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IN THE TRADITION OF FELLOW FLORIDA FEMCEES TRINA AND KHIA, NEWCOMER LADY IS PUSHING HER OWN BRAND OF RAUNCHY “FEMALE EMPOWERMENT” RHYMES. How did you link up with Plies and Big Gates Records? I’ve been rapping a long time but I had stopped doing it for a while. I was just getting back into rapping and posted some videos on YouTube. I did a remix to [Yo Gotti’s] “Five Star Chick” and Gates ran across the link to the video on Twitter. He hit me up and we went from there. A couple years ago, people were lamenting the lack of female rappers in the game. Then, of course, Nicki Minaj came along and blew up. Right. I think she opened a lot of doors for females in Hip Hop. People weren’t used to females in the game because you didn’t really have too many, so now it’s cool for a chick to rap. At the time it was hard, but Nicki opened a lot of doors and they’re accepting females now. Females in the rap game are usually even more competitive than the men, going as far back as Lil Kim vs. Foxy Brown. Then you’ve had rappers like Khia come along and seem to not get along with anybody. Are you on good terms with other female rappers or are you approaching it from a competitive standpoint? I’m positive, I’m not competitive. I think we need unity. With the male rappers, you know, there’s enough money for everybody. I don’t have any problems but I haven’t really spoken to many other female rappers. I do think friendly competition is good, but no beef. I’m not with the beef; I don’t do that. Do you write your own lyrics? Yeah, I write all my lyrics. Your topics are still very sexual. Of course some rap is known for having misogynistic lyrics from a man’s perspective. With “Yankin’” and some of your similar records, are you trying to flip the script from a woman’s perspective? Right. I am. If a dude can do it then a female can do it too, but a lot of people don’t like that. When a guy does it, it’s cool, but when a female does it, it’s wrong. With “Yankin’” I had all kinds of negative remarks when it first
came out, but after it went viral on the internet, more people began to accept it. That’s really my brand now. Along the same lines, when it comes to the visuals, are you trying to flip things around? Female empowerment, of course. It’s all about the females and degrading the guys. No love for them. No love for the guys? Damn. So what do you have coming up in 2012 as far as new music? I just released a mixtape called Bout That Life at the end of 2011, so I’m about to do a crazy amount of videos. I’m trying to shoot a video for every song. I’m writing and working on the next mixtape, but I’m not sure when it’ll be dropping. Do you have anything coming up for All Star weekend? I’ll be hanging out with Plies. I’m not doing any shows but I might do a meet and greet at Plies’ car show. What made you decide to go with Lady for your rap name? At the time when [Gates] hit me up I was Lady Pit, like a pitbull. It’s actually tatted on my arm. We decided to drop the Pit and just keep the Lady. Are you under a major label situation right now or just going through Big Gates Records? Well I’m just under Gates and I’m not really looking for a major label. I’m hoping to build my buzz up first. I wanna do it independent for a while before I go with a major. What male rapper would be your dream collabo? Maybe Jeezy. I would work with Jeezy, or Boosie. But unfortunately the Boosie collabo might be tough to pull off at the moment. // Website: ThisIsLady.com Twitter: @ThisIsLady Youtube: ThisIsLady Facebook: ThisIsLady
OZONE MAG // 19