Lola Brooke currently makes a living off rapping, which started as a hobby. In an interview with XXL she reveals she’d written poetry and then began rapping as a way to pass the time when her mom was working at shelters.
“I look in the mirror, I rap to myself,” Lola explains. “I get a book. I always be writing in the book to take up my time. I learn how to play by myself, and just listening to music.” Pulling from inspirations including Foxy Brown, Lil’ Kim and Nicki Minaj, she eventually began uploading music on MySpace in 2009. By 2012, she’d started going to the studio between classes at Medgar Evers College and her jobs at Little Caesars, TJ Maxx, Macy’s,Gap, Finish Line and a men’s shelter.
Lola signed with Eugene “80” Sims of Team Eighty Productions in 2016, and her song “2017 Flow” started gaining traction on social media the following year, prompting her to quit her job at the shelter and pursue her music career.
Lola’s 2021 song “Don’t Play With It,” however, is what brought her to the mainstream. “I’m like, ‘Dag, people finally rocking with it,’” she reflects of the track. “Everybody don’t like to be played with and that’s why it resonates.”
The rapper now has a deal with Arista Records and is working on her first EP, which is slated to drop before the fall. She hopes her name will one day be synonymous with her hometown of Brooklyn, New York.
“When people think about Brooklyn, the first two people to think of is Biggie and Jay-Z,” says Lola. “I want when people think about Brooklyn, they be like, ‘Lola, Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Brooklyn.’ I just want to be a part of it.”
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