Da Brat Speaks For The First Time Since Prison Release: Braids, Nicki Minaj, & Mariah Carey

The folks at VIBE landed the first interview with Da Brat since her release from prison this week.  After 2.5 years, Brat's talking about whether she's going to finally let go of the braids, who her surprise visitors were, and her take on the Nicki Minaj VS. Lil Kim beef.

Read on for the excerpts from the interview....

Da Brat chit chatted with VIBE about her jail time and how she got through it.  Thanks to posters of hotties like Tyrese and visits from her sis LisaRaye and her bestie Mariah Cary and Nick Cannon, she made her cell her "suite."
But first, the answer to the question you probably care about the most:

Are you going to switch up your braids for a fresh start?
My hair is my glory. I’m definitely going to switch up the braids. It’s time to do some different things. It might be braided, but also straight or the big curly look. I like the big curly look on me so I'm going to get with my hair girl. I’m ready to dibble and dabble more. I'm ready to do the glam thing but with my Brat swag. I wanna add some more femininity. I’ma bring back some "What Do You Like" Brat. I’m kind of tired of the braids, but at the same time I'm comfortable.

And other excerpts from the interview:

Brat, welcome back! JD was tweeting like crazy about your release. Can we expect to find you on Twitter anytime soon?

[Laughs Oh yeah I’m figuring out how to work all that Twitter stuff now. I haven't been around a computer for a minute 'cause we don’t have computer access in state facilities. But JD just put me on to Global 14 and I've heard of Twitter and there’s a Facebook page with a perpetrator pretending to be me. But I don’t have a Facebook page yet! [Laughs I’ll have that and a Twitter page though by the end of the week. I don’t what my name will be yet, but I’m going to figure it all out. Twitter’s the thing to do now so I gotta get into it.

Indeed. There are a lot of folks that would lose their minds without Twitter in prison. How did you spend your days in the pen?
They had a lot of things for us to do. We went out to rec and played sports. They had auto paint and auto body, they had computer classes. It was almost like a college situation, except you can’t leave [laughs. I wrote a book. I did quite a few things. Then I became a third shift orderly where at night I stayed up with a crew of homegirls and we cleaned the showers, buffed the floors, we had our headphones on bumping our cds. We made the best of it.

How were your nights resting in a cell?
I didn’t call my room a cell. That was my suite. I had to lay my head there so I made the best of it. It was comfortable for me. Once they do inspection you gotta have it clean, but when that's done I had posters on there, everything.

Well the sexy tomboy look is in. Are you feeling Nicki Minaj's swag?
I listened to Nicki Minaj’s album and liked it. She’s not keeping herself in a bubble. I like the diversity and that it’s working for her. Because at one point they weren’t letting female rappers do too much. It was either your selling sex or your being hard. But she gets to do both. That’s a good thing.
Safe to say you'd do a collab then?
Hell yeah I would.
Now what about her and Lil' Kim's beef?
My personal thoughts on beefing… when it’s only like 6 of us left still trying to put out records… it’s not enough for us to beef. It makes no sense to me. But if that's what they do let them do that.
How did you find out about Mariah's pregnancy?
Oh man! I talk to Mariah often and her and Nick came to see me. I knew about the miscarriage and I know she's having the twins. And I know she only wanted to do it one time. They are like the cutest couple, they both are eternally 12. I swear! They’re big kids. 
Who else came out to visit you?
Of course my sister. JD couldn’t take it... He said he didn’t want to see me in that light. But he was very supportive and wrote me all the time. People talked shit but he was very supportive. Gave me everything I needed. Kat Williams came to see me. All my family and friends. 
Who was most surprising visitor?
Mariah and Nick surprised me! I saw someone from their crew and said ‘Oh shit!’ I would’ve never thought that she would’ve came, she’s so girly! But that's what real friends do.

 

Peep the interview in its entirety over at VIBE.