Complex got the man to sit down to speak pretty candidly on a number of topics, from this extended stay in prison(s) to what 50 Cent did to his career. Definitely a good read that you can check out here…..below is an excerpt:

So is everything squashed between you, 50 and Em?
For me it is. I know for those guys, it is too in some ways. I don’t think any of us really think about it anymore. We have a bigger responsibility to the kids that are coming up behind us to be role models for them, and I think that’s more where everybody is now. I think we’re all adults and we’re grown.

People often say 50 killed your career—that’s the popular narrative. Do you think that’s true? Is that what happened to your music career?
Of course not. It’s so many things that went into that that people don’t understand. I’m writing a book, so I guess you can go get my book and get the full story of how things unfolded. The hip-hop fans are not privy to a lot of backdoor conversations.

There’s three sides to every story: There’s my side, his side, and the truth. I know in my heart, I’ve always been a real dude. Throughout my career I’ve done a great job of being me. As much as people want to say, “When he came out he sounded like Pac,” I laugh at that because of course I love Pac; everybody loves Pac. I may have took a page out of Pac’s book as far as being passionate about what I do and being a hard worker in my music, but a lot of artists do that.

But on the flipside people say a lot of artists are like Ja Rule, so which is it? Am I an imitation or was I original in what I did? I think as artists we all borrow, we all take pages out of each other’s books and make it our own. Throughout my whole career I was very happy people would even look at me and put my name in the same breath as Tupac. That alone let me know that I’m in good company. I got the plaques and record sales to put behind it and say, “I definitely put in my own work.”