FELONi

After Queen Latifah, and before Nicki Minaj, there was Feloni. While most female rappers tend to use, or need, a major male rapper's voice to help them get established, Feloni walked into the rap game and established herself. She writes all her lyrics, records and mixes her own music, and produces. Although she spends little on marketing and promotions, has never approached a label, has never released a mixtape, and no longer allows interviews (the last public interview Feloni allowed was with MTV's AfterEllen), Feloni has gained notoriety as one of the most controversial female rappers in hip-hop—strictly through word-of-mouth.

Feloni is an underground recording artist, born in Detroit, Michigan, who is able to "mack" her game while expressing her sexual autonomy. In 2005, she broke out on the scene with her controversial debut single "Brand New" (featured on Russell Simmons and WJLB-FM 98's 2005 Detroit Hip-hop Summit Mixtape), politicizing "the nookie" by flipping the script on male posturing (using their language) and turning it into a taunt and protest against misogyny. Feloni pushes the limits of hip-hop's sexual expression by changing the politics of the game, empowering the genre’s usual subject of domination.

In 2006, MTV Networks thought that Feloni's music was "groundbreaking" and offered her an episode on the documentary reality series called "Coming Out Stories" on MTV's LOGO channel, produced by Oscar-nominated and 4-time Emmy-award winning film producers, Karen Goodman & Kirk Simon. Understanding that it would be a challenge to get a record deal without changing her tomboyish image, Feloni operates outside of the Hollywood machine. She refused to accept the advice of A&R reps to soften her appearance so that she would be more acceptable to mainstream, stating "I'm not a rapper, and I'm not about to change my image in the midst of my prime just to appeal to mainstream. I'm merely here to speak my mind. Period." She continued, "I think it's important that young women who want to rap don't feel that they have to exploit themselves sexually by bending to the male's perspective of how they think a female rapper should act, dress and rap. At the end of the day, you discover that it's not always about the 'fame' and 'fortune'; it's about integrity and creating a real sense of purpose. Another reason I created Trak Diamond Records is that I wanted to set the example for aspiring men and women—of any age—that you can start your own business in lieu of waiting around for someone else to determine your fate." Feloni has also said that she'd rather be hated for who she is than loved for being someone she is not.