GloRilla’s career has been a whirlwind since breaking into the mainstream with her 2022 hit “F.N.F. (Let’s Go).” Since then, the Memphis rapper has hit significant career milestones. She was signed to Collective Music Group, Yo Gotti’s record label, received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rap Performance and reached the Billboard Hot 100 for her collaboration with Cardi B on “Tomorrow 2.”

The 23-year-old recently made ELLE magazine’s digital cover, for which she posed for famed photographer Tyrell Hampton. In the cover story, GloRilla shared details about her upbringing and how it influenced her sound.

She grew up listening to gospel artists such as Yolanda Adams, Kirk Franklin, and Smokie Norful. She cites Tasha Cobbs’ “Break Every Chain” as her favorite. GloRilla sang in the choir and was on the praise-and-worship team at her church.

“We were a religious, Christian household. We went to church every Sunday,” she tells ELLE. “My momma was real strict, and I feel like it played a part in how we used to act at school.”

GloRilla then discovered Chief Keef when she entered public school.

“When I used to do badass shit, I used to listen to Chief Keef while I was doing it. He used to motivate me to do bad shit. But the shit I used to be doing, he was rapping about, so I’m like, ‘Damn. I relate to everything he’s saying.’ I just liked his energy. He was just so young and turn, and he didn’t give a fuck. Nobody else sounded like him,” she said.

She started listening to local rappers such as Three 6 Mafia, Yo Gotti, Moneybagg Yo, and Gangsta Boo. Growing up in Memphis made her sound rougher and in tune with her environment.

“Memphis is rough, so that made us rough. You can hear the roughness in our music,” she said. “It’s ghetto — super ghetto. There are a lot of bandos in my neighborhood. Out there, houses get broken into a lot. They break into houses a lot. Fights, you know, the regular ghetto.”

If GloRilla’s music is instantly recognizable for her deep voice, it is a singularity she first strived away from.

“When I first came out rapping, I was trying to sound like a little girl. I was saying some hard shit, but just in a little girly-ass voice,” she said. “It was me trying to change my sound because I have a naturally deeper voice. I was kind of embarrassed because I wanted to sound like a girl.”

GloRilla ended up embracing her unique sound and stopped trying to force herself to rap in a higher pitch. She mentions 2021 as a turning point.

“That’s when I first changed my sound. That’s the year my voice started getting deeper and deeper.”

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