Interview | FEMALE FLOW MUSIC SERIES

What happened at the BET Hip Hop Awards?

It’s crazy. We put a lot of money and effort into getting down to Atlanta for BET Hip Hop Awards weekend, so we could promote my new single “Gettin’ To It.” It’s getting a lot of buzz here at home in Chicago, but it takes more than that to break a record. So we were all set up, ready to go down there, mingle with DJs, and get a good look on the red carpet.

I actually didn’t even know they were considering me for the cypher. We were right outside of Atlanta, and they contacted my manager and said, “We might have another slot in the cypher, and we’re considering Shawnna.” So we hit the metal a little harder [laughs].

When we get there, my manager says, “Shawnna I need to talk to you. Our PR person just got word from BET that you have been denied access to the red carpet and the BET Hip Hop Awards.” At that moment, my whole world stopped. It had been a minute since I had been this excited about getting back on the scene and letting everybody know I’m ready. I was embarrassed, hurt, angry, all in one. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

A lot of people have been asking me the past four years, “What’s up with you and DTP? What happened?” It just brought back old emotions of the same type of stuff I was dealing with when I was with this label. I said, “I’m fed up. I’m not taking this anymore.” It’s been four years. I’ve been nothing but cordial about the situation. I never bad mouthed this company. I never said a bad thing about Ludacris.

I just wished them all the best. Knowing that I knew other things could be said to ruffle the feathers, to play the dirty side. This is in no way a ploy to promote a mixtape, cause I don’t even have a mixtape right now. All I was trying to do was get down there and make a little noise with my single, network, communicate with people. They just tried to put a stop on everything. But God is good. We kept grinding. We kept doing our thing.

All-in-all it didn’t turn out to be a bad situation. But the things we had planned to do never happened, because of some situation with Disturbing Tha Peace not wanting me to be involved in it.

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What was BET’s reason that they gave on why you weren’t allowed to participate?

BET was just saying that they had gone into a partnership with Disturbing Tha Peace. They came together to present the festivities. This, in my opinion, is what gave [DTP] the authority to do so. No shade to BET. BET has always shown me mad, mad love, so I know this had nothing to do with them. That’s the other reason I’m so upset. I know exactly where it came from.

In any interview you’ve seen or heard me in, I’ve never said anything bad about [DTP]. After four years of being silent and turning the other cheek – to still try to take this slap from them. I’m not taking it laying down in no way. To me it’s saying they still want to go to war with me. They got a problem. If you got a problem with me, okay we can address it. We can get it out there. What you wanna do? You can’t keep going in my pocket.

Are you still contractually tied to them?

No, I’m not. I have not been signed to Disturbing Tha Peace for four years. I have no connection to them. I haven’t even spoken to Luda since before we even got to the split. I haven’t spoken to Luda since we were in the studio working on [the intended Shawnna-Ludacris collaborative album] Battle Of The Sexes.

I don’t understand why after four years, y’all still wanna take this shot at me. I have no idea what their next move could be, because I had no idea they’d make this move. I honestly thought they were on the same page as me – we’re going to let what happened between us, be between us. Let’s move forward on our own paths amicably. Obviously, I was wrong.

Do I just take this and walk away with it? Or I do let it be known I’m not going to take this. I rep my city. So if I take an “L”, my city takes an “L”. I can’t do that. I love them too much, and they love me too much.

Females in the industry cannot afford to take “Ls” like that. If I win, females win. If I lose, females lose. That’s how I look at it. So even if I wanted to say, “Ah man, whatever. I’m gonna just walk away.” It’s not just doing that for me. We already got so much against us.

I know you’re in the studio right now putting in work.

Yeah, I need to be heard. I need for this to be known. People think I’m dead, gone, buried alive. People think I just walked away, I’m done. No, I’m out here working. It’s just so many situations with people trying to have their foot on my neck.

For so long I was always playing the nice guy. Saying, “Things happen for a reason. It’s gonna get greater later.” F**k that s**t! I’m done with that. I’m done playing the nice guy. If that’s what I gotta do, then that’s what I gotta do. You wanna go to war with me, I’m war ready. Point, blank, period. You wanna leave me alone, then leave me alone. You wanna go at it with me, let’s go.

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