Lady WrayLady WrayLady Wray

In 1997, Nicole Wray signed her first record deal with Missy Elliott, who was at the height of her success as a global chart-topping rapper and had just launched her own label. With Elliott’s backing, Wray’s debut single “Make It Hot” quickly broke into the top 5 of the U.S. charts and earned gold certification within six weeks. Yet this rapid ascent hid the fact that Wray was an insecure teenager, unprepared for the world she had entered. Her journey from being Nicole Wray, a product of the music industry, to becoming Lady Wray, an independent artist, spans nearly two decades. Since 2016, Lady Wray, renowned for her vocal power often compared to Aretha Franklin, has been a key artist at Brooklyn’s Big Crown Records. Her work has played a significant role in shaping the label’s influence on the contemporary retro-soul movement.