Foxy Brown has made plenty of headlines in the past year for a variety of run-ins with the law, court appearances and being sentenced to a year in prison in August on a probation violation.
But the rapper hadn't addressed her tribulations — until this week, when a new track, "Star Cry," leaked to the Internet.
She raps on the chorus: "Lord have mercy/ I'm so controversy/ Bet you never seen a star cry/ I gave you my life/ You get my blood, sweat and tears/ Hip-hop's bad girl for 10 f---ing years."
"I loved the record. I didn't know if [her manager] Chaz [Williams] or the label was going to put it out," Foxy's friend and former publicist Marvet Britto told MTV News. "I heard parts of it before, but I'm just now hearing the entire thing. I think it's great. She's opening up and unleashing and revealing some of the pain."
According to Williams, the track was recorded prior to the rapper's sentencing in August. Williams said Foxy held a few private recording sessions, during which she wouldn't allow anyone else to enter the studio. It was during that time that she recorded "Song Cry." The song is, well, a far cry from the singer's happier days, like when he caught up with her in New York back in 1999.
"It was real introspective and real personal to her and she acted that way during the recording of it," Williams explained.
"I thought it was one of the best records she's done by far, to me," he added. "I felt that it was something that she did a lot different than she did before, even when she did personal records. 'Cause she made the distinction between her stage presence and her personal, which is Inga Marchand [Foxy's birth name]. I think it's easy for artists to lose sight of who they are, especially when you have so many people trying to get at you. And I think her experience, both bad and good and more bad, relating to the hearing problem, made her take another look at herself and see that she was vulnerable, really vulnerable, and she put it into the music."
Although Foxy doesn't rap specifically about her hearing problem, she takes aim at the New York tabloid media's coverage of her.
"How can y'all judge my life, like I ain't have a struggle?" Foxy spits. "Sometimes I feel like I live inside a f---ing bubble/ I work hard for mine, baby, I'm a thoroughbred/ And I don't care what channel five and the haters said."
In reference to the lyrics, Williams cited instances when the media camped outside of Foxy's mother's home to get sound bites from the rapper after court dates or the puzzling time she was robbed in Brooklyn, New York, late last year.
Even now, he noted, with Foxy's recent request to be relieved from her jail time in order to undergo treatment for her hearing impairment, it's largely been blown out of proportion.
Williams admitted his client is seeking a release but explained that Foxy suggested a number of options in her request, including house arrest while she recovers from surgery. A New York judge has requested proof that she will go deaf unless she goes to a Los Angeles clinic for treatment.
Williams made it clear that Foxy wasn't trying to dodge her ordered jail time.
He said the rapper underwent regular maintenance for her hearing impairment, which includes a device placed in her ear. Williams said Foxy usually receives treatment locally in New York, but because of the circumstances, she's requesting to see a specialist in Los Angeles, where she first had surgery for her hearing loss.
"Her hearing implants need to be programmed a certain way," he said. "They can't be removed and sent in for repair without a serious surgery. So she would have to go to a doctor in California. And while people incarcerated don't necessarily get the doctor of their choice, they don't perform that type of implant within the prison system.
"She understood when she went in that she would have to do the time and has served most of her time," Williams finished, noting that he believes Foxy has fewer than 100 days remaining because of good behavior. "She's not trying to avoid her responsibilities."
