Mia X has vision.
According to Webster’s, a visionary is “someone or something that thinks about the future or advancements in a creative and imaginative way” or a “person who is ahead of his time and who has a powerful plan for change in the future is an example of a visionary.” She’s known her destiny since the year 1979, when Hip-Hop began a trek into the mainstream.
Mia X made history as a member of Master P’s No Limit Records, but the New Orleans rap matriarch makes it clear to Chuck “Jigsaw” Creekmur – she was doing this before she hopped in the tank. She made an indelible mark as an emcee with a plethora of hit albums, hit songs and even movie appearances. Check out this chat with a legend in music and business.
AllHipHop: Now, we going to get into a lot of the backstory behind how you got to this point, but tell us how your business is going and tell people a little bit about it, and what makes it special?
Mia X: So my business is doing really well. I’m very thankful for that, but it started from me creating a cooking squad on Twitter like 11 years ago. And the squad called Team Whip Dem Pots. And I inspired people to cook. You know, I just want people to cook. I want families to cook. I want people to cook. And so, after that, I started penning my memoir.
AllHipHop: Okay.
Mia X: “Things My Grandma Told Me, Things My Grandma Showed Me.” And it’s a cookbook memoir. I talk about my life, about my time in the music industry. And I talk about my experience with food. It’s like my audience, they moved with me. They transitioned from the music to the food. I was really excited and happy that they didn’t call me a has-been and act like I didn’t exist anymore. They really grew with me and AllHipHop, man.
AllHipHop: So let’s go to that. AllHipHop is turning 25 next year, but you were one of the first people to get down with us outside of just being interviewed and outside of us chasing you or whatever, or being in the news. Talk about that a little bit.
Mia X: So, AllHipHop gave me my first opportunity, and gave me the platform to really talk about my food and all the stories. You guys allowed me to write columns because in a lifestyle section. And I would do excerpts in my book, recipes, just all kind of little stuff. But y’all gave me that platform and people really started to take me serious as a cook. So you know, AllHipHop is family forever, baby.
AllHipHop: We family.
Mia X: Forever.
AllHipHop: (Styles P pulls up) That’s what’s up. Styles P!
Styles P: I’m hopping in. If you plant based, you need a plant based meal, get the vegan cabbage.
Mia X: That’s my vegan cabbage. It’s here today.
AllHipHop: Okay. Bun said you almost put him to sleep today.
Mia X: Because look, he started with a little piece of fish and some red beans. And then he came back for seconds.
AllHipHop: Bun looked like he gets seconds. Maybe thirds.
Mia X: He came back for seconds, but I’m going to get one of those Trill Burgers. I want to try the vegan one, because they said it will shock you.
AllHipHop: They ran out. He said they ran out in four hours. It’s gone.
Mia X: That’s what happened to me with the fish, I’m out of the fish. (She sold over 600 pieces of fish at the Rock The Bells Festival)
AllHipHop: So look, see what people up north don’t understand is that, the key to good food, is the love you put into it. Talk about the love you put into your food.
Mia X: I enjoy cooking for people. I love to see them satisfied. You know, when they take the first bite. And then after they finish the meal, it’s really important to me, when I’m cooking, to make sure people love it. I don’t cook like to make money. I don’t cook just to be cooking. I want people to really have an experience with the food and know, I want to feel like you auntie.
Your mama, your grandma, because I am a grandma. I am a auntie and I am a mama. But I want to feel like that to people who I never met before, especially with food. Food bonds people, the kitchen is the heartbeat of your home. I’m telling you.
AllHipHop: Wow. That’s so serious. Now, for me, right, I’ve tried to cook, and I used to make my daughter spaghetti tacos. Like we used to do anything, because we didn’t know what we were doing. We were literally kind of growing up together. Do you have any recommendation for someone trying to learn how to cook, but just can’t seem to get it together?
Mia X: It’s your Trinity. So, in new Orleans it’s onion, garlic and bell pepper. We season most of our foods that way. Sometimes we add celery to it. And if we doing gravys, we add a little pinch of Thyme. But you’re seasoning is the key to making delicious food. So as long as you know, to season your food, and I’m not talking about salting it, season your food, add your herbs and your spices. You can make anything, I’m talking about anything.
AllHipHop: Right, Right. Thank you for that. I was vegan for a while, like real vegan, for like a short period of time, a year or two or something. And, that was the key to getting through it, seasoning.
Mia X: Seasoning.
AllHipHop: Yeah. Now, hip-hop turns 50 years old. Next year. We’re talking about all aspects of the culture, but, you have a distinct unique perspective. For one, you were down with one of the most iconic… (Sheek Louch of The Lox walks by) Sheek!
Sheek Louch: I see you.
AllHipHop: One of the most iconic labels, No Limit. And you were also a woman in that brand as well. Can you talk about what you went through or the idea that Hip-Hop is a really young culture, but it’s now turning 50?
Mia X: Well, I put a record out three years before I met Master P, and I had been in a game, Mannie Fresh and I, we had been in a group since we were 14. We were in a group with a guy that was actually from Queens. So our group was called New York Incorporated.
But when I got with No Limit, it was like 27 guys, and just me. What I loved about that experience, they never told me what to write. They always let me do my thing. And they never pushed like imagery on me. I had imagery pushed on me from the labels that distributed us, but they never pushed like, “Oh mama, you too fat. Or you need to do this or you need to do that.” They just let me be me. So that was really beautiful. You know, I gained some brothers and our children are… We godparents, like that’s KLC’s son. He’s the executive chef.
AllHipHop: Yeah. Nice.
Mia X: He’s my godchild. And so, we had a real cool family, so it was a good experience. But hip-hop itself, you know, I fell in love with hip-hop in 79. I fell in love in 79. And you know how you have class night at school?
And when you have career day at school, since 1982, the only thing I’ve ever told my teachers was that I was going to be a rapper. I’ve never said I was going to be anything else.
AllHipHop: That’s vision.
Mia X: I mean, and they would call my mom and say, you know that hip-hop, like the Rapping Duke and they would say, hippity bippity, call it all kind of names, because they didn’t recognize it as a genre when I fell in love with it. But I knew hip-hop was going to be special.
AllHipHop: You knew it.
Mia X: I knew it.
AllHipHop: Yeah. A lot of people we talk to say, they didn’t know it. And, that most people were saying it wouldn’t be around, but you knew it.
Mia X: I knew it. And I was like, I’m going to be a rapper from the time when Millie Jackson made, I Had To Say It, I was like, and I could cuss, oh my goodness. I’m going to throw a couple cuss words in there.
AllHipHop: That’s a fact.
Mia X: I knew hip-hop was something special. You know, I knew we had stories to tell, we had a lifestyle. I knew it.