Monique Burrell had just turned 16 when Jay Z pulled her up on stage for the first time. While watching Trey Songz open the concert at the United Center, she said to herself, “One day that’s going to be me on that stage.” She had no idea how quickly she’d be right. “I kid you not——right when I said that, I felt this indescribable energy,” she says. “I cannot put it into words. It just told me to move.” Burrell bolted from the 300 level to the side of the stage, where Jay was meeting fans between sets. He signed her hat. She told him she wanted to be a rapper. He pulled her up on to the stage and asked her to spit a few bars.
After that concert, Burrell was inspired to scrap the draft of Fuck the Public she’d been working on for the past two years. If she could rap for Jay Z twice before turning 20, she figured that she could make a better record than the one she’d already put together. She started fresh, bringing in local artists BJ the Chicago Kid and Katie Got Bandz to contribute vocals. The ensuing release slides smoothly between the two styles that those artists represent: full-band neosoul and high-BPM drill. The track list is eclectic, but the record has a unified momentum.
