If looks could kill, Teairra Mari’s peepers would be her murder weapons. “My eyes can be intimidating,” says the singer, born Teairra Maria Thomas. “Sometimes I’ll just be sitting there singing melodies in my head, and somebody will come up to me, like, ‘Why do you have an attitude?’” Take one look at her past of shattered dreams, however, and her anger is justified. When she was only a senior at Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts in 2005, Jay-Z crowned her “Princess of the Roc.” By 2006, however, she was left feeling like the court jester. Unceremoniously, she was dropped from Roc-A-Fella, without so much as a phone call from Mr. Carter.

What didn’t kill her, though, has only made the scorned beauty stronger. Now 20, Mari’s back with a new album on Interscope, a role in the feature film The Doorman and a modeling gig as the spokesmodel for Jean Addicts, ex-B2K member Lil Fizz’s new denim line. Time to officially get that dirt off her shoulder.

On your new comeback single, “No No,” you sound like a woman fed up. Is it based on a true story?
Yes. I snuck and got an apartment in Atlanta when I was 17. My mom didn’t know anything about it. I was on the road, but every time I got a break, I was going to my place in Atlanta. I had a boyfriend and he was just poison. This guy, he did me dirty. He was emotionally abusive and so controlling.

How so, exactly?
One time he flipped and started throwing juice and water on my 60-inch flat-screen TV. Then he had the nerve to pull a gun out on me! I left the relationship and went home to Detroit. My mother and my family are going to read this interview and be like, “What?!”

There were rumors that you and Lil’ Wayne were together. Care to clear the air?
He’s a good friend, we’ve hung out a couple of times. I was attracted to him for a second, but then it grew into a nice friendship.

“Friendship,” huh?
He’s a charmer, like an old-school kind of guy when it comes to being charming. But no, we’re not engaged. I had a ring on my engagement finger, and everybody was like, “Oh, my God, you’re engaged!” No, I’m not, and if I was, I hope that wouldn’t be the ring! [Laughs] I used to read blogs and really care about what people said, but now I read it and laugh or I don’t read it at all. “Big ups to all my haters!” Nice line, Shawty Lo.