Mystikal is heading back to prison, and Billboard got his thoughts on the impending jail time.
"Disappointed isn't the word for it -- ashamed," Mystikal says of his feelings about the jail sentence. "It's hard to show up. If I stole your money and I gotta come face you again and you ask me about the money, it's gonna be hard for me to face you in the eye. So the proof is in the pudding. Everything I was doing, the 81 days was right there riding with me -- in the SUV, come on, who's that? My 81 days. Everywhere I went, it was keeping me in check, and it's a fight. I can tell myself all kinds of things, I can sit there and mope, or I can get out and thank those fans the way I'm supposed to, the way they deserve to be thanked. So of course I am."
He also commented on how live performances are a form of escapism, "My mission is to make you forget about who you owe money and who you owe money to, just for a second," he says. Mystikal used to give profanity-free shows in Louisiana State Prison, he continued, "You don't think I was performing in that goddamn place? [I was] working the crowds off that bitch!" he says. "When I performed they had to put me last, because once I get off, that's a wrap… I used to kill it in church, and any platform I had. I did concerts in the gym, Lord have mercy. But my clean shows, out here, that's almost like rated R for the show that I had [in prison]. It had to be totally, totally clean, rated G, not one curse word. I mean, I missed the big stage, but when you really love something -- shit, I don't give a fuck where I was at. If I can do that, I know I'm gonna be all right."
