First off, I want to congratulate you on all your success, because I kind of watched you evolve. Most people from the Bay Area couldn't be there by your side..but we felt like with every episode you went through we were there..we saw you through the media and we were right there. Brothers gotta a lotta love for you here in the Bay Area and we wanna know when you're coming back?
I'm comin' back for sure..and I love the Bay. Everywhere I go..and every episode I've been through, I always felt like I was sharing it..both the good times and the bad times with the Bay Area. I felt like whatever I am the Bay Area had something to do with making me. So if I'm bad they had something to do with making me, and if I'm good they had something to do with making me. Between the east coast, the Bay Area and LA and Baltimore, those places made me....I owe them everything. It's not like I just got love for one block. I got love for those communities.. I got love for those areas because everything about those areas made me who I am...and the people.
From the littlest crack heads, to biggest ballers, to the teachers, to the principals in schools, to the police that pulled me by the arm, to the mammas on the block. To everybody who help raise me and I appreciate it...Cause without a family, they help me put my family back together. Just by all my fans making me who I am now, I got a family again.
When I started rappin' I was talkin' about broken homes and shit, now everybody alright again, just because of my fans being behind me..and makin' it more then just a fan-artist thing..instead it was like them saying, "hey that's our homeboy and we support him." I appreciated that...going to jail, then makin' me number one.. The people made em number one. I appreciate them stickin' up for me when everyone was kickin' me when I was down... That's love and I'll never trade that..so for the Bay and Philly and all those areas and all those ghettos and towns..I love y'all..don't let this east coast west coast thing get to you... I love y'all with all my heart with everything. I do this for y'all. Just know that if it was you, you do the same thing if you were in my position...
It seems like every time you come up on each Album man, with something that will set you back. Like the incident that happened in Berkley back in the day, with the police.. you know and the trails you went through with the lady back East, and then the situation you going now.. I'm wondering, you get caught up in the system, everytime you come up, it seems like it's something bringing you back down. When you get caught up like that, what is it that goes through your mind when you got millions of fans wondering about you?
It hurts me in one way because they be lookin' at me lime: "Damn you got everything why are you doing this?" And In my heart I'll be like: "Damn y'all know I don't wanna go to jail, I just trying to live." On the other hand, I can't really take it personal, because I'm a reflection of the community... All young Black males are going through that..It's happening with a lot of young Black females also young white males... A lot of minorities are going through that where they try to come up and get pulled back five steps, and you make 8 steps, and they pull you back 18 steps..
To me it's not personal because they're all going through it. The only thing that makes it different and original with me is that people get to watch it from beginning to end like it's a soap opera. You get to watch mines, and with everyone else they get to hide, and go to their homes and get over it. With me, you seen me dealing with my greatest pains. You seen me get over things, and go through thing, and handle my life, you seen it, everybody saw it, so that's what makes it different...
What went through your head when you got shot in New York and that whole confrontation?
I can't front, It slowed me down. What went through my mind was like: "damn I'm shot". I used to believe I could never be touched. So now I'm more careful. Some people may say I'm disrespectful..but I'm more cautious because I have been shot. I know what that feels like. I'm not trying to be in that predicament. I know we all have choices to make and my choices have already been made even if I wanna change it.
What I learned in jail is that I can't change. I can't live a different lifestyle..this is it. This is the life that they gave and this is the life that I made. You know how they say: "you made your bed now lay in it?" I tried to move... I can't move to no other bed. This is it. Not for the courts, Not for the parole board, Not for nobody. This is what they gave me. All I'm trying to do is survive and make good out of the dirty, nasty, unbelievable lifestyle that they gave me. I'm just trying to make something good out of that. It's like if you try and plant something in the concrete..if it grows and the rose pedals got all kind of scratches and marks, your not gonna say: "Damn look at all the scratches on the rose that grew from the concrete." Your gonna say.."DAMN! A rose grew from the concrete?" Well that's the same thing with me.. Instead of sayin' he did this, he did that, just be like: "DAMN! he grew out of all that?" That's what they should see, you know what I mean?...
Brother you must be truly blessed to go through all these trials and tribulations you've been through and you're still maintaining. Even now they're still comin' after you. You got these demons and obstacles that keep comin down harder and harder. It seems like everytime you turn around, you got somebody knockin' on your door trying to take something from you....
They come harder and harder, and that's what kills me. It's like everytime I think this is it, and I go all out to beat that, and I win or I lose...I come into the next one and it's worse. It's like the twilight zone. It's like some evil, unstoppable shit that won't let me go. It's got it's hands on me and it wants to see me fail. In my mind sometimes when I'm drunk or I'm just laying down..I be thinking like: "Damn is this true? Am I gonna fail? Am I supposed to fail? Should I just stop trying and give up?".. But then I'm like: "Naw, hold on..that's exactly what they're waiting on me to do"... They're waiting for me to give up. So now this is just a fun little game that I cry at sometime..that I laugh at sometime..that I smile at and have good times and bad times..But it's a game. It's the game of life....Do I win or do I lose?. I know one day they're gonna shut the game down, but I gotta have as much fun and go around the board as many times as I can before it's my turn to leave...
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