When Amil recorded her verse for Jay Z‘s “Can I Get A…,” she did not know it would become a hit that would also jumpstart her career.
“It [all] took off from there,” Amil says in an interview with Billboard. “He was looking for a female to say the verse and that’s where I came in at. Jay had already wrote ‘Can I Get A…’ before I got it. I wrote my rhymes around it…Whenever me and Jay recorded it was a natural thing. It was always smooth. The way we sounded together, it was a good chemistry…Jay had respect for my talent – writing and my voice – nothing more. Jay gave me the opportunity of a lifetime, and what I did with it was my own decision. That was my brother. There was never a relationship between me and Jay or anyone over there. He was like a brother. He was very protective over [me]. I’m never going to lose any love for Jay.”
Despite some success with Jay Z and Roc-A-Fella, Amil says she wasn’t fully invested in her Rap career.
“I wasn’t there mentally,” Amil says. “I was in my own world. Was I prepared? No. Did I realize what was happening right before my eyes? No…I started to rebel. I rebelled against the industry because it’s not what I wanted. I hated traveling. I wasn’t at afterparties or the club. Also, at the time my son’s asthma, [who was] 5 [or] 6-years-old at the time, was getting worse and no one was there for him. I had to be there for him.”
Her son was important to her and she says her career took a backseat, as evidenced by some of her choices.
“I didn’t think about the legalities of a lot of things,” she says. “I never cared about the contracts. I could have been signing my life away… I was not a businesswoman at that time. I didn’t have a manager or the things that most artists have. I didn’t put my all into it. I didn’t give 100 percent of myself. I felt like it just wasn’t for me. That’s when I started rebelling. I started rebelling because I wanted out. It was easier for me to slip away. I faded myself. No one faded me. And, that’s when everything seemed to go left. I think they [Roc-A-Fella] knew through my actions that I wasn’t in it. I wasn’t the artist that was doing everything be No. 1. I wasn’t doing anything to make myself bigger than what I was. I wasn’t putting any effort in promotion. I wasn’t looking at it as a career. It’s not that I wasn’t doing it because I was stupid. It was because I didn’t want to be there anymore….There was never a conversation. He [Jay Z] knew that that’s not where I wanted to be. I told him that I couldn’t do it for another year. I think he understood, overall. He thought that as time went on I’d be ready, but later realized I wasn’t. I know he knew, ‘She don’t give a fuck about this shit.’ I was fine being an around-the-way rapper. If I could go back in time and do it all over again, I wouldn’t have allowed myself to jump in the game. If I would have did it again, I would have left it alone. I wasn’t cut out for it. I probably would have stepped in as a writer.”
Nevertheless, Amil is preparing the release of her upcoming mixtape, A Moment In Life, set to be released late spring or early summer. Amil says the tape is “a lot of R&B” and that she feels it’s reminiscent to music from the 1990s.
“I’m doing a lot of songs off ’90s beats and collaborating with 90s artists (Havoc, JT Money, Killah Priest). You’ll hear a much mature Amil.”
In 2007, Amil spoke with HipHopDX about her relationship with Jay Z. “Me and Jay never had bad blood,” she said at the time. “There was never any beef between me and Jay.”
Amil was interviewed by Billboard as part of the publication’s Ladies First: 31 Female Rappers Who Changed Hip-Hop article. Yo Yo, MC Lyte, Rah Digga, Gangsta Boo, Lil Mama, Ms. Jade, Angel Haze and Charli Baltimore have also been included in the series.
RELATED: Where The Hell Have You Been?: Amil [Feature]
I bet her pussy smell like roses
That’s bull shit because at concerts they would say Amil gone on her do it again hook
I’d leave her pussy mangled jack!
LOLZ….
I wonder what hiphopdx.com has up their sleeve for April Fools.
Fuck these niggas talkin bout she look like a man
Ain’t no one saying that but you. Just come out the closet already, breh, we need you.
Great to see a has been bitch admitting no one fucked her over but herself.
She had a big forehead, no hips and was knocked kneed worse than Jennifer Hudson lol.
You focus on flaws is obsessive.
Your focus on flaws is obsessive.
Great interview. Honestly one of the best hip hop interviews in a long time. No fluffer just straightforward. Reflective and respective. I wonder how the mixtape will sound .. I wish her the best of luck and hopefully this is the real her.. Grown woman thoughts.
So nobody looked after her son? I wonder who looked after him when she recorded and traveled. “If she had to do it again..she wouldn’t have got in the game” ok..then why is she doing a mix tape now? she’s apparently down and out and thinks somebody gives a shit about her one verse years ago. I understand children come first, and the fact that she could have done more for her son.. by parlaying her opportunities at the right time. And not knowing contracts and all that sounds like a lame excuse. Sounds to me like she wasn’t ready to grow up..now she’s older and broke.
She’s allways been a beautiful sexy woman to me i could wife her
she looks like a fuckin man
love to Amil…..
google NOBODY CARES RIV
Killah Priest from Sunz of Man Wife
too late bitch. you missed your only chance
Never a relationship but guaranteed she sucked his pythonn
This was her one shot at stardom and because her kid had asthma she wasn’t motivated? lol Get him an inhaler at CVS and get back to work.
You’re an idiot.
I remember reading somewhere Jay and Dame weren’t too happy about her dating Killah Priest and since she wouldn’t let him go they let HER go. Rocafella was hating on the Clan big time back then
You gotta respect a woman blaming no one but herself in an era where rappers are blaming everything from their record label to their own mama for their failure. From reading the comments here, I say 98% HHDX readers are simply morons. All hey do is talk shit trying to be funny at someone’s expense, when in reality they themselves haven’t accomplished a fraction of what those they clown have. Sad little pathetic nobodies.
Amil didn’t want to play the game.. the game is a dirty one in the industry… thank goodness she didn’t sell out for fame and fortune.. what is fame and fortune and is it worth the horrible things you have to do to obtain it?