Dominican singer and Love & Hip-Hop: Miami breakout star Amara La Negra stopped by The Breakfast Club where she discussed with hosts Charlamagne, Angela Yee, and DJ Envy the topics of Afro-Latinism, rumors that plague her, ventures into film and fashion, her hair, her love life and, of course, her music and the show that put her on the map in America. Read excerpts and watch the interview below.

ON BEAUTY STANDARDS: I just feel like there’s this standard of beauty in the entertainment industry that you have to look a certain type of way in order to be “pretty.” Your hair needs to be straight and silky in order to be pretty. Or, if you’re Latina, you have to look like J. Lo, Sofia Vergara, Shakira. But when you look like me, ‘Oh, you don’t look Latina enough.’ What does that even mean? There isn’t a Latin country that doesn’t have people that look like myself, so why aren’t we on magazines? Why aren’t we in movies?

ON LOVE & HIP-HOP‘S BAD RAP: A lot of people think that Love & Hip-Hop is scripted, it’s not. They’ll put you in certain situations, but whatever comes out of your mouth, is your responsibility. So, at the end of the day, for the people that feel that they’ve been on Love & Hip-Hop and it hasn’t been as uplifting for their career, it really was on you, because they give you the platform; it’s up to you to know how to use it. Don’t be fake for the cameras. If you really gonna be lit, be lit because that’s how you are 24/7.

ON HER MUSIC: I’ve always wanted to do the crossover and honestly, it’s very, very hard to do it independently. I do Latin music, so I want to start doing more “Americanized” music, but I don’t want to lose my essence. I’ll still have that Caribbean vibe to it. So just doing [Love & Hip-Hop], because it’s just such a big platform to be known. From the U.S., you pop up everywhere! So I was like, ‘Oh my God, one day, I really want to be able be at like the Billboard [Awards] and the Grammys–in English’!

ON HER DATING LIFE: I am single. Someone hit me up, one of the cast members, I won’t say who, like, ‘Oh, now there’s this rumor that you and I are dating.’ I was like, ‘Ok, watch this.’ [I wrote] ‘I’m single’ [on my Instagram Story]. And I wrote it in Spanish too, just in case, let’s be clear. I know it sounds corny and I say it all the time, but I’m super-focused in my career right now. I don’t want to dedicate any time to anything that’s gonna distract me. I can’t dedicate time to like, ‘Oh, text me…where you at?…What you doing?…I love you…I love you too.’ Like, this is not the moment. I’ll do that eventually at some other time.