Marchand is a Trinidadian-American of Dougla(mixed Afro-Trinidadian and Indo-Trinidadian) and Chinese-Trinidadian descent.^[12] She was born in Brooklyn,^[13] and grew up in its neighborhood of Park Slope alongside her two older brothers. Her parents divorced when she was four, and her family moved in with her maternal grandfather.^[14]She later attended Brooklyn College Academy.^[14]

While still a teenager, Brown won a talent contest in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Members of the production team Trackmasters who were working on LL Cool J's Mr. Smith album were in attendance that night and were impressed enough to invite Brown to rap on "I Shot Ya."^[15] She followed this debut with appearances on several RIAA platinum and gold singles from other artists, including remixes of songs "You're Makin' Me High" by Toni Braxton.^[15] Brown was featured on the soundtrack to the 1996 film The Nutty Professor on the songs "Touch Me, Tease Me" by Case and "Ain't No Nigga" by Jay-Z.^[16] She became an instant sensation due to being very talented and rapping provocatively at such a young age. The immediate success led to a label bidding war at the beginning of 1996, and in March, Def Jam Records won and added the then 17-year-old rapper to its roster.^[15]

In 1996, Brown released her debut album Ill Na Nato strong sales. The album sold over 128,000^[17]copies in the first week, and debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 album charts.^[15] The album was heavily produced by Trackmasters, and featured guest appearances from Jay-Z, Blackstreet, Method Man, and Kid Capri.^[18] The album was platinum and launched two hit singles: "Get Me Home" (featuring Blackstreet) and "I'll Be" (featuring Jay-Z).^[19]

Following the release of Ill Na Na, Brown joined fellow New York-based hip hop artists Nas, AZ, and Cormega (later replaced by Nature) to form the supergroup known as The Firm. The album was released via Aftermath Records and was produced and recorded by the collective team of Dr. Dre, the Trackmasters, and Steve "Commissioner" Stoute, then of Violator Entertainment. An early form of The Firm appeared on "Affirmative Action" from Nas' second album It Was Written. A remix of the song and several group freestyles were on the album Nas, Foxy Brown, AZ, and Nature Present The Firm: The Album.^[20] The album entered the Billboard 200 album chart at No. 1.^[21]

In March 1997, she joined the spring break festivities hosted by MTV in Panama City, Florida, with performers including rapper Snoop Dogg, pop group The Spice Girls, and rock band Stone Temple Pilots.^[22] Later, she joined the Smokin' Grooves tour hosted by the House of Blues with the headlining rap group Cypress Hill, along with other performers like Erykah Badu, The Roots, OutKast, and The Pharcyde, the tour set to begin in Boston, Massachusetts in the summer of 1997.^[23] However, after missing several dates in the tour, she left it.^[24]

Chyna Doll was released in January 1999 and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Album chart,^[25] selling 173,000 copies in its opening week,^[26] making her the second female rapper to accomplish this feat after Lauryn Hill.^[27] However, its sales quickly declined in later weeks.^[28] Chyna Doll has been certified platinum after surpassing one million copies sold in shipments.^[29]

In 2001, Brown released Broken Silence. The first single from the album was "Oh Yeah", which featured her then-boyfriend, Jamaican dancehallartist Spragga Benz.^[30] The track "Na Na Be Like" was produced by Kenya Fame Flames Miller and Nokio from Dru Hill. The song "Candy", which featured guest vocals from Kelis, was never officially released as a single, but was hugely successful on the radio; it managed to chart at 48 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Track Chart and number 10 on the Rap charts". Na Na Be Like" was also on the Blue Streak Soundtrack.

The album debuted on the Billboard Charts at No. 5, selling 130,000 units its first week. Like previous albums, Broken Silence also sold over 500,000 records and was certified gold by the RIAA.

In the same year, Brown recorded a song for the comedy film Rush Hour 2, Blow My Whistle, which is a collaboration with Japanese-American singer-songwriter Hikaru Utada, and was written by Utada with Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo. The song is included on Def Jam's Rush Hour 2 Soundtrack, which peaked the 11th spot on both the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and also the first on the Top Soundtracks. "Blow My Whistle" was produced by The Neptunes.^[31]

In 2002, Brown returned to the music scene with her single "Stylin'", whose remix featured rappers Birdman, her brother Gavin, Loon, and N.O.R.E. It was to be the first single from her upcoming album Ill Na Na 2: The Fever.^[32] The next year, she was featured on DJ Kayslay's single "Too Much for Me" from his Street Sweeper's Volume One Mixtape.^[33] She also appeared on Luther Vandross' final studio album Dance with My Father.^[34] That April, Brown appeared on popular New York radio DJ Wendy Williams' radio show, and revealed the details of her relationships with Lyor Cohen, president of Def Jam Recordings at the time, and Sean "P. Diddy" Combs. Brown accused both of illegally trading her recording masters. She also announced that Cohen had cancelled promotion for her fourth album Ill Na Na 2: The Fever over personal disagreements.^[35]Therefore, "Stylin'" was released on the compilation album The Source Presents: Hip Hop Hits Vol. 6.^[36]

Upon leaving Def Jam Recordings after her disappointment in the cancelled promotion of her studio album Ill Na Na 2: The Fever, Brown began recording in late 2004. Months later, she reunited with Jay-Z, performing dates on the Best of Both Worlds Tour. After signing back to Def Jam under his regime, Brown and Jay-Z began work on Black Roses with production by The Neptunes, Kanye West, Timbaland, Trackmasters, and Dave Kelly. Brown confirmed guest appearances by Barrington Levy, Dido, Luther Vandross, Mos Def, Baby Cham, Spragga Benz, Shyne, Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, KRS-One, Roxanne Shante, and Jay-Z, although it was uncertain whether all would make the final cut for the album.^[37][38]

In November 2004, Brown announced that the title for her upcoming album would be Black Roses, explaining "My best friend Barrington Levyhas a song called "Black Roses." He's been traveling all over the world and never seen a black rose in no other garden. When he found his black rose, he knew that shit was special. Y'all niggas can have all the female rappers in the world, but there's only one black rose. I feel that's me."^[39]Brown also announced that she would be the first artist signed to Jay-Z's upcoming imprint record label S. Carter Records. Rather than launching the imprint, though, Jay-Z became the new president of Def Jam Records, where he signed Brown as one of the first artists on his new roster.^[40] In December 2005, Brown announced she had experienced severe and sudden hearing loss in both ears and she had not heard another person's voice in six months. Brown put Black Roses aside during this time.^[41] In June 2006, Brown said her hearing had been restored through surgery and she was planning to resume recording. Her label did not set a release date, but hoped the album would be out by the end of 2006. They were unsure if the title Black Roses would be kept.^[42]In November 2006, there was speculation that Jay-Z was disappointed in Foxy Brown's "lack of productivity on the album" and was planning to drop her from the Def Jam label. The planned December 2006 release of Black Roses was cancelled.^[40]

On May 22, 2007, Black Hand Entertainment announced a management deal with Brown, with Chaz Williams as her manager. No release date was set for Black Roses, but Brown said the album was nearly complete.^[43] Two days later, a release date of September 6 was announced.^[44] On August 16, Black Hand Entertainment announced that Brown would leave Def Jam to launch an independent record label, Black Rose Entertainment, distributed by Koch Records.^[45][46] The street album Brooklyn's Don Diva, was scheduled with a release date of December 4, but was delayed until the following year.^[45]

Brooklyn's Don Diva was ultimately released as a street album on May 13, 2008, after many delays triggered by her prison sentence. It contains two previously unreleased songs from her shelved album Ill Na Na 2: The Fever. The album peaked at No. 83 on the Billboard 200 chart, No. 8 on the Independent Albums chart, and No. 5 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.^[47]

In January 2011, Brown released the diss track "Massacre",^[48] a response to Lil' Kim's "Black Friday". On August 14, 2012, Foxy appeared as a special featured guest on Nicki Minaj's Pink Friday Tour in New York City.^[49][50] Rapper AZ later hinted in an interview that Brown was working on new material with Minaj.^[51] In August 2018, Brown made her first official guest appearance since 2009 on "Coco Chanel" from Nicki Minaj's fourth studio album Queen.^[52]

According to media sources, Brown is back to work on her upcoming fourth studio album.^[8][10][11] In 2019, Brown remixed Casanova's "So Brooklyn".^[53][54]

In August 2020, Brown reunited with her group The Firm for the song "Full Circle" from Nas' album King's Disease.^[55]