Going back to success, how hard was it for you to get your situation as there is a lot of blood sweat and tears before those deals come into play?

Man... I have been doing this music thing for a really, really long time. I had a situation before this situation with Columbia Records and that just came from doing the song-writing thing, you know on a lower scale, just writing for other people, writing songs, referencing songs and sending them out to these labels to try and get a deal. The process takes a long time and you are going to hear no a lot, you’re going to hear you are not good enough. You are going to hear a lot of negativity which you cant let stop you. You’ve got to let that mess roll off your back and keep doing what you do.

Tell me what personality traits you need to possess to get you through what you have gone through with the rumors and to keep on the grind when it comes to the music.

I’m more of an easy going cat, I’m not that raw, raw dude, I ain’t tripping off that. I know that everything happens for a reason and that it if it is something negative going on with me, I have to learn from that. So instead of spending time dwelling on negatives I spend time on trying to figure out what it is I am supposed to be learning from this.

Many say all press is good press, would you agree with that?

Nah, look at Michael Jackson. Mike is in a bad place because of all the negative publicity that he’s been getting, to the point where I’m not even sure if the world would want another Mike record just because of all the negative press going on with him. Personally I would love to see him come back, but I just don’t know how the rest of the world would be to see him come back. That is a prime example of negative publicity. Not all publicity is good. You can really get messed up behind something somebody said. But I honestly try not to draw on the negative. I try to take everything that happens to me, both negative and positive and use it as a learning experience.

Suddenly after all the ‘gay’ rumors, these pictures appeared on the internet of you with the lady, these kind of obliterated the gay rumors wouldn’t you agree?

I guess. The whole thing is stupid, it’s like the haters don’t know what they want you to be. One minute they want you to be this nasty dude that’s doing all kind of vile stuff, then the next minute you are supposed to be gay, it’s like make up your mind what I am. I am like ‘what are y’all doing right now?’ I don’t know man. My whole thing is this, if nobody is hating on you, then you are doing something wrong. The fact that people are hating on me now means I am on peoples minds and means I am doing something, somebody is mad or jealous of me and what’s going on with me because right now I am blessed. So I ain’t tripping you know, it is what it is. Continued on page 3 »