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.