Monaleo: the Texas rapper moving from body bags and breakups to killer bars | Music

From Houston, Texas
Recommended if you like Rico Nasty, Flo Milli, Azealia Banks
Up next Debut project coming 2023

Monaleo’s booming, diamond-hard rap songs turn emasculation into an artform. On We Not Humping, she ruins a man’s life in a single line, while the raucous Body Bag finds her flipping misogynist groupie tropes: “I’m in his mouth like a toothpick / Super slut, he gon’ give it up, he like my music!”

The 21-year-old Houston native wasn’t always so bold. In 2020, she was radicalised by a brutal breakup that has informed everything she’s done since. “I was super, like, boo-hoo, crying about it – it was such a big deal to me, because I thought we were gonna get married or something,” she says.

In the wake of the breakup, she was inspired to channel her energy into something more positive – so she recorded Beating Down Yo Block, a sweltering breakup anthem that went viral on TikTok last year. Since then, she has recorded features for lauded Houston MC Maxo Kream and rising R&B star Muni Long, and found even more success with We Not Humping. As for the breakup? “Obviously doesn’t matter now.”

Monaleo was born Leondra Roshawn Gay in Houston. When she was a child, her grandmother would make her sing as part of a church choir; she performed in talent shows and played flute in the school band. Although she says she “always wanted to be a musician deep down”, people around her instilled doubt: “I let a lot of people discourage me and tell me that this wasn’t something that I was gonna be able to do.”

Instead, she initially pursued a vastly different career path: after graduating from Houston’s High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, she began studying mortuary science, hoping to become a funeral director. (The video for Body Bag, which features her performing to a backdrop of corpses in a morgue, was inspired by her one-time career aspiration.) Shortly after, she recorded Beating Down Yo Block, and deferred university in order to focus on music.

Monaleo says she “didn’t necessarily have any dreams to make aggressive rap music”, but the subject matter dictated the form. She wants her bossed-up anthems to inspire Black women who are being taken advantage of, whether in romantic relationships, friendships, or business relationships.

“My message is to be the voice that you need for yourself – advocate for your wants, advocate for your needs,” she says. The breakup that inspired Beating Down Yo Block made her “feel like I was like dying, or something – not to be dramatic”, she says. “I definitely never want to feel like that again – and I don’t want anybody else to feel like that.”

From Houston, Texas
Recommended if you like Rico Nasty, Flo Milli, Azealia Banks
Up next Debut project coming 2023

Monaleo’s booming, diamond-hard rap songs turn emasculation into an artform. On We Not Humping, she ruins a man’s life in a single line, while the raucous Body Bag finds her flipping misogynist groupie tropes: “I’m in his mouth like a toothpick / Super slut, he gon’ give it up, he like my music!”

The 21-year-old Houston native wasn’t always so bold. In 2020, she was radicalised by a brutal breakup that has informed everything she’s done since. “I was super, like, boo-hoo, crying about it – it was such a big deal to me, because I thought we were gonna get married or something,” she says.

In the wake of the breakup, she was inspired to channel her energy into something more positive – so she recorded Beating Down Yo Block, a sweltering breakup anthem that went viral on TikTok last year. Since then, she has recorded features for lauded Houston MC Maxo Kream and rising R&B star Muni Long, and found even more success with We Not Humping. As for the breakup? “Obviously doesn’t matter now.”

Monaleo was born Leondra Roshawn Gay in Houston. When she was a child, her grandmother would make her sing as part of a church choir; she performed in talent shows and played flute in the school band. Although she says she “always wanted to be a musician deep down”, people around her instilled doubt: “I let a lot of people discourage me and tell me that this wasn’t something that I was gonna be able to do.”

Instead, she initially pursued a vastly different career path: after graduating from Houston’s High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, she began studying mortuary science, hoping to become a funeral director. (The video for Body Bag, which features her performing to a backdrop of corpses in a morgue, was inspired by her one-time career aspiration.) Shortly after, she recorded Beating Down Yo Block, and deferred university in order to focus on music.

Monaleo says she “didn’t necessarily have any dreams to make aggressive rap music”, but the subject matter dictated the form. She wants her bossed-up anthems to inspire Black women who are being taken advantage of, whether in romantic relationships, friendships, or business relationships.

“My message is to be the voice that you need for yourself – advocate for your wants, advocate for your needs,” she says. The breakup that inspired Beating Down Yo Block made her “feel like I was like dying, or something – not to be dramatic”, she says. “I definitely never want to feel like that again – and I don’t want anybody else to feel like that.”