Vel Nine

Vel the Wonder (born Alyssa Romo, March 25, 1989) is a rapper from Baldwin Park, California and based out of Los Angeles who gained a substantial social and internet following first posting a few incomplete verses uploaded on Soundcloud before she stepped in front of the cameras and introduced the world to her soothingly consistent delivery reminiscent of Bahamadia and Guru. Without even having an established stage name, Vel's life changed one shoot in 2012. A half-dozen women ready to showcase their rhymes assembled on a rooftop overlooking Los Angeles for The Cypher Effect YouTube series. She has since released a number of albums, most recently 2020's Trophy Wife and 2022's Freakjet. Her song "Mija," off her album La Sena Ave, was featured on the Netflix original series Blockbuster and is a song dedicated to herself from the perspective of her loving father. Vel's down-to-earth demeanor about her life as a rapper these days owes, in part, to how unlikely the path seemed, even with growing up in a musical family where classic '90s hip-hop proved to be a ubiquitous soundtrack. "I had no desire to make music," she says of her younger days. Her father used to DJ with a party crew back in the day, but had to sell his equipment when he helped bring her into the world. "He always says that it came back to him through me."