The road to success was a long, difficult path for Maliibu Miitch. The 26-year-old rapper from The Bronx previously signed two major label deals: once as a solo act with Ruff Ryders at the age of 19, and again as a member of the duo Maliibu N Helene with Island Def Jam at 23. While those deals didn't work out, she's learned from her past experiences and pushed forward. 2017 has become her most successful year as an artist.

With a delivery and tone reminiscent of Lil’ Kim and Foxy Brown, Maliibu's records such as “4AM" and her remix of Kim's "Crush On You" have earned her popularity and shine. This girl knows how to rap. Now with momentum her side, she's working on an EP and a mixtape for 2018. Things are finally happening for Maliibu—the way she wants.

“I’ve been in basically two deals now," she reveals to XXL while in the New York office. "I’m just happy. I waited my whole career for this to happen, for artists to know my name. I have Kehlani liking my pictures [on Instagram]. K. Michelle reached out to me. I have a song with Chris Brown, I have a song with Ty Dolla $ign and Jeremih and even more stuff that’s coming out. I waited my whole life to be embraced by artists and now I’m getting that."

Get to know more about Maliibu Miitch here for The Break.

Name: Maliibu Miitch

Age: 26

Hometown: North Carolina-born, The Bronx-bred

I grew up listening to: "When I was younger I used to listen to mad NSYNC and Backstreet Boys and shit like that. When I got into middle school I started listening to rap. The first person I ever listened to was 50 Cent and that’s still my favorite rapper still to this day. I was 19 when I first started making music. My best friend at the time, she was a rapper, she been a rapper since she was young. She did a freestyle to Gucci Mane’s 'Wasted' and I was like, I want to try. I did it and she was like, 'Call me back,' and I did. She gassed me up and it was a go from there.

"I started taking things seriously probably when I was 23 when I got signed to Island Def Jam. That’s when I was in a girl group. I took it serious because they were paying me. But actually taking it seriously and liking the craft and wanting to get better, when I laid down 'Crush On You.' I didn’t actually want to be a rapper, I wanted to model. I recently took it serious.

"Before I didn’t like how I rapped. My voice is smaller. It’s not that I didn’t like it, it’s just that I wanted guys to be able to fuck with my music too. I used to use my high voice to rap and I felt like guys didn’t like it because I was saying some real shit but my voice was so high-pitched. So I felt like guys can’t listen to it. But when I made 'Crush On You,' I made my tone a little deeper and from there I fell in love with it."

My style’s been compared to: "I would say hip-hop. My sound is very hip-hop, not modern day hip-hop or mumble rap. What you would think of if you were in the 1990s and early 2000s, very hip-hop. I’m blunt in your face, I say what I feel and I mean it. I’m very unapologetic too. I never had a filter and I like to put that in my raps. That’s what I got when I was younger listen to hip-hop. That’s what I got from 50 Cent, the whole G-Unit camp. It was just, if in going to say something in my raps, I mean that shit and I’m not going to go back and apologize for it."

Most people don’t know: "I’m actually very conservative. I don’t seem like it and I have a big ass mouth but in my spare time I just be in the house. I like to be around my mom and around my nephews; I’m very family-oriented. I’m really a homebody and people would never think that. I rather smoke my blunt, be in the house and watch Netflix."

My standout moment to date: "I’ve been working with Yung Berg. I love all my songs but there’s this one song. He hasn’t sent it to me yet, but in the first verse I was talking about my older sister. My relationship with my older sister is very rocky. In the second verse I was talking about my best friend that got me into rapping. Me and her are no longer friends. That song was basically about them. It sound like I was talking about a guy but it's about them. That song has my heart. It was real personal and I don’t ever talk about my sister on a song."

My goal in hip-hop is: "I want to get my mom a big ass crib. Everything my mom has went through, [rapping] is not for me to shit on people. I want all the people that talk smack to her, I want her to shit on them. Her coworkers that talk shit, my dad, I want her to shit on my father so bad [laughs]."

I’m going to be the next: "A Lauryn Hill and like, I don’t ever want to be someone’s role model because I do shit sometimes that I don’t want people to look up to me for. But I want to be role model for people who said, 'If you don’t graduate, you’re going to be a loser.' I never graduated high school, I never went back to get a GED. All the underdogs of the world, I want people to look at me and say, 'She did it, I can do it because I’ve been through some shit.'

"I’ve got my ass beat, I have got jumped a million times, I’ve been through shootouts, I went to Rikers Island, got sent Down South cause I was buggin’ and wilding. A lot of things. I should not be here right now. I want people to look and say if she can deadass do that shit, I can. I want people to live their life through me."

Follow Maliibu Miitch on Twitter and SoundCloud.

Standouts: "The Count"

"Gwapamole"

"Crush On You"

"4 AM"

"Gotta Get You Home With Me"

See New Music Releases for December 2017

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