Soon after Major Coins broke up, Amil decided to follow a solo career. She became a part of the group associated with Jay-Z‘s label, Roc-A-Fella, joining the 1999 Hard Knock Life Tour. After the tour she appeared as a guest on albums for Mariah Carey, Jermaine Dupri, and Funkmaster Flex. Amil released her first solo project through Roc-A-Fella, All Money Is Legal, in late 2000.
“For a female in this game to write her own stuff is a big statement,” Amil says. “I hope that with All Money Is Legal, people will get the chance to hear what I have to say and the life that I’ve lived.”
All Money Is Legal gives you many facets of that life. For example, “Quarrels,” which Amil calls the deepest cut on the album. “Quarrels” features Carl Thomas and talks about temptations and the Devil. “Smile” is an honest and unflinching page out of Amil’s biography. On “How U Wanna Get Down,” Amil steps out of her role as outspoken rapster and offers proof of her prowess as a singer. According to Amil, “All of these songs were just in me and finally it was time to let them out.”
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.” Read more about Amil here.