At age 12, her family moved to Torrance, California, where she lived for two years and attended Calle Mayor Middle School.
[5] Her first release in the music world was a collaboration on DS455's single "Summer Paradise: Risin' To Tha Sun, feat.
Two weeks later, Aoyama was featured on the hit single "Koko ni Iru yo" with fellow J-Soul artist SoulJa.
"Soba ni Iru ne" stayed in the Top 5 ranking for 7 consecutive weeks.
It became the highest-selling female single (strictly a duet song) on the Oricon 2008 yearly charts.
: Thelma Love Song Collection, which debuted at the number-one position on the Oricon weekly charts.
Aoyama collaborated with Big Bang's Taeyang for her single, "Fall in Love", released on 27 January 2010.
In 2010, she sang with the Taiwan pop group Da Mouth in a duet with the female lead singer Aisa, on the song "Secret Life".
Launching her own independent label, she revealed the title of her eighth studio album, Easy Mode.
Born part Afro-Trinidadian and Japanese, Aoyama has expressed her experiences of racism and discrimination in both Japan and the United States.
[13] Following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, she shared a series of posts on social media regarding her support for the Black Lives Matter movement.