Fresh out of jail, after a 10 month incarceration for a drunk driving related offense, Royce Da 5′9″ is asked by HipHopGame.com about his experiences and the perspective he’s gained.
How do you put this whole experience, from the drunk driving arrest to your release, in perspective today?
It’s just a learning experience. You have to accept being punished for your actions. That’s how I look at it. It was pretty much my life that I had to give the system because of something very immature that I did. I don’t look at the situation like, ‘Oh, man, I went to jail!’ There’s nothing cool about it. There’s nothing cool about 10 months being taken out of my life because I was drinking and driving. I definitely think that it was a stupid mistake. It’s one of those things that you have to put behind you but you can’t forget it. You have to use that to remind you that you’re human, that you make mistakes and that you pay for those mistakes. It takes a big man to admit when he makes a mistake. I’m manning up to it. I dealt with it and I didn’t cry about it.
I went through a lot to try to keep my family situation in order. A lot of people were affected by the mistake but I made it through and I was able to bounce back relatively fast. It’s over with. It’s time to move on and make classics and just stay focused and not make the same mistake again. I bounced back from it and I have to keep it moving.
It’s very clear that you don’t want your stint in jail to be looked at as cool or that you just got more street cred.
There’s nothing cool about that. There’s nothing to brag about. I was drinking and driving. That’s corny. A lot of people do it, but to go to jail for drinking and driving and to come out of it like it’s supposed to give you some kind of credibility, that’s corny. I’m nowhere near that zone. I’m somewhere else. If anything, I’m trying to show motherfuckers that it could be them because it’s so common. All of my niggas do it and it’s not that uncommon.
If you’re 21, there’s nothing wrong with drinking, but when you drink and jump behind that wheel, you’re putting your life and other people’s lives at risk. I know a lot of motherfuckers do it, but if I can get caught and they put me in jail for the misdemeanor, imagine what they could do to you. It’s just something to think about. I didn’t know how serious this shit was until I went through it. When I got behind the wheel, I didn’t feel like it was any big deal, but when they pull you over and you breathe into that Breathalyzer and it’s over the legal limit, they’re going to get your ass. As far as I’m concerned, man, there’s nothing cool about it. I’m not trying to glorify it. I don’t need any street credibility from it and I don’t need anybody to look at it like that. Just don’t put your hands on me and we’ll be cool.
Will you be raising more awareness to kids about the seriousness of drinking and driving?
I have a lot of plans to do that. I actually want to do something positive in the community I wanted to develop something like that when I was in the Camp, but when I got out on work release, I found out that I didn’t have enough time in my day to put something like that together. But once I have the time and I have some extra money, I will definitely do that. That will be my angle to giving back to the community. I want to give back. I’ll be targeting kids around the ages of 14 through 18. That’s the age they want to drive and that’s the age they want to drink.
I think a lot of people drink and drive just because they don’t know the seriousness of it. It’s not stressed all the time by the people that they think are cool. It’s definitely on my radar and I’ll be dropping little jewels in interviews because the last thing that I want people to think is that I just did 10 months for that and I’m cool now and I have more street cred. If anything, I have less street cred. It’s corny and it’s not cool and that’s what I’m stressing.
