DX: But you got the ladies looking at you like you’re some new school LL Cool J or something…
P: Dude, it’s weird… For me, I never got in the game, wanting to be like that, but when I got my national look, they ended up working for me. Everyone was so hard at the time, so when you give my record to the streets, it was perceived as different. Now, not saying that I’m the reason, but you have a lot of people doing female-driven songs.

DX: Yeah, but this isn’t the “hold your hand” type music of the “I Need Love” days…
P: I always felt that the music I made was honest. So, being truthful can sometimes be taken too strongly. They thought I was racist after I did the “100 Years” record. But it was just my honest opinion about how I felt.

DX: But how does honesty work in such a dishonest business?
P: That’s my biggest problem. I’m not a person who you can tell to do X, Y and Z, without questioning how X, Y and Z is going to help me. You know that poster of Uncle Sam…

DX: Yeah…
P: I feel like that’s how the record industry is. They just want dumb street niggas. I always tell that to my partners, man. When you have some form of intelligence as an artist, you’re considered a problem, but if you’re willing to be the puppet, then you’re cool.

DX: Does the difficulty help or hurt with your new album coming out?
P: I don’t know, man. I feel like I’d rather go down my way, then to go down the way a group of individuals push me down, because when/if that doesn’t work, nobody would be around except for me. I know there’s a lot I’d miss out on because I am not really an industry dude. I just choose not to be a part of it. For me, the networking side of it, I miss out on a lot of things. I like to be under the radar. When you’re a part of the media frenzy, that’ll be the same thing that’ll sink your own ship. I’m totally cool with that.