Shawntae Harris better known as Da Brat, is an American rapper and actress. Her debut album, Funkdafied

Funkdafied

Funkdafied is the debut album by female rapper Da Brat. It was released in 1994 and sold over one million copies, making her the first solo female rapper to go platinum...

, sold one million copies, making her the first female rapper to have a platinum-selling album

Music recording sales certification

Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...

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Harris was born and raised in Joliet, Illinois

Joliet, Illinois

Joliet is a city in Will and Kendall Counties in the U.S. state of Illinois, located southwest of Chicago. It is the county seat of Will County. As of the 2010 census, the city was the fourth-most populated in Illinois, with a population of 147,433. It continues to be Illinois' fastest growing...

. Her parents were never married and Harris was subsequently raised in two different households. She lived part of the time with her mother and grandmother, and had attended a strict Pentecostal church four times a week, where she played drums and sang in the choir.