Four years after her worldwide smash, the explicit 'My Neck, My Back (Lick It)', Khia returns to the rap game with her sophomore LP, 'Gangstress'. Since her last outing in the hip hop industry, rumors have been abound as to the Philly rapper's whereabouts - some had her locked up in jail, others dead. But, as Seven found out, the mother of two is well and truly alive, and has been keeping herself busy on tour across the globe and in the studio, working on her latest album.

What have you been up to since 'Thug Misses'? Why did it take you so long to come out with another album?

I've been on the road, touring. Just as big as it was here in the States, 'Thug Misses' was huge overseas, in Japan, Africa, Greece and Brazil… So I do a lot of touring overseas, in the UK and Europe. It's definitely been all work and all love just to be able to tour and be able to have a song that has stuck and had the impact that 'My Neck, My Back (Lick It)' and the album 'Thug Misses' did. The fans [have been] overwhelming, so I guess I really have been busy.

You don't have any features on your new LP, was there any reason for this?

No, I don't do features; I didn't do features on my first album, and I don't feel I need them. You know, I think a lot of artists piggy back off of features and you get an album and it's full of features… I just don't feel that I need that on my album.

Your new single, 'Snatch Da Kat Back', is kind of a ladies' anthem again, like 'My Neck, My Back' was…

Yeah, again! Well, I just felt that every woman in the world has wanted to snatch her cat back from somebody, and I chose that single because I knew a lot of women would be able to relate. It's definitely a 'respect me' track for the ladies, you know, it's like if a guy's not respecting you, messing with other women, or just not treating you right, then you just gotta snatch ya cat back!

You've criticised other female rappers before for using ghostwriters write their lyrics. How do you feel about that now?

That's a good question, because I'm kinda against artists who do that. A lot of people are like, 'Oh, you don't respect other female artists', but I'm like, it's because a lot of female artists out don't write all their songs themselves - you can tell that they have ghostwriters; other females can't relate 'cos it's too hardcore, for a man it's pleasing to the ears. I've been in this industry; I know what goes on. As an artist, a writer and song composer, I'm kinda against it, especially when you act like you write your own stuff when you know that you don't. I'm against that.

The image you have at the moment has been described as 'porn for hip hop' - is that kind of an alter ego for yourself?

Hmm… it's not really like porn… Just everything I talk about is real, and is from life experiences. I think talking about relationships and sex and guys is something women can kinda relate to, and my music is sexually explicit, but it's just me being real, raw and uncut. People have come up to me and said, 'You're like the porn of hip hop; we love 'My Neck, My Back', it's so graphic, so real!' It's not just my music, anything that I rap or write about is real because it's me. I wouldn't really call it porn, it's just female aggression in the topics that I'm talking about.

Due to your image, you've been treated quite harshly by the media. What do you have to say to these critics?

I'm not really good with all of this industry stuff. I'm just real and hands on with my business. I'm independent, so definitely, I don't have people who go any pay for radio and pay for four or five videos and pay for me to be on the cover of every magazine. Those artists who have that are still not really selling records so to me, being independent and selling 800,000 copies my first time, doing my own writing, in control of my own projects, my own masters, publishing, copyright… A lot of artists don't have this much control over their project and they want the fame and the TV time and the exposure, but they're broke and they're not in control of the situation. I'm independent and handle my business; I'm really happy with that.

You call yourself the Queen of the South - do you see any competition from anyone else?

No, never! I call myself the Queen of the South because I am an independent female artist and I came out by myself. A lot of female artists out there came out piggybacking off a man's label; they're always the first lady of this, the first lady of that. You have Trina with Slip-N-Slide, Lil' Kim with Biggie, and Foxy/Jay-Z, Remy/Fat Joe… Every single female has come out under a label and used that as a crutch. They had ghostwriters, they had the men to kind of introduce them; I never had that. I came out by myself, I didn't have a major label, and I didn't have a guy to say this is Khia, the first lady of… So I call myself the Queen because I moved mountains by myself.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

I wanna do some acting, some real, hood stuff. I'm hoping I can maybe bring one of my books to life. I definitely wanna write some scripts and do some movies and producing, so I'm just trying to do my music and write my books.

Gangstress is out now on Thug Misses Entertainment/Warlock Records.

For more info on Khia, visit her official websites:www.khiagangstress.com

or www.myspace.com/khiagangstress