It’s the middle of August and Chicago is hot as hell. No I’m not talking about the 90 degree humidity. The Chi has been ripe with hot new music from some of the city’s grittiest new artists reppin’ from their notorious hoods. From King Louie to L.E.P and Chief Keef, hip hop has gotten a dose of that real shit not seen since days of N.W.A .or M.O.P. One of the coolest aspects of this new generation of MC’s blowing in from The Wind, is the abundance of females that have stepped up with their own unique flavors. Even their names are fresh: Sash Go Hard and Chin Chilla Meek . But then there’s The First Lady of Chicago and her name is Chella H.
Chella H aka Jenny Low End has been keeping the streets, radio and clubs hot with her raw style of hip hop and her sexy RBA team of ladies. “RBA means Real Bitch Authentic. I know it may sound brash to some but it’s what I represent. It’s for the real ladies who come from some the realest everyday struggles and survive” she explains. Chella has become a brand name in the Chicago rap world. Her series of hot club records including Pay For This and Poke It Out have become favorites among some of the city’s hottest DJ’s. When you talk with Chella you understand quickly that she’s humbled but hungry for more.
“I started off with Bump J. Bump is from over East and he had heard about me from his peoples so we connected. Bump was impressed with my flow and started taking me to studio sessions and to the radio station. He was the first to call me The First Lady of Chicago”, she reminisces. When Bump J became incarcerated this didn’t deter Chella. She dropped her debut mixtape Menstrual Pain. “I called it that because I wanted to come in the game making a statement and I knew that would get everybodys attention. So the‘Menstrual Pain‘ reference on my tape wasn’t intended to be nasty but rather my play on words about how some of the music that I heard was making me feel. I felt a lot of music was bullshit” she says.
The standout record that got The Chi’s attention was a song called ‘Real Talk’. It was record the detailed the real life tragedies thatChella had seen and been through herself. To the hip hop fan though, this song really showcased her skills as an MC.
“I had a crew called The Get It Girlz and we went everywhere from Atlanta to Memphis to Miami and sold the mixtapes out my trunk.” Chella was still dealing with real life issue though. “I lost my son’s father and my brother in the same week so I was doing everything I could to save my son and to raise him right,” she reflects. Needless to say music had to take a brief pause. It would the BET Hip Hop Awards that would re-ignite Chella’s flame. “When I was in Atlanta everybody showed me love and asked when I was dropping my new shit. I knew it was time to get back work.”
So she returned to Chicago and got to work on her next mixtape The Abortion. Again Chella was looking to get peoples attention with the title but this time she focused on making music more appealing for all her fans and not just the streets. From this mixtape a standout song called Pay For This became big. The song was getting a lot rotation in the clubs and eventually was getting played at the local hip hop stations WGCI and Power 92.3.
“I knew I had something when I heard the llittle girls singing the chorus to Pay For This, even though the song wasn’t necessarily for their ears”.
Unlike other records she did, Pay For This was more of a party record girls. In the video Chella had a dance, dancers and a whole routine to boot. A star was born.
Chella H’s sex appeal and raunchy wordplay combined with these new hot club records was causing her name heat up but this time on a more regional level. She did another record for the streets called 2K11 that featured some of Chicago’s hottest MC’s including Mikkey Halsted, YP and GLC. This took Chella’s buzz up another notch as she proved she could go toe to toe with some of the city’s best rhyme-spitters. She didn’t stop there. Next up was the current smash Poke It out. The song was anthem for hot club mama’s looking for that guy who had ,as the ladies say in The Chi, “That Bag” of money. In the midst of all this Chicago’s bubbling cauldron of talent suddenly exploded into the mainstream. Chella H and other artist are no longer a secret.
Now Chella’s prepping for her next series of moves. With a meticulous smile she adds “I’ve been working non-stop, recording records for my next project ‘The Morning After Pill’. I’m doing shows and guest features with other artist. I have a few records out with Shawnna right now that’s making a lot of noise too.” She’s right. Her song Baby Daddy is a playful look at ladies and their significant others, who may happen to be half ass at times but it’s still all love. It’s the record Big N Fat though that the streets are really feeling. It features Chella, Shawnna and a bevy of bootylicious babes with curves that will make your blood pressure rise. Another record to check for is the female anthem ‘Real Bitch’ which features another hot up-n-comer Sasha Go Hard.
“It’s so much good shit coming from the Chi right now. Beside myself you got Sasha, Louie, Keef, Bo Deal Katie Got Bands; producers like Young Chop and Block on The Track. I know right now this is Chicago’s time and I’m ready.”
Brandon ‘TNT’ West
A&R Consultant*Management*Production
Frank’s Grandsons Music
TNT’s Saturday Morning Special exclusively on GlobalGrind.com
