Legendary Philly MC Bahamadia is set to teach the Evolution of Rhyme course at Pendulum Ink in celebration of its second annual Women's Month. For all of August, the majority of its courses will focus on Women in Hip-Hop, or be taught by women, including Rah Digga, Shawnna, Jaz The Rapper and Bahamadia. In an extensive interview with Rock The Bells, Bahamadia discusses her Philly Roots, her career and the upcoming course.

Philadelphia has a long and proud history of independence and an entrepreneurial spirit when it comes to the music business. From Gamble & Huff's Philly International Records to Schoolly D, The Singing MC Breeze, Pop Art, and Hilltop Hustlers Records, Philly has never looked any further than its own backyard for opportunity. Bahamadia attributes Philly Hip-Hop's independent spirit and superior musicianship to the great musicians and label owners that precede Rap music as an industry.

"Historically the bar has always been high in Philly in terms of the arts, so it's innate to strive to be beyond exceptional," she says. "I can say that for me it was my upbringing. A lot of my family members were in the arts, and I was encouraged to journal and write poetry and short stories as a child. I attribute my penchant for words from that."

Bahamadia says that growing up, terrestrial radio was community driven, and music in her household was diverse. "In my household we listened to anything — jazz, gospel, rock, disco, early electronic, experimental. It was a gambit of genres that I was exposed to. My mother has a singing gift, my father was in the culinary arts in the military, and it was encouraged in our household to explore whatever is available, to explore and not have tunnel vision about anything."

MC Sha-Rock of The Funky 4+1 and Philly's Lady B were Bahamadia's early Hip-Hop influences.

"Lady B influenced to to embrace the feminine timbre of my voice, and the impact that your voice should exude and word choices - being clear and articulate," she explains. "In my formative years of being a Hip-Hopper, there were three places that all the acts came through, and this was pre video, MTV and all of that. She was breaking a lot of records as a DJ, and she hosted all the hot parties - Philadelphia hotel parties, after midnight, plus she had the radio show. We heard her voice before we knew what she looked like. Then, when we went to live events, we saw that she was fly and a representation of our version of B-Girlism in our region, it sealed the deal. I knew her as a radio personality, but when I heard her rap, that sealed the deal even more. When I saw her record, I knew that it was real, and that I could do it, because she's from my hometown."

1993's "Funk Vibe" would serve as the springboard for the world to hear Bahamadia. "My independent single 'Funk Vibe' started to chart on Gavin and some of those independent industry publications and getting airplay on mainstream radio, regionally spreading out," she explains. "That caused interest for the labels that were hot at the time, and there was bidding war. Before that, Special Ed was the first established artist who expressed interest in me coming under his tutelage. His schedule prevented us from working, but Guru of Gangstarr was interested, and I always saw myself in that camp. Guru and them had a show here, they came and I went down and met them and we signed the production deal with Guru's Ill Kid. The first song that I recorded with him was 'Total Wreck' and my life has been a dream state ever since that. I never had a surplus of songs back then because everything I recorded went on Kollage."

1996's Kollage produced the hits "True Honey Buns," "3 Hard Way," "I Confess," and "Uknowhowwedu." In 2000, Bahamadia released BB Queen, and in 2005 she released Good Rap Music.

"Good Rap Music was the first project that I financed myself," she said. "I did everything on that with ten thousand dollars of my own money — administrative, every aspect of it was me by myself. It was worth it to have that ownership. That's why my releases have been so sporadic, because ever since I left the major label system, I've done it on my own — from management to booking my own shows, I've never really had a team."

Bahamadia describes The Evolution of Rhyme as a moderated discussion, and she says that Mickey Factz, Pendulum's founder and dean of students reached out to her to participate.

"I'm an advocate for education, and I've often been asked what my [writing] process was," she shares. "I've been reluctant to discuss a lot of it because I had my own plans of releasing a tutorial, but I feel that It's an injustice at some point to hoard information that you've been privy to. You impact many generations and people still wanna know what you're doing artistically. I chalk it up as paying it forward."

The Evolution of Rhyme is available at Pendulum Ink on August 7 at 7 p.m. EST.