[5] Around the ages of 13 or 14, she submitted a song for a competition and won; Reed said that after this experience, she had tried to be more open about her songwriting and allow other people to hear her work.

[1] Lopes created the girl group Blaque, an acronym for Believe, Life, Achieving, Quest, Unity and Everything, as "an outlet" for Reed.

[7][8] The group included singers Shamari Fears and Brandi Williams;[8] Lopes described Reed as the rapper and writer of the trio.

[7] Reed and Fears were school friends,[5][9] and worked together on other music projects including an urban country group.

[9] A Los Angeles Sentinel writer identified Reed as "the sassy MC who gave hits like '808' their punch",[18] while Bruce Britt of BMI characterized her musical style as "brash hip-hop rhymes".

[19] In her 2008 book Pop Princesses, author Beth Peters wrote that Reed's reputation was "notoriously naughty" and "wild, fiery, and feisty".

[8][20][a] Blaque peaked at number 53 on the Billboard 200;[22] on April 10, 2000, the album was certified platinum and had sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide.

"[27] A writer for BET noted the group's music videos had a "futuristic feel",[28] and Reed said: "We're straight out of the year 2080.

[31] Blaque contributed two songs to the film's soundtrack: "As If" and a remix of "Bring It All to Me" featuring verses from rapper 50 Cent.

[34] The same year, she was featured on the hook for her then-fiancée Kurupt's single "It's Over" from his third studio album Space Boogie: Smoke Oddessey,[35][36] and appeared in its music video flirting with him.

[37] Jazmin Perez of Vibe included it as one of the "tracks to watch",[35] though Reed's portion was criticized as childish and incongruent with the rest of the single.

[39] Blaque was featured on the song "Head to the Sky" on Lopes' debut solo album Supernova also released in 2001.

[8] Discussing its release, Reed said that the death of a group member's mother and "technical difficulties" led to the delays.

[45] In a review of Blaque Out, Demetria Lucas of Vibe criticized Reed's verses and vocals as too similar to Lopes and wrote it "makes for monotony".

[47] In the same year, Reed's song "Rock Climber" was featured on the compilation album Dragonfly Presents a Better Life Through Chemistry.

"[6] Despite it not being released, Ernest Hardy of Vibe somehow obtained a copy of Torch and in a review wrote that Reed's raps are "filled with hiccup effects, yeah-yeahs, and nasal phrasing", "lifted" from Lopes, describing the album as "passable, if highly derivative".

[50] In 2004, Blaque contributed the single "I'm Good" to the soundtrack album for the 2003 dance film Honey,[53] and make a cameo appearance as themselves.

[61] The online magazine Bossip reported that Reed was arrested on April 13, 2010, in Gwinnett County on charges of prostitution, disorderly conduct, and cocaine possession; this news was picked up by other outlets.

[6][60] In a 2012 interview, Reed said she waited to pursue a solo career to avoid comparisons with other artists, specifically rapper Nicki Minaj.

[6] Prior to her death, she was working on a solo album, a book, and scripts and hired an acting agent as a means of "revamping her career".

[6] In the fall of 2012, Blaque had started work on an album and reality television show,[12][32] but further information about either project was not released following Reed's death.

[37] Rapper Foxy Brown, Kurupt's former fiancée, dissed Reed on the track "730" from her 2001 album Broken Silence.

[37]Reed became pregnant with Kurupt's child during the recording of Blaque Out; she said that the album's limited release was the result of her pregnancy and the label's uncertainty over the group's future.

[1] Following Lopes' death in an automobile accident in La Ceiba, Honduras, in 2002,[11] Reed was interviewed for a BET Tonight episode about her life.

[75] On October 26, 2012, the driver of a red Honda Accord struck Reed on the Lawrenceville Highway near Hamilton Road north of Lilburn, Georgia.

[80] At the time of her death, Reed was living in the StudioPlus Atlanta Peachtree Corners extended stay hotel in Norcross, Georgia.

[80][81][82] Prior to the service, Reed's parents held a press conference in Atlanta to criticize the police investigation.