Lisa Lisa is back and better than ever! With a new album set to drop this summer and the annual Freestyle Extravaganza tomorrow, we decided to sit down with this Latina legend to see what sort of wisdom she would drop on us.

Your big Freestyle Extravaganza is coming up on June 20th at Madison Square Garden! How does it feel to perform on stage in front of fans who have loved you for over 20 years?

Words can’t describe. I get up there and still to this day I’m nervous as hell before I get on stage, I feel like I’m going to throw up! But I get up there and all of a sudden, I’m out. The audience is what keeps me coming back. I live to be on the stage. I’ve been in this business almost twenty nine years and to know that I still have that following. I thank all the fans and I pay them homage.

29 years? Wow! That’s what you call longevity! So where did it all begin?

I started singing when I was about 4 years old, in the church choir with my mother and my sisters. I’m the youngest of ten, they used to call us “las hijas de Maria.” When I was about 16 I got a message from a friend saying a guy was looking for a female girl group. I told him to meet me at the Fun House, because I heard that was where Madonna got discovered and I thought, “Well, why not me?!” I met Mike Hughes, who turned out to be one of the guys from Cult Jam, and he told me to come to this audition. I had to sneak out of school, there was this long line of girls and I was the last one. It was around midnight, and was thinking about how my mami was going to kill me! Finally, I tried out, and that following Tuesday I recorded “Take You Home” and “Can You Feel the Beat.”

What do you think made you stand out besides your voice?

My boobs (laughing). That’s the honest to God truth, I’m keeping it real. That’s where I get the two Lisa’s from, the guys kept looking at my boobs saying, “Lisa, Lisa,” and it stuck.

What made you want to get back into the studio and release a new album?

It was time. We’ve been putting this album together for many, many years―and after fourteen years, life and love finally came together. Everything that’s put in here, it’s real. The most meaningful song to me is called, “Hold It All Inside” and it’s a ballad in both English and Spanish. It’s written by Stephanie Serraco (Lisa’s best friend, manager and song writer). Every time I sing that song, no matter where, no matter how―I cry.

What’s different with this album?

It’s a combination of everything I’ve done, everything I’ve learned in this business. But I think the difference is age. I think I sound better now. It’s just growth, you can feel it when you hear it. You can feel that I’m having a really good time here.

You recently had babies and lost a lot of weight, congrats! You look great! How'd you do it?

I gained 72 pounds after having two kids back to back. I felt so tired all the time, running after my kids and trying to keep my career where it is and keep touring. I kept working, working, working up until two weeks before I had the baby. After I had the kids I just knew I had to find something and I started doing Tae Kwon Do and Kick Boxing. Now, I walk in there with attitude so they’re like, “Ay dios mio.” But I’m back into it, I just lost 47 pounds!

Sounds similar to what a lot of working moms struggle with after having children.

Absolutely… My kids are priority, but my kids will go with me wherever I go. If I have to kick box, I tell them, “Sit on the floor and watch mommy.” I had to do it for me because I was feeling really bad about myself and I had to get back into something to make me better. I finally feel like myself again.

You’ve been through a lot in the last few years, two childbirths, breast cancer, a big weight loss: What advice do you have for other women facing tough times?

The only thing that made me see the light at the end of the tunnel was my mother. If she can raise ten kids, single woman, all by herself and have us turn out alright then I can do anything. You also have to take responsibility. You gotta make it happen, can’t nobody do it for you, you have to do it on your own. I would never ever change anything that I’ve been through in my life, I don’t regret anything because that’s what made me, me. I do believe that the higher being doesn’t give anything you can’t handle.