Ma: “I was always really smart in school. My whole family is smart. We have ‘Jeopardy’ challenges and have Scrabble tournaments.”

Ma: “I never was a person that said, ‘I’m gonna be a rapper.’ I thought I would be a doctor. I just knew how to rap, and it was a cool thing to do, so I started doing it for fun.”

Ma: “I’ll talk all this craziness in my music, but when I have your attention, and you’re listening to me, I’ll talk about what I want to talk about and what I think we need to address.”

Ma: “Anybody that knows me… I don’t bite my tongue for anybody. You can be my friend. You can be my sister, my brother. Any family member. I’m just gonna say how I feel.”

Ma: “I’ve been fortunate to create a new life for myself. It is not lost on me that many people leaving the prison system lack the loving support—and the opportunities—I have. I’m now the happiest I’ve ever been! I’m on television, I just had the wedding of my dreams, and I returned to the studio to work with Fat Joe again and on a solo project. I’m even delving into my new passion: wedding and event planning.”

Ma: “I miss recording — like, I had a studio in my house, you know? Just, not being able to hear somebody’s beat, and immediately stealing the end part and loop it.”

Ma: “People know that I’m very outspoken. I’ve learned that when I talk, it usually comes off very aggressive. It’s not that I’m aggressive – I’m very stern.”

Ma: “I didn’t feel like people believed in me; when you’re somewhere where people believe in you, you’re going to a whole different vibe. When it came time to send out the album [they] didn’t press enough copies. Like they didn’t think people were going to buy them.”

Ma: “I couldn’t tell you what was my last performance before I was incarcerated. I couldn’t tell you what last meal I had, or anything of those things because I didn’t think about it; it wasn’t important to me. I think about it now. I can tell you everything I ate for the past week. I think that alone makes me a better person.”

Ma: “People are always jumping at what’s new – who’s the next person, who’s the hottest thing, or whatever – so to be able to grasp the attention of everybody is difficult.”

Ma: “I would if it were in the right conceptual space. I just wouldn’t do anything; I’m not the type of person that would do anything for money, or anything for fame. I have morals. There’s plenty of times where checks of astronomical sizes were presented to me, and I declined because that’s not what I’m about.”

Ma: “When I left, he was seven years old. Now, he just turned 14, and he has his little-grown man, coming-of-age thing going on. I’m just so happy to be physically there for him.”

Ma: “I think once you know who your man is, and you know his wants and his desires and things like that, and you let him play his position, everything else is just gonna fall into place.”

Ma: “I think it’s such a great look just to have such a platform for females in this Industry to be displayed on because a lot of times it’s hard for us being females and being rappers, you have a stigma that we are divas, and we’re costly… I just think it’s a good thing to be put out there!”

Ma: “I’ve been through. Like, I’m doing so much damage control, I’d be damned if I let somebody who wants to get a couple of seconds of fame [off me] so nah, I’m not doing that.”

Ma: "We have all these politicians that claim they’re pro-life and that say women should not be able to get abortions and all this other stuff… there’s nothing more pro-life than helping a woman who wants to have a child have a child. Then I realized that health insurance doesn’t cover IVF.”