Young MA - Herstory in the Making

The Guardian 80

(MA Music/3D)
Lithe, unembellished tracks form a perfect backdrop to MA’s magnetic delivery on songs that party and question in equal measure

Young MA joyfully declares on her party single PettyWap 2: “Accidentally I got famous, / but got rich on purpose.” Back when the New York-born, Virginia-raised rapper released her debut single Ooouuu in 2016, nobody predicted how big it would get. On the surface, it wasn’t revolutionary – a lithe, unembellished rap track full of one-liners about getting head – but there was something undeniably magnetic about MA’s assured delivery, and the way she curled her lips around the refrain. It was also perhaps the first instance of a gay female rapper going mainstream with a song about sex. The track went triple platinum; Beyoncé invited MA to perform on the Formation tour, and the Fox TV drama Empire even tried to cast her. Many thought MA would capitalise quickly on her viral fame, dropping an album within the year. Instead, she chose to bide her time.