[2] Farris was raised in Bordentown, New Jersey by her single mother, whose side of the family introduced her to the musical acts that shaped and influenced her.

After graduating from Bordentown Regional High in 1987, Farris attended Mercer County Community College, where she studied photography.

Farris decided to move to Atlanta with her then boyfriend Donald "Rasa Don" Jones (one of the early members of Arrested Development), where her father lived.

[4] She signed a management contract with Michael Mauldin's (father of Dupri) company as a solo artist, but later became a member of a girl group they were producing, known as Onyx.

[5] Farris performed "Tennessee" with Arrested Development on the 1992 MTV Movie Awards and The Arsenio Hall Show as well as being invited on the group's first national tour.

A demo sent to Sony Music was first reviewed by Bobby Colomby, then by Randy Jackson (who became known as a judge on American Idol).

On April 8, 1995, she was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, performing "I Know" and a roots acoustic rendition of the Beatles song "Blackbird."

It appeared again as the opening song to the film Ghosts of Mississippi, about the true story of the 1994 trial of Byron De La Beckwith, the white supremacist accused of the 1963 assassination of civil rights activist Medgar Evers.

Farris has a daughter, rapper Baby Tate,[9][10] whose father is former Follow for Now member David Ryan Harris.