There is no strength like that of a woman, and lady rhymer Young Nisa is flexing her muscle these days. The regimen of juggling a daily variety of endeavors coupled with the release of her Black Diamonds mixtape has placed the rapper-turned-radio personality in a weight class all her own.

A diamond is one of the world's most precious jewels, if not the most precious. A product of heat and pressure, and polished to perfection, the diamond is an accessory that many the world over want to have in their possession. Colombus, Ohio native Young Nisa is a diamond. The heated topic of the wasteland that is female rap and the pressure to gain respect in light (or rather darkness) of those from that said wasteland has produced a resilient young woman who refuses to be a stranger to adversity. On the day of the much applauded release for her latest effort – the mixtape Black Diamonds – Nisa held court with TheRealnessMagazine.com. In an empty sound room of a radio station, the woman who doubles as a late night jock broke it down about being in foreign land, the conundrum of being in the music community and working for radio, lack of local support amongst artists, and reaffirming the existence of an independent woman.

Before making it to Shreveport, you bounced around quite a bit, right?

Young Nisa: Yeah, I went to school out in Florida: I was in Orlando for a lil' bit. Then I was in Atlanta for a lil' bit, then I came here. Maybe a year or so after high school, I ended up leaving [Columbus, Ohio]. There really ain't nothing up there where I'm at. I mean, Columbus is a big city, but they ain't got nothing going on but some killing. I was just gonna go for it. You know, if you don't try, you ain't gon' have no story. You never know where you gon' end up.

It'll be like that same cat in the 'hood - you leave for five years and come back to him doing the same thing he was doing when you left.

The same damn thing. I got friends that's doing the same thing. It's people that I ran across in Atlanta that's not, so that kinda motivates me , like, um, Bob? B.o.B.

(Acknowledging) Right!
When he was starting out, I was starting out. I got another cat - Willy Joe. He's from Vallejo [California]. Him, Bob-- we used to all run in the same circles, do a lot of the talent showcases. And I remember when Bob had that song called "Cloud 9". It was like, "Aiight, Bob. You getting your lil' fame." now he's got grammy nominations. I look at that like I gotta step it up.

What are your thoughts on how Atlanta does things and how Shreveport does things? Be real with me. Don't leave anything out.
Shreveport's independent scene is not supportive of each other. I can go back to what I was saying about Bob and Willy Joe. When Willy Joe was hot doing showcases, Bob was talking about him, supporting him. When you see talent out there, everybody tries to work together. They're not charging you, they're like, "Let's do it." And then once the money starts coming in then, okay, we can break bread. Another thing is radio support. You can get on Hot 107.9 if you build a relationship with the right people. A lot of DJ's started from the bottom, so they kinda know [the grind]. It's those things that's different that I kinda wish would go on out here. And I think a lot of artists don't know how to build the correct relationships, and I'm glad I was on the opposite side first before I even approached doing a project, because I learned how to approach certain DJ's or how to network correctly, how to have my packaging together correctly.

If you got out to Atlanta, you gon' see Black people driving Bentleys, BMW's. It's common. You gon' see 'em in Range Rovers. So if you never see that and you see the same thing everyday, that's all you gon' know.

What prompted you to get into radio?
Well, I said I wasn't going to do music, but if it's in you, it's in you. So the first thing I thought about was, Okay, how am I going to meet the people I need to meet? I didn't know nobody! So what I did when I came down here, I used my education to get me through the door. I engineered. I was trying to do just board op, and they let me on the street team. This was when Jay Tek was still out here. He was like, "You wanna do some mix shows? You wanna run the boards?" I never say no. I don't care what it is, I'll try it because I only one life. So I started doing mix shows, like when we used to really do mix shows. Then there was a slot open on Sunday afternoon from twelve to four. And I got in there from there.

With you being in radio, have you seen any dark sides that you didn't see as an mc?
I ain't gon' get into specifics, but the way the music is put out to the people and the importance of the music, it kinda hurt my heart. And a lot of people won't understand that's why you don't hear certain songs. I mean, it's so many politics behind it. And then it could be a lot of the DJ's faults for taking money. It's just like the dope game - when you get greedy, guess what? Jail coming, death coming. I think maybe 'cause people was getting greedy with the payola, they don't have enough trust in the actual DJ's to determine what's hot per radio. A DJ used to be able to break a record on radio. Take a Navajo "I'm Good" record or a B-Mac "On That Four Loko" record and make it hot in they night show. We can't do that no more. That was the last frontier for independent artists in their own city. "Oh, Nisa don't put on." That ain't true. You have to be behind the scenes. I got a job. I got restrictions, too.

You think maybe the fucked up thing about radio was Corporate America stepping in? You can't be corporate with the streets.
That's why mixtapes are so important. With Corporate, you got somebody that's looking at it like money. You're putting a price on our music - which is what it's supposed to be - but you don't care what the people want. You don't care that I get maybe 8 calls a week requesting "Shoulder Jerk" [by the SJ Boyz]. I can't play it. I would love to play it. I would love to play my songs. I would love to play "Ratchet Girl" [by Southern Made Entertainment]. I mean, it's so many restrictions. So many boxes.

Shifting to females in the game, I don't care what female you throw at me - Da Brat, Nicki, Foxy, Kim - every female came on the back of a dude. There's never been a self-made female. [Ed. Note: There's never been a MAJOR self-made female of the NEWER GENERATIONS.]
You would have to go back to the old, but the game wasn't as sexist. It wasn't so much sex. When Salt n' Pepa did it, they was just fresh. Now it's kinda getting back to "Well, yeah, she's fine, but what else is there?" because you had so much of that.

It's kind of expected for a female to rap about how good her brain game is.
I just do it different; I do it like the niggas. I'ma talk about a nigga giving me head. I'ma flip it, and niggas like that shit. And girls be like, "That's how I be feeling, too." But you gotta be smart about how to do it.

With this being the age of the independent woman, what do you have to say in response to some who say you started out as an independent woman but have since latched on to DJ D Redd for support?
That would actually be incorrect for them to say that because that's somebody that I actually partnered with. As a matter of fact, what they don't know is when I was down here by myself, he was the main person playing my record because he liked it that much. When you look at my promotion and the co-sign's that I'm getting, hey, that ain't D Redd. But people would say that because I'm a girl, he's a guy. Now if I was a dude, it'd be totally different.

Tell us about Black Diamonds.
I wasn't even working on Black Diamonds when I started tweeting about it; it was just an idea. [A black diamond] is a rare jewel. It's very expensive. I felt like that was me. I'm a rare jewel. I don't come across too many people like me.

Correct me if I''m wrong, but your previous effort Swagged Out Shawty wasn''t a physical release, correct?

Right. It was just something I had just put out there, and it kinda caught wind. From there I think people really see that I can actually rap, that I''m an actual lyricist and not just I can swag rap.

So it's safe to say Black Diamonds is your definitive mixtape?
Yeah, I would say that. I really want to continue to build a buzz. I want to use this to start my catalogue. I don't want to be local forever. It's a humbling feeling. A lot of people support what I'm doing, so I'm just going to use it as motivation to keep going.

Young Nisa''s Black Diamonds Available Now On iTunes!!!''