Back at the end of June, I had the privilege of interviewing Sophia Chang for Cosmo Baker’s season finale of his Book Club hosted at 48 Record Bar. If you’re familiar with Ms. Chang, then you understand the scope of her influence in the music industry, not just for me as a woman, but as an Asian-American woman as well. Sophia Chang has been a part of Hip-Hop and R&B careers that you wouldn’t even be able to imagine, with members of the Wu-Tang like Ghostface and RZA singing her praise and idols like D’Angelo taking her every bit of feedback.

When Sophia and I got a chance to sit down together, it was for her most recent book release, The Baddest Bitch in the Room. Within the first few pages, I was sobbing. She recounted her family’s experiences with navigating South and North Korea, a story very similar to the partition of India and Pakistan. She narrated growing up as a first-generation Asian-American, feeling surrounded by her peers, but then found a home in Hip-Hop. So many elements of her story felt like deja vu.

Selfishly, much to the disappointment of the fans who came to hear Sophia talk about her memories with the Wu and her bond with ODB in particular, I hijacked the conversation to talk about other nuances in the book. I needed to know how Sophia navigated the Hip-Hop industry as a desirable, independent, beautiful woman. How did she command so much respect? How did it not interfere with her career? What started off as a conversation became a therapy session as we talked about our shared experiences as women in an industry that we both love, but know we have to fight through. We discussed being children of Asian immigrants, and how, although sometimes they don’t understand what we do, we were anomalies in receiving support and trust with our careers. We also examined why being a woman in this industry is so influential, despite what others around us tell us.

You can hear the entire conversation below, and you can find Sophia Chang’s The Baddest Bitch in the Room in all bookstores. She also has a new book on the way!