What does being a female living legend in hip-hop mean to you?

Mc Lyte: It means I have a responsibility. It’s a lot of things I might want to say but I don’t. I had a lifetime of doing that when I first got into the business and I realize how influential things I say can be for younger people and my peers so it comes with a lot of responsibility.

You dropped your first album in 1988 and you are about to drop another one in 2015, what does it mean to still be in that position? 

Mc Lyte: It’s all progressive in terms of me beginning a DJ career about seven, eight years ago. I begin to get in touch with what was happening in music because I’m listening to it every day. Not all of it I like, a lot of it I love. But I was able to sort of adjust and make choices based on what I wanted to give and what was acceptable in hip-hop today.

This is your first album in 11 years, did you approach anything differently?

Mc Lyte: Well you know we started off with a song called “Love on Me” and it’s a slower tempo song but it’s really truthful, introspective and actually Kenny Lattimore is singing on that one. And then the next song is “Cravin’,” it’s an up-tempo summertime type and they have two different sounds so immediately we were like let’s do a double sided record one called “New,” one called “True.” “New” is what’s happening today using a lot of synthesizers, a lot of production style of today and the “True” style being organic instrumentation, kick, drum, heavy basslines, things that people are accustom to hearing and seeing. So we went in gung ho with that and by the time we cut songs, kept songs, we were like let’s put it all together and put it on one cd, the best of the best, so it’s a combination of “New” and “True.”

Do you have a date for it?

Mc Lyte: Let’s just put it like this it’s already done, so it’s coming next year [2015] 1st quarter.