Amil: All Money Isn’t Legal Part 2

While Amil’s first album was met with lukewarm reviews, it is generally accepted as a solid first album effort. If not for being on white hot Roc-A-Fella Records at the time, the album may have been met with better reviews. For some unknown reason, Amil has been publicly crucified and hated. Without a bitter bone […]

While Amil’s first album was met with lukewarm

reviews, it is generally accepted as a solid first album effort. If not for

being on white hot Roc-A-Fella Records at the time, the album may have been

met with better reviews. For some unknown reason, Amil has been publicly crucified

and hated. Without a bitter bone in her body, Amil is out to reclaim past glories

with an attitude newer than Patti Labelle’s.

AllHipHop.com: What’s up with you music wise,

obviously some things are going on ?

A: Music wise I’m working on my second album.

My last album it was two tracks on there that I thought was my realest jump

off’s. This album is more on that level, real personal, it’s just realer.

AllHipHop.com: Do you have a title for it yet?

A: I have a title in mind but I’m not sure if

that’s what I’m going to use for this, it’ kind of hot. I

have a deal. It’s independent

AllHipHop.com: Can you say who it is?

A: Bell Ringers. They are former Murder Inc.

producers. They’re backed by Pay Up Ent, which is the management team that handles

Ice-T. I always have people coming to me with papers saying they can do this,

that and the third but when it came down to it nothing jumped off. Something

actually happened with this.

AllHipHop.com: So what are they bringing to the

game as far as your new album?

A: I’m basically in control of the creative

side of it all so I can truly say I have the most control of my project. I can

say that about the last project too as far as my album was concerned. I did

that all by myself. I like it that way, I can never see myself working for a

label that’s telling me which direction to go in.

AllHipHop.com: So you had total control over

your last project as well?

A: I had control as far as my album was concerned.

The songs that I recorded and presented to them they loved and no song I did

was rejected, so it was still all me. I’m

about 7 songs deep and I’m only putting 13 on the album like last time. 13 is

my number.

AllHipHop.com: That’s a bad luck number.

A: That’s what they want you to think It

means Jesus and 12 tribes. I even had my baby boy on the 13th . 13 is my number

and he was born after the album. Of course, with people every time it’s something

positive they going to make something negative out of it and that’s why they

go as far as to skip the 13th floor [in buildings]. Why would they go that far

with it? It aint really a bad luck number, you’re fearing Christ.

AllHipHop.com: On the Kay Slay joint, I only

heard it one time. You mentioned something about your baby. What was that track

all about as far as that was concerned?

A: It was basically explaining how I feel about

the industry. It was also talking about what I went through when people wasn’t

hearing from me. It was just really real, talking about how radio was trying

to sabotage me and people hate me because of one thing that went on. We want

to sell records but at the end of the day you know the children are the ones

that’s really buying your albums. You got them thinking that sh*t’s cool. I

got to think about this realistically ’cause I got kids of my own.

AllHipHop.com: When was your son born, In terms

of your album and stuff?

A: He was just born in March. It’s going to

be a year. I got two boys and they 10 years apart. While all that sh*t was going

on, I had a son. I also want to say before I was pregnant with him, that whole

year before people was saying I was pregnant, but I wasn’t at that time. It’s

like they talked it up.

AllHipHop.com: Yeah, ’cause I had heard a couple

of things, I heard that Jay was the father.

A: Nah, me and Jay never slept with each other.

I never slept with anybody at Roc-a-Fella.

AllHipHop.com: Jay had a lyric in that song that

you had with him?

A: Oh yeah, And I’m having a child which is more

frightening. That didn’t have nothing to do with me. Of course people going

to think that.

AllHipHop.com: I also heard it was Killa Priest?

A: No.

AllHipHop.com: Was there anything going on with

you and Priest?

A: I did deal with Priest for a couple of months.

AllHipHop.com: What’s next for you, it seems

like it’s on the upswing ’cause a lot of people are feeling that Kay Slay joint.

I only heard that one joint from last week and we was all in the car and we

were like damn, this sh*t is really hot. My man [Grouchy Greg] is the biggest

music critic too. He don’t like a lot of sh*t but, he was really on it. So is

this a new Amil that we’re going to see?

A: It’s the same Amil.There was nothing exaggerated

in that freestyle. As a matter of fact I could’ve been a lot more vicious, I

could’ve attacked but I didn’t. People

may not be feeling it ’cause I aint talking about money, cars or killing n#####

and all that on this joint. So I expect y’all not to feel this.

AllHipHop.com: Do you feel like you might have

took some responsibility with your image?

A: That’s exactly what I said in the freestyle.

When I said the stuff about my little cousin thinkin’ she aint hot, I said I

blame myself. I blame myself for that. I said it in the freestyle. It’s like

I got to pay for the times I misled the people.

AllHipHop.com: So what do you think about Hip-Hop

and Rap music now as an industry and what you hear on the radio?

A: I’m glad that we making money and being successful.

You made millions and it’s these little poor black kids that’s buying it, they

spending they last dollar on your sh*t, and you telling these n##### it’s okay

to kill, it’s okay to do this, it’s okay to do that. It’s like we’re drug dealers.

This is the crack game right here, we getting rich off the poor.

AllHipHop.com: What are the topics you going

to talk about on your album? What’s the people going to see and hear this time

around?

A: Just basically I’m going to have my party

joints, you know you got to mix it up. I know what’s really real and the industry

is not going to be the sum total of my life.

AllHipHop.com: So do you have a expected release

date or you just going to finish when you finish?

A: Yeah, I finish when I finish. I

feel like if you an artist and have good material it doesn’t matter when you

put it out. Let me tell you something funny too. When I did it I said to myself

nobody’s going to feel this sh*t. I was wondering if I should even give it to

Slay. Then I said to myself "I’m representing God and this is for the kids,"

and I say it in the rhyme. How can I go wrong? If I lose over this then so be

it. If n##### is like "that sh*t is trash" on the street, so what?

That’s why I said at the very end "as long as I can reach a few, I feel

I owe it to the youth it’s the least I can do." That’s really how I feel

and sure enough that’s the one everybody was feeling.

AllHipHop.com: You going to keep doing joints

like that?

A: When they come to me. I can’t drain them

with it. You know how you got to reach people in a certain way. You can’t be

on no preacher sh*t , you got to do everything the right way and I feel I have

the power to do that. I feel that I can reach people. I want to do something

positive with it, I want to make something positive out of a world that is so

negative. The industry can never love me back , I’m not going to love the industry,

I don’t have love for the game. I’m not going to bust my ass for the game. I’m

not going to do none of that because that sh*t is never going to love me back.

AllHipHop.com: Do you work now?

A: I don’t work, I stay at home with my kids.

That is work though, that’s a lot of work and people don’t understand that it’s

a lot of work.

AllHipHop.com: So how are you raising your kids?

Do they know who you are and what you do?

A: Well, my baby doesn’t. But my oldest son,

yeah. And I know that s### has got to be hard for him sometimes too. Because

he got to hear people talking about his mother all the time. Jay is the man

that, I guess you could say, he looked up to at one time. The same n#### that’s

shittin on your mother, you know what I sayin? And shittin hard too, for no

reason. For no reason.

AllHipHop.com: What’s he’s like, 10 or something?

A: Yeah, 10. He

knows what’s going on.

AllHipHop.com: People forget quick about stuff

like that. That people have families and lives and stuff like that. Does your

son want to rhyme at all?

A: I wouldn’t even encourage that.

AllHipHop.com: Really? It’s too grimy you think?

A: Go to school. Do something that you gonna

have faith in for the long run. Or at least knowledge, or something. Don’t sit

around and think that rap is going to hold you over for the rest of your life.

No. ain’t Nothing good coming out of this rap s###.

AllHipHop.com: Why you do it then?

A: I was brought into the game. You know what

I’m saying? I ain’t have no demo when I got on. I wasn’t trying to get on. These

b###### brought me down into this game. He was like "yo spit". I spit

and next thing you know I’m on. It all happened really fast.

AllHipHop.com: That’s funny. Do you think it

was too easy for you?

A: You know what I think? I think they feel

I got on too easy. Like he just gave me a career. Like he spoon fed me, and

that prolly f##### with them too. Like "she get it and she don’t want to

put her all into it." But you know, don’t let nobody hold you down. Nothing

is impossible. I might not be on top of the game, but that’s because I don’t

want to be. But believe me, if I put my heart in this, it would be over for

any chic tryna come through the door. Cause I would be doing it all. You know

what I am saying? I’m where I am because that’s where I choose to be. People

think, "haha, she got dropped..". Technically, they never dropped

me. They never told me nothing.

AllHipHop.com: Did you ever get down on yourself?

I mean some people would have been really down and depressed…

A: Nah…it was like a relief. I could breathe

again. Because like I said, I wasn’t expecting any of that to happen that fast,

or anything like that. The more I was like I got to do this show, get this money,

do this video, my son was getting sick. He has asthma. And yo, he was going

through it. And it was getting worse and worse. And when you think about it,

its like you taking from the poor. But that’s real right there. But I could

be me again. I mean, I’m picking my son up from school, I’m cooking dinner for

my son. That’s how a mother is supposed to be. Cause when a child think back

to they childhood, you want them to have good memories. Not no f######: "oh

my mother was never there." What’s the point in having kids if your never

there? Nah, that’s important to a child. And my oldest son, his father was killed

in 1995, so I am the only one there for this n####. So nah, it was all a relief!

AllHipHop.com: A lot of people sacrifice that

for the career and stuff…most artist do

A: Yeah, and they’ll say "in the long run…my

kids gonna be straight." But how do you know?? You don’t know what’s going

to happen tomorrow! You could get hit by a f###### car! You child will only

have those memories. And what did you do?? You wasn’t there! And that’s important

to me. So once again I will say that it was a relief. Now, I move at my own

pace. If I don’t feel like getting up to do nothing, and I’m just chillin, that’s

what I’m going to do. If you’re really happy and not the richest person in the

world, or near rich, then I think that you did something right in life. God

is really looking out for me. I know you probably thinking I am mentioning God

a lot, but before the game, that’s who I was.

AllHipHop.com: So you don’t have any revenge

in you?

A: Nah… I can’t waist energy like that. He

takes care of all that.