Who Is Brianna Perry?

Brianna Perry was hanging out in Poe Boy Music Group's recording studio at six years old. The Miami native is no stranger to the rap game. She first hopped in the booth before her age was in the double digits, and quickly drew attention from Trina and Trick Daddy. It wasn't long before "Lil' Brianna" was signed to Missy Elliott's label, but she's joined with Atlantic since.

Perry has a handful of mixtapes under her belt, including the Rick Ross-hosted Candy Girl, but in the past year, her career has picked up considerably. Her music video for "Marilyn Monroe" was featured on Beyoncé's blog, she's fresh off a XXL Freshman nomination, and she has a new mixtape, Symphony No. 9: The B Collection, dropping today. Before you listen, it's time to find out: Who Is Brianna Perry?

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Being Raised by Miami's Music Scene

Brianna Perry: "I'd say growing up in the particular neighborhood where I grew up, I was able to be really close to some big stars, but they weren't big when I was younger. I just got to see what it took to rise to the top. I would see them working hard in the studio, and I would be able to attend the shows. I would be able to be a part of the videos for DJ Khaled, Rick Ross, and Flo Rida—it was definitely a learning process. My first music video that I was in was Trina and Trick Daddy's "Take It To Da House," I think I was in the third grade.

"These are the same people that you work with, you pray with, and you eat dinner with. Our day-to-day lives were all so much in tact. That's the day: I'd go to school, I'd get out of school, I'd go to the studio, everyone's there and they're working. We did everything as a team. One team, one goal, and we were all working towards the same things and the same dream so we had a lot in common. I was able to be really, really close to greatness and I really appreciate that, and I don't think I would have been able to have gotten the particular experience that I got if I had lived in a different area so I'm very happy for my upbringing.

"My uncle, G12, would pick me up from school and he would take me to the studio where E-Class [was]. Even if I wasn't an artist right now, I would still know E-Class as uncle E-Class. It was very family oriented. It started off with me going to the studio just to go there to hang out. This is the family business so I'm just hanging out, and I just ventured into where I'd beg them to let me do stuff all the time, and when the other artists used to get promos, things printed up, I used to beg just for stuff with my name on it. [Laughs] They finally took an interest in me like, 'Okay, we're going to let her try it out,' so that's how it started out.

"I already had relationships with these people through my parents. My parents grew up with them, they've known them since elementary school, and [I met} Trina just being from Miami, being an artist and working through different studios and coming through Poe Boy Music Group. Just seeing me at such a young age, she was just captured by me and my personality. She grew such a love for me and took me under her wing. Trina gave me the opportunity to be on her album and come out at a couple of shows to do that particular song ["Kandi"] so it just evolved. I became the familiar kid around Miami who did music and everyone just took to me."

Musical Influences

Brianna Perry: "I used to watch a ton of music videos when I was young with my cousin. We used to sneak and watch The Box on TV because my grandmother didn't like us to watch it. She would tell us not to, but I used to be the ringleader. I loved music videos—Cash Money, and Eve was hot.

"My grandmother never actually caught us but she knew we were watching it. She was like, 'I keep telling y'all to stop watching those videos.' I used to call and request certain videos. I guess she was getting billed and that's how she figured it out, because we used to call all day every day and it wasn't until we got a little older that we realized how she was finding out that we were watching the videos. It was the ultimate mystery, we never knew how she knew.

"I just always had a passion and a love for music. I had my favorites and the people I looked up to, and then I had these people [at Poe Boy] who were trying to do what the people I looked up would do, and they were so close to me that I thought, 'Wow if they can try to do it then I can try to do it, too.'

"I have a great relationship with [Trina and Missy Elliott]. Our ties and relationships go beyond music. They helped mould me as a person because they were involved in my life at such a young age. They care about my well-being not only as an artist but just as a person. We keep in touch, and them being females in the game they try to give me good advice because being in a male-dominated game is different. It's very tough, so they just try to help me out when they can.

"Coming up, I listened to a lot of Eve, but every female, Missy Elliott, working with her, she was always so ahead of her time to me, and definitely a blessing to have. Creatively she's just amazing.

"So many females like Lil Kim, Foxy Brown, they're just classics in my eyes. Everyone who came before me, I admire them in some way or form because I understand the grind and how difficult it is. Women who have made it to that plateau and have been able to shine and beat out the odds are inspirations to me."

"As a child I was always pretty outgoing. I was always the kid in the school plays, in the spelling bees, in the oratorical contests. I was always involved in things like that. I think probably my life outside of school—going to the studio everyday and being around artists and producers—probably led me to be that way in school, because I always knew that I wanted to entertain.

"I went to the North Dade Center for Modern Languages, my school was very diverse. [It had] a lot of different cultures, so we would report the news and we would do it over the TVs in all the different classrooms. We did it in three different languages. I would get to do the news and I used to enjoy that. It was like we had our own little newscast station. I always knew I wanted to be something in the industry because it fit my character so well and I just grew a passion for music so I really couldn't see myself doing anything but this."

Her Stint With Missy Elliott's Record Label, The Goldmind Inc.

Brianna Perry: "She started [the label] and she'd taken notice of me and my movement and she'd seen me on Rap City. She talked to Trina about me, and was just following what I had going on because I was on my grind. We had a meeting, I performed, she wanted to sign me, and the momentum was up. Just being around a musical icon was a learning experience.

"I got to watch her prepare for big worldwide tours, and to see her in concert is something fantastic, there's so much going on. It takes so much hard work to put it together—the dancers, the staging, the lighting, all of that. I got to see that aspect of the game, and watching her and how she is in the studio. She's so dedicated and so focused and always trying to create new sounds."

Her First Time Recording in a Studio

Brianna Perry: "I would be at the studio, and one of the producers would come in, play the beats, and they would vibe to the beat, and then they would go in the booth. I would be so fascinated with this stuff because I was looking at them like, 'This is so easy. You just hear the beat and then you say whatever you want to say on it?'

"The first two mixtape songs that I did were for other people, and I remember when I laid that. I had such an awesome time. I think the engineers and my uncles were probably getting a little aggravated with me, I had to record it so many times and they wanted it to be right. [Laughs.] It was my first time getting in the booth and there were so many people there to watch me. That's one of my fondest memories, just finally getting that acceptance and that green light to go ahead and do what I wanted to do. That's definitely one of my best memories.

"I wasn't nervous, I was more like, 'Let me show you. I told you I could do this,' and when it was done it was like, 'See, told you I could do it.' I've always had that 'let me show you' type of attitude. I wasn't nervous at all."

Her First Live Performance

Brianna Perry: "It's such a bad memory, that's why I remember it, but I practiced, I had dancers, I had my show outfit, I was so ready and so excited. I had candy bars that had my name on them that we were going to throw out into the crowd and everything.

"I came out [for my performance], and the first couple of steps for my first verse, my dancer bumped into me—I had on a body mic—and she knocked my mic off, but I kept rapping, I didn't notice. I noticed that she fell, but she got right back up, but the mics came off, I didn't notice that. I was still rapping and everyone was just looking at me because they couldn't hear what I was saying. I was confused as to why they were looking at me crazy, and someone ran out and brought me a handheld mic and the show went on.

"I was such a little diva about it because after the show was over ,everyone rushed in and told me I did a great job. I was just so devastated. I was so hard on myself, I was like, 'It was terrible, no one could hear me.' I was so angry but I was just like, 'I've got to get ready for my next show and that can never happen to me again.'"

Beyoncé Posting the "Marilyn Monroe" Video on Her Blog

Brianna Perry: "I was riding in the car and one of my friends hit me with a text that said 'Congratulations' and then just put the link. I clicked on it and I couldn't believe it. I rushed to get to my laptop to actually pull it up, and I just was kind of in shock.

"That was breathtaking for me. I've always admired Beyoncé, she's my idol. I think she's a phenomenal woman, a woman doing fantastic things. She took notice of my music, of my video, and wanted to introduce it to her fans. That was really breathtaking.

"I had my starstruck moment when I met Jay-Z and Beyoncé. Those are my idols. I think it's more off the conversation that I was able to have with them both, that's probably what really had me stoked. I'm very chill with everything in life, I just take everything easy, but that was overwhelming to me. I think my face was lit up for about three days straight just off of that. [Laughs] That was a blessing for me.

"We talked some music business stuff, but Beyoncé, she just wanted to congratulate me and said she loved what I had done and what I represent. Jay told me to just do him one favor which was to not change. We cracked some jokes about Atlantic and just music stuff, but he told me not to keep being great."

Working With Rick Ross on Her Candy Girl Mixtape

Brianna Perry: "It was fun because it was someone who I had known and who I'd seen for a majority of my life, so I was very comfortable working with him. It was a different day and time where it wasn't 'Rozay MMG.' That wasn't it back then. It was everybody on their grind, but he's always been super talented, so I'd always looked up to him because he was always so particular with his word choice.

"I would have my verses and my raps and he would be like, ' Eh, you should probably switch up your style here.' Little key notes like that meant so much to me because I looked up to him and I admired his work. It was a lot of fun working with him. It was like 'Okay Ricky, you're starting to take me seriously around here.' I was just having fun."

Her Feature on Trina's "Kandi"

Brianna Perry: "I just knew one day. They were like, 'You're going to the studio today and you're going to be on Trina's album,' and I was like, 'Oh okay.' I remember being in the studio, I think I was probably a little nervous but I just had fun with it.

"I was a little more shocked than anything because I couldn't believe that I was going to be on the record with her and that it was even a possibility that it may make the album. It seemed surreal, it didn't seem like it was actually happening.[Trina] came in the studio, too, and she was so nice to me. I was just a little kid goofing off.

"I had to [write my verse] there. I got there and listened to my instrumental and just laid it. I was nervous to do it, [but] it didn't make me feel uncomfortable."

Her Nickname, "Young Rich Bandit"

Brianna Perry: "It's been my nickname for a long time. I was just becoming a teenager and that's when I came up with it, I was in the studio. I think it describes me so well. I think it can describe anyone.

"A Young Rich Bandit is somebody who simply comes through and is stealing the shine, stealing the spotlight, steals the attention, and everything is just all about them. That's YRB."

Her Experience on Rap City: Tha Basement

Brianna Perry: "Rap City: Tha Basement is a big deal in hip-hop. It was just another outlet for music where musical artists [would] go through and visit the host. It was cool because when artists went to Tha Basement they would get to rap in the booth. It's pretty much just a freestyle thing, they play someone else's song and you just lay your verses over that.

"I got to go through the whole experience and get in the booth, and in the end of Best of the Booth, it would count down and play the best verse—mine made the list. Of course I was the youngest, and they talked about it in XXL magazine, which is cool. They just talked about how I blew them away, how I'm going to be somebody, and all that good stuff. It was an incredible experience."

Acting in the Movie Must Be The Music

Brianna Perry: "My first feature film, Must Be The Music, was a lot of fun. It was directed by Charles Dutton and it was a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun memorizing all of my lines, becoming my character Amanda Jones, who's a 22-year-old chick who's in charge and a lot different from my natural character. She's very sassy, so I had a lot of fun becoming Amanda.

"Jadakiss was also in the movie. The cast was a lot of fun. Every day was laughs and jokes on set and I made a lot of great friendships working on set. Acting has a lot more of a laid back vibe. It's very chill. It's less hectic and less of a headache. It moves at a slower pace than music. Music is very fast paced. It's always changing and you always have to stay on your toes every single day.

"I see more acting in my future because it's a lot of fun for me. My dream role, I would want to play an assassin. I love Angelina Jolie. I think she's so cool and she's just a bad chick, so I would love to play an assassin or something like that. An action film would be a lot of fun and I want to do all my own stunts. [Laughs.]"

Her New Mixtape, "Symphony No. 9: The B Collection"

Brianna Perry: "Symphony No. 9 was a ton of fun. I did what I always do, though; I got in the studio, banged out a ton of great records, lined up all the records, and chose which ones I wanted on the project. I got to work with some incredibly talented artists lik Teyana Taylor, Future, Trey Songz, French Montana, Trina, Ray J, and Pusha-T. I have a lot of interesting features on this new project and you just get to see me, maturity, growth, and just where I'm at right now in my life. I'm having fun and I think this particular project will let people know that I'm here and I'm ready. Great follow up from Face Off.

"I think at the core, I'm pretty much the same. It's the same views and the same opinions and the same outlook just in a 21-year-old body, but the core is the same. The passion has only grown more and I just have a better understanding of the actual game on the creative side and on the business side. I think I'm so blessed and happy that I started so young because I've been able to learn so much along the way, so the difference would be the passion has increased."