HHDX: On your MySpace blog, you said that you’ve only been rhyming for a year. Besides your deep love of hip-hop, what got you into wanting to be an MC?
Persia: It was pretty much a choice of what I do as a career. My mother had told me that I have a gift with words. I was about to write a book of poetry, but it wasn’t until someone heard me rhyming in the shower when I knew I had something going on. They thought it was hot, but I had friends in the industry who heard me rhyme. They always said that I should find my flow. So, when I saw the ad for the show, I never thought that I was going to win or even be accepted. I wanted to be on television, you know? But I was too old for the Real World and I didn’t go to college, so this (the show) was something that I wanted to do. At the auditions, when I got a chance to spit, everyone was like, “Wow…” I knew that my wordplay was sick, it’s been that way for a long time. But people always told me to work on it. So, when I did and Serch was impressed, I instantly became cocky from that point on.

HHDX: Over the course of the show, you got to meet influential cats like Kurtis Blow and Brand Nubian to underground champs like La Coka Nostra and Kool Keith. So, through it all what was your favorite experience and what did you take away from the show overall?
Persia: My favorite experience would have been when we got to meet Brand Nubian. I almost fainted! I mean I grew up rapping "Slow Down". My mom thought that that was really disgusting [laughs]. But I never in my life thought that I would meet them. I met M.O.P.. I had a mutual somebody who introduced me to them. Up until then, I thought that life was good… that was before I met Brand Nubian. In the end, seeing the great hip-hop icons actually impressed with my flow was better than winning. From guests to people in the house saying that I’m the realest person they met, was better than having the $100,000.

HHDX: White rappers have went from a novelty act to multi-platinum success. But your fellow contestants said that the (White) Rapper Show was a joke; that it mainly wanted to point of the racial differences within the hip-hop culture. What do you think?
Persia: I personally think that if you present yourself to be a joke than that’s what you will look like on television. You got to think that these people are supposed to be the “shit” where they’re from. But if they came from their hometowns, believing that they’re the truth, but they’re really a joke… then they have to face the fact that they’re not the truth… and have it aired on TV. Ego Trip is making fun of the race, but you have to take it from 0 to 100. You have the true hip-hop heads, then you have the cast who are strictly Malibu’s Most Wanted. Continued on page 3 »