Lexii Alijai

Alexis Alijai Lynch (born February 19, 1998), better known by her stage name Lexii Alijai, is an American rapper. Born and raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota, she began rapping over the beats of popular songs, such as Try Me by American rapper Dej Loaf, Thugz Mansion by Nas, and Girls Love Beyoncé by Drake and James Fauntleroy. Alijai uploaded these covers to her SoundCloud account, where she began to gain a good amount of recognition and generally positive reviews on her music.

Early life

Lexii Alijai was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her grandfather is Roger Troutman of Parliament Funkadelic and Zapp & Roger; her father is Roger Troutman Lynch Jr.^[1] Her father died of pneumonia and injuries from an accident when she was a young child.^[2][3] She attended Como Park Senior High School in the Lake Como area of St. Paul, following an interest in basketball, which she found to be her first passion.^[4] Once music began to gain more of her interest, she transferred to Creative Arts Secondary School in Minnesota, writing many of her songs within the studio located at the school. However, she decided to leave the school once it became both too conflicting with her schedule and the student population continuously began to rise. She stated that many students that attended the school did not participate in the arts, and she decided that it was best for her to complete her high school education enrolling into an online school.^[5] Alijai didn't graduate, and instead, began focusing on her music full-time. She recorded her music in a studio that she has located in the basement of her home.

Alijai attended a J. Cole concert while he embarked on his What Dreams May Come Tour. She purchased backstage passes and met him, where she decided to pass on a demo that she'd made for him to listen to, in hopes that he would sign her to his label, Dreamville Records. Alijai later said that the demo was horrible, because it's supposed to showcase your talents as an artist, but she had remixed a few songs that weren't original. She was excited after their meeting and had been expecting a call back, but never got it, and it caused her to become depressed and conscious about her music. However, she worked on her first project, Super Sweet 16's, and dropped it that following February. Alijai says that Crooked Smile by J. Cole and TLC "picked her up" and no other artists music had done that for her. She decided to get more personal with her music due to this, because it was cool to "make people feel the same way that J. Cole made me feel."^[6][7] About the ordeal, Alijai has stated: "I don’t want him to think I’m weak. Because that shit was weak and I’m better than that. And, I’m going to prove to him I’m better than that. So, that has been my motivation. Even until now, that day changed me for sure."

Career

Lexii Alijai and Kehlani performing "Jealous" in 2017

Alijai stated that her first remix was on the instrumental of "Rack City" by Tyga when she was in middle school, in which her classmates liked and knew the lyrics. She then began releasing various remixes on popular hip-hop and R&B beats while enrolled as a high school student. After meeting J. Cole and passing on, what she believed was an insufficient demo, she began working on her first mixtape. Super Sweet 16's was Alijai's first full-length project, and it was released in celebration of her sixteenth birthday.^[8][9] She then began releasing more remixes and original songs via SoundCloud, such as her remixes of "Thugz Mansion" and "Still Here" (which was a song released with her then boyfriend, Shaun Sloan). She then collaborated with Rocky Diamonds on an extended play, titled 3 Days. Her mixtape, In The Meantime, was released a few months later, which included more remixes of her own lyrics over rap instrumentals. In The Meantime featured Shaun Sloan, Rocky Diamonds, EZ Glacier, and Tomorrow Genius. She released feel∙less in October that same year.^[10][11][12]

The following year, she and Shaun Sloan released a joint mix tape titled Same Struggle. Different Story.^[13][14] Alijai became close friends with Kehlani the summer before the release of Kehlani's debut commercial mixtape, You Should Be Here. Meeting through mutual friends, Kehlani sent "Jealous" to her while she was in school, and throughout the day, Alijai wrote her verse to it. Once she left school, she recorded it and sent it back to Kehlani. The mixtape peaked at number 36 on the US Billboard 200.^[15] At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score 80 out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, You Should Be Here received an average score of 80% based on 6 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[16] You Should Be Here granted Alijai media attention due to her lyricism and flow presented on the track.^[17][18] Alijai went on to release a remix to "Song Cry" by Jay Z, and "By Your Side" with Shaun Sloan. Her next full length project, Joseph's Coat, was released.

Joseph's Coat was released late 2015, featuring Kane, Shaun Sloan, and Elle Varner.^[19][20] In 2016, she performed at Soundset Music Festival^[21][22] and had opened up for Playboi Carti, Lil Uzi Vert and Rich the Kid.^[23][24] She also performed at Hard Rock in Las Vegas and at various venues located in Minnesota. She released a remix of "Exchange" by Bryson Tiller and "Cold Hearted" by Meek Mill and Jay Z, along with a music video for her remix of "Cold Hearted."^[25] For her eighteenth birthday, she released "18", which was a song reflecting on her eighteen years of life.^[26] She was featured on a song by KayCyy Pluto, titled, "Say You Do." The video premiered on YouTube in December.^[27] She performed with Trina, Princess Nokia, and YesJulz in December.^[28]

In 2017, she released a remix to "Redbone" by Childish Gambino and Me, Myself & I by Beyonce.^[29][30] She attended Soundset Music Festival, and opened up for Mod Sun while on tour. Minnesota natives Kaycyy Pluto Alijai Alijai connect on a new singled called "Bread Winner", produced by Ocean.^[31] She is currently working on the release of her next project.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lexii Alijai.