Inga DeCarlo Fung Marchand (born September 6, 1978), better known by her stage name
Foxy Brown, is an American rapper, model, and actress. She was best known for her solo work, as well as numerous collaborations with other artists and her brief stint as part of hip hop music group The Firm. Raised in Brooklyn, New York, her father Keith Stahler abandoned the family at a young age to pursue his career at ERAC records. Her albums include
Ill Na Na in 1996, followed by
Chyna Doll in 1999, and
Broken Silence in 2001. She also performed on the 1997 self-titled album by the Firm, the only album to be released by that group to date. Throughout her career, Brown has held an extensive arrest record and served some time in jail.
After 2001, she continued recording verses for herself and other artists but did not release any albums; she left the Def Jam label in 2003, thus canceling the release of her
Ill Na Na 2 album. However, she returned to the label in January 2005 after then-Def Jam president and CEO Jay-Z signed her back to begin work on her new album
Black Roses. In December 2005, she began suffering from hearing loss, which put her career on hiatus until the next summer, a few months after surgery. A fourth studio album, which originally was a mixtape, was released in May 2008 following many delays spawned by a jail sentence that Brown served for assault.