Lebra Jolie—rapper, storyteller, and recently signed Interscope artist—isn't doing subtlety right now. She's doing declaration, and the whole project behind it, her latest album Better Than Yesterday, is the fullest statement she's ever made. "The inspiration behind BTY is me reintroducing myself to fans," she says. "Giving new fans a little bit about me while allowing all the memories of the past to remind me of who I am today."
That reintroduction didn't come easy. Jolie has been candid in her Better Than Yesterday docuseries about the weight she's carried—growing up in poverty, time spent in shelters, building a work ethic out of necessity when no real safety net existed. Getting all of that into a record meant going somewhere she hadn't fully gone before. "I had to get comfortable telling my story," she says. "I had to get comfortable being transparent. Through it, it's been therapy tho." For an artist who started writing poetry as a kid and has spent years grinding her way into the conversation single by single, this album represents a different kind of risk: not just putting out music, but putting herself inside it.
The sessions themselves had a clear compass. Jolie's manager came in with a directive—take people to Houston, but in her way—and they made it physical. "We used a white board with HOUSTON SHIT written on it," she explains. "So as producers came in the studio we'd show them the white board with Houston shit that meant something to me. We had direction and stayed in that." There's something almost old-school about that approach, a vibe enforced in real time, a reminder nailed to the wall. You can hear it in in the album which knocks with the kind of conviction that doesn't come from a reference track. It comes from actually having something to say.
And what she wants people to take away from all of it isn't complicated, even if the road to get here was. "Whatever it is that you've been through, you can make it," Jolie says. "If it didn't kill you it'll make you stronger. And it's ok to cry. It's ok to feel away. But it's not ok to give up. Through it all, if you keep moving it'll be better than yesterday." She's not pitching the album as a rap record or a healing record or a Houston record—it's all three, and she's excited about every single song on it. Ask her which track she's most ready for fans to hear and she doesn't hesitate for a second: "ALL OF EM!"
As for what's ahead, Jolie sounds like someone with the throttle down and no plans to ease up. "Plans for the rest of 2026 and beyond is to keep applying pressure on these huzz!" she says. "To keep making my wins more than my losses. Making my losses lessons. And to keep the blessings flowing. It's only up from here!" Her ask to listeners is just as direct: "Go listen, stream, download, support and tell a friend to tell a friend to tell a friend. I worked hard on this project and it's a really good one!" Hard to argue with that.
Better Than Yesterday is out now, listen on Spotify.
Photo Credit: Jordan Perez
