Katie Noel

Born as Katie McGalliard in Asheville, North Carolina in 1999, Katie Noel first attracted attention with her countrified spin on trap through early tracks that centered on drinking, cars, and Southern pride. Her rap abilities stood out on singles such as "Diesel Gang" and "Blood Red," yet her mixtapes also contained conventional country material and acoustic adaptations of her rap work.

She launched her online presence in 2017 by posting videos of guitar playing and singing, beginning with an acoustic rendition of Rae Sremmurd's "Black Beetles." Steady uploads followed, mixing country and rap covers with her own originals. A late-2017 remix of Lil Pump's "Gucci Gang," rewritten by Noel with truck-focused lyrics, later received a new instrumental and appeared as her 2018 single "Diesel Gang." The track emerged as a country-rap success, its video drawing millions of streams and launching her career. Later that year she issued the stylistically varied Just Gonna Send It mixtape, moving rapidly between eerie trap numbers, high-energy country-rock cuts, and stripped-down acoustic pieces. Rap the South arrived in 2019 with a stronger rap orientation while retaining its emphasis on backwoods partying and Southern life. She extended the country-rap approach on the 2019 singles "Jeep Gang" and "Blood Red."