Photo courtesy of Universal Motown.

Man In The Mirror - Page 3

C: Did you see that report about Congress preparing to hold hearings??
Ja: (interrupts) Yeah, they got my man Doug Morris under fire and shit, they got him going down to go speak to Congress about hip-hop lyrics, are you fucking serious? There's a fucking black kid right now about to get 25 years for having a fight with some white kids over hanging the nooses over the white tree, lets get to that. Let's get into shit like that, because that's what's tearing up America, not me calling a woman a bitch or a hoe on my rap songs. And if it is, then we need to go step to Paramount, and fucking MGM, and all of these other motherfuckers that's making all of these movies and we need to go step to MTV and Viacom, and lets talk about all these fucking shows that they have on MTV that is promoting homosexuality, that my kids can't watch this shit. Dating shows that's showing two guys or two girls in mid afternoon. Let's talk about shit like that! If that's not fucking up America, I don't know what is. There's a lot of issues we can address besides hip-hop, but they want to put everything on us like we're the problem. But see, and this is going to be a shameless fucking plug, but I said, "when everyone wants to point the finger, and ask why there's so much corruption, they only need to look in the mirror." It starts with themselves.

C: How does it feel to have given Karrine Steffans the most infamous nickname ever?
Ja: [Laughs] Did I do that? [Laughs] Yo, that's insane. I can't even comment on it. [Laughs]

C: So you've been pretty consistent on releasing albums, how many more do you have in you?
Ja: Considering the state of hip-hop and the way I'm moving in my life, I would say I got around 3 more and then I'm going to run my companies and watch my new artists do what they do, and have a good time doing it.

C: What means more to you: platinum plaques from the past or fan support now?
Ja: I think they go hand in hand, because the plaques represent the fans' support. Throughout my career I never really cared about awards, even though I've got a gang of them, but I never really appreciated them, I never really looked at them like this is the pinnacle of my success because it's not really fan appreciation it's like peer appreciation, like your peers think you're great, and the academy voted you in this year, because you had a good year. Those feelings change, and they're never consistent, or sometimes they are because the academy loves you that much. I've seen artists be nominated and they don't even have albums out, because the academy loves them. The fans' appreciation is the biggest achievement you can have as an artist.

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