Hip Hop has been introduced to Amanda Diva on many different levels, Def Poet, Sirius Satellite radio personality, tagging and now emcee. Ms. Diva wears perfectionist on her sleeve and needs no one else to motivate her but herself. She has worked very hard to get to this point in her career, although she’s had doubts about making her voice known in a hip hop era that appears to be hooked on rims, sex, and wealth, the First Lady of the Apphiliates has a great supporting cast. When you have a plethora of artists from Q-Tip to Pusha T of the Clipse, telling you, if you have something to say, say it, there is no reason for her to back out now. Amanda Diva is here to stay and she will be heard.

Scheme: What part of hip hop were you introduced to?

Amanda Diva: The rhymes, I mean I never lived in a world without hip hop. I was born in 81. When I went to New York, my first night there, everyone goes out to the mall, but all the emcees have ciphers. After that, that’s when I started doing poetry and then people on campus were like you should rhyme, but I couldn’t rhyme on beat to save my life, I could say some shit, but I couldn’t say it in the pocket. Since I was cute I could get away with it! Then I got into Djing and graffiti. For instance I really got into Djing, I was training with Beverly Bond because she was going to work at Sirius Satellite Radio and she was like, “damn, you know so much about music you should be a DJ.” and I was like, “yeah, yeah, whatever.” and she kept pressing me and pressing me, and Envy who works at Sirius with me was like, “yo, we’re going to get your turntables.” He was like, “Get $1500 and we’re going to get the tables.” So we went and Envy being the slick talker that he is got the dude to come down from $2000 and we got the tables for $1500. So I got set up with my Techniques and wack ass Nu-mark mixer, no frontin on Nu-Mark but the Nu-Mark that I got had to go.

“…I kind of think its kind of regressed, like I would say hip hop ain’t dead its disco.”

The tagging came because I had always been an artist since high school. I mean I’ve always known about break-dancing and things like that, but recently there has been a huge influx of graffiti books you know, like with Don D’s passing there was a huge 12 page issue of Mass Appeal and I used to go to Fat Beats, and in Fat Beats they have mad books for sale regarding graffiti, and I started exploring that and I fell completely in love with graffiti culture. I understand I’m behind on some things but I feel I’m actually lucky because that allows for me to have a certain freshness, and once I saw Style Wars it was a done deal; I call Kay Slay, Dez, I don’t know if he lets anyone else call him Dez but bottom line is I love where hip hop came from. I’m not even going to say where it came from but hip hop I love where hip hop started and just the different facets of the limitlessness to it, and I kind of think its kind of regressed, like I would say hip hop ain’t dead its disco.

Scheme: Describe the relationship with your mother and how important that is to you as a person?

Amanda Diva: My mom is my dog, but she’s not like my friend, like the moms on Jenny Jones with the matching outfits. My mom was a single mother, and she always respected what I was doing and she just guided me, she’s always been proud of me, but she’s never taken credit, she’s just been like, I was supposed to do that and she’s always been there to support me in what I wanted to do. I didn’t need a strict parent I was strict on myself, I’m a very disciplined person and everyone who knows and or works with me knows I’m strict, so me being late to this interview…

Scheme: Totally out of character…

“Like, my mom says, “I didn’t learn how to have fun until I was 18.”

Amanda Diva: Yeah(laughs) like, I got a C one time and my mom had the nerve to actually care and I was like how dare you care!!! I’m dying right now!!!(laughs) Then she realized she never had to care. My mom says I didn’t learn how to have fun until I was 18. She was like, “you are so intense as a child.”, even when playing with Barbies there was a regimen.

Scheme: The regimen with the Barbies?

Amanda Diva: I’m weird dog, the regimen was the Barbies had to be dressed first. First we had to come up with where the Barbies were going, I had the Barbie apartment that was next to the Barbie house, people hated playing in school with me, making seating charts are you serious.

Scheme: So you could’ve possibly been an event planner?

Amanda Diva: That could’ve possibly happened.(laughs)

Scheme: How did the transfer from you coming from college to getting on Russell Simmons Def Poetry occur?

Amanda Diva: I started poetry in December 2001, after my sophomore year of college I was in Brooklyn staying in Flatbush for the first month of the summer, and I looked online for open mics and the Sugar Shack in Harlem is the best open mic spot. The first night I performed… people used to call me Diva ever since high school but I felt stupid writing Amanda Diva, like who the heck am I, so I wrote Amanda in parenthesis as if she would define the difference (laughs) between them but when she introduced me, she was said Amanda Diva and I was like, “hey. I like that.”, so the poets that were there kind of took me in and I ended up living in Harlem for the rest of the summer. I was going to Jimmy’s Uptown Café and that’s when the poetry scene was still popping and I was going to NuYorican and slamming and stuff and I just started getting my name known and running into certain people, and someone who had been trying to manage me randomly called me one day during my junior year of college and was like, “I got the number to Def Poetry” and I was like, “word.”

“…the “R” likes my poetry.”

Now that means nothing but then I was like, “oh my gosh!” So what happened was there was a poetry show going on, on campus and I had my boy tape the show, and we sent the tape in and literally it was like, we sent the tape in on Monday, they got it on a Wednesday, and they called me on a Friday, and the “bannanery” yes I made up a word, that went on in that dorm room…son I was crying. So after that it was wild to me, like they sent me a car and picked me up from school and it was bugged out, and I remember my boyfriend had broke up with me the week before and he was standing there like have a good time, and I was like, “whatever.”…So it was dope to be in the company of so many ill poets.

“…what legitimizes you as a poet is how you make people feel.”

So I’m meeting Russell and Erykah Badu, and I met Rakim and he was like, “yo, your shit was crazy.” and I was like, “the “R” like my poetry.” Def Poetry was a huge stepping stone in my career and you can say what you want about Def Poetry, I’ve heard a lot of people say it doesn’t legitimize you as a poet, and that’s definitely true, what legitimizes you as a poet is how you make people feel and how they respond to your work. In the grand scheme of things, in this industry and the reality is that you need to have credible shows and credible appearances to step up your resume, and Def Poetry became a benchmark for poets and it was definitely a good look for me, and I want to thank Stan and Russ for giving me that opportunity.

Scheme: How did you end up with your own show on Sirius Satellite Radio “Breakfast at the Divas”?

Amanda Diva: I was doing poetry at a Jesse Jackson benefit, and there was a poet that dropped out at the last minute and they called me and asked me if I can do it. It was raining and brick but I went ahead and did it. The program director at the time was like, “I really like your style and energy.”, and I was like he’s probably trying to hit, and this is the norm and nine times out of ten that’s usually what’s going on. I’ve had cats use there beats as a way to try and get me but don’t get it twisted, there are numerous cats that are like I like your work and are like I want to work with you. When something is for it’s for me and it just happens, it doesn’t take a long time and I don’t have to go through these processes, that’s how serious it was, within 2 weeks I was working at Sirius.

Scheme: So does your career feel like some what of a blur, because I feel like a lot of artists have to go through that red tape?

Amanda Diva: It’s not about going through the red tape but when it’s time for something, it’s time for something. I mean the radio thing was just a very random situation, but for instance the minute I started doing poetry, I was accepted, and I’ve done some grind hustle shows on the poetry side, but when it’s time for me to have a stepping stone, all the pieces fall into place. So when things are scattered and they don’t present themselves, then I know that’s not for me. I work, work, work and then the easy part comes.

Scheme: Who are your mentors or counterparts that you bounce things off of?

“I also have a lot of the weight fall on me to because I don’t want to have to blame somebody if the shit falls out.”

Amanda Diva: Definitely my mom, my publicist Gina Torrez is my ace boon, I mean I have a very solid group of friends. Q-Tip is a very good friend of mine, and even though we both come from different eras we have the same type of mind set on art and the industry. My boy Sheed is my right hand man, that’s my roll dog, I don’t go anywhere without him, and he’s also my studio partner, because I don’t believe in being in the studio by myself, you don’t know everything and you need help; My boy Chuck at allhiphop.com, like I have small handful of close small knit people. At the end day I’m a loner, and I also have a lot of the weight fall on me to because I don’t want to have to blame somebody if the shit falls out.

“That man is intelligent and he said to me, Amanda they tried to make it out like I had an affinity for guns.”

Scheme: Have you ever been in a situation where you went into a interview with an expectation, and then during the interview you found out that they were someone completely different?

“He’s laughing at everyone because he’s coonin and he’s not a fool.”

Amanda Diva: You know a good example of that is Project Pat because you just think because like he said, “Good Googley Moogly that thang is juicy.” He said, “I’m still ridin clean makin cheese and getting my di!#k sucked.” and you get the feeling from that that this guy is not really a mutli-dimensional person. That man is intelligent and he said to me, “Amanda they tried to make it out like I had an affinity for guns.” Actually, I can top that, the YingYang Twins, not the haah one, but D-Roc? “He’s laughing at everyone because he’s coonin and he’s not a fool.” I was interviewing them and I was like he’s not an asshole and something in me was like let me throw this question out there, and I said, “What do you think of our President?” and he was like, “Know one has ever asked me that before and Cane is going, “haah!!!” D-Rocc was like, “damn dude I’m trying to talk!” He had a lot to say about the President, and this was at the time when the President was trying to divert attention from Iraq by talking about going to Mars. He was like, “why the hell we trying to go to Mars.” and I knew he read Time that week but from their songs one would never know that they know anything about those issues.

Scheme: So does that ever bother you to know that but it never gets transferred to their music?

Amanda Diva: I feel like we make such a big deal about cats pretending to be gangsta and how ridiculous and how that’s a fopaw and how unacceptable that is for you to pretend to be a gangsta but for some reason it’s ok to pretend that you’re a fool. Why is that? Like why is it cool to pretend that your stupid and its so prevalent in the Black community and I think anyone outside our community probably think Lil’Jon is a ignorant Black Man. Like, Jon is smart as hell. Like David Banner is a Thesis away from a Masters degree. However, in the defense of the YingYang Twins and not to justify that cooning is ok but not everyone’s music is for the same purpose. Everybody expresses things differently and he chooses not to express this knowledge musically. I can’t be mad at him for that.

“…what they did was completely demeaned women to a place where they have no sense of like they have no place and the rappers of the gangsta rap movies of NWA, MC-Eight and Too-Short and when they spoke about women they gave them no credence…”

Scheme: What happened during the period when there was Ms. Melody, Monie Love, Queen Latifah and Lauryn Hill and then it shifted towards Lil’ Kim, Foxy Brown, Trina?

Amanda Diva: I have a theory about that and I wrote a paper on it. Basically I feel like once Gangsta rap sold so many records and became so prevalent, it just took over and not only did the music takeover as a means of money, but the point of view tookover and when all their records talking about women and bitches, what they did was completely demeaned women to a place where they have no sense of like they have no place and the rappers of the gangsta rap movies of NWA, MC-Eight and Too-Short and when they spoke about women they gave them no credence, I mean he said, “I’m a nigga that will smotha your motha, and tell your sister that I love her.” Dudes were not playing games. So what it did was it made women feel like where do we fit? We can’t forget this is a business, and the record companies see something and they run with it. How are they going to run with another conscious woman, if their running with all this gangsta rap? Like Latifah and Monie were running with the Native Tongue movement but they got trumped by the gangsta rap movement, because there wasn’t any continuation with that native tongue movement. Then when Jay and BIG came in they evolved gangsta rap into a different kind of style, where as Native Tongues it kind of evolved into the underground, “so I feel like when gangsta rap came in it minimized the roll of women to the point where women even act like niggas or look like niggas.” When it came to Foxy and Kim, they acted like niggas in the sense of their sexual promiscuity. I mean what did everyone say about Foxy and Kim, they rhyme like a dude…why can’t they rhyme like a chic?

Scheme: You’re a artist, radio personality and journalist. Do you ever find it hard balancing all those things when interviewing an artist whose you music you may not necessarily like?

Amanda Diva: I know how to interview artists without offending them, but with still asking pertinent questions. When I interviewed Chingy, he was like I like them brown, yellow, Puerto Rican or Asian and he was like, “that’s Italian, Black or Hasian.” I was like, “What’s that?” “Oh, I just said that because it rhymed.” Yo, you can’t do that. Like yo, you can make up a word, but you can’t make up nationality. There is a time and place for things and that goes with anything, and certain times you get down to the nitty griddy. If it’s the first interview I’m going to let you live, but if you’ve been living a little to much, I’m not the one, and that’s when I have to get at you and ask what is this about?

Scheme: Okay, this is hypothetically speaking, your Monie Love and your interviewing Jeezy and the subject of Hip Hop is dead comes up, and it gets heated. How do you handle that situation?

Amanda Diva: You have to smile, because I’ve been in situations when folks test you but you have to remember what it is and its radio. When I first interviewed Game, he was wild and disrespectful, but you have to remember where you’re at? You have to keep it where it is and it sucks, and unfortunately the radio station didn’t ride with her. Yet that station is getting mad publicity off of it, but you have to ride because that also takes guts for her. He was being very elusive but at some point you have to let it ride. I really think it falls on the station, because of someone with her caliber and from the outside looking in its like damn its like that?

Scheme: Ok so let’s talk about your album, when is it dropping?

Amanda Diva: We’re hoping to drop it this year but with my boy…and me being the First Lady of the Apphiliates and them raiding his house. Mixtapes are definitely a promotional tool, so we’ll see what happens. I want to drop the album when I have a financial situation and a substantial situation. Maybe a distribution company, like Babygrande, or if Koch wanted to ride I would love to do that. I mean but in the meantime I’m giving people albums, like the mixtapes are albums. We have SuckaFree Vol.2 coming out with Dirty Harry and that’s 15 tracks.

Scheme: What is the first thing you would change in the Black community?

Amanda Diva: Education, because when kids don’t have enough resources at school and being a good person is something that’s natural, but the system will make you not give a…and when you’re a person that has a 9-5, and you don’t like what you do that’s cool. When you’re a teacher and you don’t like what you do, you take the L but the students take the L as well. I mean you look at the WIRE and that’s not fantastical that is very accurate to what is happening.

Scheme: What is the goal for Amanda Diva?

Amanda Diva: I have to play too sold out shows. I feel like I’m more comfortable on the stage than anywhere else because for me when I love something I want to be a part of it in a legitimate way. I mean, I need to reach that point where people are singing my song, and it’s time for folks to know me as a full fledged multi-dimensional artist.