I was floored when Kelly Rowland revealed that she once felt insecure about her brown skin a few months back. I mean, she’s absolutely gorgeous. The same goes for Brooklyn lyricist Foxy Brown, who revealed during a recent interview with Combat Jack that she also struggled with interviews about her dark skin. In the emotional interview, she also addressed recent rumors that have been floating around about Jay-Z taking her virginity and giving her an STD. Check out a few excerpts from her interview below.
On dating notorious gangster Haitian Jack at age 14:
“I met him in East NY and he was like who is this dark shorty? Clear skin, hair is kinda good. I just knew OF the legend of ‘Haitian Jack.’ He took me to Jacob’s (Jacob the Jeweler) the first time we met. I started out EARLY. And once a good girl’s gone bad, she’s gone forever. But he was that street dude who could still take me to my meetings with Lyor Cohen and with American Express while he’s wearing his snakeskin boots. He always taught me to ‘stay in my mirrors.'”
On not always being confident about her dark skin:
“Lauryn [Hill] came in first as the dark skin chick on the scene. And the dark skin she represented was more natural and beautiful. Light skin, long hair…cool. No disrespect to light skin women. But when you see a bad, dark skin chocolate chick, it’s like Wow. I absolutely was not always comfortable in my skin. Lauryn and I used to talk about that all the time. I had the worst insecurity. My mother is very light skin from Trinidad and my brothers are too and I’m the only one in my family who is dark, besides my dad. My mom always tried to make me feel better by saying she wanted to go to the beach to get darker. But I think we all have that..even my nieces who are dark have that innate insecurity. I also always had keen features so…”
On her relationship with Jay-Z:
“Jay doesn’t allow ANYONE around him who causes discord. That’s why he is where he is now. When I read his bookDecoded, I said, if there’s any young black dude out here who doesn’t look up to this dude, something’s wrong. He’s a street dude and he took the shots. And he’s leading by example. I didn’t have a female to say to me “this is what it is” while I was coming up. So I tell every young dude to pick up this book. The first thing Jay did when he was named President of Def Jam, he reached back and signed me–the person who he started with. He’s never said not one bad thing about me. So when that false story came out about me talking about him, it’s like, why would I say those things about him?”
On recent rumors that she’d been going around bashing Jay and Bey:
“I stood up for him and Bey because I love both of them. That took me back. I was ready to lace my Timbs up and go back to old Inga because it was so disrespectful. The slander. It was disrespectful to me and all of the people who have done things for me. Do you understand I can hear now because of Jay-Z? [cries]”
“….People believed something that wasn’t even a story, it never was said. It’s not about immortalizing Jay, it’s about me having a reputation. I’m always coy about my personal life. There was no story, no audio, no interview….just someone maybe in Milwaukee somewhere just made up some story. When a story is saying YOU said someone is a controversial and someone gave you Herpes…when you’re insulting people’s families that’s a different level. Jay-Z is someone who I love and respect dearly and he’s always been nothing but great to me and my family period. Beyonce has been nothing but classy and sweet and loving and respectful to me. Those are my friends. They were disrespected. I was disrespected.”
“I come from a time of real journalism and now, this new day in age someone can just sit behind a computer and say whatever. Even the tone of the article was so ill-written. The words and grammar used, it’s not even me. My mom is an educator. And anyone who knows me knew immediately I don’t speak like that. And all these little hip hop sites just ran with it…”
On being friends with Nicki Minaj:
“She and I had a conversation because I see so much of me in her. I said, “I took the shots….I kicked the doors down and opened them back up…I did the jail time…and I’ve made a ton of mistakes.” I sit back and laugh at all these girls calling themselves a “bad girl.” And no shots at Rihanna. I love her and she supported me when she posted that pic of me and Kate Moss for W from a long time ago. I was a REAL bad girl. I took the shots. I was sassy and wouldn’t take any Shyte from anyone. It wasn’t concocted and it wasn’t fake. So I tell Nicki she doesn’t have to do that. Lil Kim and I came in and changed the landscape. There have been many girls after that who have tried to do the same thing. But they’re coming out with a group of guys and just putting on a bikini. So I tell Nicki she doesn’t have to do all that, she’s amazing and talented. She can do it herself.”
Turn the page for audio from the interview.
