Melii Melii
Melii's official introduction to the world was "Icey," a self-indulgent, unapologetic love letter to herself. The up-tempo trap track, which dropped in March of 2018, was a ruthless combination of insolence and bravado that put the Harlem rapper's spiky rhyming front and center. "These bitches don't like me / Their baby daddy keep me icy," she rumbled, her voice low, flagrant, and caustic.
The then-21-year-old had only a few songs and covers to her name at that point. After dropping out of Manhattan's Edward A. Reynolds West Side High School in 2015 (the same school that hip-hop artist A$AP Rocky once attended), Melii had been working with local managers and releasing her DIY efforts directly to the Internet. Her first real break came in 2017, when she unleashed a remix of Cardi B's "Bodak Yellow" that went viral, racking up more than 2 million views. A stack of original tracks followed, including "Icey," "Como Si Na," and "Shit Talk"—all songs that showed off her raspy voice, brisk flows in English and Spanish, and talent for writing stinging bars and catchy hooks with ease. The early material positioned Melii as the spunky-kid-sister type, someone who punched back at haters and always fought to keep her career throttling forward, despite the challenges of being an emerging female artist in rap.
"Icey" was her most declarative statement, and it won attention not just from fans but also from established stars, who soon helped Melii springboard from the local New York scene into mainstream territory. Rihanna—the patron saint of defiant swagger—featured "Icey" on an Instagram video, sending followers to Melii's social-media pages, where they discovered a firebrand with electric-orange curls and rhymes to spare. In November of 2018, the rapper Meek Mill featured her rambunctious sound on his track "Wit the Shits" and brought her on tour, sparking rumors that she would sign with his label, Dream Chasers Records.
But Melii surprised everyone (Mill included) by dropping her debut album, phAses, smack-dab in the middle of a quiet week this past March and announcing that she had joined Tory Lanez's One Umbrella imprint instead. The move was divisive—many accused Melii of snubbing Mill—but behind the drama, there was a glossed-up product full of tenacious rap and silky R&B that Melii said she had meticulously labored over for several months. Some of her sharper edges have been softened in places, but phAses is clearly intended to position her as a dexterous artist who can riff on different styles of hip-hop and R&B. Through an impressive palette of sounds, Melii emerges here no longer as a fresh-faced scrapper but rather as a self-assured force who has deftly stepped over a string of obstacles to find her perch in the industry.
Melii's official introduction to the world was "Icey," a self-indulgent, unapologetic love letter to herself. The up-tempo trap track, which dropped in March of 2018, was a ruthless combination of insolence and bravado that put the Harlem rapper's spiky rhyming front and center. "These bitches don't like me / Their baby daddy keep me icy," she rumbled, her voice low, flagrant, and caustic.
The then-21-year-old had only a few songs and covers to her name at that point. After dropping out of Manhattan's Edward A. Reynolds West Side High School in 2015 (the same school that hip-hop artist A$AP Rocky once attended), Melii had been working with local managers and releasing her DIY efforts directly to the Internet. Her first real break came in 2017, when she unleashed a remix of Cardi B's "Bodak Yellow" that went viral, racking up more than 2 million views. A stack of original tracks followed, including "Icey," "Como Si Na," and "Shit Talk"—all songs that showed off her raspy voice, brisk flows in English and Spanish, and talent for writing stinging bars and catchy hooks with ease. The early material positioned Melii as the spunky-kid-sister type, someone who punched back at haters and always fought to keep her career throttling forward, despite the challenges of being an emerging female artist in rap.
"Icey" was her most declarative statement, and it won attention not just from fans but also from established stars, who soon helped Melii springboard from the local New York scene into mainstream territory. Rihanna—the patron saint of defiant swagger—featured "Icey" on an Instagram video, sending followers to Melii's social-media pages, where they discovered a firebrand with electric-orange curls and rhymes to spare. In November of 2018, the rapper Meek Mill featured her rambunctious sound on his track "Wit the Shits" and brought her on tour, sparking rumors that she would sign with his label, Dream Chasers Records.
But Melii surprised everyone (Mill included) by dropping her debut album, phAses, smack-dab in the middle of a quiet week this past March and announcing that she had joined Tory Lanez's One Umbrella imprint instead. The move was divisive—many accused Melii of snubbing Mill—but behind the drama, there was a glossed-up product full of tenacious rap and silky R&B that Melii said she had meticulously labored over for several months. Some of her sharper edges have been softened in places, but phAses is clearly intended to position her as a dexterous artist who can riff on different styles of hip-hop and R&B. Through an impressive palette of sounds, Melii emerges here no longer as a fresh-faced scrapper but rather as a self-assured force who has deftly stepped over a string of obstacles to find her perch in the industry.
