Louisiana rapper Lil Boosie may have hit a snag in his rap career, due to his current legal situation, but that hasn’t stopped his oldest daughter, Ivyana Hatch, 9, from picking up the mic and stunting like her daddy.

As a young child, Ivyana aspired to follow in her father’s footsteps, as she caught glimpses of his burgeoning fame. “I saw my daddy, how he was talented and famous,” the pint-sized rapstress says. “I wanted to be just like him.” Also inspired by her old man’s rap peers Lil Wayne, Trina, Young Jeezy and Nicki Minaj, young Ms. Hatch started crafting her own rhymes in 2008, when she was just 6.

Ivyana first displayed her bright personality in front of the camera in November 2009, on Boosie’s nine-part documentary Web series Last Dayz, which chronicled the time leading up to his sentencing on drug and gun charges. During the series finale, Ivyana confessed her love for her father and made clear her intentions to stunt on the mic just like her daddy.

In February, Ivyana showcased her ability on a Web video where she confidently spit a prewritten a cappella rhyme titled “Daughter of a King and a Queen,” which exhibited her bubbling talent. Unleashing high-self-esteem-fueled bars like, “I’m a princess, so cute, so fresh, hate on me, I know I’m blessed,” the aspiring spitter was a glowing bright spot to the candidly somber series.

Seeing her own viral performance only enhanced her ambitions as a rapper. “It was awesome, and I knew right then and there I was gonna be famous,” says the preteen debutante. “Everybody was gonna love that song.”

Since her father’s incarceration, the third grader, who earns straight A’s and has plans to go to college and play basketball, began to focus on a career in hip-hop. “I think what really happened with her, with the rapping, I think she has been very stressed,” says Boosie’s mother, Connie Hatch. “She is like her father. When something is not going right, he’ll go in the studio and rap, trying to get everything off his chest.”

Furthering her musical therapy, Ivyana shot a video for her first single, “Daughter of a King and a Queen,” this past March and is currently building material for a full-length album. Watching her granddaughter enter the hip-hop arena is like déjà vu for Mama Hatch. “She reminds me of [Boosie] 95 percent,” says Ms. Hatch. “She’s the type of person that works very hard. She doesn’t give up.”

Better believe it. — C. Vernon Coleman II

To watch Lil Boosie's daughter kick a verse, click here.

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