Biography

As a first generation Ethiopian born and raised in the city of Chicago, Lulu Be. grew up between two worlds: her family’s deeply rooted Ethiopian culture and the life of an American city kid. It is these worlds that garnered her musical inspiration and created her unique sound combining elements of afrobeats, Chicago house/juke, and hip-hop, topped with her lyrical flow. Illustrious Chicago music blog Fake Shore Drive described it as, “A big gumbo pot stirring with ingredients such as afrobeats, juke, and dancehall.” Never being the school type, Lulu Be. took a long break before deciding to attend Columbia College Chicago to study music engineering. While at Columbia she worked as a studio manager at the renowned Classick Studios where she recorded her first track "Rude Tings." The song unexpectedly blew up with 300k streams on Spotify, 154k on Soundcloud, fan made dance videos shared by celebrities like Lala Anthony & June Ambrose, and even aired on BBC Radio 1. Soon after Pigeons and Planes named her as an “Artist to Look Out For.” It was then that Lulu Be. decided to turn her long love for music and pursue it full time. Lulu Be. released her first project Lululand October 13th, 2017. The five track EP shows her versatility as a rapper while creating a new lane for her. The project received a lot of praise from the likes of Fake Shore Drive, Miss Info, Hip Hop Since 1987, and had "Raindance," a song off the EP featured on an Adidas x Urban Outfitters online campaign.