I was taught from a young age that many people would treat me as a second-class citizen because I was African-American and because I was female.

What would your life be like if you found out you had 3 weeks left? And you know that you had not begun to live? And you had all these dreams and all these possibilities. And all these things you wanted to do and things you wanted to say and now time's up?

Award shows, like the Grammys, were tough on us early in hip-hop, not even televising our categories or splitting them up on best male or female or any of that. We had to earn them.

So often, you don't get that opportunity. You only go over everything once and, the next thing you know, you're on set.

I want to see 10 female rappers getting regular rotation. It can't be all about a man's opinion.

I'm probably proudest of being able to lift a lot of us out of the 'hood. That's the biggest thing, that I've been able to employ a lot of people and give them opportunities.

To me, doing a gay pride show is one of the most fun things. My first show that paid more than $10,000 was in a gay club on New Year’s Eve in San Francisco.