Brown: I haven't seen him for a while. He's a great businessman, and I have nothing but the utmost respect for him.

Sway: So the rumors of beef that have been circulating between Foxy Brown and Jay-Z?

Brown: I don't have any beef. I don't have anything but love for Jay-Z.

Sway: How did you deal with things when you stopped rapping?

Brown: I didn't. I went through a very difficult period. Even talking about it is starting to make me get really emotional. I went through a very hard period where, like I said, I never thought I would rap again.

Sway: But you did.

Brown: Right. I just went back in, and actually, it was my brother Gavin who came to me and was like, "Inga, you can do it." He was telling me, "I know your talent, I know your heart. Get out there and do it." And Kevin Liles, who's the president [of Def Jam/Def Soul], was like, "Foxy, you need to speak. You need to let people know that, yes, you are articulate, yes, you do come from a good background."

Sway: You don't come from the ghetto, the projects?

Brown: No. I come from Brooklyn, but I come from Park Slope. ... We didn't have a silver spoon, but my mother's a teacher; I live in a brownstone. I just came from a very good upbringing.

Sway: You never robbed anybody?

Brown: Of course not. Robbed anybody? No, I have not robbed anybody. What people always liked about me was that I was the girl with the good upbringing that was good in school, but I had the heart of a lion. Like, I was always the sidekick. That's what Jay-Z loved about me, that's what Nas loved about me — that I was intelligent, but I was still rolling with the fellas. But I still had that. I gave off that aura. Don't get me wrong, I am not any better than anybody. I know that the whole stereotypical thing about rappers is that we all are from broken homes, we all are from poverty.

Sway: That's because rappers rap about that and rap about drug trade.

Brown: Right. But some people come from good backgrounds. Lauryn Hill. Some people do come from a decent upbringing. We had rules. My mother instilled morals in us as children. There was no speaking ill in the house. Take your hats off when you walked in the house, no elbows on the table. We just had manners. We just had a lot of morals instilled in us.

Sway: Recently there was a shooting incident at Hot 97, a radio station in New York. Where were you when you first heard about it?

Brown: I was at home, cooking Sunday dinner with my mother. Capone-N-Noreaga are friends of mine. I love those guys, they're my boys. They stand behind me, and I stand behind them and support them. And I couldn't believe it, I just couldn't believe it.

Sway: Who did you hear about it from?

Brown: From Nore. Once I heard the two of them were safe I was all right, but I was also saddened to hear one of their friends was shot. I couldn't believe it.

Sway: So he said there was a shootout at the station?

Brown: Right. Noreaga hadn't actually gotten there yet. I think he was on his way to the station, and he must have heard the news. He called me and told me. I think I went into some kind of shock, 'cause I couldn't believe we were reliving that again in hip-hop. I couldn't believe it had to escalate to that senselessness.

The Hot 97 shooting and Foxy's side of the Lil' Kim story... NEXT! >>