Da Brat Speaks on Her Prison Bid: Who Came to See Her, What Girls Were Fighting Over With Her, Her Relationship with JD and More

Newly freed Da Brat sat down with Bossip to discuss what went down during her 3 year prison bid. She got thru that sentence like a subject and a predicate! LOL she had lots of love while locked down, with everyone from Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon to Kat Williams coming to visit. Plus girls even fought over her!

Bossip: Who held you down while you were locked up?
Da Brat: All my family, all my friends. My mother — of course my sister. JD wrote me. Despite what people had to say about my brother JD, he just could not see me in that light and I understand that. Some people don’t want to see their people locked down, so I’m not mad at him at all. I love him and I know he loves me despite whatever negative things other people are saying.

Mariah [Carey] and Nick {Cannon} came… Kat Williams came… my cousin Stacy came. Mister and Jamel and Ralph came. Everybody came and they didn’t come just once. Somebody was there every week. Sometimes I was like look i don’t want to come up there I’m tired and I want to rest this weekend but they were like ‘No you’re getting up!’ and I had to sit in visitation with all those people. I had mad love and I’m grateful. I didn’t realize how many people really loved me still. I got like 20-30 pieces of mail a day from fans. I’m grateful for that because some people in there didn’t have nobody.

Bossip: How does it feel to be out?
Da Brat: I’m blessed to be out. I’m not sleeping on a mattress that’s two inches thick, I don’t got to be worried about what they got to eat. I can eat whatever I want to eat. They didn’t have no vegetables. I didn’t eat none of the stuff they had at chow except when they had “real chicken” — you know chicken on the bone. I ate mostly from the store. Mostly tuna. The basic meal is ramen noodles, but if you eat that sh*t you will get fat as hell. I was eating those for a minute and then I was like “ohhh” I had to back up off of it.

What were some of the challenges inside?

Some of the officers were haters of course. When you come in they pre-judge you. They think “Oh you some rapper, you think you hard and you think you this and you gonna come in wildin’ out” but it wasn’t like that. I had to learn to hold my peace, cuz you know when someone is screaming in your face you want to be like, “Who the f*ck is you talking to?” especially when it’s someone younger than you. Once the officers got to know me everybody was like “Ah you’re mad cool, you’re nothing like what you thought you were.”

I’m not a problem causing person it’s just there was a situation where it made me react the way that I reacted. Everybody makes mistakes and I can’t wait until I can tell my side of the story. I can’t right now because there’s a suit still going on. It didn’t happen like people think it happened and when this is all over, don’t worry, when it’s all over and everybody is straight, I can’t wait to tell my side of the story. Because I did not just do something vicious.

I’m not trying to go back even though I was a boss b*tch in there. I had everything I needed. Everything was straight, but I’m not trying to go back. I’m not trying to glorify it because it was not no place you want to go to.

We just knew you had them in there trying to braid your hair.

Man… They was fighting over who got to braid my hair. I had to be like ‘Okay you can braid it this week and you can braid it next week.’ It was all good really. I had no issues whatsoever. I had to cuss a couple of people out because you know if you come across as too nice people are going to try and take advantage. A couple people tried to test, but once I got in that a*s like “Eh-eh it ain’t happening, don’t even try it.” You gotta let them know and once I did that nobody tried me since.”

Have you gotten any advice from your peers?

I have a lot of great friends and a lot of smart people so I’ve gotten a lot of advice from good influential people who I definitely take the advice from. I don’t want to share no names. I don’t want to bring nobody in it because you would be surprised who is trying to get brought in it that didn’t have anything to do with it at all.

What was the first thing you did when you were released?

Went to get a steak and eat. Got scooped up in the limo and hung out with my partners, we just kicked it and talked about future plans. Everybody was trying to come get me but I just let my crew come get me, my boys… They been down with me the whole time, coming to see me every weekend even when I didn’t feel like it. Jamel, Mister and Ralph, that’s my squad, they more like my brothers. I told my sister and all them to just chill. They can come see me when I’m home cuz I’m in Atlanta on house arrest right now. They can come see me whenever they want to.

What do you plan to do while you’re on house arrest?
I have this nice beautiful leg monitor, ankle bracelet and I can’t really go nowhere. I can go back and forth to work — I’m gonna keep my job at the little window spot where I was working at. I was doing a work release program at the transitional center and I was able to go out every weekend. I thought when I got out I would be able to move around a little more, but now it’s like I’m confined more. At least at the house I have my computer, JD is about to send over some studio equipment, microphone and all that so I’m about to get on the records and get it crackin’. I can watch satellite tv and do whatever I want to do at the house. Get in the hot tub, grill…

Have you started recording yet?

I haven’t started yet. I’m just letting it get all built up. It’s so built up I’m going to explode when I do start and I’m not gonna stop. I’m ready. I’m hungry, I’m excited.

Who do you want to work with when you start recording again?
Aw man, that is a great question. Of course I want to work with JD cuz that’s my brother. I want to do something with Fantasia, I love Fantasia, she is the sweetest. “Bittersweet” was so hot. That was my favorite song for a minute. I love Kelly Price’s voice. I love the singers. Of course I love Mariah but she’s not really working right now cuz she’s about to drop them twins in April they’re gonna be Aries babies. I really don’t have a wishlist right now, I just want the songs to be hot.

What are you going to do differently now that you’re free?

My life period is going to be ten thousand times better because my temper and my attitude have totally adjusted. I think I needed to sit down for awhile. I think God does everything for a reason and it was meant for me to sit down and regroup and think things over and realize I shouldn’t take anything for granted. i have to be very careful about my actions and what I say to people and how I react. I think I am a better person, a wiser person, a smarter person who is not going to take anything for granted anymore.

Once you’re off house arrest, I know you are going somewhere special — where you going?

I have to get permission to go, but I will probably go to Hawaii or something like that. I just want a beautiful sunset, nice beautiful clear water and I want to see some mountains and some bonfires on the beach.