Who Is GloRilla? 5 Things About The Grammy-Nominated Rapper – Hollywood Life

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• GloRilla, b. Gloria Woods, is an American rapper hailing from Memphis.
• Her breakout year was 2022 when “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)” was considered the Song of the Summer by many.
• She teamed with Cardi B on “Tomorrow 2,” earning her a Gold record and her first Billboard Top 10 hit.

Rap superstars are on the rise, and they’re riding high. GloRilla. “It’s real cool. I’m excited actually to be a part of it because it’s a new wave,” she told Refinery29. “I’m glad to be  actually one of the ones leading the new wave.” That wave will take GloRilla to the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles on Nov. 20, where she will perform as part of the 2022 American Music Awards. On top of that, Glo will compete for Favorite Female Hip-Hop Artist, going up against her “Tomorrow 2” collaborator Cardi B. Latto, Megan Thee Stallion Nicki Minaj.

Even though the competition is fierce, Glo still has a chance to win. That’s been the story of her life. “I’d describe [my background] as staying humble, I just kept working,” she told 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 won’t be long before she’s back to get her flowers and accept the rewards of her hard work.

Speaking of which, ahead of the AMAs, GloRilla proved she was on her way to the top when Audiomack, the artist-first music streaming platform, named her it’s newest #UpNow artist. Audiomack’s #UpNow program highlights the next gen of stars, and alumni include Black Sherif, Pooh Shiesty, EST Gee, Sheff G, Omah Lay , and Ayra Starr, There are many others. “They’ve played an important role in helping me connect with fans in a new way,” Glo said of Audiomack, who will make her the cover of the #UpNot playlist while amping up her presence across 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 the AMAs — here’s what you need to know about GloRilla.

GloRilla is a Northside Memphis rapper.

“I was raised in church, but we still used to watch 106 & Park and BET,” Glo told XXL September 2022. I used to love Bow Wow, and Soulja Boy, and Lil Wayne.” Describing herself as a quiet kid with nine siblings – six boys, four girls – she grew up homeschooled until the fifth grade when child services forced her mother to enroll the school-age kids in public school.

She first encountered music in church. “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 had to listen to all the music in our house.

She shed her shyness as a teenager. She gained confidence, and she began secretly rapping for her brother and her cousin. It wasn’t until 2018 that she took her dreams seriously.

Her Overnight Success was Years in The Making

Glo uploaded her first freestyle on Facebook in 2016. Her cousin suggested that she get serious about her music career and use a different device to record. She hit up a local studio and dropped “14 Freestyle” in December 2018. In 2019, she released her first independent EP. Most likely to be up nextWith P Status 2020

Her journey wasn’t easy. “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 told 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. It was almost like I was down to nothing. It felt like last year was over and this year had just begun. 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.”

In 2021, she met Beatmaker at a local rap show. Hitkidd. The meeting led to the Choose the Tone Glo featured on an EP Gloss up, K Carbon, Slimeroni, Aleza – five female MCs – together. Glo and Hitkidd would collaborate again on a track that would transform her life.

Megan The Stallion Had An Impact On Her Career – Sorta

Hitkidd had a beat in 2021. Megan The Stallion. It was a chance to partner with the reigning queen of rap…but Megan wasn’t responding fast enough. Hitkidd reached out to Glo, who was heading to her to do her lashes, according to Vulture. After returning from her beauty appointment, she lit up a blunt and stepped into the recording booth. She then 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.”

The hook was quickly uploaded by Glo to Triller and became a viral sensation. Hitkidd and Glo reunited at Hitkidd’s studio a week and a bit later. She recorded a new verse. They recorded a music video with all of Glo’s friends, 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 told Vulture. The video has been viewed more than 49 million times as of November 2022. “A week before!”

“I feel like it’s taken off ’cause we [were] authentic,” she told 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.

Numerous labels noticed the success of the song. Glo signed with Yo Gotti’s CMG Records imprint under Interscope. “She’s someone coming different with a new sound, a new delivery, a new feel, and a new movement,” Yo Gotti told XXL. “Her potential is unlimited. She doesn’t rap like any other artists. You have the chance to make a unique sound and stamp it. And you know what happens after that.”

“When you think about Memphis music, you think about Gotti,” Glo told BET, you know what I’m saying, and Three 6 [Mafia] They. This was Memphis’s face when it came to rap. They had the city in a chokehold, and you can’t go to the club without hearing a couple of Gotti songs. He was an important part of my childhood.

GloRilla went through a cleansing before she achieved her success

While you are visiting The Angie Martinez Show Before the Nov. 2022 release of her EP, Anyways, Life’s Great…, Glo talked about how her and her friends went on a social media cleanse/mental detox for 60 days.

“We was going through something like we can’t go into 2022 the same way we was last year, you know it was, just had a lot going on…we had to get our life together, we was like ‘we can’t keep living like this’ we was like, ‘okay, we’re going to go on a cleanse. Because I felt that it was distracting, we ain’t going to talk with any dudes. No partying, going out, you know like saving money and exercising,” she said (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,”

Her cleanse, which took place from March to May, brought her success to life. By June, “F.N.F.” was on its way to becoming the song of the summer.

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

In July 2022, Glo dropped “Tomorrow.” Two months later, she dropped “Tomorrow 2,” the remix featuring Cardi B. “[Cardi] When I was going crazy, she had reached out to me. Just as I was about to fly into New York, she sent me a short voice message. It gave me some advice and motivated me. [me]It was just like that. And so … she had liked my stuff, know what I’m saying?” Glo told 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.”

Glo has just begun. Glo won the BET Awards 2022 Best New Hip Hop Act award. She also earned her first Grammy Awards nomination when “F.N.F.” was nominated for Best Rap Performance. The Glo has started, and it looks like it’s not going to fade for a long, long while.