Phreckle$ had trouble fitting in growing up and started drinking and using drugs at 12 years old. From being bullied to self-harm, to substance abuse, to be a domestic violence survivor, the path was never easy, but one thing that was always there for her was music, in fact, she would go further and say that certain songs, like 2pac’s “keep ya head up,” saved her at times where she felt like she couldn’t go on. Playing and expressing herself through music has also always been prevalent in her life, as she picked up the trumpet at 9, played it with the top instrumentalists in her school in Carnegie Hall at 12, and played bass guitar in four different punk bands in her teenage years. At 19 she got pregnant with her now 12-
year-old daughter and has raised her daughter on her own. Inspired and driven again by music like Nipsey Hussle’s “Marathon” album, and Nas’s song “I Can,” she set off when her daughter was three to follow another one of her dreams to become a fashion model. The first SEVEN agencies she went to turned her down, and the eighth one, Photogenics, signed her. Within 10 months, she moved her and her daughter out of Pomona and off welfare and food stamps and started traveling the world as an internationally signed professional fashion model. This came with great rewards and great risk, as drugs and alcohol are prevalent in the fashion and entertainment world and she found herself more broken than ever before, when her daughter was with her father, and she felt like she had all the things she thought would make her happy, and still could not find happiness. “My parents didn’t think I was going to make it, they told me they were just waiting for that phone call.” Revisiting music, as a solo artist, in 2012, she started releasing songs under the name of “FemaLe,” ….” but all the songs were about partying and getting drunk and high and superficial things that I heard everyone else writing about. Then, someone I really respected told me I should think about getting sober. Because I respected this person so much, I tried to do it. It didn’t happen overnight, I had a lot of relapses, but now I’ve made it, to FIVE YEARS SOBER.” Which brings us to this song, “Wait 4 Me,” released on her five year sobriety birthday. When asked what her goals and aspirations are in music, she replied with “it may sound crazy, but I want to save people like music saved me, which is another reason that I started my Bullying, Addiction, and Domestic Violence Association 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, so that I can help other people who have struggled like I have. ” Watch “Wait 4 Me” below and check out more of Phreckle$ music at YouTube.com/phrecklesmuzik
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