On Valentine's Day 2017, Lola Brooke quits her job as a hotel clerk. In his own words, he did it out of "love for music". A day spent expressing gratitude and commitment to the person you love is what Brooke used to embrace her burning passion and start a new chapter she didn't know where it would lead to. To be honest, the Lola Brook we know today might not have existed without her mother, who pushed her to follow her passion. "He told me to quit my job," Brooke said over the phone before telling her mom that this was the first time she'd heard him rap. “He said: “One day I sat down and said: wait, he really raps ,” recalls Brook. I can't reach my full creative potential knowing that I have to be on time in the morning. His mother's answer? “You can go too. She also promises to support and nurture her daughter's dreams. "If you need help, I'll let you go, you'll be fine," he added. "Come on, it's your dream."
Lola Brooke did what her mother told her and never looked back.
Nearly six years later, Brook is one of hip-hop's brightest newcomers, full of the potential and brilliant spirit of the genre. Need proof? Check out the weekend before Christmas when a boogie woogie in a hoodie invited Brooke as a special guest to their concert in Connecticut. Brooke ran across the stage to the left as a crowd of 8,000 roared as her hit "Don't Play With It" blared from the speakers and the crowd recited it verbatim. At that moment, he was almost shocked; in fact, he went ahead. She walks through the performance with an exuberant energy and stage presence that makes you want to go “Damn!” At the end.
“I remember on the street someone said “sand”, something like that,” says Lola. "So that worries me." In the end, her performance and her moment gave her everything she wanted. “I liked it,” he added. “It was a good experience. I always told myself that I want to be in the stadium and for the public to hear my music. So that was one of my goals that I crossed off my wish list.”
Lola Brooke's success in 2022 has allowed her to tick off a few items on her wish list. Much of his credit goes to "Don't Play With It", his hit song that went viral in the second half of 2022 despite being released a year earlier. Brook's aggressiveness and fearless rap is heartfelt and straightforward on the track, which expressed his frustration with his career at the time. "I was ignored!" she says. "I've been saying since I was a kid that I want to be that kind of artist. Sometimes you get frustrated because when you don't get the answer [what you wanted], it means you have to keep working." it won't stop Brooke, and neither will the idea of the contest." [There are] a lot of people against you who want the same attention, so it doesn't matter if you race with everyone else, people will compete with you. everyone else. So you need to find ways to separate yourself so you don't get caught up in the game and still win."
While she undoubtedly wears her heart on her sleeve in the rap game, Brooke also wears Brooklyn. He has lived in the city all his life, and while his success may have taken him to different parts of the world, he knows that some things will never change. "Brooklyn is in me and I'm proud to wear this skin every day," he boasts, emphasizing its undeniable presence in his music. “What I see, I write about who I am and go back to where I come from,” he adds. “You have to go to Brooklyn to understand how I look, how proud I am, how I say how I feel. I am thick-skinned because of what I have seen or done.”
So every moment Lola Brooke reminds us how long she has been in the limelight she finds herself in now. For example, during his "Fire in the Booth" performance on Charlie Slot's Apple Music radio show, he jokes, "That's the same stream I used in 2017." Win or lose, Lola Brook was unstoppable even when others tried to knock her down. "Music is made to make you feel better," says Brook, reflecting on hard times. "I should have mentioned why I always felt this way at first, but some people come in and just want a voice to say you did something." The ability to control and evaluate external noise and not let it influence him too much became important to his state of mind and the level of his reputation. "People always want to be part of your story, but it's not just about being part of the story, you have to help me through the process."
As for her next challenge, Brooke confirmed that the project is in the works for 2023, but for a more specific time frame, it's up to her fans to decide. "I'll let my fans choose that power," she said. "Sorry my fans, yes, it's time to release the project." Beyond music, however, his goals for the year are clear. “I really want to buy a big house for my family so that we can all gather in one place every time I get home from work.”
Just a few days after talking to Brooke, he got another event for 2022. The future invited him to his concert at the Barclays Center (another arena) in his native Brooklyn. As we saw during her appearance at the A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie concert, Brooke had to squeeze into a palm at the Barclays. stage presence, energy and crowd control; Everything went without errors and oversights. There is a saying: "You're lucky once, you're good twice." The proof is in the pudding, and Lola Brooke is definitely on top of it.
“I saved a lot,” Brooke said at the end of our conversation. Don't play with him. It will always be that you will not play with him, no matter what he does. That's all."
A Boogie With The Hoodie is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
