Lil Mama’s finally made it over the hump of 2009’s VMA stage crash. But now the blunt-and-bold host of MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew has something else for the blogs to chomp on. VIBE hopped on the jack with Mama to dish on why you should stop hating on her new futuristic style, her next music moves and still not getting enough love from female rappers.

I feel like you’ve been ducking the studio a bit for that last few years. Why the break?
Lil Mama: It was a combination of things, work, personal, but I was still able to keep my creativity. I’m not jaded. Everything is just perfect timing and right now I’m making great material.

How has your personal life shifted?
Um, I’m a human being, so at the end of the day, I had to give certain things a pause, and other certain things a play. It’s not a big deal… it’s just life. I feel really good.

Yeah, you should feel empowered after life’s bumps not daunted. What’s your label situation like? Are you independent now?
I’m definitely independent and I’ve been working on television for a while, and still working on music, still getting the same opportunities, and just feeling so great.

Was that a difficult transition for you?
Actually I left [Jive Records so I wasn’t sad. When I first came out, I was very young and there were a lot of different pressures as far as the records that I record naturally and then the records that were being pushed to record. I’m not complaining, but it feels great to to create my own music and to do to what I want when I want. I thank Jive Records for helping me find my fan base. I couldn’t have done all of that by myself.

Word. I think besides growing as an artist, the most obvious evolution is that of your style. It’s definitely more risky and avant-garde. Why that direction?
What people get twisted is that when you’re an artist, you are art. You think a certain a way. My family would be like “Yo, you are crazy; where did we find you at?” We all grew up in New York and the swag is so simple. But I was like “Nah I don’t want to wear it like that. I know that’s the new fashion, but I want to wear it like this.” And they’d be like “Girl you crazy.” I guess you can say I’ve always been a trendsetter and being a trendsetter you’re going to get both sides of the fence because it’s not easy to digest. And it’s not easy to digest because it’s not everywhere. I really don’t care what people think though.

Interesting thing is that leftfield style is actually becoming more of the norm. How do you react to folks saying your biting Nicki Minaj and Lady Gaga?
Come on, let’s be real okay. You have all these people wearing different colored hair. At the end of the day I’m a bombshell, so I’m going to do me. If I want to go platinum, I’m going platinum. Let’s not forget that we have had people doing these things way before the people who are doing it now and let’s also not forget that the black community sometimes we really hang ourselves because every time another black female gets up there and does something that may be current, we criticize each other and try to put each other down, but when Katy Perry and Lady Gaga do it, they all eat. But I’m not going to be a part of that. I’m going to do me, regardless.

Very valid point… I think the biggest style criticism was thrown at you this past MTV Movie Awards. Bunch of people thought you jacked Nicki’s haircut.
But my cut is blunt and futuristic and Nicki Minaj started wearing that bob on her head after she came to my show, so at the end of the day I know what I do and I know what I possess and I know who I am. I’m a trendsetter. The biggest form of flattery is imitation so I’m flattered. I understand the universal law. I’m not confused, I don’t feel like a follower. I started so many things that new artists are doing now anyway –my style, the way I’m aggressive on a track, the way I come through, the way my beat bangs. There are so many things that were borrowed, that I influenced that’s happening in music right, so I’m far from discouraged.

Well there you go. Wait, Nicki through to one went to one of your shows?
Yeah, she was a guest on America’s Best Dance Crew and immediately afterwards, everywhere she went, she was wearing the haircut, the same exact way. But that doesn’t make me feel like ‘Oh she’s trying to be down’ like how I said about our culture. I’m actually flattered because she imitated me and it felt like something that I was doing was cute and in time for the fashion and for the season, so it’s like let’s live, let’s do it.

When I first interviewed you back in the day, you mentioned how other female rappers didn’t embrace you much. Has that changed or stayed the same?
It hasn’t really changed. You know what, let me catch myself. MC Lyte definitely embraces me. Jada Pinkett Smith embraces me. Those are two people that I can call and get advice. Those are two people that will call me to see what I’m doing. I think that everybody else that’s still on the radar like Missy and [Lil] Kim, feel so challenged right now. The root of female rap now is all about your swag and doing things independently. Everything is just boosted up to where these females who created the platform for us feel imitated. The kind of in that position right now where they feel like ‘Don’t get it twisted because I will drag you…’

Ha! Were you and Nicki at least able to chop it up after her episode of ABDC?
We didn’t really get a chance to vibe out like that after the show. It was just business. It was a level of respect though. Despite of what anybody might hear or have to say through the web, internet, music, subliminals, or whatever, when people see me in this industry I am respected and I will be respected. Anything else goes under the rug so I don’t see it. Whoever it may be, it’s always a level of respect because I respect myself and I will be respected.

Word. I know your thing back in the day was being very mindful of your younger fans. Should we expect to hear some 21+ lyrics now?
I guess my sound has changed a little bit; I’m evolving. Lauryn Hill might have cursed a couple of times in her music and Missy Elliot definitely just doesn’t care. I’m really more inspired by their creativity more so than just the cursing. I’m really impressed by clean music. I have a thing for it, but if I have to go there, I think I’m going to go there. It has to be something that you want to do. It can’t be peer pressure. You have to be yourself… and that’s what I do best.  -VIBE