We caught up with the brilliant and insightful K. Brat a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

K., looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?

My work as well as who I have been misunderstood and often time mischaracterized. I am an artist who is an open book when it comes to my career, my music, and sometimes even my personal life. I find that those who are on the inside looking in tend to always find negative things to say about Brat, yet they have barely scratched the surface of who I am. I also will say I do not get along well with females, and it has impacted my career because you never know who you can trust in the music industry and who’s really for your benefit. I can give you a prime example, I have befriended females especially who are not genuine, who have talked bad about me, and even wanted to jeopardize my career but it has made me stronger. I was able to take accountability and revamp my career not just as K.Brat but as Makaila. People tend to forget that being a female rapper is not easy and that it will take hard work and dedication to stay focus. God has been my biggest supporter when I began my career as an artist. I have entrusted the lord with my gifts and even with feeling misunderstood I’m going to continue to make music and love on my fans.

K., love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

For readers who may not know about me I go by K.Brat or Big Brat for the haters. Somethings about myself is that I love the color blue I’m not into all that pink. I love music I’ve loved music since I was about the age of three especially R&B and Hip-Hop. I started rapping at the age of twenty because I was pregnant when I was 19 and unfortunately had a miscarriage resulting in anemia which turned me down a road of deep depression. I can remember having career day in elementary at Central Park I would be dressed as a R&B artist because truly I’ve always seen myself as a singer, but God had other plans. Freestyling turned into a hobby for me and then became an obsession almost because when I was mad, sad, happy, or whatever the case was I would always cut a beat on and just let go. I think I’m mostly proud of who I have become as an artist, I went from being insecure, and unaware of my true potential to the girl who goes in the mall and people say “Oh you’re K.Brat” those simple words help me to realize that music is my purpose. I want my fans to know that without them I could not continue, I make music not just for myself but young ladies who might not want to listen to songs about twerking all the time, I make music for real females and everybody definition of real AINT real so if somebody don’t like me or my music what that tell you.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Hmm… well I don’t speak on this often but I’m in a good mood today and feeling hopeful so why not. For anybody that truly knows Brat they know my mom who is one of my managers but she’s also my best friend. My mom got sick after issues during a surgery she had, and it progressively got worse. I had a big birthday party, went to Atlanta which not to mention was a weird trip, came back and my mom was in the hospital literally fighting for her life to stay well. This is the first time in twenty-two years that I did not spend Christmas, New Year’s, or Valentine’s Day with my mom. She was in the hospital from December to March forcing me to try and pick up where she left off. I struggled for months to help with bills, keep food in the house, and maintain a rap career while in school at UAB. I ended up going through a bad break up, and even falling out with some people who I feel was never really my friends so the situation mentally drained me. I became suicidal and even attempted because I was over life, felt hopeless, and just genuinely felt it was unfair to me that I took a break from music for family and now I’m playing catch up. God helped turned my mindset around and showed me that I had to keep fighting and make it for not just my family but for me. I would wake up and not even feel anything, no type of emotion because I had NOBODY, I was alone for weeks to a month fighting my thoughts. My current boyfriend who at the time was just my friend helped me see my worth, was a real friend to me, and helped me to understand that when the going gets tough you get tougher. I am as happy as I’ve ever been with life.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn the lesson of the it is what it is attitude when people wrong me. Taking accountability, I feel that in the last six to twelve months I befriended and even dated people who were good for the eyes but not the soul. I won’t say I was this perfect person but I’m pretty genuine. I always felt like it was okay to hide from my feelings and run away when I’m hurt and just say well it what it is, but that’s not healthy. I had to unlearn this lesson in order to heal and accept that I’m not always right but I’m not always wrong and that I have to validate my feelings in uncomfortable situations even if it causes drama. Even with being K.Brat I have gotten into it with other female rappers, and I just immediately go into attack mode because I’m just like wow we’re better than that why can’t we just talk it out? I also had to understand that you can’t tell people how to feel because just like Iyanla Vanzant says you can’t tell people how they’ve experienced hurt. Once I began telling people how to treat me, putting up those boundaries, I felt a whole lot better about falling out with people over me.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: instagram.com/officialk.brat
• Twitter: twitter.com/officialkbrat
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99ct5Ucj9sw

Image Credits
@Pairuhdyce @Shycooleyphotography