Future LGBTQ History Month: Young M.A's Hip-Hop Movement

Fuse is celebrating Pride Month by looking at a variety of rising forces who are creating Future LGBTQ History before our eyes. Today we're paying tribute to Young M.A, the 25-year-old independent rapper who'll be the one responsible when the word headphanie makes it into the dictionary.

Born Katorah Marrero in Brooklyn's East New York neighborhood in 1992, she began rapping as a 9-year-old and dropped her first music, a pair of mixtapes, in 2015. Tracks like "Body Bag" and a remix of Nicki Minaj's "Chiraq" got attention, but May 2016's "OOOUUU" was on a whole other level. She was nervous about dropping it at first, telling Fuse:

"I didn't know how people were going to take to it, because it wasn't me crazy spitting bars, storytelling or whatever the case that people were so used to me doing. ... People was listening to it, vibing out to it, like 'Yo, this is crazy, this is hot.' But it wasn't until I put out the visual, that's was what really caught people...that's what really caught it, the visual, and people seeing how we move to the song."

"OOOUUU" has since gone double platinum and gotten remixes from French MontanaMeek MillRemy Ma, Nicki and Game.