K.Flay

Hip-Hop

Kristine Meredith Flaherty (born June 30, 1985), better known as K.Flay, is an American singer, songwriter, and rapper. Her debut album Life as a Dog was released in 2014, peaking on Billboard's Heatseekers Albums chart at No. 2 and Billboard's Rap Albums chart at No. 14. In 2016, she signed with Interscope Records as the first artist signed to Dan Reynolds' Night Street Records imprint. She was nominated for two awards at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards: Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical (for Every Where Is Some Where), and Best Rock Song (for Blood in the Cut). .Flay was born Kristine Meredith Flaherty in Wilmette, Illinois, on June 30, 1985. She attended nearby New Trier High School. When she was seven, her parents divorced and her mother remarried soon after, bringing in a stepbrother and a stepsister. When she was 14 years old, her biological father—a guitarist who loved all musical genres—died of undisclosed causes related to his alcoholism; many of her songs include references to him. Flaherty's stepfather helped raise her and later adopted her. She has described herself as a tomboy during childhood, preferring baggier clothing and rejecting all things girly. In 2003, she enrolled at Stanford University, pursuing a double major in psychology and sociology. According to Flaherty, many people she met during her time at Stanford influenced her musical style. K.Flay began her music career in 2003, believing that most hip-hop hits on the radio were simplistic, misogy...