Lady London chose to pursue rap after being accepted into medical school.

While speaking on Revolt’s podcast, “The Blackprint,” the rapper born Zaire Miylaun Stewart reflected on the pivotal moments that led to her transition into music. She boasts two degrees, starting with a bachelor’s from Howard University, where she double-majored in sports medicine and chemistry.

Lady London holds her time at the Historically Black College and University in high regard.

“I was a rambunctious teenager. I went away to school because I was always told I had to go to school..and if I was going to be a part of community it had to be the Black community. So I went to a HBCU. I wanted educational goals but I didn’t think I would come out with so much experience of life. I know there’s like this whole thing where they say like ‘PWIs are the real reality of school because 72% of the world is white. The reality is if you learn how to make it in these communities and at Howard, if you can make it at Howard you can make it anywhere,” she explained to Revolt CEO Detavio Samuels.

Following her time at Howard University, Lady London attended the University of Southern California, where she obtained a master’s degree in global medicine and international health. She initially planned to become a doctor and had been accepted into medical school.

However, she also had a knack for writing and wordplay, which she showcased through her poetry and a book she published between her undergraduate and master’s programs. Her talent for writing, combined with her unique sound, eventually led her to go viral.

“I recorded a video doing poetry right, but the way my voice is, the way that I just articulate myself, it all kind of sounds like rapping even though it’s poetry. No beat, no nothing and I dropped it online, and I closed my phone. I had about 9,500 followers just organically, like those are like my friends whatever, and then I get to where it’s going crazy. This is before like Instagram stories were, before you can do swipes. This is a while ago. So, the video is going viral. It ends up going 8.7 million views viral, and I get a whole bunch of new followers,” she recalled on the podcast.

From there, inquiries began rolling in, including interest from record labels. Lady London decided to take the craft of rap more seriously, which led to some learning curves. She started listening more closely to legends such as Jay-Z and Foxy Brown, drawing inspiration from their sonics. By the winter of 2018, she began going viral more frequently.

While on track to enter medical school, she started to consider the amount of debt she would incur attending school and weighed it against the paid opportunities she was landing through social media.

“I was applying for med school. It was so much going on, getting accepted, but I had so much to pay in tuition,” she explained. “When I thought about the whole thing, once I was done with school I would have over $400,000 to $500,000 in debt right, and as I’m rapping and I’m going viral, brands are reaching out. Like I’m getting paid like at the time very little. It was like, I don’t know, $2,500 to post or something like that, and then I grew it to $10,000 and $15,000 and $20,000, and I’m like this is like for one post on Instagram.”
However, it was not the potential earnings from rap that drew her; what mattered more was her intention to pursue it at the “highest level.”
Evidently, the decision has paid off. She is securing brand deals, including one recently valued at $60,000, and is living out her dreams through the release of her first studio album, “S.O.U.L.” (meaning Signs of Universal Love), in November 2023. She was also featured in the 2023 BET Hip Hop Awards cypher alongside Timbaland, Lola Brooke, Gloss Up, and Bun B.

London was named BET’s Amplified Artist of the Month for January 2024 and, most recently, she launched a music video to her single “My Ting Different.”