I had to re-edit this book seven times before it was released just so my son, an avid reader, it was good enough for his eyes and ears to read and see. The strong difference between myself and Karrine is that I’m talking about the luxury and the lifestyle but I’m also explaining to these young women to look at some of us girls who have the fortunate advantage of hanging around Shaquille O’Neal and Jermaine O’Neal and Antawn Jamison, just to name a few, and being married to Mos Def, the advantage is not for the public to recognize; the advantage is how is it making me feel as a person, as a woman and as a female? And I’m letting these women know that you can still be yourself. I think that it was only fair that I was able to speak out because I’ve been the one night stand, I’ve been the groupie, I’ve been the wife, I’ve been the girlfriend, I’ve been the main girl, I’ve been on all aspects of the fence with these gentlemen; and the hype around NBA players is not what it’s cut off to be as far as these women wanting and thinking it makes them better as a person. It’s not fair and I don’t want these women like Karrine Steffans and Carmen to give that message out: this is how you feel great; it’s cool to talk about relationships with other people.

DX: You just mentioned that you didn’t release the names of some of these players out of respect for their wives and children. An obvious question would be whether you were thinking of their wives and children when you had relations with these men?
AWS: Any of the three NBA members that I talk about in my book were not married at the time. They married after myself and Mos Def married. And that’s been a rule that I firmly stood by. I would never want to happen to me what I do to these women. And to my knowledge and my understanding, none of these men were married at the time. Antawn Jamison and Jermaine O’Neal, which I shared very long relations with, they all got married after I was married to Mos Def. So to answer the question, they weren’t married to my understanding. They still have children, and you do to others as you would want done onto you. The reason I didn’t put first and last names in there was simply for the reason that I don’t want these gentlemen to think I’m calling them out or using their name to sell myself – as Mos Def thinks right now – he thinks I’m using his name to sell the book. And honestly, I have to say in big bold letters, if it were a tell-all book, Karrine and Carmen and all those girls would have nothing on me. It wouldn’t be 118 pages, it would be 1,000 pages. There would be names mentioned, there would be grimy details, stories that I’m willing to share if asked in an interview but not stuff that I felt I needed to put in a book for everybody to read. I’m not talking about any of my sexual relations that I’ve had with any of the gentlemen in my book. I don’t talk about flipping the mattress three times with Shaquille. I don’t mention the amounts of money these men have given me. And Shaquille O’Neal called me and was the first person to congratulate me on the release of my book. I’m not here to preach, but at some point there’s gotta be women out there to understand that this lifestyle is not a winning lifestyle.

DX: You say it’s not a winning lifestyle, but in all fairness, as you were involved with the rappers and basketball players, you were receiving a steady income whether it was a settlement from Mos Def or whether the athletes were giving out a certain amount of money. And now the book is coming out. Where does that fall into your declaration of “it’s not worth it” versus it is? A lucrative amount of money can be made and girls and women may be looking at it from the perspective of “I may not be respected but at least I’m getting paid.” How would you justify or comment on that?
AWS: You said it right there. That’s always been my thing: if you’re doing what you’re doing, at least get paid for it. Now, a lot of people may say “now you’re a hoe,” “intercourse for money,” but you’re servicing these men whether you like to believe it or not. I know that I was going down there and I was going to be involved with these men, maybe sexually sometimes, maybe not at others. But I knew that I was going down there for a purpose. And my return was, “Okay, I have babysitters, I have bills,” I have the same needs and same walks of everyday life that you have, and I’m gonna need some sort of assistance before I even get on the airplane to go down there. So my whole thing is, if you’re gonna do it, enjoy it, but make sure that at the end of the day you don’t come home from a four-day trip with these guys, and your lights are cut off and you can’t pay your phone bill and your kids are hungry. I’m not knocking it but be smart about it. Continued on page 3 »