Amil

Amil Kahala Whitehead (born September 19, 1973) is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. She was prominent in the late 1990s as a Jay-Z protégé, and recorded the single "Can I Get A..." with him from the Rush Hour soundtrack.

In 1997, Amil was involved with an all-female group called "Major Coins". The group met Jay-Z, who was looking for a woman to provide vocals on his third album, Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life. The part for the female rapper was really for her friend, but when Jay-Z asked Amil to freestyle and liked it, he decided to put her on the song instead. Amil, wanting to remain loyal to her friend, did not prefer to be put on the song, but Jay-Z allowed them both to do a version of the song.

Soon after Major Coins broke up, Amil decided to follow a solo career with Jay-Z's label, Roc-A-Fella Records, joining the 1999 Hard Knock Life Tour. After the tour, she appeared on songs with Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, Jermaine Dupri, AZ, DJ Kay Slay, LL Cool J and Funkmaster Flex.

Throughout her career, she has appeared on many songs with Jay-Z including "Nigga What, Nigga Who" which also featured Jay-Z, the hit-single, "Can I Get A..." that featured Ja Rule and other collaborations with him including "Hey Papi", "Do It Again (Put Ya Hands Up)", "S Carter", "Heard It All", "You, Me, Him and Her", "That's Right", "Playa" and lastly, "4 Da Fam" and "For My Thugs" that both featured Memphis Bleek and Beanie Siegel. On September 19, 2000 Amil released her debut solo album, A.M.I.L - All Money Is Legal.

All Money Is Legal

Her solo debut, A.M.I.L - All Money Is Legal, was released in 2000. The album featured the single "I Got That", a duet with Beyoncé, and All-Star Roc-A-Fella single "4 Da Fam". The album features Memphis Bleek, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Carl Thomas, Eve, and Beanie Sigel. Amil is a practicing Black Hebrew Israelite and her affiliation is evident on songs such as "Quarrels". Album sales were disappointing, and the singles did not sell well either. After that album, her last Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam single was released: "Hey Papi", a song from the soundtrack to the feature film Nutty Professor II: The Klumps. Due to the fact that she was featured in the video only briefly, it was expected that she had already been dropped by that time. In 2002, Amil had a small role in State Property along with other Roc-a-Fella members such as Dame Dash and Jay-Z.

Later career

In 2005, Amil temporarily re-formed "Major Coinz" and released songs on the mixtape circuit including the single "Glamorous Life" which was featured on MTV Mixtape Monday. In a 2006 interview, when asked whether female MCs are forced to meet standards that male MCs are not, she said: "Oh, yeah. Definitely. You have to be picture-perfect and you have to meet the standards of the perfect woman. That's unreal to me. Real women do not have plastic-looking bodies. The average woman is not a size 0. You can do what you have to do to keep yourself looking like that or you could just be you. Me, I choose to just be me." She went on to say that she holds no grudges against her former labelmates, though she has no communication with them. In 2008, Amil released mixtapes entitled Az Iz and Amil Returns The Lost Classics Edition delivering lyrically with songs such as the emotional "Tears of a Teenage Mother" and the Caribbean vibed "Don't Worry". In August 2011, Amil spoke out through Vibe Magazine and gave the following statement about Jay-Z: "I haven't spoken to Jay in years but I really wish I could talk to him because that would just really bring closure to me. But he knows I love him," she says. "People think there was bad blood between us, but there never was any bad blood. Things happen and I wasn't ready for where my career was going at that time. It was really overwhelming." In July 2012, off of her forthcoming mixtape A time to kill, Amil released new music "Stop" Amil released new music "Remember" in 2014 off of her forthcoming mixtape Another Moment in Life.

Albums

Singles

Album appearances