Live from an IHOP in Minneapolis, Lanz and I spoke on the phone while she experienced life on the road in middle America. She is 18, and as you can see below a blond female, and on her first single 'Grow Up' she raps about her family life, abusive relationships, dropping out in 9th grade, and trying to make it. Visually speaking not the usual suspect for an interview on a Hip Hop blog, but ignore the "hard knocks/tough internship EPK", and give her a real shot by checking out her new music video. Based on the music I've heard so far this is no Hip Pop.
Now that's what the f*ck I call a chain reaction
W: You're about to play the first leg of your tour supporting Snoop Dogg. How does that feel? Did you see this coming when you were going around the NYC underground circuit? And how did you hook up with Snoop?
L: It feels great. It's an honor to be on the same bill with a legend like Snoop. Did I see it coming? Honestly, I have always set my sights high and always though my first time out on tour would be with one of the big rappers. Snoop and I are both represented by the William Morris Agency. My manager and agent got in touch with Snoop's agent and played him the music and he liked it. Based on the strength of the story and the music we hooked it up.
W: It seems like this will be your first time out playing big shows?
L: Aside from the underground shows and open mics, and one Hot97 event in front of 3000 people this will be first time out like this yea. The audience size is almost irrelevant to me. I mean, my job is so cool. What I get to do, whether I'm rapping in front of 5 people or 20,000, it's what I want to do.
W: How did you hook up with Interscope Records?
L: I was signed about a year ago and to be on Interscope was always a dream of mine. All my favorite artists, 2Pac, Dre, Eminem, they all are/were on Interscope. From when I started to take this seriously I was always trying to get my music in front of people from Interscope. Last year there was an offer on the table from Virgin where JD was the President of Urban Music. They offered me a deal, and it was cool, but because wanted to be on Interscope so badly I at least wanted to get a "no" from Interscope before signing with anyone else. My manager made some calls and literally the day before we were suppose to sign Jimmy Iovine flew back to LA to take a meeting, we met in his living room, and I was sitting there with this legend. I mean, Jimmy was an engineer for Lennon's Imagine sessions. Jimmy liked it and the deal was done.
W: What was it like to work with all these big name producers (Three 6 Maffia, Cool & Dre, etc.) for your first release?
L: It was great. It mostly happened through connections we made organically through word of mouth. For example with Cool & Dre a friend of ours new their manager and had sent some music over. They liked it and we got to work together on the album.
W:With you breaking the Hip Hop mold in quite a few ways, how do you feel the Hip Hop community will receive you?
L: My mentality is that real recognizes real. I might be young and white and a female, but at the end of the day it's about listening to music. If it's good people will embrace it. I have my roots in the underground, the real backpackers. So I had to really prove myself and take the challenge I was faced head on. You have to really prove it, stand up for yourself. I remember being at an Open Mic where I went on stage and some dude screamed something derogatory, but after I was done he was real and walked up to the stage and apologized. He said he just hadn't ever seen a white girl rap like that and he just didn't know.
W: What's next after this tour?
L: We're going to release the album (INFO). I'd love to see if we can do a collabo with Snoop maybe after this tour if we can find the time. Other than that it's just all about making fans. I read your earlier post about me, and you said my music reminded you of Eminem. (Ed - I noted that the topic matter and emotional intensity reminded me of Em's). If I could do half of what Em has done, the amount of people he has touched. I hope people will connect to my stories like they do to his. We're on MySpace, you know that might seem real small, but people write me saying they really understand where I'm coming from. They call it truth music. It just makes you realize that my stories might not be completely the same as what other people go through, but they can be partially other people's stories. It's all about someone being a product of their environment and sharing your experiences.
Related Check out the music video for 'Grow Up'.
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