b. Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA. Perez apparently spent her teenage years dealing drugs and boxing. Prior to her US success in 2003 with "Angel" and the album of the same name, the writer, producer, rapper and singer took part in underground boxing matches, where she would famously fight against men. Perez also readily admits to selling drugs to help her family. Nevertheless, despite the apparent pose of thuggery, Perez take on hip-hop, R&B and pop ballads seems curiously sentimental and saccharine. On her hit single she sings "I asked God/God sent me an angel/From the heavens above/Sent me an angel/To heal my broken heart/From being in love/'Cause all I do is cry". The title track of the album was written in memory of both an errant lover and her cousin, who Perez cites as a major personal/musical influence but who died of heart failure when he was 31. Although Perez had been in bands since the age of 11 (her uncles and cousins were in a local group the Sombra Chicana USA, who had a large following on the Latin/Tejano scene and Perez accompanied the group as the Sombra Chicana Chiquitos), Perez's route to a recording contract is nevertheless the stuff of dreams: an A&R had visited Perez's Indiana home-town to sign a rock band. After the deal failed to materialise, the A&R asked his hotel's receptionist for the name of the town's hot talent. The clerk passed the A&R a copy of her sister-in-law's demo tape. "Angel" was first released on Where You At? in 2002, but yielded only muted success until the album was repackaged and released as Angel, a year later. Perplexingly I Pray, the following year, contained another two recordings of "Angel".
DISCOGRAPHY: Where You At? re-released as Angel (Universal/Powerhouse 2002)***, I Pray (Powerhouse 2004)**.

Encyclopedia of Popular Music
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