She rose to prominence in the late 1990s alongside fellow Sevillian
hip hop acts such as La Gota Que Colma,
SFDK, and
La Alta Escuela. Her second album,
Alevosía, featured the single, "La Niña". The song gained notability when its controversial music video was banned from Spanish TV because of its depiction of a young female drug dealer. , 2008. In 2008, Rodriguez was invited to join
Julieta Venegas for her MTV Unplugged performance singing the song "
Eres para mí". She performed with Maroon 5, Björk and LMFAO at the Festival Imperial in the Autódromo La Guácima racetrack in Alajuela, Costa Rica in March 2012. In April 2013 she revealed on her Facebook page that her album,
Bruja, would be released on June 18. On September 12, 2013, she went back to Costa Rica. In 2015, Mala Rodriguez was one of the many artists featured on President
Barack Obama’s Summer Spotify playlist.
NPR named one of her earlier singles "Yo Marco El Minuto" as one of the 200 Greatest Songs by 21st Century Women. After a four-year hiatus, Mala released the single "Gitanas" on July 6, 2018.
Pitchfork called her vocals "bold and unflinching, when she boldly asks 'Quién me protege?' ("Who will protect me?") you can almost feel the ground quake beneath her feet. Mala already knows the answer to her question. Without missing a beat, she cries out, "Yo!" ("Me!"), daring anyone to doubt her." In 2019 Rodriguez became the first urban artist to win Spain's National Music Award and was a judge on Spain's
La Voz (
The Voice) leading up to her first album in seven years,
Mala, released in May 2020. Rodriguez released her memoir
Cómo ser Mala in June 2021. ==Discography==