First rule of interviewing Remy Ma in 2007: no questions about her present attempted murder case.

Even coming close to the case will get you interrupted by a watchdog of a publicist. The reality is, Remy Ma stands accused of shooting her former friend Makeda Barnes-Joseph for stealing $3,000 on July 14 after a N.Y. party. The Bronx native has fervently denied the accusations, which includes gun charges, but must contend with a skeptical world that may have already passed judgment based on mainstream media reports.

Second rule: never forget the first rule.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. In 2006, when her debut Remy: Based On A True Story dropped many felt like her destiny finally matured into what her mentor Christopher “Big Pun” Rios intended. She had already been on hit records from the likes of M.O.P. (“Ante Up” remix) and Fat Joe’s Terror Squad (“Lean Back”). The landscape for female emcees was a commercial wasteland and Rem stood like a cactus. She appeared on Hot 97’s summer jam stage and later in the summer AllHipHop Week 2006’s grand finale concert, among many other highlights like Grammy nods and BET Awards. Based On A True Story was met with acclaim, but the SoundScan sales were disappointing. Rumors. Then the fallout with Fat Joe. More rumors.

Right now, Remy is in the middle of the biggest “rumor” of her 26-year-old life, one that the state of New York and her alleged victim hope to make a legal reality. Whether or not she will be convicted of attempted murder will be decided through the United States legal process and until then, Remy has decided to live her life as an emcee. With the weight of her case, she has opted to keep working on her music with the recent release of The BX Files and controversial mixtape/DVD Shesus Khryst. From her home recording studio, the self-proclaimed Queen of New York, speaks on her life, her grievances, former friends, former enemies and and all that goes into her present True Story.

Third rule: Let Remy speak.

AllHipHop.com: So how are you?

Remy Ma: I’m good. I’m working.

AllHipHop.com: What are you working on?

Remy Ma: Right now I’m working on my album and my next mixtape. The mixtape is called Blasremy; the album is called PUNISHher. I’m working with my speakers and my tweeters right now; I just blew a speaker. I don’t know how I keep doing that s**t. I gotta buy better speakers. I’m in my basement.

AllHipHop.com: So you have a home studio?

Remy Ma: Yeah. I learned how to record; I recorded “Fresh” by myself. Then I took it to the studio and mixed it.

AllHipHop.com: Are you looking for a major label?

Remy Ma: It’s all in the air. I’m talking, but I have to be me. I have to own the masters; the deal has to be what I want.

AllHipHop.com: There’s been controversy with this Shesus Khryst mixtape with Superstar Jay. Care to respond to it?

Remy Ma: First of all, in no way, shape or form is that me trying to show some blasphemy. What people tend to forget is this is en-ter-tain-ment, for the last time! It has stickers on it that say “Parental Advisory;” this is not real. Do you know how many movies I’ve watched from The Prophecy to The Omen to The Passion of Christ – it’s entertainment. Relax. People take everything way too seriously. I personally feel like I’m the BX, the Bronx Savior. That’s where Hip-Hop started. I also feel like the media wants to crucify me; I’ve taken so much punishment. That’s me. It’s a new me, a new day – people are just runnin’ out the window with it, but people ain’t sayin’, “She don’t spit that fire,” so I’m good.

AllHipHop.com: What do you mean “a new me?”

Remy Ma: For a long time I was down with another crew [The Terror Squad]. I was underneath other artists/label owners. I just never felt like I could do what I wanted to do, even though I had the potential. A lot of people didn’t want to work or do business with me because of what I affiliated myself with. From assistants to managers too; I had never even seen a phone bill that I paid for. It’s a new day, a new person. I’m so focused. This has been since January, December.

AllHipHop.com: Do you hear the protests?

Remy Ma: I try to stay off the hater-net. I don’t know. I do check my Paypal, and the sales from my mixtapes look right.

AllHipHop.com: You don’t check blogs and stuff like that?

Remy Ma: If I checked the blogs, I’d go crazy. I [access the Internet] through my Sidekick. It’s a group alert, and anytime my name pops up on the Internet, it automatically comes through my phone. But if I see somebody said something, I’m gonna want to say something, ‘cause that’s the type of person I am. I can’t just bite my tongue.

AllHipHop.com: One such example of publicity involving you through the Internet concerned Vivica A. Fox. What was that really about?

Remy Ma: Okay. First of all, my swagger is too up to try to go anywhere. I read that in the newspapers [that] we were at a party, fighting. I had an invitation to the party weeks before – RSVP’d weeks before; they already knew what it was. I did like 25 minutes; I couldn’t get off the red carpet.  There were so many pictures, questions, all that, ‘cause that was the first time people had seen me out at a big event since everything with the case. Something personal with the owner of the club [happened], I guess, because with my case, he didn’t want me in the club. Vivica was not talkin’. It was her publicist. Tops, we couldn’t have been in there even 15 minutes – ‘cause it was a quick red party, go in, walk around thing so I could make it to Swizz Beatz party [that same night] on time. It wasn’t like I was pressed; I was just in that same club a month before at Zab Judah’s party, buying nothing but pink Moet and bottles of Remy Martin.

I figure all club owners know each other. He was probably related to the same owner of the little bar or club or whatever people claim whatever happened in. That’s the only thing I can think of. The only thing that upset me was a week ago, I RSVP’d to a personal invitation that I got. And I was nothin’ but cute.

AllHipHop.com: You don’t have the blonde streak in your hair anymore. Is that part of the new Remy too?

Remy Ma: At this point, it’s a new album, new look. That was the “Terror Era.” This is the new me. I made my mark. Halle Barry got her style, Mary [J. Blige] has hers, and I have mine. Remy Ma, all day.

AllHipHop.com: Why did you diss Fat Joe again, now, after things seemed to be over?

Remy Ma: [Laughs] When did I diss him the first time?

AllHipHop.com: On “Weatherman.”

Remy Ma: [Laughs] Yo. Nothing you see with him…everything is for fake. If y’all seen the type of roadblocks and blockades he tried to put in my career behind the scenes, and then saying, “We love her. We wish her [well]…” After that, the papers that he sent through his lawyer, never answering his phone. How am I dissing [him]? I’m speaking the truth. I’m supposed to be quiet? It is what it is. I’m telling the truth. If I’m lying, stop me. I don’t want to be a liar.

He never put me on, he never picked my beats. [He] ain’t Pun. [He] didn’t put me on his album with my own song. Whatever! It’s nothin’. The only album of his that went platinum or double platinum, I’m on that s**t like seven times. Whatever he did for me, I did for him. He ain’t write my rhymes. He never gave me no crazy checks, Everybody [in Terror Squad] is sayin’ the same s**t [that I am].

AllHipHop.com: A lot of people would like to see you on G-Unit. Is it true that according to your contract, that you cannot go there?

Remy Ma: [To her publicist] Can we give them a little excerpt of the contract?

[Publicist: do we really want to do that?]

Remy Ma: Why not? Who cares? It’s legally there. I’m sure if you go on some website, you’ll find it anyway. He has the government names of everybody even remotely affiliated with G-Unit in there.

AllHipHop.com: What happened to the all female super group?

Remy Ma: I personally think n***as happened, man. Me and Jackie, that’s my B-I, all day, my sister, and always will be. I haven’t spoken to Shawnna in a minute, but that’s my sister too. She chose a deal through DTP that prevented her from…I felt like we would have been able to get around that contract, but in the end, nothing panned me. I’m still doing me, J’s doing her, and whenever Shawnna wants to holler, that’s my b***h. It is what it is. In this business, you’ve got to take chances and be on top of your s**t.

AllHipHop.com: How do you feel about Foxy Brown's recent situation, knowing you two had your tense moments in the past?

Remy Ma: She's in jail, and I swear, I feel sorry for her! That's crazy. Get her the f**k out! [She's in there] for some dumb s**t. People fight, people throw things, and every f**kin' thing, people blow [stuff] out of proportion. Just yesterday I got an email about Lil' Wayne throwing money in the crowd and a girl getting hit in the head, are y'all serious? It's crazy! I was on Rikers Island, that s**t is disgustin'! F**k being a rapper, females period -- every female in New York needs to send a f**kin' letter, being that they're lockin' people up for suspended licenses and all that, write to the mayor, the governor, the place is disgustin', the food is disgustin', the place is dirty, filthy, nasty -- women are in there pregnant! She's sick right now, sick.

When I had to be there, waitin', I was sick. If I'm not mistaken, she had to be there on her birthday? What? That's crazy! It's [only] 'cause she's in the newspaper, it's a high-profile case, and the judge and DA don't want to seem lenient. Be fair! F**k being lenient. Do you know how many people I know who get community service for doing crazy s**t? Oh, you're gonna put somebody in jail to prove what? So you look good? Everybody wants a TV show, everybody wants to be famous.

AllHipHop.com: This isn't happening to Paris Hilton or Nicole Ritchie...

Remy Ma: That's California. This is New York. Her, Linday Lohan, they're not Black; they're not rappers. It's crazy how people make examples out of Foxy and [Lil'] Kim.

AllHipHop.com: I know we can’t talk details, but what’s your state of mind been like since everything?

Remy Ma: People see me smiling on red carpets, and what they tend to forget is that this is my job. I have to do that. This is how I make money. Do you think I want to be at parties? I didn’t want to be at parties when I was at parties. This is what I have to do; I have to make music. Anybody that knows me, knows me: I ain’t no stupid chick – never was, never will be. I’m very intelligent.

AllHipHop.com: A certain highly sexual voicemail leaked on the Internet of you…it was supposedly a skit for PUNISHher...

Remy Ma: First of all, I would never make the mistake of leaving a voicemail on the wrong person’s number. Voice messages like that, you’re gonna listen to a few times before you send something like that through (so it wasn’t an accident). Somebody hacked into somebody’s voicemail, and whatever - It ended up being a skit. Who cares? Who gives a f**k? I’ve done worse s**t than that on beats. Did anybody hear the “Everyday I’m F**kin’ Him?” Who cares? I don’t care.

AllHipHop.com: Who was the message for?

Remy Ma: [Sarcastically laughing] That’s not gonna happen.

AllHipHop.com: [Laughing] Ok, you’re not giving the people what they need right now. Any final words?

Remy Ma: The PUNISHher album is crazy. I ain’t got nothin’ to do till then, so I’m doing the BlasRemy mixtape.  I’m the Queen of New York. I’m the best. [Laughs]