Your latest single is “Ball” with Lil Mama, so you’re connecting with a younger generation of female emcees, how important is that to you?

Mc Lyte: You know I think when I started I don’t know that I had mentorship provided to me in that way. Of course I idolized Salt-N-Pepa and Sweet Tee and Sha Rock and Sparky D and Roxanne, Chantae and the Real Roxanne, a bunch of people out there but someone I could really talk to? I didn’t have that. So I want to make sure I could give that to upcoming female emcees and it just happens that Mama is managed by my company, Sunni Gyrl, so it makes it really easy. Others that aren’t signed to us, hiphopsisters.com, it’s sort of a platform that I began for artists to put their music, pictures, videos, in a place they could be respected for their works. I don’t really handle it, I made it, I gave it, now you all have to make it viable and now we have 2400 members. It’s as active as they are.

What changes have you seen in the rising female rappers?

Mc Lyte: What’s being presented now all kind of feels the same. There are all different kinds of women that exist, which is why the day that I came up in was so vital, the female voice was so varied, was so colorful. Aesthetically we all had our own little thing that we were doing so today I feel like that’s what is messing on the front line.