Tina Pinnock moved from the sun-splashed island of Jamaica to the Boogie Down Bronx with her family when she was 12 years old, but getting used to New York’s grittier, DIY climate was not without its challenges. “Growing up in America was harder,” she recalls. Raised in a strict God-fearing household, Tina persevered fueling her can-do attitude and ability to fuse her deep Jamaican roots with New York’s infectious hip hop culture that branded her irresistible sound and reinvigorated the dancehall genre.

Music was always a part of her life, but it was her formative years working at a clothing store on Fordham Road in the Bronx where she would first turn heads. The charismatic newcomer made the most of her time there by honing her magical sense of style with impromptu freestyle riffs that dazzled friends and store patrons, alike. After posting one of these performances to her Instagram account, her good friend Cardi B reposted the clip, and a star was born! She was known as Hoodcelebrityy, a moniker she also took from her days as a shop girl. “I was always dressing people, giving you the flyest gear,” she recalls. One day her manager noticed how popular she was with his clientele. “Yeah, I’m a hood celebrity,” she replied. The name stuck and she soon made it her IG profile. It wasn’t long before it would become her culture-moving calling card, turning out hits like her 2016 street banger “The Takeover,” and her empowering 2017-’18 smash “Walking Trophy,” with tastemakers like The New Yorker hailing her as one of the ‘new global faces of dancehall.”

Flaunting a captivating personal style that has been compared to flamboyant legends like Aaliyah and Left Eye, she plays down comparisons and categorizations. “I don’t wanna be like anybody else. I wanna be myself.” Consider that mission accomplished.