Nick Cannon isn't who you think he is. Yes, he's that hard working young dude who seems to be everywhere these days. But if you remember him from Nickelodeon or fluffy teen flicks, you really should meet the man. He has bombs to drop. Powerful impact, boom from the Cannon.

By Justin Monroe

"This is a light day," says Nick Cannon, reclined in his suite at midtown Manhattan's Alex Hotel. "I really didn't have to do too many things." After a flight from North Carolina to New York, a six-hour Complex photo shoot, three interviews with camera crews, a meeting with MTV execs to discuss his hit show Wild 'N Out, a taping of Direct Effect, and strenuous weight-lifting, the affable entertainer dissects a steak and squeezes in this candid Q&A before making an appearance at Alicia Keys's Tribeca Rooftop party. We're exhausted having just witnessed Cannon in action, but he does have a point. He's usually juggling much more.

In 2006, the 25-year-old mogul from San Diego is not only hosting and directing Wild 'N Out, he's also relaunching the NYC graffiti clothing line PNB Nation, which he bought at the beginning of the year. And he's releasing his second album, Stages. And he's developing Izzy, the first artist he signed to his Universal/Motown imprint, Can I Ball Records. And he has six films in various stages of production, including Emilio Estevez's RFK assassination flick Bobby, the gritty indie drama Weapons, and the animated film Monster House, which hits theaters nationwide in July. And he's producing The Giggle Club, a Nickelodeon reality show about gifted young entertainers, with Quincy Jones. We knew Cannon was a prodigious businessman, but what really struck us is how raw he keeps it, whether we're talking religion or running through Hollywood hotties. Meet the real Nick Cannon.

Most people have an image of you as a squeaky-clean child star on Nickelodeon, but that's not really you, is it?

Nick Cannon: I've always looked young. People have a misconception that I came into the game, like I was a kid, but by the time people saw me on television, I was a grown man with a house. It just so happens that I was getting my dough on kids' television.

On Stages, you talk candidly about things like getting your ex-girlfriend pregnant and her having a miscarriage. What else have you been hiding from us?

Nick Cannon: I was right there on the borderline of being involved with a lot of that gang violence.

When?!

Nick Cannon: I was about 15. I was hanging with the wrong crowd, and one day I was walking with this girl and this car pulled up-these guys from the other side of town. I don't know if they was tripping over the girl or some other stuff, but they started asking, "Where you from?" While I'm trying to explain myself, this dude just gave me one right to the nose. It was an instant blood waterfall, and I blacked out. They broke my nose. They jumped me, but I ain't really feel most of it 'cause that first punch put me out. That was the point where I was like, Ai-ight, this is not for me. I ain't no gangsta. I started going to class at like 6 a.m., wouldn't leave 'til 4 p.m., just so I could [graduate] early. I knew I really wanted to take this entertainment stuff seriously and get out of the environment that I was in. Home // CELEBRITIES // COVER STORY // Nick Cannon