All language subtitles for Hip Hop Was Born Here (2025) S1E4

Roxanne Shanté,
you are one of the queens.

- Yes.
- You're one

of the true cornerstones.

What is the--

the women's movement
in hip hop now and today?

You know, when I look at it now,
it's an honor for me

to see my hip hop sisters
sign these deals,

knowing that they had
the say-so.

Seeing them doing commercials,

knowing that they made
those decisions,

seeing them have babies
and not having to hide it.

We used to have to hide it,
so to see my sisters

out there doing they rhymes
and letting 'em know,

like, look, this is continuing
on to the next generation

is truly an honor for me.
- Yeah.

And we are giving
everything out here.

So, now when I sit back
and I see the place

for women in hip hop now,

they are just where
they're supposed to be--

on fucking time.

♪

LL COOL J:
Hip hop is everywhere--

every corner of the globe.

To understand
the power of hip hop today,

you have to go back
to where it all started.

SINGER: ♪ Ain't no love... ♪

LL COOL J: ...my hometown,
New York City.

Because listen, when I tell you
hip hop was born here.

♪ ...in the heart of town

♪ Ain't no love ♪

REPORTER: Can you say
that rap is a boys thing?

Because there aren't
much girl rappers.

- What's your opinion on that?
- Well, you got girl rappers,

- It's just that, you know--
- Not many, not many.

- Well, that's just--
- Most of them are boys.

You know, it's inevitable,
just like anything else.

You know, it takes time
for you to get these things.

You know, female rappers will
be, you know, they're out there.

Eventually, there'll be
a big, successful group.

♪

Hip hop's early years

were about an underground
New York City art form

pushing to break through.

- Who that...
- Oh, no, girls?

At the very same time,
inside of hip hop itself,

there was another set
of voices fighting to be heard.

♪ We have to come to an
agreement who's gonna survive ♪

♪ The Cold Crush four
or the Fantastic Five ♪

LL COOL J:
In a genre dominated by men,

women in hip hop faced
even longer odds.

It's not male-dominated anymore.
It's co-ed.

To truly understand

the path women in the game
have traveled,

to capture how they've gone
from overlooked and ignored

to dominating the genre

and pushing the culture
to all-new heights...

All the girls
doing they thing right now.

This has been the year
of women rappers.

You carrying the torch
for us right now.

[audience cheering]

...you gotta start
that journey in New York,

a city where generations
of female voices

have been at the forefront
of this movement.

From Sha-Rock

to hip hop's first music mogul,
Sylvia Robinson,

to Salt-N-Pepa

to those reinventing
the art form today.

- Woosah.
- [cheers and applause]

And who better to speak to

than one of those
hip hop pioneers,

an artist who was one
of the first to break through

in those early days--
Queens native,

my sis, Roxanne Shanté?

[siren wailing in distance]

- Roxanne Shanté.
- Please believe it, baby.

♪

Roxanne Shanté's impact
on hip hop is undisputed.

You don't win a Grammy Lifetime
Achievement Award by accident.

♪ You started talkin' Pig Latin,
didn't make no sense ♪

♪ You thought you was cute,
yeah ♪

♪ You thought you was a prince ♪

LL COOL J:
Today I wanna talk to Roxanne

about how she started
on that path.

♪ I'm just the devastatin',
always rockin' ♪

♪ Always have
the fly guys clockin' ♪

♪ Everybody knows it's me,
the R-O-X-A-N-N-E ♪

LL COOL J:
From a tough young girl

in the Queensbridge projects
to a trailblazing hip hop icon

whose influences are
still being felt to this day.

SHANTÉ:
♪ The R-O-X-A-N-N-E ♪

Where I wanna start with is,
you're a young lady.

How do you get exposed
to hip hop?

SHANTÉ: I wanna say,
the very first time I knew

that there was something
called hip hop,

I might have been
about 8 years old.

LL COOL J: Okay.

Hearing the music in my heart,
I was like,

I know I'm-a do that.

- So, it just clicked.
- It just clicked.

♪

LL COOL J: So, let's dig in.

Describe to me
as you came up in the game,

what is it like
for a young woman in hip hop?

I remember the very first time

they wanted to separate me
from being great on a mic.

- Tell us about it.
- I was 10 years old.

- Okay.
- They said,

"Look, there's a battle,
and it's gonna be for $50."

My mom was on a fixed income,

and I remember telling my mom,
like, we could win $50.

And I remember
her cutting off the food.

"How?" 'Cause $50--
$50 was a lot of money. How?!

♪

- Our rent was, like, $34.
- Wow.

So, you know, you talkin'
about a month's rent, literally.

- Right.
- $50 was a lot of money.

You know what I'm saying?

When we got there,
I remember someone

getting me a milk crate
because I'm still a little girl.

And I remember going
to my mom and saying,

"Ma, uh, can I curse?"

And so she said, um, "I don't
give a fuck what you do

or what the fuck you say.
Just win that $50."

[laughs]

And I remember starting it off,

♪ Youse a sucker, motherfucker ♪

And when I said that,
the crowd was like, "What?!"

- [laughs]
- And my mother was hyped.

She was like,
"Yeah, motherfucker. Yeah!"

And--And, um, I won that $50,

and I became, like, notorious.
- [cheers and applause]

But it got to a point where

they wouldn't allow me to battle
anymore because I was a girl.

They would say, "The little girl
with the braces,

if she's at the door,
don't let her in."

♪

Roxanne Shanté

from Queensbridge projects,

one of the first solo MCs
to really get large,

you know what I'm saying?
You remember back in the days

when you did your answer
to "Roxanne"?

Of course
I remember back in the days.

I was about 13 years old
and had a hell of a mouth then,

and I got a hell of a mouth now.
[laughs]

Okay, so at some point,
you really leaned into hip hop.

- Yes.
- How? Why?

Okay, so one night,
we in the projects,

walking down the laundry,
I look up,

Marley Marl
is calling me out the window.

"Shanté, Shanté!
Yo, come to my house.

I need you to do
a little freestyle for me."

He's like, "Yo,
this the beat I'm gon' put on."

♪

- I said, what is that?
- And he was like, "Yeah,

you heard
that "Roxanne Roxanne" thing?

I said, "Yeah."
I'm just standing here.

He said,
"Put the headphones on."

And when I put them on,
I just came up with,

♪ Well, my name is Roxanne,
and don't you know, I just... ♪

BOTH: ♪ A-cold rock a party,
and I do this show ♪

- Yeah.
- So, I'm just telling the story

in my mind...
- Right.

...and just doing a freestyle.

And I went home
and just went on about my day.

♪ Why'd you have to make
a record 'bout me? ♪

That night, the phone rang,
like, 2:00 in the morning.

And when I pick it up, they're
like, "Yo, you on the radio!

You on the radio!" Hung up.

And I slide down the wall,
and I say to myself,

"Like, damn. I wonder what
I sound like on the radio."

You didn't have a radio.

- Mnh-mnh.
- Wow.

But then I'm thinking,
no matter what the situation,

no matter what was going on,
that's me.

I'm the best in the world.

- Not male, not female.
- Period.

This rap shit--
the best in the world.

♪

♪

LL COOL J: Okay,
so here you are, a little kid.

- Yes.
- And you're in this world.

- What's that like?
- At first it was a lot of fun.

But then I'm thinking,
to be the best,

you gotta beat the best.
- Right, right.

And as long as you beat
the best,

that's all it takes.
- Right.

This is nothing but a sport,
whether you know it or not.

SHANTÉ: So we're
at the New Music Seminar.

I'm going there to prove
that I'm the best in the world.

- In the world, period.
- In the world.

MC: Put your hands together.
Welcome my favorite and yours,

"Queen of Rox,"
Fly Girl, Roxanne Shanté.

[cheers and applause]

They had other MCs from
throughout the United States.

They were like brackets.
But when I looked up,

it was my name on one whole row

and all the other MCs
in another row.

I said, "So, none of them
battle each other?"

And they were like, "No."
'Cause the whole thing was,

"One of us has
to eliminate her."

Are you kidding me?

No.

Good luck, ladies and gentlemen.

- Can I get a beat?
- [hip hop beat playing]

♪ Well, let's get it straight,
put it on the line ♪

♪ I had to give
this sucker motherfucker ♪

♪ A piece of my mind ♪

♪ You see, he can't hang
with me, and that is a fact,

♪ I told you before
that he's too damn Black ♪

♪

So, now I'm rhyming all day.

Boom, he gone. Boom, he gone.
Boom, he gone.

MC: Shanté moves on
to the finals.

SHANTÉ: So, now we get down
to the last two.

Judges, hold your cards up.

So, everybody's turning
their cards around.

- 10.
- MC: We got a 10.

9. 9. So they was like,

"Yo, she couldn't lose
unless she got, like, a 4."

They was like, "Yeah,
so that's it. She the winner."

We down to the last one.

He turned his card around. Boom.

Gave me a 4.

[groans]

- MC: We got a 4.
- [audience booing]

SHANTÉ: I walked out of there

not loving hip hop anymore.

♪

I cried for a second,
then I wanted to fight.

- Why do you think they did that?
- Well, later on,

we go to an event,
and we see Kurtis Blow.

He was one of the judges.

He said, "That day,
we had record companies.

We had publishing companies.
We had real managers there.

And we couldn't
let the best in the world

be a young Black girl.

They would not
have respected hip hop.

They would
not have accepted us."

He said, "You won that day.
You were the best."

He said, "But I couldn't
let you be the best

'cause it wasn't the best
for hip hop."

Wow. You know,

that was an emotional,
tough moment for a young girl,

but it ended up...

strengthening and--and lifting
up women in the future.

Yes. Absolutely.

♪ Now throw your hands
in the air ♪

♪ Let me hear you say,
"Oh, yeah" ♪

- [beatboxing]
- AUDIENCE: Oh, yeah!

♪

DOUG E. FRESH: Sometimes
you gotta have somebody

that can start something.

It's like the match,
and then, boom.

ANNOUNCER: Roxanne Shanté
live on stage. Give it up!

SHANTÉ: Without me, there
wouldn't have been no airplay.

And so they should thank me,

send me royalty checks
for Mother's Day.

But Roxanne had the floor
kind of laid out a little bit.

♪

♪ She's the joint ♪

DOUG E. FRESH:
There was Sha-Rock.

- There was Lisa Lee.
- ♪ Say ho! ♪

There was Debbie D.
There was Pebblee Poo.

KIM OSORIO: These artists

were paving the way for women,

and it was
extremely hard for them.

♪

♪ She's the joint ♪

- ♪ Ladies
- ♪ Yeah ♪

♪ 1980, duh-duh-duh ♪

♪ Watch out for the fellas ♪

♪ Yeah,
that'll drive you crazy ♪

♪ Duh-duh-duh, a look out ♪

NELSON GEORGE:
Hip hop was a boys club.

♪ Do it, huh-huh ♪

All the label owners
were basically men.

♪ Get funky ♪

Most of the A&R people
were men.

So, the records were being made

with an eye
toward what a man wants.

TUMA BASA: It was almost felt
like they had to be surrounded

by a whole bunch of dudes
in order to break through.

You guys don't belong in here.
[laughs]

OSORIO:
Hip hop's always been macho,

so women had an uphill battle

in just getting the respect
from the community.

We commemorate women
in hip hop of that time

because what they did
was so important,

but their names
aren't as familiar.

♪ You know, she's the joint

LL COOL J: Now we fast forward.

What is the women's movement
in hip hop now and today?

Female rappers are the best.

Dominating.

- Running shit.
- Took over.

Every queen gets
a chance to reign.

So, to see my sisters out there
doing they rhymes

and letting 'em know like,
look, this is continuing on

to the next generation,
is truly an honor for me.

One word.

- Yes.
- Legacy.

I gave birth to most
of them MCs. That's my legacy.

- That works.
- Still pushing 'em out. Mm!

There you go.
That's the spirit.

[laughter]

That's the spirit.

I thank the Recording Academy...

for checking everything
off my list.

Thank you.

[cheers and applause]

♪

LL COOL J: Roxanne Shanté
helped crack the door open

for women in hip hop.

Now I'm headed to meet
a woman from Brooklyn

who kicked the door
off the hinges--

Cheryl James,

or as you may know her better,

"Salt" from Salt-N-Pepa.

Our first guests have
virtually revolutionized

the rap field
as the first female crew

to become major stars.

♪

♪ I am down ♪

LL COOL J:
Born in Brooklyn, NYC,

Salt dug in
on her musical aspirations

while in community college
by teaming up

with Pepa and Spinderella
to form a trio unlike anything

the hip hop community
has seen before.

♪ ...Pepa,
everybody's in the house ♪

♪

LL COOL: They call 'em

the First Ladies of Rap
for a reason.

Salt-N-Pepa were
the first all-female group

to go gold and platinum...
- Thank you.

...and the first female
rap group to win a Grammy...

To our fans, we love you.
We love you.

...selling more than 15 million
albums worldwide in the process.

We're happy to be a hit
over here in Europe again.

Roxanne Shanté

and the other
early female pioneers

laid the groundwork.

Hi! What's up?

Then Salt-N-Pepa
used that ground

to launch hip hop
into the stratosphere.

Rap is a male-dominated field,

but we're just like
one of the fellas now.

LL COOL J: What was the first
exposure you had to hip hop?

- The first thing I remember...
- Okay.

...I lived
in Bushwick, Brooklyn,

and we started hearing music
coming from the park.

Obviously, we were like,
eyes wide open.

Like, what's that?

At night, I would sneak out.

I just remember being enamored
by what I was experiencing.

And that's what made me really
start thinking about, like,

wanting to be an artist.

Then I met Hurby.

- This is Salt. This is Pepa.
- That's Debbie D right here.

We were dating,
and he was also a producer.

Mm-hmm.

And he was putting together
a girl group,

and the first time
I got on the mic,

I just knew it was my destiny.

♪ I do,
Salt-N-Pepa's in the house ♪

♪ Turning it out,
turning it out, oh... ♪

- As a young woman, right?
- Mm-hmm.

Like, as you kinda
moved into the business,

explain to me
what it felt like for you.

Like, really.

I haven't been doing this
in a while.

It felt scary. It felt exciting.

It felt like, man, can we
really live up to, like,

this thing that we're building

that's taking off so fast
for us?

Got it going on. Yeah.

It was just like,
get these records done,

put this show together,

rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

But even if I was scared,
I had to be brave.

And there was a lot of times

we was literally shaking
in our boots, you know?

So, where did that come from,
that aggressive spirit

to get out there and go
at this hip hop thing?

♪ Hey, yeah,
I wanna shoop, baby, shoop ♪

We run up
against a lot of criticism.

The people have
a lot of opinions

about what we should do.
We always do what we wanna do.

On the road, you know,
with sound checks and stuff,

you know, girls not supposed to
know about that technical stuff.

So, of course, they're
not gonna listen to you

when you're going,
"Give me some more bass!"

It's about time, you know,

the girls get a chance
to flip this script.

♪ Packed and you're stacked,
'specially in the back ♪

♪ Brother, wanna thank your
mother for a butt like that ♪

We saw Roxanne Shanté do it,
so we knew it could be done.

But we always knew
that we were different.

We always say we brought
fun, fashion,

and femininity to hip hop.

We wasn't afraid to be sexy
and dress a certain way

and, like,
really embrace our femininity.

LL COOL J: Right.

Step off, honey.

And also embrace
our commercial success.

♪ Shoop ♪

We've been
on the road like crazy.

We've been busy, busy, busy.

♪ Ah, push it

INTERVIEWER: In '88,
you had three hits in a row.

Now again, three hits in a row.

This is like
a special Salt-N-Pepa recipe.

[laughter]

Give it up, America,
for Salt-N-Pepa.

[cheers and applause,
"Push It" playing]

LL COOL J: What you do know
and what everybody does know--

as impactful as any
female superstar is right now,

Salt-N-Pepa were
at the same huge, high level.

- Salt-N-Pepa were the first.
- Mm-hmm.

What did that feel like?

SALT: The train ride--
it just took off and kept going.

♪ Push it real good ♪

There was no turning back.

- "None of Your Business," Salt--
- Salt-N-Pepa.

We love you! We love you!

SALT: When I was young,
I didn't know what

I wanted to do with my life.
Next thing,

I'm all over the globe
picking up plaques.

- What y'all doing in Russia?
- I don't know. [laughs]

I would look in the mirror
sometimes and be like,

what the heck?
Like, they know me in Japan.

They don't even speak English,
and they rapping

your songs word for word.

And I'm Cheryl from Brooklyn,
you know?

- Yeah.
- I was like,

how did that happen to you?

You're like the salt and pepper
on your table.

Hands up!

[cheering]

♪

Salt-N-Pepa were
the first female artists

that really achieved
mainstream success--

success that the earlier
pioneers couldn't achieve.

Because back then,
there was a ceiling.

There was definitely a cap
on the expressive nature

of what a woman could say
in the '80s into the '90s,

Salt-N-Pepa really articulates

not records that are made
to appeal to men,

but records
that reflect female artists.

♪ Spinderella,
cut it up one time ♪

We just dress
the way we wanna dress,

say what we wanna say.

- [laughter]
- Salt-N-Pepa changed the game.

They were very, very big
on women empowerment,

independence for women.

♪ Come on,
let's talk about sex, baby ♪

♪ Let's talk about you and me ♪

TUMA BASA: After that, that's
when things started to change.

Female rappers do not have to be
overly masculine in your lyrics.

You could talk about stilettos,
pumps in the clubs.

- ♪ About sex
- OSORIO: Over the last

30-something years,
we have this influx

of female artists

just coming in and dominating.

Move over, men.
The females are rapping back.

Is that it or keep going?

Okay, so one last word
is tell me

what it means to you--legacy.

I want my legacy to be someone

who inspired female rappers
to dream big

and go for it.

LL COOL J: As you see
these new female artists

out there rocking,
what are you feeling?

- What are you connecting with?
- Young women now are bossing up.

- They just seem unapologetic.
- And you like that?

- I relate to it. Yeah.
- All right, Salt.

- Thank you.
- Rap's first female superstar.

- Yeah.
- Appreciate you, baby.

- Thank you.
- No doubt.

They used to be like,
"Oh, yeah, Salt-N-Pepa.

Cute little girl rap group.
They'll come and they'll go."

But we just set out
to prove different.

What's up, everybody?
My name is Lady London.

I am a rapper, songwriter,
author, poet,

tastemaker, curator,
and the Aristotle of bravado,

easily one of the best rappers
of the 21st century.

♪

LL COOL J:
Being a hip hop superstar looks

very different today
than it did in the early years.

I'm headed to speak to someone
who embodies that evolution--

a student of the art form
who honors

those who came before,
and at the same time

is unapologetic
about getting what's hers.

She goes by the name
Lady London.

- Lady London.
- What up, L?

What up? I'm outside.
Come on. Let's roll.

- What up? What up?
- [laughs]

Here, let me give you a hand.
Let me give you a hand.

- Come on in.
- Thank you. Thank you.

♪

Born in the Bronx and raised

in her grandmother's house
across the Hudson in New Jersey,

Lady London's artistic roots
were deep from the start,

with her uncle,
producer/rapper Chino XL,

filling the house
with his legendary hip hop peers

such as my man 2Pac
and Naughty by Nature.

Nigga, are you dumb?
Are you stupid?

Do you know what type of bitch
I am? Yeah. This Lady, baby.

That's Boss Lady
for those who don't know. Ha ha.

While working
towards a career as a surgeon,

she exploded on the scene
by posting videos of herself

doing spoken word in the car.

And I'm never insecure
'cause I'm labeled a boss.

I take my lessons to the jaw

'cause they was never a loss,
you heard?

But Lady London proved

to be more
than a viral sensation.

She displayed the talent to last
and a message worth hearing.

And now she's on her way

to becoming hip hop's
next female superstar.

[cheering]

So, when does hip hop
come into the picture?

What--What did you hear?

How were you exposed
to hip hop culture?

Three years old, I was rapping
"Crush on You."

["Crush on You" playing]

- Junior M.A.F.I.A. and Biggie.
- Yeah.

- Absolutely. Kim's verse.
- Yeah, Lil' Kim. Oh, really?

Kim's verse. Yeah.

♪ Lil' Kim, the Queen Bee,
so you best take heed ♪

- ♪ Shall I proceed?
- ♪ Yes, indeed ♪

LL COOL J: What did hearing
Lil' Kim as a child mean to you?

LADY LONDON:
Everything. Like, hearing a girl

do it on that level
was really dope.

♪ I'm not the one you
sleep with, to eat quick ♪

♪ Want a cheap trick?
Better go down to Freaknik ♪

- Yeah.
- So, she really inspired you?

- Yeah.
- And made you feel

empowered as a woman?
- Absolutely.

♪

When did you go
from music fan, you know,

to, like, all of a sudden,
"Now I actually wanna create"?

[school bell rings]

Probably around 11 years old,
I started writing.

I was doing poetry online
in 2018,

but I was talking slick,
and it kind of sounded like

it could be a rap
if you put a beat behind it.

He gave me what I wanted
the most,

and I don't believe in love,
but you cutting it close.

I'm holding up some shoes
like the silver or gold.

He said,
"I never make you choose.

I'm-a get you them both."

I posted it.
It went 8.7 million views.

- Oh, wow.
- It went crazy.

Labels was calling me next week.
"We wanna sign you."

I'm like, "I don't do music."

They're like,
"No, this freestyle is crazy."

I'm like, freestyle?
To me, it's just poetry.

That's--That's really wild.

♪

Ha ha!

LADY LONDON: They did sign me.
So I said, okay.

My goal was to just be the best.

I didn't care
about being the best woman.

I wanted to be the best.
Like, men need to come in here

and be like, "I don't wanna
go toe to toe with her."

- We don't want no problem.
- "I don't want

no problems with her.
She talk too crazy for me.

I don't want that."
- [laughs] That was the spirit.

- That was the energy.
- Yeah. Yeah.

LL COOL J: Do you do things
outside of music?

LADY LONDON: So, education,
first and foremost.

♪

I have three degrees.

My BS are in sports medicine
and chemistry, double major.

Then I went on to USC and got
my master's in global medicine

and international health policy.

I'm a business.
I'm bigger than an artist.

I'm a brand.
I'm a business, so--

Can I say something about that?
Being an artist is big.

- It's huge.
- Mm-hmm.

The only reason I say that
is because I want artists

to be proud to be artists.

- Absolutely.
- That being said,

I also don't think
they should limit themselves.

- Right.
- I agree with that.

Right, which is why
semantics is there.

I said I'm more than an artist,
not bigger than an artist.

- Okay.
- I'm more than,

meaning I'm multifaceted.
More than a woman.

- Always late.
- ♪ More than a woman ♪

- Right? Exactly.
- [laughter]

♪

Here. I'll give you
a little assistance.

- I appreciate it.
- All right.

You know what I mean?
It's the least I could do.

- Yeah, I appreciate that.
- You know what I'm sayin'?

- Chivalry ain't dead, huh?
- Ah, shit's on life support.

- Barely breathin'.
- [laughs]

[boat horn blows]

- So, you was born where?
- The Bronx.

- Boogie Down.
- [laughs] Yeah, hip hop.

My grandma came
to this country from Jamaica,

had a small apartment,
her and my grandfather

on Tremont Avenue.
- Tremont Avenue.

And she bought a house
in East Orange, New Jersey.

Uh-huh.

And that's where I spent
majority of my life, childhood.

- East Orange?
- Yeah.

And what does it feel like,

like, now that
you look back on it?

♪

LADY LONDON: My grandma's house
was like the Mecca.

I just remember
hip hop just being around

and exposed to at real young.

Clark Kent, Clue,
Pac, Naughty by Nature.

Knew everybody when I was a kid.

LL COOL J: And it was
your destiny then.

- Yeah.
- You feel or you know?

I know,
'cause I tried to run from it.

There's been so many times
I tried to, like,

I don't wanna do this no more.
I can't do this no more.

But you can't quit.

Spend so many days,

especially early on
in my career, where I was like,

I don't really wanna see
tomorrow.

But I'm saying this
to anybody who has

to be full of strength
all the time.

You are necessary,
and fight the good fight.

The music industry is difficult.
I don't think a lot of people

even talk about how hard
it really is.

It's a dark industry.
You gotta know yourself.

So, let's talk about that.
You a young lady...

- Yeah.
- ...in the--in the music game.

Uh-huh.

What's hard about it?
Tell me about that.

When I was first starting off,
producers would try to,

like, talk to me, like...
intimately in a session,

and I'd be, like,
so uncomfortable.

But I knew I had to, like,
get the work done.

So, I started, like,
wearing oversized clothes

and kind of
dumbing down my image.

It was a little bit defeating
and discouraging

because I was so, like, naive
and a little bit young going in.

But instead of being
so scary, one day,

I was like, we can set
some ground rules here.

And if it's not a working
relationship, then it's not

a working relationship.
- Yeah.

Once word got around,
everybody was like,

"Okay, she don't play that."

I agree with that,
because, you know, you either

change the environment

or change how you feel
about the environment.

Mm-hmm.
I don't tolerate anything.

I know I got that schoolgirl
vibe, this cute girl smile,

these dimples
and good credentials

keep my 10 toes down,
but I come from a dark place.

I'm really dangerous now.

So, okay, one word.

- Legacy.
- Legacy.

What does legacy mean to you?

Like, what do you--what do you
want your legacy to be?

Legacy to me is
transcending a generation.

- Mm-hmm.
- Being able to impact

not only your generation,
but the generation before you

and the generation after you.

I wanna speak to the boss women
who are go-getters,

hustlers in their own right.

Right now
we see female unity in rap.

Hopefully we can continue that.

Art, education,
empowerment, the family...

- Black family.
- Black family.

- Uplifting.
- Uplifting.

- Yeah. [laughs] Good to see you.
- All right, Lady London.

- Appreciate you.
- Pleasure was all mine.

Come on. Let's roll.
Roll with me.

- We going? Where we going?
- I''ll figure it out.

You're supposed
to take me to some food.

- Let's get somethin' to eat.
- [laughs] Let's do it.

♪

I must say that you absolutely
do us proud out there.

LADY LONDON: I'm so grateful
'cause I modeled my career

off of how embarrassed you would
make men in the studio, like...

- Oh, did you?
- Okay, so I know people

had to back out
when you came through the door,

so it's really an honor.

♪