Houston, TX · rap

Monaleo

1 festival played →

Houston rap firecracker — funny, ferocious, and hometown-proud, with punchlines that hit like haymakers and Houston pride in every ad-lib.

Monaleo is a rapper from Houston, born Leondra Gay, who broke through in 2021 with 'Beat It Up,' a track built on a flip of Yungstar's 'Knocking Pictures Off Da Wall.' The reference was pointed: her music draws directly on Houston's own lineage, alongside the fast, bass-heavy bounce of Miami bass and the low-end weight of Southern trap.

Gay attended Houston's High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice and had begun studying mortuary science at Prairie View A&M University before pausing her degree to focus on music, which she had been working on intermittently since early 2020.

She raps in a conversational, unhurried drawl, favouring blunt comic detail and direct talk about sex, relationships and mental health over abstraction. Much of her writing is confrontational and quotable by design, and she has spoken publicly about depression and pregnancy loss in interviews and in her songs.

Following early singles including 'Girls Outside,' 'Suck It Up' and 'We Not Humping,' she released her debut album, Where the Flowers Don't Die, in 2023, featuring a guest verse from Flo Milli. An EP, Throwing Bows, arrived the following year with appearances from Stunna 4 Vegas, Sauce Walka and Kaliii, and a second full album, Who Did the Body, followed in 2025.

Gay has spoken openly about her bisexuality and past suicide attempts. Her younger brother is fellow rapper Yung Rampage, and she gave birth to her first child in 2023 with partner Stunna 4 Vegas, whom she married in 2025.

Read more

rap