For most artists, industry acclaim, co-signs from music legends and Hollywood opportunities usually come after dropping a defining project. But Lady London, who has managed to achieve all that and then some before the release of her major label debut, has found herself to be the exception.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI\u2019m so honored to be spoken about the way that I am by people who I put on a [pedestal], as far as dope hip-hop music, and music in general,\u201d said London. \u201cTo be embraced by those legends is very pivotal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n This rare ascent is actually quite fitting for the self-taught lyricist, who\u2019s been setting herself apart from the rap pack from the very start of her career. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n It was back in 2018 when the poet-turned-rapper, 30, slid on everyone\u2019s radar with a slick viral car freestyle that amassed over 8 million views online \u2014 before going viral was an everyday occurrence. It didn\u2019t take long for word of the Def Jam signee\u2019s sharp-witted bars to spread to some of the biggest names in hip-hop \u2014 Nas, Busta Rhymes, Timbaland, Big Daddy Kane, to name a few.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n London, born Zaire Stewart, always had an interest in music, specifically wordplay, through penning poetry from a young age. However, rap pursuits didn\u2019t cross her mind until later in life, after she completed her B.S. in sports medicine at Howard University and her master\u2019s degree at the University of Southern California. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Since then, London has made quite a name for herself, releasing two projects \u2014 \u201cLady Like: The Boss Tape\u201d and \u201cS.O.U.L\u201d \u2014 a slew of invigorating singles and even making her acting debut in Sanaa Lathan\u2019s 2022 battle rap drama \u201cOn the Come Up.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n All these stepping stones prepared London for when the time came to craft her most significant release thus far, her forthcoming debut album, \u201cTo Whom It May Concern,\u201d due out in 2026. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n But rather than drop the LP itself, the New York and Jersey-bred rapper opted to team up with Tubi to capture the making of it in a three-part documentary titled \u201cAlways, Lady London<\/a>,\u201d which arrived in early October. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Directed and executive produced by Erika Bryant, the intimate series offers an inside look at a defining chapter in London\u2019s budding career as she battles grief, doubt and the pressures that come with living up to the world\u2019s expectations as an up-and-coming female emcee. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s not often we get this kind of personal insight from an artist this early in their career, hence London\u2019s own disbelief still.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI never imagined it being so early,\u201d London told me of being offered her docuseries. \u201cI think the beauty in it, though, is that it can focus on the genesis [of my journey] and follow my way through the revelation of it.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The usually reclusive rapper, who\u2019s also an executive producer of the doc, admitted the filming process was \u201cquite invasive at times.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI\u2019m not good with cameras,\u201d she joked earlier this year, sitting across from me in a cozy recording studio tucked away in Hollywood. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n By then, roughly a month into filming, London seemed accustomed to having cameras in the room, capturing her creative process, as she listened back to recorded bits of her forthcoming album tracks and jotted down lyrics in her notebook before heading back into the booth. Still, it took some getting used to \u2014 and a bit of coaching from Bryant \u2014 to learn to let her guard down.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt took some time to get her to open up because she is very stoic,\u201d the director told me. \u201cShe\u2019s very much on a need-to-know basis, which is why her album is [titled] \u2018To Whom It May Concern.\u2019 But my thing was, I wanted to come in and collaborate with her. We\u2019re telling her story. It wasn\u2019t me telling it from the outside in. It was me telling it from the inside out with her.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Bryant continued: \u201cSo my question to her was, \u2018What do you want people walking away saying about you?\u2019 [She\u2019s like], \u2018I want them to know me more. I want people who think I\u2019m just this freestyler in my car to know I\u2019m layered and I\u2019m human, and I\u2019m a woman, and I have this background [of being] a spoken word artist, I went to school for medicine\u2026 All these layers that people just don\u2019t know about me.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n That desire to clarify her life story seemed to guide the ethos of \u201cAlways, Lady London,\u201d with each episode delving into different facets of the rapper\u2019s life \u2014 from visiting her old stomping grounds in Jersey and her alma mater to navigating a nationwide tour with Coco Jones to how she dealt some tough recent losses, including that of her uncle, New York rapper Chino XL<\/a>, and her mentor, hip-hop pioneer DJ Clark Kent<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s both an emotional and triumphant journey of London overcoming hardships that Bryant \u201creally wanted to pay homage to.\u201d \u201cAnd honor her in a way that she could not just look at her victories, but also give credence to the things that she had been through,\u201d the director added.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n According to Bryant, the goal of the doc was to tell London\u2019s story \u201cin a way that felt holistic, that was colorful, layered and really shows the beauty that she is.\u201d Their hope now is that fans gain a deeper understanding of not only who London is, but who she hopes to be when it\u2019s all said and done.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI\u2019m continuing to be a student of the game,\u201d London concluded, \u201cand I hope that people continue to follow my journey.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n For this installment of \u201cPivotal,\u201d Lady London takes us through the start of her rap journey, the daunting task of opening up in her Tubi docuseries and her plans for the future as she gears up to drop her long-awaited debut album.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n I feel like we don\u2019t get many artist documentaries from people who are still early in their journeys. Did you always picture yourself doing something like this?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n You know, I never really had a vision for it, per se. And if I did, I definitely thought it would be a recap of what I\u2019d already accomplished throughout the tenure of my career. I never imagined it being so early. I think the beauty in it, though, is that it can focus on the genesis [of my journey] and follow my way through the revelation of it.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tell me what the entire documentary experience was like for you, capturing all those moments of you going on tour and gearing up for the release of your debut album.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The doc filming process was very interesting. I\u2019m a super reclusive-natured person, so it was quite invasive at times. But I\u2019m happy to see the story played out. It was so much that didn\u2019t get a chance to make the final cut, but to even see the storyline be developed like it was, [the team] really did very well. My producer was amazing, my director, and people on set really made it a comfortable experience. So it was pretty cool hallmarking those times because no one knows the process, right? No one gets to be in a studio with you to see how everything goes from inception to consumer in their phones.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Artist documentaries typically require some level of vulnerability when you\u2019re giving people an inside look at your life. And with you in particular, you were dealing with grief and the pressures of delivering your debut album. Were you mentally prepared to explore all of that on camera, or did your director have to give you a lot of coaching when filming began?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Yeah, Erika and I got so close in the process because of how much she had to peel back layer by layer. For me, I had several outbursts on camera, several moments where I was like, \u201cAll y\u2019all [get out]. Y\u2019all cannot be in here right now.\u201d But she really made it a comfortable space. She pushed the boundaries as far as stretching me, but I think she was very respectful about what I was willing to dive more into, versus not. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Were there moments in the doc where you were hesitant to open up? You talk a lot about losing your uncle, Chino XL, and your mentor, DJ Clark Kent. Did Erika have to pull that vulnerability out of you, too?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Yeah, I definitely didn\u2019t want to do too much talking about that in detail, because I\u2019m obviously still\u2026 You know, grief isn\u2019t linear, so every day is a different journey. I\u2019m still maneuvering through that daily, so I just never know how I\u2019m going to show up that day. We definitely had to go through that a lot, and I didn\u2019t really want to talk about a lot of the stuff that was in the doc. But I do think that now that it\u2019s out, watching the fans\u2019 responses and people saying they relate to me because their grandma has dementia or early Alzheimer\u2019s, and they struggle with grief because they lost somebody to suicide, or they lost somebody to cancer. It\u2019s so many different things that you can connect with your fans on, and I think that is the greater picture of it all.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The documentary touches on your early beginnings in music, where you actually started out doing poetry first. Walk me through your evolution from poet to rapper, and what inspired you to make that transition.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n I have always innately written poetry from a very young age. I always thought of it as a hobby, something to pass the time. It wasn\u2019t until it began to be amplified on social media, in the time before amplification was as popular as it is today. That\u2019s the part that a lot of people [miss]. I do interviews all the time where I explain to them that [my first video] went 8.7 million views viral. That\u2019s nothing right now, in this climate; 8 million views can be garnered so quickly. But I\u2019m talking about 2018, when it was a very different time, when views weren\u2019t being calculated, when algorithms were not set up like this, and when somebody with 9,000 followers could not reach that many people. I really shifted history in my transition from poetry to rap, and the type of people that I was reaching and the impact that I was making with the followers I was able to amass over a short amount of time, organically. That\u2019s something that I hadn\u2019t seen from somebody in such a short time frame at that time.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n You gained a lot of notoriety from your viral freestyle videos on social media. But what do you think is the biggest misconception people have about going viral, especially for artists?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n I come from a very traditional space, so I\u2019m not sure exactly how virality works now. I don\u2019t subscribe to the new version of virality. So I guess the misconception with me is I\u2019ve always done it from just being myself. There\u2019s nothing gimmicky or planned or messy as an attempt to start a trend or be in some type of drama or headline. I think a lot of virality comes from negativity or some type of attachment to a storyline now. And I think, for me, it was more important to just walk in my talent and see exactly where that took me, without attachments to anybody, no rap beef, no weird subtweeting or nothing. Just organic rhymes and nothing else to it.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n What eventually made you move past posting those freestyles and take your artistry more seriously?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n I genuinely have always had an interest in music. Before I was creating it, I was a big consumer of all genres. So as I walked into it, I understood that I needed to take it seriously. I put in 10,000 hours of mastering the craft and cultivating a sound that was exclusively mine, and I\u2019ve been having a lot of fun with it. A lot of fun elevating my sounds and tapping into new realms, and just seeing what the people want for me in this era of myself. That\u2019s really what I\u2019m trying to unlock now.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n One thing the docuseries emphasized is that you\u2019re a proud HBCU alum of Howard University, which is a big part of your story. How did your time there shape you into the woman and artist you are today?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Howard is definitely responsible for a lot of my accomplishments and successes. Mainly, it speaks to the type of character development that is incurred at Howard. You go through a lot as far as challenges to get through the system\u2026 but if you can make it at Howard, you can make it anywhere. It was just absolutely no ceiling on how far I could go. Looking at my peers and even looking at people that came before me who were graduating with the top number of Ph.D.s, [becoming] lawyers, entertainment moguls, [etc.], we\u2019re just excellence. We walk in the spirit of excellence as Howard University alumnae and students currently, so I was happy to be a part of that legacy altogether. It\u2019s definitely given me a no-boundaries kind of mindset, like there\u2019s nothing I can\u2019t do. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Another thing I found interesting in the doc was that your African American studies professor from Howard, Dr. Amy Yeboah Quarkume, said she was shocked to hear that you wanted to rap and be in the hip-hop space, especially knowing that it\u2019s not always kind to Black women. Did you consider that before you decided on rap as a career?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n No, because I don\u2019t think anything is really kind to Black women. We are the least defended, the least protected, but probably the leaders in everything. Behind every great man is a greater woman, in my opinion. And that may come off as very feminist, but it\u2019s just the truth. Black women, we\u2019re always working twice as hard to get half as much in any field, so that really wasn\u2019t a concern of mine\u2026 But she does raise a good point, obviously. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n You earned a bachelor\u2019s degree from Howard and a master\u2019s from USC and got accepted into medical school before you started rapping full-time. Most people in your position probably would\u2019ve picked having a stable career in medicine over being in the music industry, so why did you ultimately choose the latter?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n It was just what it was supposed to be. I wasn\u2019t necessarily happy in the health care field as it was when I graduated. I wasn\u2019t really getting the work that I thought I would be able to \u2014 people wanted experience, and I didn\u2019t have any, considering I had spent all my time in school. A lot of times, I was underqualified for Ph.D. positions and overqualified for bachelor\u2019s positions. That put me in a really weird middle ground where I wasn\u2019t really sure about what was next, and rap was coming very easily. I have faith in it, and I think it was put in my life to build a foundation. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s something that is permanent for me, but I definitely know it\u2019s a stepping stone towards something amazing, if nothing else.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tell me about the journey of creating your debut album. You\u2019ve been making music for years, but this LP, \u201cTo Whom It May Concern,\u201d finally drops next year. What is this era of your career all about?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n So, my first EP, \u201cS.O.U.L.,\u201d was kind of my lover girl, soft girl era with a little toxicity mixed into it. It was very specific, talking about zodiac signs. Whereas \u201cTo Whom It May Concern\u201d is my first album, so I think it has this more developed and full body way with it that it\u2019s lyrical and it\u2019s fun and it\u2019s elevated, and, sonically, it\u2019s an evolved version. I think I\u2019m in my villain era again. I\u2019m popping it again. I\u2019m feeling confident. It\u2019s what people love about my music to begin with. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n In the doc, you mention this caged bird metaphor to describe your journey in the music industry. What moments or experiences led you to feel that way?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n I\u2019ve just always felt in that space. If you noticed, one of my first singles I put out was called \u201cNever,\u201d and the cover art was me in a cage because I have always felt like I\u2019ve been the most talented and the least seen, as far as my talent level at least. Just feeling like my wings have either been clipped or unable to spread fully, so it\u2019s kind of metaphorical in the way that I feel like I want to be set free in many, many ways.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n You\u2019ve earned co-signs from a lot of legends over the years, from MC Lyte to Nas and Busta Rhymes. Does that add more pressure on this debut album to deliver the high expectations people have of you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m in a space where I\u2019m responding to pressure anymore. I think that was very early on in my career. [But now], I just want to let the music speak, and whoever likes it likes it. Being supported by the legends, I know that they understand the core of hip-hop theory and musical theory, so they understand where I\u2019m coming from, regardless of how others may interpret it. They listen differently. They listen for different things. So having their support continuously has been so amazing, because they\u2019re honestly the only opinion that I really value, in theory. In this era of fast-produced, oversaturated quick music, it\u2019s hard for anyone to fairly assess what\u2019s great anymore, except for them. So, I feel no pressure, because I think we\u2019re aligned.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Industry-wise, who\u2019s been the most helpful to you throughout this process?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n From the grand scheme of things, it would definitely be my mentor, DJ Clark Kent. He was the most pivotal, as far as making sure I was pushed to the furthest extent, making sure that I knew that I belonged in the rooms that I was being invited in, or that I was going to be legendary in this space. Definitely him, definitely MC Lyte, Big Daddy Kane, June Ambrose, just so many people that are part of the culture \u2014 Busta, Timbaland \u2014 people that come in and affirm.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n What do you want to bring to the rap space with this album that you feel has been missing?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Everything. Everything that\u2019s missing. I want to fill the void of what is not in the industry, what we haven\u2019t seen, at least in a while. And then, of course, bridge the gap somehow and figure out a way to incorporate some type of female unity amongst the diversity that we\u2019re witnessing. More collaboration and more abundance in the space.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n How do you feel about the current state of hip-hop in regard to women?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n I think it\u2019s great. It\u2019s good to see visibility in a way that we haven\u2019t seen in a while. I think males have dominated for far too long, and I think we are coming to reclaim our space.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n What\u2019s the ultimate goal you\u2019re striving for with your music?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Bullet points: I\u2019d like a diamond record, I\u2019d like to sell out Madison Square Garden at least twice and I\u2019d like to eventually own my own label. That\u2019s pretty much the highlight tape of my expectations for my career. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n For those who are still unfamiliar with Lady London, what do you want them to take away from your docuseries and album once it\u2019s released?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n I hope you can see the full scope of me in the docuseries, from a transparent and vulnerable space, to watching how I cultivate music, how I speak about myself, how I speak about others, and how I approach rhythmic composition in this purest form. I hope that you guys can understand that I really care about the art form as it is. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For most artists, industry acclaim, co-signs from music legends and Hollywood opportunities usually come after dropping a defining project. But Lady London, who has managed to achieve all that and then some before the release of her major label debut, has found herself to be the exception. \u201cI\u2019m so honored to be spoken about the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2143961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25174],"tags":[21944,21800,409399,21945,355393],"class_list":["post-2143960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gossip","tag-hip-hop","tag-music","tag-pivotal","tag-rap","tag-tubi"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Lady-London-Is-About-To-Show-Rap-What-Its-Been.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2143960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2143960"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2143960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2143962,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2143960\/revisions\/2143962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2143961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2143960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2143960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2143960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"In](\"https:\/\/img.huffingtonpost.com\/asset\/69094ed0180000d0ab040438.jpg?ops=scalefit_1280_noupscale&format=webp)
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