Kid Sister is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. Her discography consists of albums, tracks, mixtapes, and extended plays like Ultraviolet, Kiss Kiss Kiss, Kiss & Tell, Control, Pro Nails (ft. Kanye West), Right Hand Hi, Get Fresh, Long Way Back, Daydreaming (ft. CeeLo Green), Look Out Weekend (ft. Nina Sky), and Big ‘n Bad.
Born Name
Melisa Young
Nick Name
Kid Sister (Stage Name)
Kid Sister as seen in February 2008
Sun Sign
Cancer
Born Place
Markham, Chicago Suburb, Illinois, United States
Residence
Los Angeles, California, United States
Nationality
Education
She studied in a Catholic school in Chicago until the age of 14. Thereafter, she enrolled in a public school named Rich South High School in Richton Park based in the southern suburb of Chicago where she participated in every extra-curricular activity ranging from the newspaper committee to the school choir.
Upon finishing high school in 1998, Melisa enrolled at the University of Chicago, Illinois after which she acquired a film degree from Colombia College, Missouri.
Occupation
Rapper, Emcee, Singer, Songwriter
Family
Siblings – Josh Young aka J2K / YehMe2 (Younger Brother) (DJ – formerly one half of DJ duo Flosstradamus / Rapper)
Others – Elizabeth De La Piedra (Sister-in-law) (Entrepreneur), Lexington Raymi Young (Niece), Ryder Young (Nephew)
Genre
Hip-hop, R&B, Electronica
Instruments
Vocals
Labels
Fool’s Gold
Downtown
Universal Republic
Build
Average
Height
5 ft 6 in or 168 cm
Weight
60 kg or 132 lbs
Boyfriend / Spouse
Kid Sister has dated –
Alain Macklovitch/A-Trak – Melisa met Alain in the summer of 2006. Mutual interest in the same profession made them seriously consider working together.In the early years of her fame, Melisa confirmed she was dating Alain Macklovitch. It is not confirmed if the couple has parted ways or is still together. In 2014, Melisa revealed in an interview that for two years after she released her mix-tape, Kiss Kiss Kiss (2011), she went through a period of depression because (among a lot of other things) her first and only serious relationship ended after she found out her boyfriend cheated on her with a stripper. She did not disclose the identity of her ex-boyfriend.
Race / Ethnicity
Multiracial
Melisa has half African-American and half Native American ancestry on her father’s side and has European ancestry on her mother’s side.
Hair Color
Black (Natural)
She often tends to dye her hair in shades of blonde, blue and dark brown.
Eye Color
Dark Brown
Sexual Orientation
Straight
Distinctive Features
Her face reflects a unique fusion of African American and Asian features
Long face with high cheekbones
Usually wears vibrant nail art as a part of her style statement
Brand Endorsements
She was a part of the Converse print advertising campaign in 2008.
Best Known For
Her hit single Pro-Nails (2008) featuring Kanye West that won her a nomination for the best female hip-hop artist in the BET Awards (2008)
First Album
Kid Sister released her debut studio album named Ultraviolet on November 17, 2009, through Universal Republic Records and it consists of songs such as Get Fresh, Right Hand Hi, Life on TV, Control, Step (ft. Estelle), 54321, Let Me Bang 2009, Pro Nails (ft. Kanye West), Switch Board (ft. DJ Gant-Man), and You Ain’t Really Down.
The album peaked at number #11 on the US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard) chart and at number #20 on the US Top Rap Albums (Billboard) chart.
First TV Show
She was a part of the crew filming season 1 of a reality show called Starting Over (2003-2004) broadcast on the NBC network.
Personal Trainer
She used to weigh 215 pounds at one point in her life and claims a predisposition towards being ‘thick’. She managed to lose most of her excess weight before landing her big break as a female rapper. Diet and exercise play an important role in her life.
Growing up, Melisa always had a keen interest in musical theater and classical music. She only listened to classical music until the age of 10.
She owes the tomboy side of her personality to lots of male friends in high school and college. Melisa told Complex Women that having plenty of guy friends did not affect her judgment negatively or made her promiscuous. She lost her virginity at the age of 20.
Her stage name, Kid Sister was suggested by her younger brother who thought of it while creating a remix of the Kid Sister Doll advertisement.
Throughout school and college, Melisa got along with everybody and credits her biracial genes for her ability to connect with people of all cultural backgrounds.
In 2003, Melisa suffered a nerve injury that caused part of the muscles in her right hand to atrophy. Since she was right-handed, she urgently needed surgery but she was too old to use her mother’s health insurance. She urgently started looking for a white-collar office job that offered health insurance as part of the pay package, but she couldn’t land any because she did not know MS Excel.
Hence for years, before getting her break as a music artist, Melisa Young had to work in small retail jobs in stores like Victoria’s Secret, Gap, Borders, Bath & Body Works, children’s clothing store, Little Threads alongside other roles such as working in a school for special-needs children and music venues like The Wild Hare and Metro.
Right after graduating, she was working three jobs at the same time – all unrelated to the music industry – and still struggled to pay her bills.
In the music industry, she first started working as an Emcee for Flosstradamus (DJ duo) parties. Her first show was on Halloween (31 October) 2005.
Her debut single was Control (2007).
An EP was released on iTunes which included various remixes of the single along with another single Damn Girl. The EP was withdrawn after Melisa signed a deal with a new record company called Downtown Records in February 2008.
Getting a manicure and painting her nails was the first grown-up thing that Melisa’s mother allowed her to do upon her 8th-grade graduation. Hence, fashionably done nails are a major part of her signature style statement that also inspired her first music video, Pro Nails.
Melisa decided to start rapping after seeing so many other females going for it in Chicago but she disapproves of creating an overtly sexual image to gain attention. According to her, women should rely on their lung power and not their physical assets to get noticed.
The Pro Nails single was initially named Project Pat, but A-Trak was inspired to rename it after regularly seeing Melisa wear crazy nail art.
Melisa attributes a major part of her recovery from depression to Mastin Kipp’s blog, The Daily Love and the intensive programs he organized based on it.
In 2014, she made a comeback with another mixtape named DUSK2DAWN that re-introduced a new stage persona of Melisa. After going through several setbacks in life she said that she did not ‘feel’ like Kid Sister anymore so she created another alter ego named Jane Jupiter.
Melisa described the character of Jane Jupiter as an exalted form of SELF which is the only reliable savior she had in times of adversity.
Featured Image by TRENDSETTER Mark Holiday / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0
