The queen of southern gangster rap, Mia X, talked last month with AllHipHop at the Rock The Bells Festival about the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop and how she fell in love with it.

"I fell in love with Hip-Hop n '79," the rapper and founder of Team Whip Dem Pots explained.

She went on to say that she always told teachers and counselors that she wanted to be a rapper. "You know how they had career day at school? Since 1982 the only thing that I told my teachers that I wanted to be was a rapper. They would try to say Hip-Hop and they'd mess the name up because it wasn't really a genre yet. I knew Hip-Hop was gonna be special. I put a record out three years before I met Master P. I had been in the game. Manny Fresh and I had been in a group since we were 14. We were in a group with a guy from Queens, so we were called New York Incorporated."

Mia also talked about her experience at a male-dominated record label. "When I got with No Limit it was 27 guys and just me", she said. "What I loved about that experience that they never told me what to write or pushed imagery on me. They let me be me and that was really beautiful. I gained some brothers and we are godparents to each other's children."

Mia was also asked about the evolution of female rappers. "I've always been one that encouraged artists to do their artistry their way," she said. "When I first came out I made a diss record and it was vulgar. I wouldn't have wanted anyone telling me what to say."

Watch the interview above.