Telee Gaulden Before the Grammy nominations. Before the chart numbers. Before the streaming records. Before Kentrell DeSean Gaulden became the artist the whole country calls NBA YoungBoy an older sister was singing in church pews in Baton Rouge, learning what emotion sounds like before she ever owned a microphone. Her name is Telee Gaulden. And she has been building something nobody saw coming.
Bio Table
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Kendriaa Gaulden (stage name: Simply TeeLee / Telee Gaulden) |
| Date of Birth | January 15, 1997 |
| Age (2026) | 29 years old |
| Birthplace | Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA |
| Nationality | American |
| Zodiac Sign | Capricorn |
| Eye Color | Dark brown |
| Hair | Dark brown/black, worn in varying styles |
| Build | Slim |
| Mother | Sherhonda Gaulden (comedian, entrepreneur, Instagram personality) |
| Father | Kentrell Gaulden Sr. (incarcerated; largely absent from her upbringing) |
| Siblings | Kentrell Jr. (NBA YoungBoy), Bway Yungy (rapper), Ken Gaulden |
| Birth Order | Eldest of the Gaulden siblings |
| Son | Rylie (Instagram: @rylielu) |
| Relationship Status | Single mother (confirmed via social media) |
| Profession | Singer, songwriter, model, social media influencer |
| Artist Name | Simply TeeLee / Simply Teelee |
| Debut Single | “Dying Inside” (2019) |
| Second Single | “Bad Guy” (2022) |
| Brother Collabs | “Who They Want” and “On My Side” (features with NBA YoungBoy) |
| @simplyteelee_ — 340,000+ followers | |
| Music Platforms | Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube |
| Key Influence | Beyoncé |
| Early Music Training | Church choirs and local funeral services |
| Fashion Work | Models for local Baton Rouge fashion brands |
| Net Worth (est.) | ~$1 million |
| Notable Incident | December 2022 — publicly called out a fan stalking her brother’s home via Instagram |
Baton Rouge Didn’t Give Her an Easy Start
Some cities build you soft and cities that build you hard. Baton Rouge, Louisiana, tends to build you hard. Its music scene is real and raw. Its streets carry weight. And the Gaulden household specifically was not the kind of environment where you grew up without understanding what difficulty meant from an early age.
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Telee was born on January 15, 1997 the first child of Sherhonda Gaulden, who would go on to build her own following as a stand-up comedian, Instagram personality, and entrepreneur. Sherhonda had three children in total: Telee first, then Kentrell who would one day become one of the most-streamed rappers in America and younger siblings Bway Yungy and Ken, both of whom also went into music.
The father, Kentrell Gaulden Sr., was not a stabilizing presence. NBA YoungBoy himself has spoken publicly about his father confirming in music and interviews that Kentrell Sr. was sentenced to 55 years in prison for armed robbery. Telee was approximately ten years old at the time. The weight of that absence settled on the family. Sherhonda worked as a cashier at an Exxon Mobile station from 2008 to 2011 to keep the household moving. The children were raised between their mother and grandmother, learning early what it meant to be resilient when the adults the world promised you turned out not to be there.
Telee, as the eldest, absorbed something specific from that dynamic: responsibility. She was not just a child navigating a hard world she was also a child watching out for younger siblings in the middle of it.
Did you know that before Telee Gaulden ever stepped near a recording studio, her entire musical education happened inside church walls and at funeral services in Baton Rouge?
That is where she first understood what her voice could do. Not on a stage. Not for applause. In rooms where people were grieving or worshipping, where the emotional stakes of a performance could not be faked. That training singing for people who needed to feel something real created a vocalist with a foundation most pop artists never develop.
Growing Up Inside a Musical Family That Had No Blueprint
The Gaulden family did not produce one artist. It produced several. Sherhonda Gaulden performs stand-up comedy and has released musical content of her own. NBA YoungBoy became a streaming phenomenon with a catalog that has shattered records for continuous chart presence. Bway Yungy is carving his path in hip-hop. Ken Gaulden moves in the same creative direction.
Telee sits at the top of all of that not in fame, not yet, but in birth order and in the particular weight that comes with being the one who was there first. She watched Kentrell transform from a kid in Baton Rouge into a figure the entire music industry had to reckon with. She was not competing with that. She was witnessing it from the inside.
What she was doing quietly during those years was developing her own sound a sound rooted in R&B and soul, emotionally direct, lyrically honest, influenced by the vocal architecture of Beyoncé, who Telee has consistently named as her primary artistic inspiration. The church foundation gave her power. Beyoncé gave her ambition. Baton Rouge gave her material.
By the time she released anything publicly, she was not a teenager chasing her brother’s spotlight. She was a woman in her twenties who had been developing her craft for years in silence.
Dying Inside” — The Debut Nobody Predicted
In 2019, Telee Gaulden dropped her first solo single under the name Simply TeeLee. It was called “Dying Inside.” And it was not a safe debut. It was not a radio-friendly introduction designed to ease fans in. It was raw emotionally exposed, lyrically vulnerable, built around the kind of personal honesty that takes years of living to produce. The vocal delivery was soulful in the most traditional sense of that word: it came from somewhere real.
Listeners who found it responded not just to the song but to the person behind it. Here was someone from a family already known for its emotional directness. YoungBoy’s music is famously personal and unfiltered and Telee brought that same quality to a completely different genre. No bravado. No rap armor. Just a voice and a truth.
Did you know that “Dying Inside” arrived before Telee had ever publicly collaborated with her famous brother meaning her first public impression was built entirely on her own work, with no borrowed platform?
That matters more than people give it credit for. The easiest path available to her was to debut as a feature on a YoungBoy track, let his audience discover her, and build from that borrowed attention. She did not do that. She released her music first. The collaborations came later, driven partly by fans demanding the sibling chemistry they wanted to hear.
Bad Guy” and the Evolution Nobody Expected
Three years passed between “Dying Inside” and the follow-up. That gap was not silence it was construction.
In January 2022, Telee released “Bad Guy.” The distance between that song and her debut tells you exactly who she had become in the intervening years. Where “Dying Inside” opened with vulnerability, “Bad Guy” arrived with attitude. Confident. Swagger-forward. The kind of track that announces a shift in identity rather than a continuation of one.
The production choices changed. The posture changed. The storytelling remained personal but the emotional register moved from pain into something more assertive a woman who had processed her experiences and come back with energy, not just expression.
After “Bad Guy” dropped and attention around it built, fans across YoungBoy’s enormous audience pushed loudly for a collaboration. They got two. Telee appeared on “Who They Want” and “On My Side” both NBA YoungBoy tracks that let the Gaulden sibling chemistry unfold publicly for the first time. Her R&B vocals woven against her brother’s Louisiana rap delivery created exactly the kind of contrast that makes music memorable. It was not a gimmick. It was two people from the same household finding that their different artistic choices, when placed next to each other, actually worked.
The December 2022 Moment That Showed Her Backbone
Fame even adjacent fame attracts its complications. In December 2022, Telee Gaulden did something that most celebrity-adjacent figures would avoid: she posted a photograph to her Instagram of an unknown woman standing outside NBA YoungBoy’s home, called her out directly for the stalking behavior, and addressed it publicly without hesitation or drama.
No vague statement. No management-speak. A photograph and a call-out. That moment revealed something essential about who Telee is someone who protects her family without apology and without the cushioning that fame usually demands from women in entertainment. She saw a threat to her brother’s privacy and she addressed it on her own terms, in her own voice, in the way that made sense to her. It was, in its own small way, a declaration of presence. Not the artistic kind. The personal kind.
Social Media — Present, Selective, Purposeful
Telee Gaulden operates under the handle @simplyteelee_ on Instagram, where she has built a following exceeding 340,000 people. She is also available on Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube under variations of the Simply TeeLee artist name.
What her social media presence communicates is something carefully balanced. She posts. She shares. She documents. But there is a clear editorial sense to what appears. Music promotion. Fashion content she models for local Baton Rouge brands, which is its own kind of hometown loyalty. Moments with her son Rylie, whose own Instagram account (@rylielu) gives fans a window without surrendering privacy entirely. Family content, often featuring Sherhonda, who has built a significant following in her own right.
What you will not find is manufactured drama. No public feuds. No performative transparency. No content designed purely to generate controversy. The December 2022 stalker post was an exception a moment where public action served a genuine purpose. The rest of Telee’s digital life is notably measured.
Did you know that despite her family’s proximity to one of the most-discussed figures in current rap, Telee’s Instagram feed reads more like a creative professional’s portfolio than a celebrity gossip feed?
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She uses the platform the way it was theoretically designed to be used: to share work, connect with fans who care about the work, and document a life rather than perform one.
Motherhood, Modeling, and the Balancing Act
Telee Gaulden is a single mother. She has confirmed this across her social media platforms, and the identity of her son Rylie’s father has remained private consistent with how she handles most personal matters.
Rylie is, by all available evidence, the central organizing fact of her life outside music. She raises him in Baton Rouge. She documents moments of motherhood on social media with the same thoughtfulness she brings to everything else visible enough to be real, private enough to be protected.
Alongside music and motherhood, she maintains fashion partnerships with local Baton Rouge designers and brands. That work modeling regional fashion rather than chasing national campaigns is another expression of her deliberate rootedness. She could theoretically leverage her brother’s platform to pursue bigger endorsement opportunities. She operates locally instead. Intentionally.
The combination artist, mother, model, family protector, hometown loyalist describes someone who has made choices rather than just chasing whatever visibility offered itself.
FAQs
1. Who is Telee Gaulden?
She is an American singer, songwriter, model, and social media personality from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Born on January 15, 1997, she is the eldest sibling of rapper NBA YoungBoy and is building an independent music career under the artist name Simply TeeLee.
2. What is Telee Gaulden’s real name?
Her real name is Kendriaa Gaulden. She performs and presents publicly as Telee Gaulden or Simply TeeLee / Simply Teelee across music platforms.
3. How old is Telee Gaulden?
As of 2026, she is 29 years old. She was born on January 15, 1997, making her zodiac sign Capricorn.
4. Is Telee Gaulden NBA YoungBoy’s sister or mother?
She is his older sister, not his mother. This is one of the most common points of confusion online. Their mother is Sherhonda Gaulden, who is a comedian and entrepreneur. Telee and Kentrell (NBA YoungBoy) are siblings.
5. What music has Telee Gaulden released?
Her debut single “Dying Inside” came out in 2019. Her second solo release “Bad Guy” followed in 2022. She also appeared as a featured artist on NBA YoungBoy’s tracks “Who They Want” and “On My Side.”
6. Where can you listen to Telee Gaulden’s music?
Her music is available on Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube under the names Simply TeeLee and Simply Teelee.
7. Who are Telee Gaulden’s siblings?
She is the eldest of four. Her siblings include Kentrell Gaulden Jr. (NBA YoungBoy), Bway Yungy (an emerging rapper), and Ken Gaulden. All three brothers are involved in music to varying degrees.
8. Who is Telee Gaulden’s mother?
Sherhonda Gaulden stand-up comedian, Instagram personality with over 80,000 followers, entrepreneur, and recording artist in her own right. She has been publicly supportive of all her children’s careers.
9. Does Telee Gaulden have children?
Yes. She has one son named Rylie, who has his own Instagram account at @rylielu. Telee has confirmed on social media that she is a single mother.
10. What was the December 2022 incident?
In December 2022, Telee posted a photograph to her Instagram showing an unidentified woman lurking outside NBA YoungBoy’s home. She publicly called the woman out for stalking behavior. The post was direct and unambiguous consistent with how Telee handles threats to her family.
Final Words
The Gaulden family story gets told with Kentrell at the center. That makes sense. His numbers are staggering. His story is operatic arrests, releases, a dozen children, chart records, legal battles, a rabid global fanbase. The machinery of fame built itself around him with remarkable speed.
But somewhere at the edges of that story, usually introduced in a single sentence as “his older sister,” is a woman who was singing before he was recording. Who stood in churches and funeral homes, finding out what her voice could carry. Who released an emotionally brutal debut single without borrowing her brother’s platform. Who called out a stalker on the internet with more composure than most celebrity publicists would allow. Who raises her son in the city that shaped them both, models for the local designers, and keeps making music on her own timeline.
Telee Gaulden is not waiting to be discovered through someone else’s fame. She is building something adjacent to it, at her own pace, in her own voice. And that kind of quiet, deliberate construction is usually what lasts.