Young M.A Biography

Young M.A was born Katorah Marrero on April 3, 1992, in East New York which is a residential neighbourhood in the eastern section of Brooklyn borough in New York City.

Her father was sentenced to jail when she was just one, and he remained in jail until she was eleven years old. Her mother played a major role in her children’s upbringing. When M.A was 7-years-old, her mother Latifa decided to relocate to Chesterfield, Virginia as it provided better school facilities and also her children would remain away from the violence of East New York.

M.A started to write her rhymes in her schoolbooks which she would later rap in 2001, when she was just 9. Her mother encouraged her purchasing her a karaoke machine which M.A used to set up as a temporary studio in her closet.

M.A and her family relocated to Brooklyn when she was sixteen years old. Tragedy struck her family in 2009, when she lost her elder brother. Her brother was killed in a gang-violence in Pennsylvania. Thereafter, she went through a phase of depression and went for three sessions of treatment and also took a break from her music. She has stated that her brother was a father figure to her.

In 2014, a controversy arose when American author Dr. Boyce Watkins through his Facebook post criticised her song titled ‘Brooklyn (Chiraq freestyle)’ which had gone viral stating that her lyrics glorified violence, black racial killing and evoked a sense of negativity. However, this incident actually made her more famous as people rushed to hear her Chiraq song. As of 2017, this song has received more than 9 million views on her YouTube account.

Young M.A released her second mix-tape titled ‘Sleep Walking’ on November 4, 2015. This mix-tape included songs like ‘Quiet Storm’, ‘Get This Money’, ‘Dear Bro’ and ‘Brooklyn Poppin’ and it got Silver status from DatPiff. The song ‘Dear Bro’ is about her coping with the psychological trauma from the demise of her brother. Her ‘Quiet Storm’ song talks about breaking stereotypes about women set by society. MTV praised her mix-tape stating it to be a ‘thoughtful project’.

On May 12, 2016, she released her epic official debut single titled ‘Ooouuu’ which received more than 66 million views on YouTube. This single was produced by UDub of NY Bangers fame and it reached 19th position on US Billboard Hot 100 chart. By September, this song had been streamed around 7 million times on Spotify. This single received double Platinum certification from Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 2017.

Next, M.A released her third EP titled ‘Herstory’ on April 27, 2017, under her own M.A. music label. This EP includes songs like ‘MA intro’, ‘Hot Sauce’, ‘JOOTD-- in collaboration with Monica’. The song ‘Self M.Ade’ of this album received more than 1.5 million views as of June 2017, on YouTube.

She featured on Fader magazine in 2017, where she stated that she was thinking on bringing up an album very soon.

M.A has been uploading her official music videos on her YouTube account and at present she has 3.7 million subscribers and around 7 million followers on her Instagram account.

She has also collaborated with other rappers like C.A.S.H, Dae Dae and Young Thug and some of the collaboration hits are ‘Murder of Game’, ‘Hella Bars’, ‘Thot’ etc.

She went on a musical world tour called the ‘Issa Tour’ with hip-hop star 21 Savage from March 31, 2017, beginning at Texas House of Blues and she is to cover San Francisco,Los Angeles, Portland, Minneapolis and Anaheim.

Young M.A is at present unmarried. She has confirmed herself to be a lesbian. In 2016, it was rumored that she was having a relationship with Tori Brixx who is a model but nothing has been confirmed. They werefound getting cozy in a Snapchat video post where M.A was giving the model a peck on her cheek and also kissing on her lips.