Watch Monaleo Rap in an All-Women Cypher, Read Her Interview

Monaleo

Interview: Georgette ClineImage: Akira RuizEditor’s Notice: This story seems within the Winter 2023 problem of XXL Journal, on stands in December.

Education folks on how you can say a reputation may be tiresome, however Monaleo has turned it right into a cash maker. The title of the 22-year-old Houston native’s current efficiency trek, The Monaleo Like Monalisa Tour, is a teachable second each time anybody reads or says her rap moniker. Huge Leo’s 2021 monitor, “Beating Down Yo Block,” and a glance in Beyoncé’s Ivy park marketing campaign that very same 12 months put her on the map. She saved her identify buzzing over the past three years as an indie artist signed to the label Stomp Information with constant singles. This previous Might, she dropped her debut undertaking, The place the Flowers Don’t Die, a hybrid of storytelling odes and delicate singing. She did all of it whereas pregnant along with her first baby. One other first for Leo is being part of an all-female cypher. Right here, she discusses camaraderie amongst ladies in hip-hop, discovering herself and her hope to see Nicki Minaj and Cardi B squash their beef.

XXL: Why did you need to be part of Latto’s cypher?

Monaleo: I like Latto. I believe she’s actually proficient. I recognize the best way she helps all the rap ladies. I used to be right down to be part of it. After which in addition they advised me who else [was] going to be right here, they usually’re all of my friends, who I converse with, and we now have a very good relationship. So, I assumed it’d be a enjoyable, camaraderie second for us.

You and Flo Milli have recorded a number of songs collectively. You might be typically on the similar occasions and really went on tour collectively. You appear to be actual associates. What’s that like for the 2 of you?

I like Flo. She’s tremendous proficient. I believe she has a extremely distinctive voice that simply cuts by means of. And I used to be already a fan of her music. Once I met her in particular person, she was superior. She was all the time candy, and we simply clicked instantly. We simply gravitated in the direction of one another, and it was pure. It wasn’t pressured. After which we continued to hang around and construct a sisterhood out- facet of the trade.

You launched your first undertaking, The place the Flowers Don’t Die, this 12 months, and created it whilst you have been pregnant. What was difficult about that point?I actually needed it to be sentimental and I’m glad that it was. Every little thing simply fell into place. I used to be actually wired at the moment and I simply actually didn’t know the way I used to be going to tug it collectively. However now that a while has handed, it’s like, Oh woman, that was straightforward.

I had a being pregnant mind, so I used to be forgetting every thing. It was actually affecting my creativity. I simply actually felt tremendous unproductive. [Spending] all day lengthy within the studio, I simply genuinely didn’t have the vitality to indicate up day by day, however I nonetheless did it. And that’s the largest accomplishment.

What do you look ahead to seeing sooner or later for ladies in hip-hop?

In an ideal world, I wish to see Nicki Minaj and Cardi B collab. I actually need that, however I perceive. When you get into it with sure folks, and it will get to a sure level, not less than for me, anyway, like, Oh, hell no, I’m by no means chatting with them once more. However I believe that may simply be pivotal.

That’s one thing that different feminine artists cope with as nicely. Once you set up your self as an artist, persons are gonna be in your feedback like, “Do you help Nicki or do you help Cardi?” They attempt to make you decide a facet between them, and it’s f**king unusual, as a result of, to start with, I don’t even know both of them personally, and I’m like, Who would I be to choose a facet? I simply suppose that may be actually good, and that may squash numerous the strain and the vitality for feminine rappers on the whole.

What objectives are you making an attempt to attain for the following few months?

I’m gonna simply proceed to place out extra singles, proceed working, proceed going with the movement and doing what feels proper for me. That’s my predominant aim proper now as a result of I really feel like I’m consistently chasing one thing, and by no means actually simply enable myself to have the time and area to create the identical means that I did like proper earlier than I grew to become knowledgeable artist. I’m simply trying ahead to discovering myself once more as a person, as a human being and seeing how that comes out in my music.

See Monaleo rap with Latto, Flo Milli, Maiya The Don and Mello Buckzz in XXL’s Cypher Lab, offered by the Starz Unique Sequence Energy Ebook III: Elevating Kanan, beneath.