According to Spin magazine, Velez was born in 1967 in Hell\'s Kitchen in New York City as the youngest of ten to a religious mother, who supported the family by babysitting, and an absentee father. Of Puerto Rican descent, Velez learned to speak Spanish at home and English in school. She sang in her church choir, at the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, along with her six sisters, and was an A student at Julia Richman High School in Manhattan. In school she was also part of a traveling singing group that sang Motown hits and songs from old Broadway musicals.\n', '

Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam was founded when Velez successfully auditioned for the Brooklyn production team Full Force. She met drummer Mike Hughes at Funhouse, a Manhattan underage club that she frequented to be discovered. She described the atmosphere as, "a young place, no liquor served in that place at all, so I kinda liked it. I used to dance a lot, but I was always aware of where I was turning, so I would watch and find out who\'s who, where\'s where." Hughes spotted her, finding her attractive and asked her to audition for the production team. She took the subway to a house in Brooklyn, her first trip to the borough, without her protective older brother, who was to later become her bodyguard.\n', '

With Hughes and Alex "Spanador" Moseley, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam recorded their debut single, "I Wonder If I Take You Home," soon after forming in 1985, releasing it as an independent single. The group quickly signed to Columbia Records, which re-released the single, and it climbed into the R&B top ten in the US and the top 20 in the UK. The group amassed a number of hit songs throughout the 1980s.\n', '

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