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Published on April 16th, 2017 | by Jameelah "Just Jay" Wilkerson

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Who Is Apollo Night LA ‘Artist of the Week’ Mz.007?

Apollo Night LA (@ApolloNightLA) “Artist of the Week” Mz.007 (@mz007musiccomes from an music family with a GRAMMY nominated brother BUT she’s standing out all by her lonesome. Her music has even inspired a music video created by fans and landed on the Perez Hilton blog…Pretty serious stuff for an unsigned artist…

Mz.007 answered a few questions for us as she continues her climb through the ranks earning every rung she ascends.

From the outside looking in, who is Mz.007? 

Fat, fly, fabulous and confident. I didn’t start off that way, though. It has truly been a journey. Those who have known me before I started rapping say they’ve watched me grow from a church girl—insecure, with low self-esteem—into a person who loves herself inside and out. I was bullied by the kids at my school. I actually wanted to kill myself. One time, I wrote a suicide note and everything. I went from feeling invisible to the world to feeling so happy that now when you Google “I’m Important” my face pops up! I really just want to be an example to every girl in the world. It doesn’t matter what you look like, where you’re from or what you’ve been through. You can be whatever you want to be!

What brought you to the entertainment industry, music specifically? 

I grew up around music singing in church with my father, as well as my brother, Marlin “Hookman” Bonds (@Hookmantv). He is a Grammy-nominated, BMI Award-winning, Sony ATV producer/songwriter. He is my biggest influence for wanting to get into music. I woke up to him playing jazz trumpet every morning of my childhood life…it inspired me to be musical in some way. I remember the first time I recorded a song that I wrote to one of my brother’s original beats. He was patient with me. He recorded the whole thing and said, “I don’t think singing is your thing. The lyrics and melody you wrote are dope, so you might have a career in music, you just have to figure out what it is.” After that, I never sang again. However, the singing turned to poetry, and the poetry turned to raps!

Tell us about your current project and your ApolloNightLA “Artist of the Week” winning single ——.

First off, I want to thank Apollo Night LA for having me! That night was super dope. I won the “Artist of the Week” with “Important,” the viral song and video my brother Hookman and I released. He produces all of my beats. That song literally changed my life. It got me featured on Perez Hilton, Hot97.com, Bossip, Jezebel and other huge blogs. Then it got picked up by Southwest Airlines in a nationwide commercial called “Upgrade To Awesome!” The music video actually got us a TV Show deal with Fishbowl Media/WEtv. That show didn’t work out, but now we have new offers on the table. It has literally been crazy! Little by little this song just keeps opening doors. We have crazy new music for my project to drop and we are going to re-release “Important” with it. In the meantime, my brother just dropped his single called “God Got Me” that features me and another STL rapper named King (@okkinghere). It’s a dope song that talks about resilience in the black community. You have to see the video!

For new listeners, what song of yours would you pick as an introduction to you?

One of my new songs called, “Myself.” This is my “F” the world record. I really believe I don’t have a deal because I’m fat lol. I literally have had record label execs say things like, “You don’t look like any female artist selling records right now.” My brother and I think that’s a good thing, though. That’s what makes me unique. I’m fat, I rap, and I actually got bars. So when you hear “Myself” you will hear some of that struggle of realizing my talent and pushing through even when others didn’t get it.

Last but not least, HYPE wants to know…What’s your CRAZIEST “Where they do that at?!” moment..

I’ve had a bunch! One of my CRAZIEST “Where they do that at?!” moments is when I had my first show in New York. It was like 2am at a huge gay club. A plus-size dance crew made a YouTube video dancing to my song “Important,” and I invited them to the club. My brother knew I invited them, but he did not know that I’d planned for them to hop on stage with me at a certain point during my show. He arranged my show disc in a way that let me get the crowd hyped before “Important” dropped. The stage was in the middle of the crowd so the girls from the plus-size dance crew just blended in. When “Important” came on, they jumped out of the audience onto the stage with me and the whole club went crazy! The audience knew all the lyrics to my songs. It was emotional because for the first time in my life I felt like I made it! When it was over I thought my brother would be mad because if it didn’t work out, it would have been a disaster. He was surprised and actually impressed!

Thank you Hype Magazine for featuring me! This is a huge honor and a blessing!

About Mz. 007

Shannon Bonds is letting everybody know that confidence has a number: 007. That’s “Mz. 007” as Bonds is known in the music world and to her exponentially increasing fan base. Representing St. Louis, MO, Shannon Bonds’ viral hit “Important” continues its upward spiral on the Internet. A self-proclaimed “Fat Fly Chick,” Bonds uses her lyrical prowess to encourage plus-size women to love and accept themselves, and to discourage bullying and body shaming in society.

Featured on the popular celebrity news blog, Perez Hilton.com, Bonds was deemed by Hilton as “the Meghan Trainor of Hip Hop” and cited “Important” as an “Instant Anthem” and “self-worth jam.” Celebrity blog Jezebel.com praised Bonds’ message as a “self-love lesson that even Iyanla Vanzant could learn from.” It comes as no surprise that Mz. 007 was featured in online celebrity magazine Bossip.com, where she discussed how she’s heating up the Internet with the hashtag, #ConfidenceGoals. “Important” was also featured in the national Southwest Airlines commercial “Upgrade to Awesome.”

It’s that very confidence and undeniable talent that attracted the attention of top New York hip-hop radio station, Hot 97. The station spotlighted Mz. 007’s team-up with A$AP Ferg and Crystal Caines for an energetic track titled “Now,” as well as the rapidly spiking number of views of her video, “Important.” Not to mention her unabashed acceptance of herself.

A plus-size girl from a very young age, Shannon Bonds was no stranger to the challenges of growing up and to the ongoing sting of bullying. Her life took a major turn when her best friend Rachel suddenly died. Bonds used poetry as a way to express her feelings about losing her friend, and the turmoil she faced as an overweight teen. “My poetry was my escape,” says Bonds.

After seeing her hard work and dedication, her older brother Marlin “Hookman” Bonds – a BMI award winning, Grammy-nominated, Sony ATV songwriter/producer, and a respected veteran in the music business – was inspired to sign Mz. 007 to his production company, Team Music Group. He featured the rising star on his recent hit single “God Got Me,” as well as rapper King (@okkinghere), another Team Music Group member. The song and the video is a celebration of the resilience, unity, and ever-emerging diversity in the African-American community.

Mz.007 is currently recording new music, touring her latest releases, featuring in movies, developing a reality TV show and designing her own plus-size clothing line.


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