Off the mic, Mala is quiet, perhaps even shy. She’s soft spoken in conversation; petite in stature. Got the Latino cutie from the Bronx thing going for her with her swagger. Had she and I not sat right next to each other during a networking social back in September 2008, I wonder if we would have ever met…but we did. In the midst of pretentious and self promoting chatter, Mala and I managed to have some real talk. I shared that I was a writer, she shared that she was a rapper, and things flowed naturally from there. By the end, before even hearing her music, I knew I wanted to interview her and expose her to my modest but growing readership that is not strictly hip hop. The feeling seemed mutual since Mala is a one woman show…from a mom to her music. Funny, she didn’t know that the “business” card I handed her was crafted by me the night before, emailed to Kinko’s around midnight, and then picked up en route to the airport the next day (the day we met), nearly missing my flight in the process. Or, that this was the very first time that I was going anywhere under the pretense of being a writer. In a way, we were and are 2 ladies trying to make things happen for ourselves. To this very day, I still kick myself for not putting her story out to you sooner, but I guess everything has its right space and time.