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The next generation of rap superstars is here, and riding high on top is GloRilla. “It’s real cool. I’m excited actually to be a part of it because it’s a new wave,” she told Refinery29. “I’m glad to be actually one of the ones leading the new wave.” That new wave will flood the stage of the UBS Arena in Long Island, New Jersey on September 11, when GloRilla – fresh off of being named to the 2023 XXL Freshman Class – performs at the 2024 Video Music Awards. GloRilla has made 2024 her year with the release of her single “TGIF” and two albums, Yeah Glo! (Alternate Versions) and Ehhthang Ehhthang.
Glo has been climbing the ranks of hip-hop for a moment now. “I’d describe [my background] as staying humble, and I just kept working,” she told Refinery29. “I never gave up, and I always had a vision. That’s all you got to have; that vision and drive.” So, if she leaves Nov. 20 empty-handed, it won’t be long before she’s back to get her flowers and accept the rewards of her hard work.
GloRilla also proved she was on her way to the top when Audiomack, the artist-first music streaming platform, named her its newest #UpNow artist. Audiomack’s #UpNow program highlights the next gen of stars, and alumni include Black Sherif, Pooh Shiesty, EST Gee, Sheff G, Omah Lay , and Ayra Starr, among others. “They’ve played an important role in helping me connect with fans in a new way,” Glo said of Audiomack, who will make her the cover of the #UpNot playlist while amping up her presence across the platform. “I appreciate the Audiomack team for always showing love and look forward to building with them more in the future,” she added.
As Glo preps for her future — and the world preps for her next big money move — here’s what you need to know about GloRilla.
GloRilla’s Real Name Is Gloria Hallelujah.
When GloRilla experienced her success with “F.N.F.,” fans knew that her name was Gloria Woods and that “GloRilla” was just a play on her first name. However, in October 2022, she shared that her middle name is “Hallelujah,” which caused a bit of a stir on Twitter. “& why y’all acting like Ian been told y’all my middle name hallelujah?” she tweeted. “Dats why I’m so blessed & my p—y so good duhhhhhh !!!! Common damn sense.”
She hails from Northside Memphis.
“I was raised in church, but we still used to watch 106 & Park and BET,” Glo told XXL in September 2022. I used to love Bow Wow, Soulja Boy, and Lil Wayne.” Describing herself as a quiet kid with nine siblings – six boys, four girls – she grew up homeschooled until the fifth grade when child services forced her mother to enroll the school-age kids in public school.
The church was her first taste of music. “I got a lot of solos in the church choir, and growing up, the only music my mama let us listen to was gospel. We used to have to sneak and listen to the other music.”
As a teen, she shed the shy persona. She gained confidence and started secretly rapping (only playing her music for one of her brothers and her cousin.) It wasn’t until 2018 that she took her dreams seriously.
Her Overnight Success Was Years In The Making
Glo uploaded her first freestyle to Facebook in 2016. Two years later, her cousin suggested she put her mind to her music career and record on something other than her phone. She hit up a local studio and dropped “14 Freestyle” in December 2018. In 2019, she released her independent EP, Most Likely Up Next, with P Status in 2020.
Her journey wasn’t easy. “I never stopped putting out music. I got discouraged a lot of times, but I ain’t ever stop — I had started going broke,” GloRilla told Gillie Da King and Wallo26 on a November 2022 episode of Million Dollarz Worth Of Game (h/t AfroTech). “I was losing everything like my apartments, my cars. I was almost down to nothing. It was like the end of last year and the beginning of this year. I was just all the way starting over and was like, ‘D-mn, I’m finna have to go back to work.’ I was just doing sh-t, surviving last year, and then it got to the gritty part, and I started just getting broke as hell and was living with my friends and sh-t.”
During a local rap showcase in 2021, she met beatmaker Hitkidd. The meeting resulted in the Set The Tone EP that featured Glo, Gloss Up, K Carbon, Slimeroni, and Aleza – five female MCs – together. Glo and Hitkidd would work together again on a track that would change her life.
Megan The Stallion Had An Impact On Her Career – Sorta
In 2021, Hitkidd had a beat lined up for Megan The Stallion. It was a chance to partner with the reigning queen of rap…but Megan wasn’t responding fast enough. So, Hitkidd hit up Glo, who was on her way to get her lashes done, according to Vulture. She returned from the beauty appointment, lit up a blunt, stepped into the recording booth, and dropped the hook. “I’m F-R-E-E, f-ck n—-a free / That mean I ain’t gotta worry ’bout no f-ck n—a cheating / And I’m S-I-N-G-L-E again / Outside hanging out the window with my ratchet-ass friends.”
Glo uploaded the hook to Triller, and it quickly went viral. A week and a half later, she and Hitkidd reunited at the studio, where she recorded a new first verse. They recorded a music video with all of Glo’s friends, and that’s how “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)” was born.
“Literally, it was so crazy. My car got repo’d, like, less than a week before I dropped this song,” she told Vulture. As of November 2022, the video has over 49 million views. “A week before!”
“I feel like it’s taken off ’cause we [were] authentic,” she told BET. “We ain’t really, like, dressing on up; we was just having fun, being ourself, you know what saying? It ain’t really a lot of people that represent females from the hood and ratchet females. We was just in the video having fun, doing what we normally do, and people like the authenticity – the realness to it.”
The success of the song caught the ear of several labels. Glo eventually signed with Yo Gotti’s CMG Records imprint under Interscope. “She’s someone coming different with a new sound, a new delivery, a new feel, and a new movement,” Yo Gotti told XXL. “Her potential is unlimited. She doesn’t rap like any other artists. Whenever you come with an unheard sound, you have an opportunity to stamp it. And you know what happens after that.”
“When you think about Memphis music, you think about Gotti,” Glo told BET, you know what I’m saying, and Three 6 [Mafia] and them. That was the face of Memphis when you think about rap. They had the city in a chokehold, and you can’t go to the club without hearing a couple of Gotti songs. So he was a big factor growing up.
GloRilla Underwent A Cleanse Before Her Success
While visiting The Angie Martinez Show ahead of the release of her Nov. 2022 EP, Anyways, Life’s Great…, Glo spoke about how she and her friends took a social media cleanse/mental detox for 60 days.
“We was going through something like we can’t go into 2022 the same way we was last year, you know it was, just had a lot going on…we had to get our life together, we was like ‘we can’t keep living like this’ we was like, ‘okay, we’re going to go on a cleanse. We aint going to talk to no dudes cause I felt like that was a distraction. No partying, going out, you know like saving money and exercising,” she said (h/t Urban Islandz).
“I had just really got out of a breakup, and I already said this in the preview of my song, I had just had an abortion, and so I’m like, ‘you know I gotta cleanse’ cause I didn’t feel the same after that. I had mental changes, so I’m like, ‘no more dudes, we’re going to just cleanse. I was really really going through something,”
Breathing her success to life, her cleanse ran from March to May. By June, “F.N.F.” was on its way to becoming the song of the summer.
She’s Got A Big Cosign – Grammys and Cardi’s.
In July 2022, Glo dropped “Tomorrow.” Two months later, she dropped “Tomorrow 2,” the remix featuring Cardi B. “[Cardi] had hit me up already when I was blowing up. Soon as I had landed in New York and I was going through the airport, she had sent me a little voice message, you know, giving me advice and motivating [me], like that. And so … she had liked my stuff, know what I’m saying?” Glo told Revolt.
“I was in the studio one day, and I was listening to all my songs, and I’m like, ‘Who can I put on this song?’ So I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m finna text Cardi.’ I text her, and I was like, ‘I got a song I want you on.’ She was like, ‘Girl, I already did my verse on Tomorrow.’ I was like, ‘What?!’ [Yo Gotti] and them were trying to surprise me, but I ended up finding out because I was trying to get her on another song,” added Glo. “When I first heard it, I was so shocked. I wasn’t shocked because she hard anyway, but like how she just did that song? Like … I wanted to cry.”
That was just the start for Glo. In 2022, she won the Best New Hip Hop Artist at the BET Awards. She also earned her first Grammy Awards nomination when “F.N.F.” was nominated for Best Rap Performance. The Glo has started, and it looks like it’s not going to fade for a long, long while.
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