“I hate to stop the show like this again,” Monaleo quipped in frustrated jest. “But I’m bout to go slap the s–t out the sound guy!”
During the sold-out New York stop on her Monaleo Like Monalisa Tour, the 22-year-old Houston rapper conquered severe technical difficulties — she was forced to stop her show and leave the stage three times — to deliver a performance that succinctly showcased what made so many fans fall in love with her boisterous, effervescent energy.
Two years ago, Monaleo’s debut single, “Beating Down Yo Block,” grew into a viral hit thanks to its Yungstar-nodding chorus and blistering, tongue-in-cheek wordplay. On Spotify, the song has collected over 36 million streams — nearly the same total as her follow-up hit, the Flo Milli-assisted “We Not Humping,” which elicited the second-most-fervent crowd response during Thursday night’s set.
This year, the rapper finally unleashed her debut studio album, the unpredictable and delightfully versatile Where the Flowers Don’t Die. Stitching together influences ranging from ’90s East Coast hip-hop and acoustic R&B to gospel and ’00s Southern rap, Where the Flowers Don’t Die presents a kaleidoscopic artist rooted in the sincerity of her own grit and heart. The album arrived just days after Monaleo welcomed her first child, a son with Stunna 4 Vegas, making for an especially immersive and introspective project that revealed new layers with each passing month.
With a bare-bones stage comprised of just herself, her DJ and her hypeman, Monaleo effortlessly displayed her artistic ethos on the Baby’s All Right stage: brazen self-confidence, candid nuggets of wisdom, and a commitment to pursuing the like you know you deserve. Her passion anchored the show — she frequently expressed her gratitude and her commitment to giving NYC the best show possible — and provided the foundation for her to tear through some of her most electrifying cuts (“Body Bag,” “Ridegmont Baby,” etc.) with impressive breath control, pristine delivery, and a rotating door of different tones that added splashes of verve across the setlist.
From a New York female rap bonanza to a heartfelt send-off, here are the five best moments of Monaleo’s Monaleo Like Monalisa Tour.
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Flipping the Birthday Script
After polling the crowd’s birthdays and zodiac signs (Libras, Scorpios, Saggitariuses and Taurses got special shout-outs), Monaleo launched into a performance of her most recent single, “Crying On Your Birthday.” With that track, she flips the classic “Happy Birthday” melody into a song lambasting no-good men, and promising retaliation of even greater proportions. Despite having to restart the whole sequence because of sound issues, the song still made for a standout moment.
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Crowd Gets Too Excited for ‘We Not Humping’
According to the crowd, we are, in fact, humping. The beloved Flo Milli-featuring banger got a deafening crowd response filled with so much excitement that the screams threw Monaleo off the track. The crowd came in about four bars too early, but that didn’t stop Leo from delivering a room-rocking rendition of the hit single. When the lyrics, “Wake up Mr. I need a break after the first fuckin’ round / Y’all be weak in the knees, stand up / Stand up!” reverberated across the venue, there was no mistaking Monaleo’s genuine star quality.
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Monaleo’s Message to the World
“If you were to leave this world today, I’ll miss you,” Monaleo gushed as she closed out the show. “I love you!” The Houstonian has been vocal about her mental health struggles and past suicide attempts, so this message didn’t land as boilerplate as it might have been from another artist. There was genuine conviction in her voice, her chords trembling slightly as she fought through the torrent of emotions the night gifted her.
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Ridgemont Baby
Monaleo may have spent the night professing her love for New York, but she made sure to keep her hometown front and center with a fantastic rendition of “Ridgemont Baby.” The penultimate track on Where the Flowers Don’t Die, “Ridgemont Baby” made for the night’s most moving moment, with Monaleo channeling the whirlwind journey of the past three years into every bar she spit.
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NYC Female Rap Bonanza
The female rap renaissance is still raging, and New York is the heart of the movement. Monaleo recognized those hallowed grounds by bringing out three of the city’s buzziest new female rappers to perform each of their biggest hits. Connie Diiamond lit up the stage with a captivating rendition of her fast-rising “Ghetto & Ratchet,” and Cleotrapa followed soon after with a vivacious performance of “Main Character.” Philly rapper Lay Bankz held it down for her hometown with a hip-rocking performance of “Ick,” while Maiya The Don drew the loudest crowd response with her hit single “Telfy.” The whole section was a joy to watch, and a testament to how healthy the female rap scene is right now.
