Young M.A.

Katorah Marrero better known by her stage name Young M.A, is an American rapper and entrepreneur. The abbreviation in her stage name, "M.A" (stylized without a period after the "A") stands for "Me Always." She first gained widespread recognition with the release of the quadruple-platinum hit single "Ooouuu", breaking the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, boasting over 300 million YouTube views on the music video. After the success of her debut single, Young M.A was nominated for BET and MTV Artist of the Year and Female Hip-Hop Artist of the Year awards. She began appearing on magazine covers. She has been featured in global ad campaigns for Google Pixel 2, Beats By Dre and Pandora. She has appeared on a variety of television shows and performed alongside Alicia Keys on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. In 2018, Young M.A was featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30, the same year she launched the KWEENZ Foundation with her mother. Young M.A has also received a proclamation from New York City. Katorah Marrero was born on April 3, 1992, in New York, New York. Her mother is Jamaican, and her father is Puerto Rican. Her father was incarcerated when she was 1 and spent approximately 10 years behind bars and was not released until she was 11. With the absence of her father, Young M.A grew close to her brother, Kenneth Ramos, and her mother. When Marrero was 7, her mother decided to relocate to Chesterfield, Virginia, as it provided better school facilities and also her children would remain away from the violence of East New York. In Virginia, she started to play tackle football. When she was 10, Young M.A started to write rhymes in her schoolbooks. Her mother encouraged her and purchased a karaoke machine, which M.A would set up as a makeshift studio in her closet. In 2010, she graduated from Sheepshead Bay High School. Show less «