GirlzLuhDev

GirlzLuhDev is a rapper, singer, ex-basketball star, and—quite possibly—America's next great hitmaker. The 17-year-old high school senior and artist from California’s Inland Empire is a year into making music but has already landed a viral hit, the raunchy but blissed out “Tooka.” He parlays youthful energy into a bright blend of bars, warbled melodies, and ad libs that sounds like smack talk beamed down from a distant planet. It’s sun-baked West Coast street rap meets the wonky charm of a kid with nothing to lose.

Dev was born in Inglewood amid tragedy—his father was shot and killed in a liquor store while his mother was pregnant with him—but as a kid he found diversion and direction in sports. He has fond memories of playing pickup basketball in Rogers Park and football for the Inglewood Jets. As he grew up, he spent hours on Vine and Musical.ly. He started talking to girls. And though he was a dynamic point guard—being groomed by his coaches for a future pro career well into high school—a new obsession crept in: rap, from young artistic outliers like his first musical love Lil Uzi Vert to established style-blenders like Drake, Future, and Chris Brown.

Sophomore year, Dev was cut from the JV basketball team for missing a game. But that loss would lead to Dev freestyling. Naturally, he kept making videos then he decided to make full songs which eventually lead to “Tooka.” It was a West Coast slapper, plain and simple, and it got Dev signed to Capitol Records this year.