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RLY A BEVE I L U J : S WORD : J LASH PHOTO
what I do with my money? What I do with my money is my business. I don’t have to explain that to her or nobody else. I’m living good and I look good, all the time. I’ve heard a lot of rumors about you and Benzino. The newest rumor is that he bought you a Bentley and now he’s trying to get his money back. [laughs] I’ve never heard that story before and I really have no idea – if that’s the rumor – where that came from or where that stemmed from. Were you involved with Benzino? No, I was not. We’re cool. We’re friends. He’s a good person, and I know his whole camp. I hosted The Source Awards. Everybody’s cool, but as far as buying me a Bentley and all that, no, that’s not true. Everyone wants to know what’s going on with you and Lil Wayne. I don’t even want to talk about that situation, respectfully. That’s just a subject that I do not want to discuss or care to talk about. Well, just in general, being a celebrity, how important do you think it is to keep your personal life out of the spotlight and the magazines? I think the strength of a relationship is based upon the two people. I know the tabloids and the media and magazines and the public can do some sort of damage to a relationship, but when you’re entertainers, your business is going to be public knowledge and people have a chance to voice their opinions [on your relationship]. Sometimes it makes it a lot harder to try to be normal. Everybody in a relationship – not just for artists – wants to be normal, be a regular person. You don’t want to be a “celebrity.” Even though you’re on stage and performing, at the end of the day you’re a regular person. I think our privacy is taken away, and everybody thinks they can decide whether you should be with this person or whether you should break up or whatever. They make such a big deal of [celebrity break-ups]. People break up all the time, get married, divorced, move on. Different situations happen and that’s just the way life is. Not just in this generation, not just with celebrities; normal people.
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irst off, what’s going on with your label situation? I heard you got dropped from Atlantic and have a new deal on the table with Def Jam. I really can’t speak on the new deal. Actually, it was my choice to leave Atlantic. I just felt like it was time to move on. I did not think they did a great job with my last project. It was a mutual decision. It wasn’t a problem or a situation where I got dropped or they didn’t wanna work with me. We came to an understanding. I didn’t wanna do my next album with Atlantic so everybody came to an agreement. I do have a new deal, I’m just not allowed to speak about it. I heard there’s a couple million on the table. [laughs] There’s so many rumors circulating. Money always talks. Money is the key, so you know, it’s a great look. I’m happy, that’s all I’m gonna say. My next move is great.
There’s been some controversy lately with the whole “Queen of the South” thing – you, Khia, and Jacki-O. I really don’t care about that. I really feel like if you’re doing your thing, just do you and you can claim whatever’s your territory. Nobody should be having a problem with that. Wherever you’re from, just do you. I really don’t even care about that. I just do what I do. I make music and just do me. All the beefing and the back and forth and all that, that’s really for people who are trying to get attention that they’re probably not getting. Everybody should want to be a queen. That’s the highest ranking; the queen calls the shots. But you’ve got to work and grind and show people why you’re the queen. I’ve done a lot; I’ve proven myself. So I really don’t have to clarify my position, you understand? As far as the beefin’, that’s all because of [other people’s] jealousy and insecurity. And I really don’t have a problem with Jacki-O at all. There was never beef with me and her, it was just a lot of outside people with a bunch of different misunderstandings. And as for the other chick [Khia], she’s not even relevant. When we interviewed Khia, she criticized you saying that you spend all your money on hairstylists and makeup. How does she know what I spend my money on? She’s not my accountant or financial advisor. She doesn’t work for the label. How does she know 94
Were any of the people you named in the “Big Ol Dick” record based on personal experience? That wasn’t a personal record at all. It was a real silly record. I was in the studio and we were joking around, and there really wasn’t no names on the record. We were just talking about the average John Doe and Bob. The producers I was working with, we were sittin’ in there, me and my girls, and we was joking around. Everybody was like, “What if you said entertainers names, that would make it so much more interesting.” It was catchy. My thing was to make the song about the artists that I liked the most and I thought was hot and had made such a great impact in the game. It wasn’t no personal relationships; there’s no skeletons popping out of the closet. Nobody I had dated, just generic, just dudes I thought was doing they thing. Do you prefer dating celebrities over regular guys? No, not at all. I just like a dude that’s got swagger, somebody that’s intelligent and got a head on their shoulders. Somebody who’s smart and knows what they want out of life, somebody respectable and nice, that’s very attentive to me. It’s not about being an entertainer or anything like that, it’s about being a nice person. A good person, period. Miami girls are known for getting money and gifts out of guys. What’s the biggest gift you’ve gotten from a guy? The biggest gift I’ve gotten from a man was a house. I’ve gotten so many different gifts, but that’d probably be the biggest, most solid thing I’ve ever gotten. What is the secret to getting a man to buy you things? The secret is just you, as a person, as a woman. You’ve gotta know what you want to get out of a situation, whether it’s a long-term relationship, a short-term relationship, money, or whatever it is. Me, I don’t go into situations looking for something. If it’s something I like or somebody I’m seeing that’s a nice, solid person, then maybe that’s what I want to do. I’m a relationship type of person. It’s easy for me to understand what it means to be in a relationship. You have an event coming up called Diamond Dolls, right? Yeah, it’s my birthday weekend, November 29th – December 3rd. It’s a foundation to try to uplift and motivate younger girls and teach them what’s going on in the world. To help them with their dreams and aspirations and whatever they want to be. Just show them that there’s so much you can be; so many things you can get involved in to make a great future for yourself. I’m trying to help them get on the right track, because so many young girls are off focus and off-track. They don’t have their head