The competition is getting stiff. With four ladies left in the house tensions rise as the girls continue their quest for $100,000 and the title of Miss Rap Supreme. With only a few days left in the house, Chiba decides it’s time to end the feud between herself and Byata. But while in friendly conversation, Chiba let’s the cat out of the bag and admits to using pre-written rhymes in competition, leading to yet more controversy within the house.
After all of the girls except Chiba stumble during their challenge of creating a verse about “peace” for young girls who were once involved in gang violence, questions arise about Chiba’s use of recycled lyrics. Byata, convinced that Chiba’s cheating, tells judges her concerns which are “duly noted” by Serch and Yo-Yo. However, because the freshness of Chiba’s verse could neither be denied nor confirmed she was still labeled the winner of the challenge and given the keys to the ‘Salt-N-Pepa Suite’. Because the competition is down to the final wire, however, she was not given immunity from elimination. This new development proved to be fatal to Chiba; when the girls were given the elimination freestyle topic of the word “Bitch,” Chiba strayed from the subject matter and was ultimately told to “Step off!”
This week, HipHopDX spoke with the Georgia femcee to get the real scoop on whether or not she cheated in competition, her beef with Byata, working with on The Juice Crew movie., and the near fatal car crash that forced her to now keep her left eye covered.
HipHopDX: How long have you been rapping for?
Chiba: Oh, I’ve been rapping since about 200 or 2001. After my car accident I really got into writing music just to express everything that I was going through at that particular time. I just thought about a lot of things because after the car accident I couldn’t go outside for about a year. So I started thinking about my talents that I wanted to bring out.
DX: Can you tell us a little more about that fateful day of the car-crash?
C: I went out with a couple of people I didn’t really know too well. Something was put in my drink and the guy was trying to take me to wherever he was trying to take me to, and he crashed into a utility pole and I went through the window. So now I have to wear sunglasses because I can’t close my left eye. It doesn’t close completely and it’s very sensitive to light. And also stuff gets into the eye and irritates it because I can’t blink. So people always think [I cover my eye with sunglasses or my hair] because I’m trying to hide my scar, but it’s not that; I’m protecting the vision that I have left in my eye. If I don’t wear glasses stuff is constantly getting in my eye.
DX: I read on your MySpace that you’re working on your own label and publishing company called Jerzey Peach Records. Can you speak that project?
C: Yeah, that’s basically something that’s gonna happen once I get myself situated. I have to build things up so I can work on that. But right now I’m just trying to get signed with a big label so that later on I can be established enough to start Jerzey Peach Records.
DX: Ok. Well moving on to the show, what do you think was the beginning of the end for you and Byata?
C: I think it was when I won the first challenge.
DX: So you think it was a jealousy thing?
C: Oh yeah. Definitely. Plus, she let other [contestants] come in and change the bond that we had. Reece, for instance, she saw how close me and Byata were getting, and she didn’t like that so she wanted to break it up. I was really hurt by that because I really had strong feelings for Byata; we connected more than any other girls on the show. And it hurt me that she let someone else come in and take that.
DX: On the show, you had a conversation with your daughter back home. Was she the only reason you wanted to make amends with Byata or had you thought about it before?
C: It’s something I thought about on my own, but once I spoke with my daughter it really [affected me].
DX: Later on while you were talking to Byata and Reece you admitted to using pre-written rhymes. Do you think that was fair, especially since Khia got kicked off for the same thing earlier in the competition?
C: Yea but Khia [click to read] used verses from records she sold. In our contract it said we could use whatever we had as long as it hadn’t been sold or copy written. So when we were doing certain challenges other than elimination, I did have something that was already written and the producer’s had no problem with that. And if that was the case then they woulda been kicked me off of the show.
DX: Do you think any of the other girls were using pre-written rhymes?
C: Of course they did! They just wasn’t woman enough to admit it! And once I did admit it Cherry was like, “I didn’t know we could use stuff we already had!”…well, y'all didn’t read your contracts! The producers said “Chiba, there’s $100,000 on the line. If you got something that’s hot and fits the topic; use it.” The only time you couldn’t use something you already wrote was for elimination freestyles. That’s what Khia did, she used somethin’ that she had already sold records to for elimination.
