Rapper Shawntae Harris-Dupart, also known as Da Brat, is from the United States. She started her career in 1992, the year she signed with So So Def Records, having been born and reared in Chicago, Illinois. After more than 25 years, she finally decided to come out on social media as a lesbian.
Childhood and Education
Da Brat was born in Chicago, Illinois, on April 14, 1974, and spent most of his upbringing there in the West Side neighborhood. Her mother Nadine Brewer drives municipal buses, and her father David Ray McCoy is a businessman. Her parents didn’t wed. Brat was then brought up in two distinct homes.
Da Brat attended an Apostolic church four times a week, where she sang in the chorus, and spent some time living with her mother and grandma. She is Lisa Raye McCoy’s maternal half-sister. Da Brat ran track and played basketball while she was a sophomore and junior at Kenwood Academy. In 1992, she received her diploma from the Academy of Scholastic Achievement, a continuation charter school that serves children who are at risk.
Related: Is Lil Nas X Gay? American Rapper’s Queer Identity and Its Significance in The Music World!
Quick Success
Da Brat’s big break came in 1992 when she took home the first prize in a regional rap battle organized by Yo! MTV Raps. She encountered the upstart rap group Kris Kross while competing for the prize. They introduced her to Jermaine Dupri, their producer, who hired her for his So So Def record company. Funkdafied, the debut album by Da Brat, peaked at number 11 on the rap albums list when it was released in 1994.
She became the first female solo rapper to sell one million copies of an album after it went platinum. On the rap singles list, “Funkdafied” peaked at number one, and it also debuted at number six on the Billboard Hot 100. “Give It 2 You,” her follow-up single from the same album, peaked at number 26 on the Hot 100.
Private Life
Related: Is Adam Scott Gay? Debunking Rumors About Adam Scott’s Sexuality!
In the late 1990s, Allen Iverson dated Da Brat. She talked about finally coming out as a lesbian and why it took her 25 years to do so in an interview with Variety in March 2020. On March 26, 2020, Da Brat declared her romance with businesswoman and creator of hair products Jesseca Dupart. In Georgia, Da Brat and Dupart exchanged vows on February 22, 2022.
In February 2023, Da Brat made the announcement that she and Harris-Dupart were expanding their family and that she was carrying her first child. Prior to an embryo transfer procedure, she underwent surgery to remove polyps and fibroids, and she had a loss before the present pregnancy.
Legal Troubles
At a Halloween party at Atlanta’s Studio 72 nightclub in October 2007, Da Brat was assaulted. During a disagreement with a hostess, Da Brat followed her as she went to get her manager and attacked her from behind, hitting her in the face with a rum bottle. They nabbed Da Brat and threw him in jail.
She admitted guilt in court and was given a sentence of three years in prison, seven years of probation, and 200 hours of community service for severe assault. In May 2010, she was granted work release from prison. On February 28, 2011, she was finally freed. As a result of the assault, the victim was granted $6.4 million in February 2014 to compensate for her medical bills and lost wages.
After being released from jail, Da Brat began posting YouTube videos under the title “Brat Chronicles: In Transition.” Motivation” was a 2011 remix she recorded with Kelly Rowland and Lil Wayne. On July 2, 2013, she dropped her newest single, titled “Is It Chu?” She joined the Atlanta-based cast of “Dish Nation” in July 2015 and has been a co-host on the Rickey Smiley Morning radio show ever since. She has served as a role model for aspiring musicians on “The Rap Game,” a reality TV show. Da Brat has been a regular on “Growing up Hip Hop: Atlanta” since 2017.
