The spirit of local pride colors every corner of the city we call the Big Easy. Musicians, artists, creatives and visionaries take this feeling of pride and run with it. And the city’s rising hip-hop stars are no exception. Born and raised in the Lower Ninth, GG Pender left New Orleans at a young age after Katrina– but now she’s back and ready to take on the town’s evolving scene.

Rekindling the old flame of connection to her roots, GG holds up her single “UNO (Only in New Orleans) ” as a local anthem. The music video, released in May 2017, has since garnered over 200,000 views on Facebook. The video fills the scene with a full-sensory collage of the sights, sounds and people who define everyday life here. Calling it “a mixture of New Orleans culture and a 90s vibe”, GG pans through shots of everyday life in the neighborhood, jazz bands playing in the French Quarter, small parties with friends and family, all the while dancing her way through the streets she calls home.

A sultry alto, GG Pender’s voice exudes a familiar warmth as she sings through UNO, a loud and proud proclamation of her love for this town. She describes her sound as “a combination of Gospel and 90s R&B melodies with a positive message,” fusing together the old and the new in a way that’s uniquely GG. She’s an ambitious young artist, and says that after years of moving around, she’s finally reading to make her mark on her old stomping grounds, stating: “Life brought me back home… I realized there is no other city like New Orleans.”

Her single “UNO” is available for streaming on Spotify, Soundcloud, and iTunes. You can watch the music video below: