Exclusive: Lil Mama Remembers Deceased Mom On Mothers Day

In December of 2007 Lil Mama lost her mother, Tara Kirkland, to cancer. In light of Mothers Day, caught up with Lil Mama to consider what kind of advice her mom would give her if she was here today.

"I'm going through like an emotional rollercoaster," Mama admitted to. Though she is still dealing her mother's death, Lil Mama is trying hard not to let her emotions interfere with her budding rap career.

"Sometimes your personal issues can get in the way of what's really going on and you don't want that to affect how people look at things because you might only get one chance to prove yourself," she said.

When asked what advice her mother would give her if she was still around today, Lil Mama told, "My mother would tell me to keep working, keep going hard and always keep a smile on my face."

"And she would definitely tell me to treat people today how I would expect them to treat me tomorrow because you don't want to build any bad relationships."

Lil Mama is certainly taking her mother's advice to heart. Since December, the pint sized emcee has released her debut album, Voice of the Young People, and videos for her T-Pain and Chris Brown collabo, "Shawty Get Loose" and her new single, "L.I.F.E."

She also took advantage of the opportunity to be a celebrity judge on MTV's dance competition show America's Best Dance Crew.

"At this time in my life, when I'm dealing with issues like losing my mom and being away from my family so much, being on the road, I could've said no to a deal like that but I said yes because these are some of the experiences that I might not be able to get a second chance at doing and I'm happy that I'm doing it now."