Taken from this week’s Future Pop mailer. Click here to subscribe.
I’ve featured a few female rappers here in the past year, but it wouldn’t make sense to compare Young M.A to any of them. In fact, in style, sound and persona, she fits in much better with the male rappers of today’s hip-hop scene. She is also a lesbian, which is a big part of her public persona, referenced in her lyrics and videos. She even directed her own lesbian porn film for Pornhub this year! The Brooklyn rapper, whose real name is Katorah Marrero, is best known for her 2016 single OOOUUU, which went 3x Platinum and reached the US top 20, but that could be set to change as she builds up to the release of her debut album Herstory in the Making later this year. Her amusingly-titled new single PettyWap is showing signs that it could be another big hit, as the video got 2.5m views in its first three days (nearly half as many as her last single got in three months). She’s also becoming increasingly known as a TV personality, with a regular slot on HBO’s Vice News Tonight reviewing new music, among other appearances. The role of Freda Gatz on the drama series Empire was originally written for her, but she turned it down to focus on her music career. So far, it’s proving a smart choice.