Biography Wikipedia
Wikipedia:
Niatia Jessica Kirkland (born October 4, 1989) professionally known as Lil Mama, is an American rapper and singer-songwriter.
Early life
Lil Mama was born in Harlem in 1989. She was raised in Brooklyn, New York where she attended Edward R. Murrow High School. In 2006, Kirkland signed a recording contract with Jive Records. Her mother Tara died on December 15, 2007 following a four-year battle with colon cancer.Her father also died before she was born. Kirkland faced personal and financial struggles at an early age. As one of eight brothers and sisters, she started to express herself artistically through poetry and dance.
2006-2008
Her first studio album VYP (Voice of the Young People) was released in late April 2008. The album spawned four singles: "Lip Gloss", "G-Slide (Tour Bus)", "Shawty Get Loose" and "What It Is (Strike a Pose)" The album sold 19,000 copies in the first week, debuting at number 25 on the Billboard 200.
2009-2011
VMA incident
On September 13, 2009, at the MTV Video Music Awards, Lil Mama came onstage during Jay-Z and Alicia Keys's performance of "Empire State of Mind". And while Jay-Z was ending his final verse, Lil Mama came from her seat in the crowd onto the stage and started bobbing her head to the beat. Jay-Z was surprised but continued to perform. Jay-Z patted Lil Mama on the leg to fall back and threw in a quick joke, saying, "You T-Paining right now," a reference to a similar incident at Summer Jam two months earlier when T-Pain jumped onstage with Jay-Z at Summer Jam during his performance of "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)". At the end of the performance, Lil Mama came to the front and posed alongside Jay-Z and Keys.
Present
Since the release of her first album, Lil Mama has been in the studio working on new music. She released the singles "Dough Boy" featuring Mishon, "On & On & On", and "NYNYLALA" featuring Snoop Dogg, all of which failed to chart. She has since released two singles entitled "Scrawberry" and "Hustler Girl" featuring Clyde McKnight. In 2009 she announced the title of her proposed new album as 'Voice Of The Young People: I Am That', although this has not been released.
On October 7, RCA Music Group announced it was disbanding J Records along with Arista Records and Jive Records. With the shutdown, Lil Mama (and all other artists previously signed to these three labels) will release her future material on the RCA Records brand.
Television
She is currently a judge on the dance contest show America's Best Dance Crew. She joined the judging in 2008 at the age of nineteen. She has also appeared in Cycle 13 of America's Next Top Model with Benny Ninja.
