Fredro Starr first came to the public's attention back in '93 when, as a member of the now-legendary Onyx, he helped bring hip-hop's hardcore underground to the mainstream with the classic Backdafucup. Since those days, Starr has also made a rep for himself as an actor who's brought real ghetto flavor to films as diverse as Save the Last Dance and Spike Lee's Clockers, as well as Brandy's hit UPN sitcom, Moesha. But Starr hasn't given up his musical career or let Hollywood turn him soft -- he's back with a whole new set of bangers called Firestarr, and here's his story.

"It's the hottest new album out," says Starr, with his trademark modesty. "It's the most controversial album of 2001. The controversy? I'm the controversy, you know what I'm sayin'? I'm just the illest nigga in rap, and I don't give a fuck -- how's that?

"I think Firestarr is a more musical album," he continues, "A more mature album. It's still hard, but at the same time, I think it's sexy. My favorite track is 'What If.' It's gonna be my next single, and I think it's the most controversial song on the album, because I speak about so many different things and go in so many different directions. It's not a song that talks about a girl or a gun, or cars or whatever. It talks about, 'What if Eminem was black / Would he have sold 5 mil?' and things like 'What if Biggie never died?' to 'What if the kids at Colombine had been popular?' My other favorite is the 'Dying for Rap' remix, with Capone-N-Noreaga, Outlawz, and Cuban Link. That song right there is like a monument to street records and all the people who really are ready to die for rap."

If Starr seems a little too excited in talking up the album, consider that he hasn't been in the studio since Onyx's '98 release -- Shut 'Em Down -- dropped. He's been working hard and paying his dues in Hollywood, and this is his creative outlet -- so let the man do his thing. Still, you've got to wonder if someone who writes rhymes such as "Perfect Bitch" worries about alienating the fans that only know him from his TV persona. "This music thing was happening before Moesha," he says. "And I'm doing it for me, so I don't sweat the rawness. If people -- kids -- who know me from Moesha want to get my record, I'll definitely have a clean version for them to get, but it's on the parents to make sure that they get the correct one for their age."

Besides, there are a lot of heads out there who've really missed Onyx's aggressive ultra-violence. "I think there's been a void for Onyx," Starr says, "But I feel that groups like M.O.P. and guys like Ja Rule and DMX have kept the door open for us. I don't think our sound is missed. So, when we come back, it won't be like something new; it will just be like us taking our slot back -- and we all know who's the rightful owner of that slot."

That's right -- he said "come back." A re-tooled Onyx is planning a return to the stores late in 2001, but you don't have to wait that long for a fix, because another Onyx veteran -- Sticky Fingaz -- already guests on Firestarr. "You know," says Starr, "Sticky's my little cousin, so we're always in the studio trying to outdo each other, and we have insight into each other. We're good like that. He's on my album, and I'm on his album, and we're both gonna do the Onyx album, which will be out in the wintertime."

But, for now, all eyes are on Starr and his solo joint -- and he's loving it. "I feel great that I can spit my rhyme in a booth and not have to worry about making a living off my hard work," he says. "The reason why I wasn't putting out any records with Onyx is because it wasn't even worth going into the studio and spittin' so we could get two cents off of every record. Please... That's why I went to Hollywood; that's why I started doin' movies. My son, he needs a college fund. I gotta pay rent, I got car bills -- it's real. I ain't rappin' for free."

"Of course you're gonna have haters -- for every person that loves me, there's two people that hate me."

Going to L.A. and getting involved in the acting game was definitely the right move for Starr, as it's paid off with high-profile gigs such as the box-office hit Save the Last Dance. But -- according to Starr -- the experience was as much fun as it was work. "It was cool working on the movie," he says. "It was shot in Chicago for three months in the freezing cold. But shooting the movie was like going to a club every day. The movie was about dancing, so there was a lot of that; we had like 200 or 300 extras every day. There was a lot of chicks, a lot of weed smoking -- so I got my groove on. I was in my own element; I didn't feel out of place."

But it wasn't so easy for him. "In '95, '96 was when I first went to L.A.," says the Queens, N.Y.-bred rapper. "That was in the heat of the whole East Coast/West Coast shit. I didn't have any problems, personally, but when you were out in the clubs, you felt a tension -- you felt how powerful these two dudes [Tupac and Biggie] were. They had a beef amongst themselves, but they made two whole coasts ride their backs with that shit. You felt the power of rap."

Luckily, Starr didn't have too many problems -- his charisma won over most of the haters: "I'm a dude that people from the ghetto can relate to -- no matter what ghetto you're from. Real respects real, and I consider myself a real person. I don't hide behind the money or the glamour or jewelry -- any of that shit. Of course, you're gonna have haters -- for every person that loves me, there's two people that hate me. People can hate me, but they hate me because they don't know to love me. I love my haters, though. We need the haters to keep us spicy, but I don't worry about them. I let the haters watch from the sidelines."