DX: My lady friends talk about how much you’ve changed since you first came out. What all have you been doing to get in shape?
M: Honestly, I always loved boxing, but my manager… he’s nice. He boxed for real. We actually are working on a gym right now in Atlanta. It’s about to be the hottest thing crackin’, because we’re going to franchise it all across America. It’s called Sweat City and when I started, I really didn’t like running on the treadmill, I wasn’t that good of a basketball player, I’m aggressive and I have really good hand-eye coordination. So, boxing is what I chose as my sport…

DX: …Ever been forced to show out?
M: I try not to get to that point. Nowadays cats are going to jail left and right, cats are catching cases left and right and I don’t need that in my life.

DX: At the end of the “Crying Out For Me” video, the jealous boyfriend gets into a car accident and it says, “to be continued.” What’s next up with it?
M: That’s Malcolm Jones doing [laughs]. He wants to direct the next video [laughs] so he put that in there. Any “to be continued” video that you see, when you see it, you automatically think about what could happen next. So, it just adds that extra catalyst to what that video is. There may be a continuation, because at the beginning of the video, you hear "Music For Love" – which is one of my favorite songs on the record. It’s an amazing, sensual – you know when you listen to J. Holiday’s "Bed" record…

DX: …Yeah…
M: You know how he wants to take you to bed… You don’t even have to go to the bed with this record. [Laughs] You just have to listen to it. It’s incredible.

DX: How have your parents affected your views on parenthood, or changes in your life?
M: Hmm… you’re really asking great questions, Kev. [Laughs] My faith as a human being is at its full potential, right now. Not because of any religion or of any church or gospel, it’s because I’ve seen what can happen when you have faith. My mother’s getting better and her becoming clean is a testament of what true faith can do. She used for twenty-something years – she’s clean now. She has helped me with faith, by her experiences alone. I would want to have good communication skills with my children. I would want to know how they feel and how they’re doing at all times. I didn’t have a father figure growing up, so I think that it’s important for a son and a daughter to have communication with their mother and their father. It’s true and I believe that a woman cannot give her son or her daughter the things that a father provides. I think it’s important to have that relationship.

DX: What was your most memorable episode where a fan has taken her appreciation way too far?
M: There was this one fan – and I’ll never forget this – she made a huge poster. It was a collage of pictures that showed my life and on each picture she had wrote a quote as to what the picture was, what time of my life it was. Interestingly enough, she had information on me from when I was a child. I mean… [laughs] she did her research. So, I saw this when I was 19, 20 years-old and it was wild. [One of Mario’s people mentions, “You should talk about the driver’s license"…]
M: Oh, shit! [Laughs] Yeah, you’re right. I got my driver’s license when I was 16 and I lost it, like, that same year or a year later. I speak at schools sometimes when I’m in Baltimore, and this young girl came up to me one day saying, “I have your license.” I said, “What? What you mean you ‘got my license’…?” She had found my license. She pulled it out, it was cracked up. I don’t think I even lost it in Baltimore, I think it was out here [in New York] when I lost it. It was just interesting that she happened to have it. So, I signed it for her. For me, the poster was much more special… I had signed a few of the pictures that she had wanted me to sign and I’ve taken pictures with her before. I don’t remember exactly what we talked about at the time, but I’m pretty sure that we talked about what was going on in her life and I gave her advice, something that was solid.

DX: Now that you’re 21 and hold a lot of titles – how can you stay focused to continue to express your love of music?
M: Sometimes, other things become more of a priority than others, but for right now – music is my focus, it’s my love, it’s my passion. Hopefully, it’ll not get to a point to where I have to create another career because my music is stalling. I’ve worked harder than that and I’m blessed to have this success.