Niatia Jessica Kirkland was born in 1989 in Brooklyn, New York and is the eldest daughter of eight children. She was raised in Harlem, New York, from her kindergarten to her eighth grade year. She moved back to Brooklyn and attended Edward R. Murrow High School until her Senior year where she continued her education through independent studies. Lil Mama is a third generation of West African, Trinidadian, and Jamaican descent and the third born child. Being the oldest daughter, she got her nickname "Lil Mama". She has two older brothers and three younger brothers, one of which is also a dancer and underground rapper along with her younger sister and last brother. She has one maternal aunt and several paternal uncles.