Trina: Feisty. Fly. Fashionable. Miami's hottest female rapper is full of fire and giving the men a run for their money

It wouldn't be correct to call Trina's tale a rags-to-riches story. Considering her impeccably daring flair for style, it's doubtful Miami's first successful female rapper ever wore rags. But she did overcome hardship to become a Diamond Princess, as the title of her just-released second album on Slip-N-Slide/Atlantic Records declares her. When she was a teenager, Katrina Laverne Taylor's boyfriend, Hollywood, was killed by gunfire. A few years later, Trina, 25, made a guest rap on "Nann," a song by Hollywood's brother, Trick Daddy, that got everyone's attention with its sass and salaciousness.

Trina's first album, Da Baddest Bitch, was all street and sex. Her hit from last spring's All About the Benjamins soundtrack, "Told Y'All," was a guide to how to really please a woman in bed. But on Diamond Princess, Trina says she's all grown up. The first single, "No Panties," featuring Tweet and produced by Missy Elliott, is a declaration of female independence.

EVELYN McDONNELL: Working with women on the song "No Panties," did you feel like you could be yourself in a different way?

TRINA: I'm really excited about that song, I'm all geeked up about it. I always wanted to do a song with a female R&B singer, and Tweet, she's adorable, I love her. The all-girl vibe is really good because everybody can speak their mind.

EM: You made your name with this very explicit, frank and sexy persona. Do you think people will miss that on this new album?

T: The whole concept of the album is really hot. It's really fun and bright and commercial. It's not all about selling sex. It's just about me, going from one extreme to the next. It's basically about having fun, being versatile. Because when you do your first album everybody's trying to let you slide by, but it's with your sophomore album that people determine whether you can stand or not. So everything is at a critical point. It's really about collaborating with the different artists that I've worked with on the album and being able to stand up against them and have skills. I have Eve, Ludacris, Missy Elliott, Jagged Edge, Fabolous, Tweet, and the whole Slip-N-Slide family on there, so this album is hot! In some songs I talk about sex, but that's life to me. That's what goes on 24 hours a day around the world, so that's something that's going to always be talked about. With this album, it gives you that fire that Trina gave before, just more upscale. My first was raw and grungy. This time it's glam and real diva-like.

EM: Does that reflect your change in status?

T: Definitely. I can't really talk about the things I was talking about when my first album came out because those aren't the same things I'm doing now. Two years--that's a lot of time to grow up, develop, be more creative, go down a different route. I'm more stable. I'm more focused. I make my business decisions, so I know what I want, what I don't want, what I want to say, what I don't want to say. With the first album, it was like, "OK, here's a topic we want you to talk about and write to this." This time it's like I make the topic. I make the title of the record and I write how I want to write. There's definitely a change within me as far as artist development, growth and turning from just being a rapper to being an artist and entertainer.

EM: Is the Diamond Princess you, or is that a persona?

T: I think Diamond Princess is me, definitely. I think Da Baddest Bitch album was definitely a character. It was me talking about life, growing up from the ages of teenager to early twenties. It was about everything that I'd seen or endured. This time it's about happiness. It's about being exciting, or being able to be a celebrity, not takin' no shit from anybody, just doin' my thing. Basically just being what I want to be, and doing what I want to do, however I want to do it. Trina is the Diamond Princess. Everything is glamorous, real sexy and edgy, making every girl go, "Dang! Look what she's wearing. Look what she's saying." When I step out, it's all about being fly. And there's nothing wrong with that because, you know, you only get one life to live, and you want to live it to the fullest. I'm just very focused and very excited about doing it all again--the performing, the TV shows, the videos. It's like double the fun for me the second time around.

EM: So when you're enjoying your celebrity, and you're going shopping or out in South Beach, do you look back at some of the rougher times that you've had and feel as if you've really accomplished something? I mean, you've lost a boyfriend to violence ...

T: Definitely that plays a part of life itself. I always look back and believe I'm very blessed, because people actually have dreams about the life that I live, and for me to have been one of those people who dreamed about being a celebrity, and now to actually be living that life, that's a blessing itself. I look back on losing somebody that I was involved with, and seeking happiness again after that and being able to move on. Anything that life brings me now, I just look at it as, Can I handle this? If it's bad, I try to make it good, and if it's good, I try to make it better.