By the time the youthful “Yea Yea” rapper Star Bandz turns 17 on March 28, she will become one of the hottest young newcomers from Chicago. Throughout 2024, she toured high schools from her native South Suburbs to the inner city, leading to the release of her debut mixtape Estrella. Even at an early age, thanks to her upbringing from her mom, Anna Deleon, she’s fully aware of her responsibility with her growing platform. And she embraces the power that comes with it.

“I embrace a lot. It means a lot to me to be a powerful woman at only 16  because I got people that look up to me. I'm a leader. I don't ever try to follow up after anybody. I just be myself, but I'm a good influence,” said Star.

Through her attacking, cocky lyricism with minimal cursing in her music, Star aims to be a different kind of voice for Gen Z. She stands within a rap industry she feels lacks good role models for teens her age and younger. She takes being a positive figure for young girls so seriously, knowing that kids she makes music for are just as impressionable as she was when she was a fan.

“I feel like it's not a lot of good influences in the rap industry, especially my age. I'm 16, I make good music. A lot of people listen to my music and little kids look up to me by the way I carry myself, the way I talk, [and] the way I act. I know personally because when I was growing up listening to certain music by my favorite artists I would want to be just like them because they inspired me. So I know I inspire little kids just because of the way I carry myself,” she said.

“She's a very good, positive role model to the kids and she not twerking and telling the kids to go do X, Y, and Z. She telling them to spin the block when someone tries you, but she ain’t telling you to be no hoe though (laughs),” said Anna.

Anna, 36, raised Star and her brother in Sauk Village in the South Suburban area of Chicagoland. Before rap took off, she attended Bloom Trail High School and transferred to Bloom Township High School. As Star was raised around other hard-working women in her family, such as her grandmother and aunt, Anna made it a point to expose Star to as many cultural experiences as possible. She also raised her kids on firm discipline and structure, from cleaning the house regularly to the sounds of classic Motown to playing organized sports. 

Coming from a long tradition of motivated Black women who often made miracles from nothing, Star’s work ethic has been directly influenced by this tradition to this day.

“The women I grew up around, they all just grinders. Like my grandma. Ever since I was little, she worked a job. My mama always made a way for us especially when we didn't have it, she always made sure we had it. She always found the way. So that definitely showed me that I could find a way and just like, gave me a grind mentality,” said Star.

Her mom and aunt who always “kept it a buck” with her gave Star the most important advice she used to carve her lane in rap ferociously: always to be herself.

“[My aunt] always told me I was gonna be a star. My mom always told me I was going to be a star. Everybody knew I was going to be a star. People always tell me all the time to just be myself. I know being myself can make me go a long way, for sure. So I would say the best advice I got was to just be myself and to have fun doing what I'm doing,” said Star.

Anna and Star’s love for all kinds of music was a bonding tool for them as Anna recalled them enjoying everything from Gwen Stefani and Taylor Swift to Youngboy Never Broke Again (NBA Youngboy). She discovered Star’s love for hip-hop when Anna would hear her repeat her favorite songs on the radio. Enjoying her talent at covering rap songs, she would post Star’s rapping on her Snapchat for her followers. But on one fateful day as Anna and Star were in New York, a friend she used to work with saw one of her videos and proclaimed that when they came home to Chicago, she would take her to record in a professional studio.

“We came back in town. He took her to the studio and she just recorded her favorite song by NBA Youngboy. When you played it for people, people thought that was her song. People’s kids had to tell them ‘You know that’s NBA Youngboy right’,” said Anna..

While Star credits the controversial Baton Rouge rapper as, ironically, one of her main rap influences, she cites girlhood influence Baby Kaely, who became a viral rap sweetheart at the age of 8, as someone who “unintentionally” influenced her to want to rap at the age of 12.

As she made music and performed across Chicago while building her name in the hip-hop scene, Star started to realize her power and influence when fans of all ages came to her and told her how much she inspired them to pursue their dreams. Whether she met them during a show or at a meet-and-greet, Star says that even some of her family members have shared with her how much her journey has inspired them. 

One person Star influenced was her late friend Christian, whom she refers to as her “brother.” Before his passing in November, she recalls him always telling her how watching her rise impacted his life.

“Before that, literally, he always used to tell me ‘You inspire me, I want to be like you’ and stuff like that. I told a lot of people around me that's older than me, who still trying to figure out life anything is possible. I make them notice that because I'm probably the youngest out of the pack, for real, I'm only 16, and everybody else around me is probably 19 and up. I just know that I show a lot of people around me that a lot of stuff is possible, especially dreams,” said Star.

Star wants to pass on her family's advice to other young people who aspire to make their mark in life: to be yourself.

“Be yourself, be you, and just stay consistent. Believe in yourself.  Have a high self-esteem. Just believe in yourself and all that, and just have something to strive for like family or things and that nature,” said Star.