Foxy Brown is one busy woman. After trading numerous calls with her publicist, I finally encounter the Brooklyn Queen via telephone, one week after the day we were originally scheduled to speak. At the end of long and hectic day, she calls from a chic New York hotel at 12:35 a.m. EST, yet signs of fatigue aren't easily detectable in her voice; in fact, 19-year-old Foxy Brown (born Inga Marchand) is about as bubbly as a Miss America finalist. She is in especially high spirits when recalling of the birth of Chyna Doll, her latest musical manifestation.

"What I wanted to do was basically go back to when I didn't have a record deal-- that hunger that I had during my first record," says the chocolate wonder. "A lot of times, people tend to get comfortable when they start selling records and becoming famous. They don't put as much effort into it. I did too at the beginning. The first couple of [songs] on this new album were [wack]. I was like, 'What am I doing? This ain't the Foxy they wanna hear.' You can't slip."

Pointing to the mediocre sophomore efforts of other artists as the motivating factor behind her efforts to stay fly, Foxy came up with a plan to keep herself rooted in roughness. She left the ritzy environment of her New Jersey dwelling and went back home to the streets of Brooklyn, where her first massive hit album--Ill Na Na--was born. "It was just the fact that it was a different environment than where I live now," she explains. "Plus the culture out there, just being in the 'hood. When I went back in my little room at my mom's house and saw Salt 'N Pepa and Heavy D [posters] hanging on the wall, I just felt it."

Considering the glitzy images emanating from her "Hot Spot" video, it's hard to imagine Foxy could've ever been a short tomboy from Brooklyn; the shape of her backside, the curve of her breasts, and the defiant adult image that hangs on bedroom walls across America all hide any trace of that lost little girl. But little Inga has experienced much more than just fame and fortune these last few years.

When speaking about her latest CD, Foxy says the release will give people a look at her life experiences. "When people hear [Chyna Doll], they're gonna say, 'That girl went through a lot at a young age.' I was dealing with teachers and principals and lawyers and accountants," she explains. "You got to fight to earn your respect in this business. Some people perceive it as being bitchy, but that's just how it is."

If anyone should know what the business is like, it's Ms. Brown. She first came to the attention of rap fans at the tender age of 15, when she flowed on LL Cool J's "I Shot Ya." Listeners next heard Foxy on Jay-Z's "Ain't No Nigga," spouting the most recognized line of that year: "Ain't no nigga like the one I got/ Sleeps around but he give me a lot." Her distinctive musical style and feminine persona quickly made her a hot commodity, and artists like Total and Case asked her to do guest spots on their projects. The New York native continued to gain a reputation as the pampered princess of Dr. Dre's rap family the Firm, which also included Nas, Cormega and AZ.

Without the luxury of ever having released a single of her own, Foxy's debut album sold 1.5 million copies--enough units to push it over the platinum-status mark. Foxy explains, "On my first album I was really young, so I was expressing what I wanted to have. This album is about having it all."

About the heartfelt new Chyna Doll track "My Life," she says, "There's a verse about how my father wasn't around that much, so that made me fall for these thugs. I thought maybe they weren't supposed to care about me that much because my father didn't."

But now, as the fiancée of Kurupt (one half of the rap ensemble Tha Dogg Pound), Foxy's found love in its truest form. "We've been engaged for two years, but have been together for three. Three very beautiful years," she says, her voice trailing off into a girlish giggle. "I'm his first love and he's mine. He's a sweet person and you know he has to be extra, extra special to become my fiancée."

Foxy also says that her relationship with her pop--who left her family when she was four years old--is fantastic today. "Oh yeah, I love him dearly and speak to him to this day. I try not to hold that against him, but he definitely needs not to be credited for things he didn't do. My mother was the one who took us to the emergency room when we were sick, and she was the one who helped us with our homework. I had a decent upbringing, but we didn't have everything we wanted. We didn't starve, but Christmas wasn't always the best time of the year."

This year, though, Foxy could add Santa to her Christmas list. Think the fat man would dig a diamond-studded sleigh?
Source: http://music.yahoo.com/read/interview/12047996