View gallery

The subsequent era of rap superstars is right here, and driving excessive on high is GloRilla. “It’s real cool. I’m excited actually to be a part of it because it’s a new wave,” she advised Refinery29. “I’m glad to be  actually one of the ones leading the new wave.” That new wave will flood the stage of the UBS Arena in Long Island, New Jersey on September 11, when GloRilla – recent off of being named to the 2023 XXL Freshman Class – performs on the 2024 Video Music Awards. GloRilla has made 2024 her 12 months with the discharge of her single “TGIF” and two albums, Yeah Glo! (Alternate Versions) and Ehhthang Ehhthang.

Glo has been climbing the ranks of hip-hop for a second now.  “I’d describe [my background] as staying humble, and I just kept working,” she advised Refinery29. “I never gave up, and I always had a vision. That’s all you got to have; that vision and drive.” So, if she leaves Nov. 20 empty-handed, it received’t be lengthy earlier than she’s again to get her flowers and settle for the rewards of her laborious work.

GloRilla additionally proved she was on her strategy to the highest when Audiomack, the artist-first music streaming platform, named her its latest #UpNow artist. Audiomack’s #UpNow program highlights the following gen of stars, and alumni embody Black Sherif, Pooh Shiesty, EST Gee, Sheff G, Omah Lay , and Ayra Starr, amongst others. “They’ve played an important role in helping me connect with fans in a new way,” Glo mentioned of Audiomack, who will make her the quilt of the #UpNot playlist whereas amping up her presence throughout the platform. “I appreciate the Audiomack team for always showing love and look forward to building with them more in the future,” she added.

As Glo preps for her future — and the world preps for her subsequent large cash transfer — right here’s what it’s essential to learn about GloRilla.

GloRilla’s Real Name Is Gloria Hallelujah.

When GloRilla skilled her success with “F.N.F.,” followers knew that her title was Gloria Woods and that “GloRilla” was only a play on her first title. However, in October 2022, she shared that her center title is “Hallelujah,” which prompted a little bit of a stir on Twitter. “& why y’all acting like Ian been told y’all my middle name hallelujah?” she tweeted. “Dats why I’m so blessed & my p—y so good duhhhhhh !!!! Common damn sense.”

She hails from Northside Memphis.

“I was raised in church, but we still used to watch 106 & Park and BET,” Glo advised XXL in September 2022. I used to like Bow Wow, Soulja Boy, and Lil Wayne.” Describing herself as a quiet child with 9 siblings – six boys, 4 women – she grew up homeschooled till the fifth grade when little one companies pressured her mom to enroll the school-age children in public faculty.

The church was her first style of music. “I got a lot of solos in the church choir, and growing up, the only music my mama let us listen to was gospel. We used to have to sneak and listen to the other music.”

As a teen, she shed the shy persona. She gained confidence and began secretly rapping (solely enjoying her music for one in all her brothers and her cousin.) It wasn’t till 2018 that she took her goals critically.

Her Overnight Success Was Years In The Making

Glo uploaded her first freestyle to Facebook in 2016. Two years later, her cousin advised she put her thoughts to her music profession and report on one thing aside from her telephone. She hit up an area studio and dropped “14 Freestyle” in December 2018. In 2019, she launched her unbiased EP, Most Likely Up Next, with P Status in 2020.

Her journey wasn’t straightforward. “I never stopped putting out music. I got discouraged a lot of times, but I ain’t ever stop — I had started going broke,” GloRilla advised Gillie Da King and Wallo26 on a November 2022 episode of Million Dollarz Worth Of Game (h/t AfroTech). “I was losing everything like my apartments, my cars. I was almost down to nothing. It was like the end of last year and the beginning of this year. I was just all the way starting over and was like, ‘D-mn, I’m finna have to go back to work.’ I was just doing sh-t, surviving last year, and then it got to the gritty part, and I started just getting broke as hell and was living with my friends and sh-t.”

During an area rap showcase in 2021, she met beatmaker Hitkidd. The assembly resulted within the Set The Tone EP that featured Glo, Gloss Up, Okay Carbon, Slimeroni, and Aleza – 5 feminine MCs – collectively. Glo and Hitkidd would work collectively once more on a observe that might change her life.

Megan The Stallion Had An Impact On Her Career – Sorta

In 2021, Hitkidd had a beat lined up for Megan The Stallion. It was an opportunity to accomplice with the reigning queen of rap…however Megan wasn’t responding quick sufficient. So, Hitkidd hit up Glo, who was on her strategy to get her lashes completed, based on Vulture. She returned from the sweetness appointment, lit up a blunt, stepped into the recording sales space, and dropped the hook. “I’m F-R-E-E, f-ck n—-a free / That mean I ain’t gotta worry ’bout no f-ck n—a cheating / And I’m S-I-N-G-L-E again / Outside hanging out the window with my ratchet-ass friends.”

Glo uploaded the hook to Triller, and it shortly went viral. Every week and a half later, she and Hitkidd reunited on the studio, the place she recorded a brand new first verse. They recorded a music video with all of Glo’s buddies, and that’s how “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)” was born.

“Literally, it was so crazy. My car got repo’d, like, less than a week before I dropped this song,” she advised Vulture. As of November 2022, the video has over 49 million views. “A week before!”

“I feel like it’s taken off ’cause we [were] authentic,” she advised BET. “We ain’t really, like, dressing on up; we was just having fun, being ourself, you know what saying? It ain’t really a lot of people that represent females from the hood and ratchet females. We was just in the video having fun, doing what we normally do, and people like the authenticity – the realness to it.”

The success of the music caught the ear of a number of labels. Glo ultimately signed with Yo Gotti’s CMG Records imprint underneath Interscope. “She’s someone coming different with a new sound, a new delivery, a new feel, and a new movement,” Yo Gotti advised XXL. “Her potential is unlimited. She doesn’t rap like any other artists. Whenever you come with an unheard sound, you have an opportunity to stamp it. And you know what happens after that.”

“When you think about Memphis music, you think about Gotti,” Glo advised BET, you understand what I’m saying, and Three 6 [Mafia] and them. That was the face of Memphis when you consider rap. They had the town in a chokehold, and you’ll’t go to the membership with out listening to a few Gotti songs. So he was a giant issue rising up.

GloRilla Underwent A Cleanse Before Her Success

While visiting The Angie Martinez Show forward of the discharge of her Nov. 2022 EP, Anyways, Life’s Great…, Glo spoke about how she and her buddies took a social media cleanse/psychological detox for 60 days.

(*5*) she mentioned (h/t Urban Islandz).

“I had just really got out of a breakup, and I already said this in the preview of my song, I had just had an abortion, and so I’m like, ‘you know I gotta cleanse’ cause I didn’t feel the same after that. I had mental changes, so I’m like, ‘no more dudes, we’re going to just cleanse. I was really really going through something,”

Breathing her success to life, her cleanse ran from March to May. By June, “F.N.F.” was on its strategy to turning into the music of the summer time.

She’s Got A Big Cosign – Grammys and Cardi’s.

In July 2022, Glo dropped “Tomorrow.” Two months later, she dropped “Tomorrow 2,” the remix that includes Cardi B. “[Cardi] had hit me up already when I was blowing up. Soon as I had landed in New York and I was going through the airport, she had sent me a little voice message, you know, giving me advice and motivating [me], like that. And so … she had liked my stuff, know what I’m saying?” Glo advised Revolt.

“I was in the studio one day, and I was listening to all my songs, and I’m like, ‘Who can I put on this song?’ So I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m finna text Cardi.’ I text her, and I was like, ‘I got a song I want you on.’ She was like, ‘Girl, I already did my verse on Tomorrow.’ I was like, ‘What?!’ [Yo Gotti] and them were trying to surprise me, but I ended up finding out because I was trying to get her on another song,” added Glo. “When I first heard it, I was so shocked. I wasn’t shocked because she hard anyway, but like how she just did that song? Like … I wanted to cry.”

That was simply the beginning for Glo. In 2022, she received the Best New Hip Hop Artist on the BET Awards. She additionally earned her first Grammy Awards nomination when “F.N.F.” was nominated for Best Rap Performance. The Glo has began, and it seems to be prefer it’s not going to fade for a protracted, lengthy whereas.