Life & Work with Megan Correa

Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Correa.

Hi Megan, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started writing songs and playing piano when I was six years old. I started free-styling when I was 17 years old, and that became an outlet for me to process my childhood trauma. I became transfixed by Hip Hop culture and I channeled all of my energy into the art of rap.

I dropped my first mixtape in 2013 and In 2014 I started competing in rap battles. My freestyle skills got me recognized as one of the only women on the Bay Area rap battle scene. I became a rap battle champion in 2016 and went on to release my first solo album, Prey for Gods in 2017, which chronicled my personal experiences with trauma, addiction and violence. Following the release of my debut album, I channeled my creative energy into making music that balanced my raw vulnerability with my fun and animated personality. My two EPS titled PunisHer EP Volume 1 & 2 were released through Urbanlife Distribution along with self-published, fully illustrated comic books.

In 2017 I spent a significant amount of time in Spain creating music and performing at underground Hip Hop showcases. When I returned to the Bay Area in 2018, I began working as a Hip Hop Educator with the Oakland-based non-profit Hip Hop For Change. I started producing beats in 2019, making me one of the 2% of women music producers. Now, I teach production to hundreds of students in collaboration with many Bay Area based Non-Profit Organizations. In 2020 I developed a Women’s Empowerment Hip Hop curriculum, teaching students from elementary to college age about the female pioneers of Hip Hop. I’ve led workshops at UC Berkeley, at Doc Martens Shoe Company, and for the Women’s Empowerment Summit in 202. In March of 2020, I was selected to go to El Salvador through a program run by the US Embassy to run a week-long Spanish Hip Hop program for students across El Salvador. In the summer of 2020, I began working with Meta and Code HS on an educational initiative, Code Remix, a free program aimed at developing students’ computer science skills through coding and beat-making. Since then I have traveled around the country teaching thousands of kids how to use the program.

In October 2021 I founded Queens Of The Underground, an all-women hip-hop showcase that gives underground female artists the opportunities to open for more established artists. We wanted to expose the world to the diversity of female artists who often go unacknowledged because they do not fit into the hypersexualized archetype that dominates the mainstream. We curated 3 successful Queens of the Underground showcases since its inception in October 2021, with our Queens of the Underground Grammy party, honoring all female grammy nominees, coming up on February 2, 2023 in Los Angeles.

I founded an all womxn hip hop cypher called The Bar Exam in September of 2021. Breathless and I created this cypher to expose the diversity of women artists in all elements of Hip Hop culture. We decided to continue collaborating on a musical level and received the Local Sirens Award in October of 2022, granting us the opportunity to record, mix and master an entire musical project with Women’s Audio Mission in San Francisco.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I’ve faced many trials and tribulations along the way to success, some personal and some professional, but both equally enduring. I was fortunate to grow up in a middle-class family with parents that loved me in spite of their inability to recognize the signs of a traumatized young girl. Having to overcome so many levels of abuse on my own led me to find catharsis in substances, creating a cycle of trauma, abuse and addiction that was difficult to break. I’ve spent half of my life fighting to overcome depression, anxiety, PTSD, and addiction but that battle gave me the insight necessary to create transformative music and compassion to help others. I’ve dedicated my life to creating equitable spaces for women because I’ve faced so many gender-related adversities, like sexual abuse, harassment, domestic violence, single motherhood, etc. but those adversities gave me the strength and resilience to fight against systems of oppression, patriarchy, and white supremacy.

Even today, amongst members in my own community who claim to support and protect women, I’ve found myself caught in a constant battle for justice. One of the deepest struggles I have recently faced is realizing that many of the members in my community only want the optic of being a social justice warrior but behind closed doors, they are culpable of the same vile acts they outwardly claim to combat. These experiences have shown me how deeply embedded mysogny is in our society and has often left me exhausted and angry. But the fight continues and I refuse to give up no matter how many obstacles stand in my way because I believe in a world where women are respected, valued, and honored for more than just their bodies.

My experiences with trauma have also allowed me to relate with the students that I teach, that may come from vastly different backgrounds than I did but still have suffered in a similar way. So in many ways, I am grateful for the many struggles I have faced in my life because it brought me to a path of purpose, something that most people spend their life looking for.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
LiL MC is a bilingual Bay Area-based female hip-hop artist and hip-hop educator with Hip Hop for Change inc. In addition to rapping, free-styling, singing, and competing in rap battle competitions she also produces beats and is classically trained in Piano.

A natural performer, LiL MC stands out on stage with dynamic delivery and sassy wit. This paired with her freestyle rap skills got her recognized quickly after she started performing in 2010 by competing as one of the only women on the local rap battle scene and going on to become a rap battle champion.

LiL MC seeks to not just empower students but women. She’s the founder of Queens of the Underground, a quarterly all-women Hip Hop showcase that gives local artists opportunities to open for and network with more established artists. She also addresses misogyny head-on in her lyrics with bars like “my short skirt is not an invitation for your roofie.” That lyric is from her single “OMG” which was selected to be part of the NBA2k21 video game soundtrack and the NBA Top Shot NFT Collection.

She’s shared stages with powerhouse underground female rappers like Sa-roc, Vel the Wonder, and Che Noir and has opened for Bay Area legends Too Short, E-40, and Zion I. Her latest project “Riding the Pink Cloud” was featured on Billboard Hip Hop. Her most recent music video in collaboration with LA underground legend Vel The Wonder was featured on a billboard in Los Angeles and her latest single “Don’t Negotiate My Price” cracked 120,000 streams on Spotify. She was also named “best female rapper of the year” by Black Hawk Magazine in December of 2023.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
I completely transformed my life during the Covid-19 crisis. I realized that I wanted to control the outcome of my life. No one was going to come and give me the opportunity to do what I wanted to do, so I created that opportunity for myself. I knew I wanted a fulfilling career making music, traveling the world, teaching hip-hop pedagogy in every continent, and finding my most authentic sound, but before I could do any of that, I needed to heal. Covid-19 forced to take a long hard look at myself and take accountability for the person I was in order to transform into the person I wanted to be. I spent the first year dedicated to healing, therapy, self-work, and over-health. Once I felt grounded in that process of self-evolution that had been initiated, I began looking at what my goals were and reverse engineering the steps in order to get to achieve them. I studied the music industry and similar-sounding artists in order to create my own unique pathway, compiling the knowledge I had acquired while applying my own sauce to the formula. I realized that in order to be successful, I didn’t 10 million fans, but if I could 1,000 true fans that were willing to spend $100 on me a year, that would be enough to launch my career to a new space.

In order to find those true fans I needed to put myself in front of an audience that my music would appeal to. So I decided to curate my own showcase and book a headliner that I thought would have a decent-sized cross-over fanbase. This show was called Queens Of The Underground and the headliner was LA Based female rapper Vel Nine. This was no ordinary hip-hop show, this was a show that featured a diversity of underground female rappers but also female DJs, dancers, and Host to the night and also provide visuals that were projected throughout the night and vendors from local female-owned businesses. The show was so inspiring and empowering our team realized we wanted to continue to build Queens of the Underground and make it bigger. This launched the beginning of a new journey for myself, I started out looking for a way to expand my fanbase and ended up creating a platform to empower and support women artists and entrepreneurs. I began many projects during Covid-19 and I discovered new passions and professional pathways, so in spite of the devastating impact Covid-19 had on so many people, I was able to find the opportunity to build and grow.

Contact Info:

• Website: lilmcmusic.com
• Instagram: @lilmc.music
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LilMcSF/
• Twitter: @LiLMC415
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg4mk1Z4Dmsk8tcQw-XQAOQ

Image Credits
Personal photo: Sarah Arnold FIRST 2 IMAGES: Sarah Arnold 4th and 5th image: Sarah Arnold 6th image: Captured By Edith 7th image: Subversive Photography