You grow up watching Tina Turner, Janet Jackson and Queen Latifah, reading Toni Morrison, studying Assata Shakur and Angela Davis. Thelma and Louise is in there, too. You see, in Pam Grier, how to flaunt your sexuality without guilt. You figure out what those women in Virginia Slims ads never did -- to take your independence for granted.

Nineteen-year-old Inga Marchand is that girl -- the one who came up in Brooklyn, under a brilliant constellation of female icons, to become Foxy Brown. She blazed into hip-hop on a collaboration with a then-unknown Jay-Z called "Ain't No Nigga" (still jailbait at sixteen, she told him, "I swear you be killin' me, playin' inside my pubic hairs!"). She ripped through a hot debut, 1996's Ill Na Na, and a collaboration with Nas and AZ, 1997's The Firm (which landed her a sonic cameo in Jackie Brown), all the while rhyming as badass as the boys while putting a sassy femme touch on it. She's hip-hop's addition to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer generation.

Sex is a big part of your package. You're selling yourself along with the rhymes.

Everybody has their gimmick. Lauryn is very positive. Missy and Da Brat are sorta fun and hardcore. Then you have Foxy, who is, like, sex. I don't think my shit is a gimmick -- I think it's real. It's what I am. Every woman has a Foxy Brown in her, meaning just that bad bitch who ain't takin' no shit. But if someone thinks it's a gimmick, you know what my motto is? "Just gimme my check" [Laughs].

Is it sex that sets you apart?

I think it's a touch of arrogance that people like because it's a cute arrogance. Like, I know I'm the shit. But you supposed to know you the shit, too!

How's your new album different from the last?

The last album, I was sixteen and I didn't have a lot of say. I had all men running my career, telling me, do this, do that. Jay-Z came in and said, you gotta say this, and this how you have to be perceived. It was basically mapped out for me. This album I was able to do myself.

How did you prepare?

I went home. Back to Brooklyn and my little room with a little black and white TV and the posters on my wall of Salt-n-Pepa and Heavy D and MC Lyte. I sat there and felt hungry again. After the platinum albums I had to go back to what made me Foxy -- spittin' hard like a nigga.

That hunger makes you tight.

I went home and it was no jewelry, sweat suit, sittin' on the stoop. It was just real. Whenever I'm stuck, I go right back to my room.

Has hip-hop changed a lot since Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac were killed?

It's not fun anymore. You can't go hang out in a club; you can't have a friendly dispute on record. You gotta be like, "Lemme just get the check." When MCs are out in clubs, people wanna challenge them. People wanna embrace a singer, but with a rapper, it's "Yeah, let's see if all the shit you talking on record is real." A singer just sings about love, but when you a rapper, you boasting about how dope you are, and when they see you in person, they definitely wanna challenge that. It's not even fun anymore. And that's real. It's business now.

Is that just you or an industry-wide feeling?

I think it's the majority of rappers.

Being an MC isn't all you dreamed it would be?

Not at all. I have a song on my album called "My Life" that best explains it. Basically Kim [Brown's pre-MC'ing-days friend Lil' Kim] and I used to be in the house just dreaming -- "We're gonna be like Roxanne Shante and Salt-n-Pepa; we're gonna have all the guys and the money and the fame." Now I got the platinum Rolie and the [Benz] 600, and I had the illest nigga alive. But it ain't all it seems to be. It's not.

The legendary Roxanne Shante is one of your favorites?

She was dope! And, excuse my language, but she didn't give a fuck. In the Eighties she was rockin' full-length minks. She had the Juice Crew like I have Jay-Z and Roc-a-Fella. I wouldn't say I'm the Nineties version, but what she did back then, I totally revamped it.

That was a great time to be an MC.

Back then it was so much fun, 'cause you take a dis on a record and you dis 'em back and it just goes on and on and you see each other at a show and give each other five. Now it's like, "OK, I can't say anything back to this person 'cause it's gonna escalate and become extreme."

What do you think about that Monica Lewinsky situation?

I always say Hillary and Faith [Evans, widow of B.I.G.] are the strongest women in the world. Some woman is like, "Yeah, I slept with your man" in public, and you're able to be like, "I'm not even answering that. I know who's the wife." I like the way Faith bounced back and Hillary never humiliated Bill in public. I really have a lot of respect for Hillary. To see stuff like that really helps me in my personal situations a lot.

What would you do if it happened to you?

I couldn't handle it Hillary's way. But I guess that's a part of being a woman. Seeing Hillary shows me we all could get played. You could be the first lady and be humiliated, so you just gotta do what's best for you. 'Cause at the end of the day, it's what makes Inga happy.

TOURE