Mad About… GloRilla, The Memphis Rapper Making Waves

2022 has been a whirlwind, to say the least for Memphis-born rapper, GloRilla, quickly rising to fame after the release of ‘F.N.F (Let’s Go)’, produced by fellow Memphis native Hitkidd that accumulated over 20 million streams in the first few months. At only 23 years old the track and years of hard work caught the eye of Yo Gotti, founder of CMG label that quickly picked up on GloRilla’s talent and signed her the day of F.N.F’s release. During her time in the UK, she had joined Moneybagg Yo on stage at Wireless and has been teasing a UK remix for the last few weeks…

Since then, GloRilla has released ‘Sneaky Link’, featured on CMG’s latest album, and teamed up with Duke Deuce for the remix of ‘Just Say That’ with Quavo releasing today. We caught up with GloRilla while she was in London for the first time, to get to know more about the latest female talent from Memphis…

Congrats on performing at Wireless yesterday, your debut UK performance! What was that like for you especially joining CMG after your recent signing?

I loved it! it was cool, the crowd was lit. People be knowing FNF, it’s crazy.

How did the signing come about?

Gotti had reached out maybe the same day FNF released to the videographer and we connected so quickly. We were both excited to work together and I wanted to get signed by him.

You’ve had a whirlwind few months with FNF, I remember the day it came out one of my friends sent it to me and I think it was on a couple of thousand views, then almost three months later it’s at 24 million views on Youtube. When you were making the song and even filming the video did you expect it to blow up like that?

I was not expecting that. It felt amazing though and surreal at first, it took a minute but I’m getting used to it now.

How did the single come to be what it is now, from the video, production, and lyrics?

It was the beat, Hitkidd hit me up and I just went to the studio, smoked a bit, and went with what came to me. normally I just sit at home and write my music before I go to the studio. But this time I just pulled up, I sat in the car for a while because I didn’t have anything at first then it came to me.

I did have to change my verse from the original and make it cleaner for radio, and that was at around 1 pm. Then he said to me 4 pm is when we’re going to shoot the video, so I got all my friends, and told them to be ready. But that was crazy, I was like ‘What?’, it all happened in one day. We recorded it and did the video, then the next day the video dropped.

That is crazy. Did you have any time to take in what you created?

The thing is before we recorded it we had already done a little Trilla video to it which went viral, so we had to do all of that ASAP.

You’re from Memphis, a place that has had a crazy amount of talent emerge from there. What was your introduction to music?

I started rapping in 2018, my cousin had encouraged me to rap because at first we were just playing but he told me to take it seriously. When I was growing up I used to sing at church.

You can sing too?

No, not any more haha that’s why I started rapping because I can’t sing anymore. My cousin got me to the studio and when I first got there I was like ‘is this what people that rap do?’, and I fell in love with it from then.

Do you remember the first track you made?

100%, I probably still got it on my phone, I sound like a baby. 

Gotti said that he had not seen anyone rise this quickly from one single, is there anyone you look to in music that inspires you and your journey?

Chief Keef. He’s my favourite rapper, he put a snippet on his story of F.N.F and that was it for me. My name is Glorious, but I call myself Big Glo sometimes and people think I’m trying to act like him when I do, I love him but Glo is my name anyway, hopefully, I can work with him one day.

You manifested your career by using words like ‘when’ instead of ‘if’ being a rapper how powerful are your words and the words of others?

There is so much power in your tongue, you can speak anything into existence. If you speak down on yourself, you’ll be down. It’s all in your mind and what you say.

Where did you get that mindset from?

My mama. I grew up in church and the bible teaches you there’s power in your tongue. Everyone around me gives me the inspiration to keep going.

Having a fast growth in popularity, do you think it’s hard to find purpose in that now you know what works for you?

I know what I want to do, I’ve been working to this. I got a couple of songs coming out real soon. It’s nice to level up I feel like I just made a new lane of rapping, I can’t say there’s anyone that sounds like me.

What’s one thing you want the world to know about you?

I’m goofy as hell and funny, I love to laugh. I don’t really take a lot of stuff seriously.

As you’re in the UK now, is there anyone you want to work with from here?

Ms. Banks, she’s hard I like her.

What’s the main difference between London and Memphis for you?

Nothing here is little, it’s all big. Memphis is just the hood. The music is crazy though a lot of good music comes out of Memphis, we have our own style.

What can we expect next from you?

A solo project is going to be coming soon, I’m working on it. I got enough music to make like two albums right now.

If you could have anything right now what would it be?

I want wisdom before anything, all the wisdom I can get, and all my people to not worry about anything, and be at peace.