely

Joe ElySongwriter Interviews

The renown Texas songwriter has been at it for 40 years, with tales to tell about The Flatlanders and The Clash - that's Joe's Tex-Mex on "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"

The Real Nick Drake

The Real Nick DrakeSong Writing

The head of Drake's estate shares his insights on the late folk singer's life and music.

Timothy B. Schmit of the Eagles

Timothy B. Schmit of the EaglesSongwriter Interviews

Did this Eagle come up with the term "Parrothead"? And what is it like playing "Hotel California" for the gazillionth time?

Reverend Horton Heat

Reverend Horton HeatSongwriter Interviews

The Reverend rants on psychobilly and the egghead academics he bashes in one of his more popular songs.