Not only do we share that vulnerability through open discussions on social media, but we also share it through our songs. R&B was also an outlet for you. After releasing “Miss You Already,” you hinted that you were going to be a little more in the R&B bag. Is that something you still want to pursue?
absolutely! I have church roots. I started out in a church, specifically a Baptist church, so there was a lot of singing. It was almost like a musical. I love singing, I love harmony, I love playing instruments, that’s where my heart is. Those types of songs are more of a passion project for me because they’re not particularly what people want to hear from me. They want to hear rowdy shit, I already know that. Whenever I do R&B, I always really love it because I’m so passionate and I speak openly and honestly in a way that fits my vibe. I can rap about certain emotions, but when I rap, it’s because it makes me tough. I’m not trying to merge the two…I don’t want to rap about being sad. That doesn’t make sense in my head, in a creative sense. But I always make R&B music. That’s my heart…I like to sing.
Wait, why do you feel like people don’t want to listen to your R&B music?
Because you don’t. Realistically, my demographic knows Mona Leo as an aggressive artist and appreciates how quirky her music is. There was a time when I tried to completely rebel against it too, but that would be stupid. [I] You can’t totally throw people off track like, “Damn, I don’t rap anymore. I just sing!” In the world of rap, Mona Leo can lift people’s mood and turn their day around, and that’s something I respect. So even though I don’t necessarily like writing rap music, I’m going to continue to write rap music because of what I’ve become in people’s lives.
As an advocate, you founded an organization called Stay One More Day to raise awareness of mental health and provide resources and coping mechanisms for those suffering. Can you tell us how that came about and what the feedback was like?
I have always been a mental health advocate. It’s the life I’ve lived all my life. For most of my life, I was chronically depressed, very sick, very pessimistic, and very difficult to be around. That was the direction my life started to go after going through various traumatic experiences, abuse, and all that shit. I have met many people on my mental health journey. I’ve been hospitalized many times, and each time I’ve met a lot of good people with really good stories. We had many common experiences, including feeling left out and being terribly misunderstood. Many of us have difficulty expressing what we feel in words, so we all needed someone to speak for us in a way that made sense to us.
I’ve seen a lot. I have seen many people lose their lives. These are people who could have been saved had they had a little more information about what life is like. Many people in my family died by suicide. [mental health battles] Run in my family. My grandmother has depression, my mother has depression and bipolar disorder, my brother has ADHD, and I have depression and anxiety. I felt like maybe if they had had a different conversation that day. I’m speaking from personal experience. Because I’ve been talked to from the ledge by people who don’t even know me. They didn’t necessarily have a full conversation, but what they said really struck me and stuck with me. Sometimes that’s really all you need.
I always tell myself I’m so glad I stayed here to experience the life I have now. Imagine if I had sold myself short. Many people miss out on their potential because of temporary emotions and temporary circumstances. All they need is the right tools and to listen to certain things. Once I realized that, it started to become a part of my identity even before I became a rapper. When I gave a speech at my high school graduation, I talked about mental health. I remember my principal reading my speech before graduation and telling me to remove the parts that mentioned mental health and suicide because they were “too provocative.” But I got up on that podium and read my entire original speech. I could tell she was annoyed, but I had already graduated at that point, so it didn’t matter.
