March 20, 2001: MTV Interviews Foxy
Foxy Brown recently sat down for an interview with MTV, and had alot to say about her upcoming album, Broken Silence, and her ongoing feud with Lil' Kim, among other things. The interview, featured on MTV.com, portrays Foxy as a rather intelligent woman. It sounds as if the new album will be both a critical and Billboard chart-topping success. The following is a transcript of MTV's interview with Foxy:

Eminem and Everlast. LL Cool J and Canibus. UTFO and Roxanne Shante.

Hip-hop has a long history of feuds, few of them as nasty and lively as that between two of the raunchiest female rappers around, the "Ill Na Na," Foxy Brown, and the "Queen Bee," Lil' Kim.

But to hear Foxy tell it, she's stayed above the fray in the ongoing battle with her diminutive rival, playing the role of the "good girl," while Kim has kept the beef alive with stinging lyrical assaults.

Those barbs have been on wax ... until recently. Brown — who said she considered retiring from the rap game at the ripe old age of 21 — was recently drawn back into the public eye after a nearly two-year silence when shots rang out outside the studios of New York radio station Hot 97 on February 25. Lil' Kim and her entourage were leaving the station when they encountered Foxy's pal, rapper Capone. An argument erupted, and more than 20 shots were fired.

Police are investigating whether the beef stemmed from lyrics Foxy dropped on Capone-N-Noreaga's song "Bang Bang," released last year, in which she calls Kim's latest album "weak" and "lame" and claims, "my name still reign."

But now, all Foxy wants to do is move beyond beef. Foxy (born Inga Marchand) has extended an olive branch to Kim and, as she told MTV News' Sway, she deals with a lot of the issues that made her consider retiring on her upcoming album, Broken Silence (June), her first since 1998's Chyna Doll. Foxy also discusses her alleged falling out with Jay-Z, why she feels misunderstood, working with the Neptunes and how to keep your posse in check.

Sway:   Where have you been the past three years?

Foxy Brown:   I've been dealing with my personal pain. I've been going through a lot of issues personally. Trying to find myself. I've just been on a hiatus. I went back to being Inga, and I was so happy, so happy.

Sway:   What is the difference between Inga and Foxy Brown?

Brown:   Oh, such a huge difference. Foxy is an image, an artist, a performer. She's the one who is a pit bull about her business. Inga is the regular young girl who reads and doesn't — I don't — party. I don't go out. I'm so not industry. I hardly have any industry friends.

Sway:   Does Inga like the industry and everything that comes along with Foxy Brown?

Brown:   No, I don't. I really don't. I'm hoping this is going to be a really honest interview and I hope no one takes this the wrong way, but I really, really don't. I'm so blessed to be able to do something that I love, but as far as everything else that comes along with it, no, I'm so unhappy with it.

Sway:   What has overwhelmed you the most in the past three years?

Brown:   Probably realizing there is no loyalty in this game, none whatsoever. And I can definitely attest to that. I mean, as you know, I've been the right hand to Jay-Z. I'm a very loyal person, and when I'm with you, I'm with you 100 percent, 100 million percent. And people don't have that same loyalty to you.

Sway:   What is the status of your relationship with Jay-Z?

Brown:   I haven't seen him for a while. He's a great businessman, and I have nothing but the utmost respect for him.

Sway:   So the rumors of beef that have been circulating between Foxy Brown and Jay-Z?

Brown:   I don't have any beef. I don't have anything but love for Jay-Z.

Sway:   How did you deal with things when you stopped rapping?

Brown:   I didn't. I went through a very difficult period. Even talking about it is starting to make me get really emotional. I went through a very hard period where, like I said, I never thought I would rap again.

Sway:   But you did.

Brown:   Right. I just went back in, and actually, it was my brother Gavin who came to me and was like, "Inga, you can do it." He was telling me, "I know your talent, I know your heart. Get out there and do it." And Kevin Liles, who's the president, was like, "Foxy, you need to speak. You need to let people know that, yes, you are articulate, yes, you do come from a good background."

Sway:   You don't come from the ghetto, the projects?

Brown:   No. I come from Brooklyn, but I come from Park Slope. We didn't have a silver spoon, but my mother's a teacher; I lived in a brownstone. I just came from a very good upbringing.

Sway:   You never robbed anybody?

Brown:   Of course not. Robbed anybody? No, I have not robbed anybody. What people always liked about me was that I was the girl with the good upbringing that was good in school, but I had the heart of a lion. Like, I was always the sidekick. That's what Jay-Z loved about me, that's what Nas loved about me — that I was intelligent, but I was still rolling with the fellas. But I still had that. I gave off that aura. Don't get me wrong, I am not any better than anybody. I know that the whole stereotypical thing about rappers is that we all are from broken homes, we all are from poverty.

Sway:   That's because rappers rap about that and rap about drug trade.

Brown:   Right. But some people come from good backgrounds. Lauryn Hill. Some people do come from a decent upbringing. We had rules. My mother instilled morals in us as children. There was no speaking ill in the house. Take your hats off when you walked in the house, no elbows on the table. We just had manners. We just had a lot of morals instilled in us.

Sway:   Recently there was a shooting incident at Hot 97, a radio station in New York. Where were you when you first heard about it?

Brown:   I was at home, cooking Sunday dinner with my mother. Capone-N-Noreaga are friends of mine. I love those guys, they're my boys. They stand behind me, and I stand behind them and support them. And I couldn't believe it, I just couldn't believe it.

Sway:   Who did you hear about it from?

Brown:   From Nore. Once I heard the two of them were safe I was all right, but I was also saddened to hear one of their friends was shot. I couldn't believe it.

Sway:   So he said there was a shootout at the station?

Brown:   Right. Noreaga hadn't actually gotten there yet. I think he was on his way to the station, and he must have heard the news. He called me and told me. I think I went into some kind of shock, 'cause I couldn't believe we were reliving that again in hip-hop. I couldn't believe it had to escalate to that senselessness.

Sway:   The next day different headlines in New York read "Rap Wars," and the stories included your name.

Brown:   Actually, let's be correct about it. First it was just [Lil'] Kim in the paper, and I guess the media didn't think that was interesting enough. I was [in the story] the second day, and that's where I said, "OK, this is ridiculous. Something has to be done about this."

Sway:   The authorities are basing the shooting on lyrics from a song [on Capone-N-Noreaga's 2000 album Reunion].

Brown:   Right, and that song was done, if I'm not mistaken, in June, almost a year ago. And trust me, that song had nothing to do with that violence, because Capone-N-Noreaga are not advocates of violence, and I am not.

Sway:   The song is called "Bang Bang."

Brown:   Right.

Sway:   And in that song you refer to Lil' Kim.

Brown:   Right.

Sway:   In retrospect, do you have any regrets making that song?

Brown:   Oh, definitely. Actually, I don't have regrets, but I do apologize to the fans for even lowering myself, 'cause I was always looked at as the bigger person. Foxy never disrespected Kim in any interview [or on the] radio, nothing. I always had positive things to say about Kim, but on the other hand she always has something negative to say about Foxy.

That record was in retaliation to what they've been saying about me for the last two or three years. I came out and said what I said. I knew whatever it was, I had to defend myself, and I was ready for the consequences — never thinking it would escalate to this violence. I thought it would be just a war of words.

Sway:   What's the end to this so-called Lil' Kim/Foxy Brown beef?

Brown:   Russell [Simmons], the president of my record company [Def Jam/Def Soul], and I have gotten together and I said, "Russell, I want to call a truce." I said, "I want to have a sit-down with Kim," and I want to. I don't care what it is. Let's end it, let's just end it. We can even do a collaboration. We can do something. We're bigger than this.

Sway:   Maybe they will call.

Brown:   I'm sure that if Biggie and 2Pac had a chance to sit down, or, you know, say, "Look, let's call a truce" — I'm sure they probably didn't want to condone this ongoing beef, 'cause nobody does. 'Cause at first, it's a war of words, and it's cool and it's OK — they're keeping you on point with your skills. After a while it becomes senseless, 'cause after a while I was saying, "OK, stop already. I don't have any more rhymes to go back at. I'm not even thinking like that." So, I'm just glad to put the pride aside and have no ego and come forward and be the first one to say, "Look, let's sit down and let's have a truce."

Sway:   A lot if it has to do with people and their cliques and entourages. Do artists have a responsibility for their entourages' actions?

Brown:   Well, I think it's more, like you said, the entourage, because they don't have that album to look forward to, they don't have that studio time, they don't have an obligation to fulfill. All they know is that somebody has a problem with their boy or their girl or their friend or whoever, and they want to react. Sometimes it's hard to control that.

Sway:   So whose responsibility is it?

Brown:   It's sort of the artist's responsibility to say, "Look, all right, enough. We don't have to do it that way." But these people are grown men or grown women, and sometimes you can't talk to them. All they know is that someone is hurting. You're not gonna think twice but to react. So those people, all they know is that their boy is getting involved in something. It's hard, but a lot of times, 90 percent of the time, it's the entourage.

Sway:   Your album, Broken Silence, comes out June 5. Why did you give it that title?

Brown:   Because I'm probably the most mysterious, misunderstood female rapper ever. And I think that I am sort of a voice of reason for the young teenagers, young adults that are struggling every day, that look up to me.

Sway:   What kind of topics do you touch on?

Brown:   The intro is called "The Letter." The first verse is a letter to my mom. The second verse is to my brother Gavin, and the third verse is to my brother Anton, just singing to them, how I feel and what I'm going through. I have a song called "Broken Wings" and "The Saddest Day of My Life." I have an Arabic record, I have two West Indian records, and a lot of reggae-influenced tracks.

Sway:   What is your ethnic background? Are you Filipino and black?

Brown:   I'm not Filipino and black. Actually, it's so funny, 'cause when Jay-Z and I first met, he swore that I was Filipino and black, and I'm like, "No, I'm not." My family is Trinidadian and Asian.

Sway:   The beginning of your album, you told me earlier, confronts a lot of different rumors.

Brown:   It's called "Why Doesn't Everybody Just Get off My Back?" and it also contains news clippings of everything, "Foxy Brown this, Foxy Brown that." It starts off with a 16-bar rhyme that just sums everything up in a nutshell, and it goes into "The Letter" and ends with "Broken Wings," so it definitely shows maturity.

Sway:   Did you work with Dr. Dre on this album at all?

Brown:   No, actually, I haven't. I wanted to, though, because I'm actually the first female rapper he's ever worked with, outside of Rage, so it was wonderful doing The Firm [with him,] but I couldn't get him this time. I tried. I think he's busy. He's fully loaded right now. But I know I will, because he's great.

Sway:   What about other members of The Firm, like Nas? Did you work with Nas?

Brown:   No, I haven't. As far as producers, I have the Neptunes. We got two from the Neptunes. It's so funny, because every time I work with somebody, I'm always the first female rapper they've worked with — Jay-Z, Nas, the Neptunes — and it's such a wonderful experience.

Sway:   What can you share with young ladies that are your age right now — how old are you?

Brown:   I'm a baby. You're going to laugh: I'm 21.

Sway:   What kind of advice would you like to give to girls who might be walking a similar path?

Brown:   Take me as an example. Do not let anything, any obstacle, stand in your way. People will try and knock you down and break your spirits. You have to just keep going.