9 Things You Need to Know About Lola Monroe

July 20, 2012 - 5:31 pm by Carmen Shardae Jobson

As the First Lady of Wiz Khalifa's Taylor Gang, Lola Monroe has been killing the mixtape scene with her remixes of "Goldie," "Underground Queens" (a feminine twist on Drake's "Underground Kings"), "Flexin'"; blazing cameos on King Los' banger "Los," Trina's "Bad Bitches (Remix)," and her most accomplished lyrical outing to date, the remix to "Stay Schemin'." Including her own fully original material like the femme fatale aura of the seductive "Dark Red Lipstick", her witticism has improved as a writer since her first foray into hip-hop music, but her delivery has always ejected a thrilling mix of vulnerability and validity.

With the buzz growing from her single with Wiz "Getting To It" and another mixtape drop of Pusha T's "Exodus 23:1", here are nine facts to know about Monroe as she'll be a name to recognize in the realm of female emcees (and beyond).

Her birth name is Fershgenet Melaku, and the future Lola Monroe was born in Ethiopia (though her father is Trinidadian), a country in northern Africa, but she raised in Washington, D.C. since she was three weeks old.

As a model, she called herself Angel Lola Luv, and she was in music videos like Kanye West's "Good Life," 50 Cent's "I Get Money," and others by Trey Songz, Lloyd Banks, and Jeezy. She was nineteen years old when she started and was XXL's Eye Candy of the Year two years in a row, and as a regular fixture in urban modeling was on the cover of magazines like Smooth, Black Men, and KING, and VIBE.

The hip-hop blogs tried to ignite a rivalry between her and Nicki Minaj sometime in late 2009 as Monroe was more actively pursuing her burgeoning rap career, and Minaj was steadily becoming the new golden child of female emcees. Fans enjoyed comparing and contrasting their rapping styles, overall similar fashion sense, and questioning their overtly bodacious figures. Monroe would eventually rap over the beat of Minaj's "Did It On 'em" with a two minute freestyle verse.

Melaku always wanted to do music, and has been writing rhymes and poetry since she was a little girl. Her first mixtape was Boss Bitch's World in 2009, where she rapped over the popular instrumentals of "Diva", "Bricks", "Turn My Swag on", "Heartless", 'Turnin' Me on' and "I'm Really Hot". She also recorded a full-length mixtape with Lil' Boosie titled, "The Untouchables".

The baddest bitch herself Trina was one of her earliest co-signers and their last collaboration together was the song "Overtime".

She emancipated herself from a hard knock life living situation in D.C., and has been on her own since approximately the ages of fifteen to seventeen years old.

She was discovered by Mike Styles, a CEO of his own agency Style Entertainment in D.C. Since he was a photographer, he encouraged Melaku to try modeling.

During a radio interview, Monroe admitted to having sold weed with her friend in high school occasionally to get by financially.

Though they were rumors of having relations with Soulja Boy and 50 Cent, Monroe reassured her legions of male fans that she never dated either rapper.

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