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Mia X is still overwhelmed by all the love and respect she’s garnered since her triumphant performance at No Limit and Cash Money’s Verzuz battle, but she understands why she’s getting her flowers from Hip-Hop heads of all ages.

The New Orleans legend was the leading lady alongside the No Limit Soldiers during the return of Verzuz at ComplexCon last month. Just days after the show, Mia X boarded the Rock The Bells cruise to perform at the pool deck and connect with loyal fans. The hype surrounding her outstanding performance was still fresh in the minds of guests on the boat, and she’s still shocked by it all.

“I’m grateful [for] how people feel, and I think it’s because they don’t see me a lot,” Mia X tells iHeartRadio. “I left the game in ’99, so they don’t see me. And I think seeing me is what’s making them like, ‘oh my God,’ because it’s been a long time. Whereas you see a lot of the guys are still working.”

Mia X says she’s been on point since Master P, Silkk The Shocker and other No Limit artists began touring again in 2019. During Verzuz, the Mama Drama rapper took center stage with her gritty performance of “Freak Hoes.” She also stole the show when she served up her verse on “Bout It Bout It” alongside Master P. Fans and fellow artists immediately took to social media to praise Mia X for her performance. Some people claimed she carried the entire show and led No Limit to victory.

The event was more of a celebration of both iconic record labels than an actual battle. When it comes to her opponents, Mia says it’s all love. She was in the crowd when Juvenile and Mannie Fresh hit the stage for the first night of the cruise, and has a 36-year friendship with Birdman and Slim. At Verzuz, she said she had just finished hugging Baby and Slim right before the Cash Money co-founder called Hot Boys rapper Turk “a b***h” on stage. The camera caught Mia’s reaction in real time, and her face was priceless enough to spark some memes. Although the viral moment added to the hype around her appearance, Mia wasn’t laughing about it.

“I’m just standing in the back,” she recalls. “I’m talking to another one of our friends. I don’t know. We talk funny in New Orleans, and we are kind of passionate to the point where people confuse it with aggression. At first, when I heard it, I was like, ‘wait, what?’ Was that one of them moments? And the camera just happened to take it and frame it, and I don’t know, and it turned into that. But yeah, I wish that’d go away.”

The battle has helped shed more light on Mia X than ever before. After Master P signed her to No Limit in 1995, Mia dropped her debut album Good Girl Gone Bad, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this month. She followed up with two more albums, Unlady Like and Mama Drama, before she took an extended hiatus from music. During our interview, the veteran artist, who also teaches Hip-Hop at Loyola University and owns Mama Mia’s Foods, discusses how her debut album changed her life and co-signs the new women in Hip-Hop, from Kash Doll to GloRilla and Cardi B.

“I really, really love Kash Doll. I love Glo,” Mia says. “My all-time favorite, she’s still underground, but very much so worldwide. She’s from home, 3D Na’Tee. But yeah, I listen to everybody. I absolutely love, love Cardi. I feel like Cardi is my niece just because of her personality outside of the music. She definitely has some jams, but all of the ladies. I’m really, really feeling them.”

Watch our entire interview with Mia X below.