Ivanna Alexandra Martinez (born April 8, 2001), known professionally as Lexa Gates, is a singer, songwriter, rapper, and producer hailing from Astoria, Queens, New York City. Growing up, Lexa’s mother enrolled her into singing and piano classes. She later looked to her hometown for inspiration, particularly fellow Astoria artists Austin Babbit and Father Steve, whose work showed her color, playfulness, and a fearlessness toward the unfamiliar.

I know they’re visual artists, but I just love how they’re super colorful. They’re very true to themselves. They make authentic stuff. And they’re from fucking Astoria, which is… crazy to me because I feel like nobody’s from Astoria.

Lexa began releasing music on SoundCloud in 2018 after her boyfriend at the time, who was taking music classes nearby, introduced her to the idea of making music at home.

He kind of just showed me that you could just buy a microphone and make music at home. I didn’t know that.

“Angel” was her first song to gain significant attention after a popular TikToker shared a video of themself singing along to it. The song reached nearly half a million streams within a few months. It was inspired by The Divine Feminine by Mac Miller and “Whoopy” by Westside Gunn.

After her 2023 track “Angel,” Lexa gained more traction with “Stacy’s Chips” in April 2024 and “I Just Can’t Be Alone” featuring producer Billy Lemos in July 2024. Both tracks performed well, each surpassing 2 million streams.

A few months after “I Just Can’t Be Alone,” Lexa released her debut album, Elite Vessel, on October 18, 2024. To promote Elite Vessel, she locked herself inside a transparent glass box in Union Square, New York. Elite Vessel further highlighte her lyricism and her ability to blend pop and rap, with her clearly showing through this piece of work that she was going for a more robust sound.

She continued releasing singles through mid-to-late 2025, including “Latency,” “Past It,”, and “Nothing To Worry About.” These tracks helped shape the rollout for her next major-label album, I Am. The cover art for “Nothing To Worry About” also served as a teaser for the project.

Lexa officially announced I Am on December 8, 2025, with a release date set for January 16, 2026.

Similar to her Elite Vessel stunt in 2024, she used another unusual promotion strategy for I Am. On January 15, 2026, she walked for 10 hours straight on a custom-built, human-scale “hamster wheel” at the Jeffrey Deitch gallery in New York City.

I Am further solidified Lexa’s blend of pop and rap, using primarily sample-driven production to add depth and texture to her sound.

With I Am, Lexa Gates built more momentum in the pop-rap scene, standing out for her distinctive sound, sharp delivery, and interesting approach to promotion, with primarily positive feedback being shown across the internet.