Not only do you share that vulnerability through open discussions on social media, but you also do it through song. R&B has been an outlet for you as well. After dropping “Miss You Already” you hinted at getting into your R&B bag a little more. Is that still something you’re looking to pursue?
Definitely! I own church roots. I started in church, the Baptist Church to be specific, so there was a whole lot of singing — it was damn near a musical. I love singing, I love harmonies, I love instrumentation — that's where my heart is. Those types of songs are more like my fire projects because that's not what people want to perceive from me, specifically. They want to hear rowdy shit, I already realize this. Anytime I do R&B, I always really admire it because I'm super passionate and talk openly and candidly in a way that matches my vibe. I can rap about feeling a certain way, but when I rap, that's for me to toughen up. I'm not looking to merge the twoI'm not looking to rap about gloomy shit. It just doesn't add up for me in my mind, creatively. But I will always make R&B music
Monaleo
Leondra Roshawn Gay, known by her stage name Monaleo, is a Houston-born rapper and singer-songwriter who burst onto the scene in early Raised in Missouri Metropolis, she grew up singing in her grandmotherâs Baptist church choir and learning instruments like piano and flute, with early ambitions as a singerânot a rapperâafter being encouraged to perform by her grandmother. Her transition to rap came serendipitously in when she accompanied her younger brother, Yung Rampage, to a studio session and ended up recording a verse herself. In January , following a devastating breakup, she channeled her emotions into her breakout single âBeating Down Yo Block,â which sampled Yungstarâs classic âKnockin Pictures Off Da Wallâ and quickly went viral, earning millions of streams and establishing her as a forceful new voice in hip-hop.
Monaleo chose her stage name by combining âMona Lisaâ with her childhood nickname âLeo,â embodying a bold, confident persona that multiplies her inner strength. Her style blends aggressive lyricism with soulful vocals, evident in foll
How Monaleo fell in love with rapping again
The Mo Municipality, TX, rapper discusses the legacy of Beatking, finding Pantera through Guitar Hero, and her exuberant novel mixtape, Throwing Bows.
Monaleo was feeling discouraged. “I was struggling with getting started on certain songs, I didn’t know what to say,” she says. She was in the studio but stuck in her head, chewing over the comment section: “You just read some shit about yourself and you’re like, ‘Damn, nobody even really fucking with me for real.’”
Casual fans best acquainted with Monaleo’s all-synapses-firing freestyles, take-no-shit anthems like “We Not Humping” might find this admission surprising. But the year-old rapper born Leondra Gay has always been candid about her mental health in songs and interviews, from shaking with fear during church choir performances as a kid to surviving multiple suicide attempts in her teens. And was a engaged year for Leo: Her debut album, Where the Flowers Don’t Die, arrived just days after the birth of her son. Another artist might chop themselves some professional slack