Bio
LaForrest "Lala" Cope
Burnin’ up the Billboard charts with four top five songs in two years, LaForrest Cope’s explosive talent has helped launch several careers, most notably, Whitney Houston’s. The fiery “YOU GIVE GOOD LOVE” earned LaForrest (a/k/a LALA), who writes music and lyrics, a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song nomination while giving Whitney her debut #1 hit single. LALA began as a musician and songwriter by co-founding a band with Mic Murphy (The System) and playing the NYC punk scene with their funk rock sound. They both participated in the INCA program under the supervision of
the late distinguished actor, Ossie Davis. LALA sang harmony on “Lover’s Holiday” and “Glow of Love” featuring Luther Vandross for the studio- produced act, Change. She played keyboards and sang with TM Stevens (Bassist for James Brown) as musical director for Stacy Lattisaw, the opening
act for Michael Jackson and his brothers, The Jacksons, on their Victory Tour.
Commissioned by Harry Belafonte, she was featured as the lead vocalist on the “Beat Street” movie soundtrack double-album Atlantic Records’ release, “Into the Night.” Signed by Clive.Davis to Arista Records, she recorded a vocal duet with Jermaine Jackson for the Summer Olympics Album and her first self-named solo effort for the label co-produced by Full Force. She signed to Motown Records in Los Angeles to work on her sophomore record, “LALA Means I Love You,” performing “Always,” the first single was co-produced by Rene Moore and mixed by Bruce Swedien (Quincy Jones).
LALA received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, which allowed her to study piano with Barry Harris (Jazz Mobile) and music composition at the Juilliard School. Numerous awards and chart toppers for other artists such as Melba Moore, Kashif, Stephanie Mills, Teramasa Hino, Glenn Jones, Lenny White, Marcus Miller, Bernard Wright, the Harlem Boys Choir, Christina Aguilera, and Ice Cube have put her in demand as a writer and producer. As an Arista and Motown recording artist, she performed live on domestic and international tours throughout Europe and Asia, as well as, in her hometown of New York City, at Radio City Music Hall and the world-renowned Apollo Theater opening for The Whispers.
Today, LALA is a professional vocal producer/coach, who continues to educate pre-professionals and collaborate with professional recording artists. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and Literary Translation from Queens College of the City University of New York. In 2024, she was inducted into the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. Recently retired as a Professor of English at CUNY, she is enjoying spending time with close friends and caring for family.
LaForrest hopes to make her literary debut next year with SOUL SHAKER: Autobiography of a Song, a hybrid (print-audio-video) memoir based on true experiences in the recording industry. It chronicles the challenges facing women in music, and how the many misconceptions about musical talent diminish the industry's ability to address it effectively. Additionally, she is writing a non-fiction young adult book, Queens, New York: Home of Jamaica Funk. She also plans to publish a collection of her poetry. She is available for private consultation and instruction in essay and research writing for college-level writers. It marks a new beginning of the creative force LALA intends to bring to literary projects and digital music of the future.
