Ever since it hit the airwaves fives years ago, the chronicles of the Black Ink crew have kept heads on the edge of their seats as they struggle through everything from drug abuse to crazy baby mamas… with a side of tattoos.
With the new season about to start with a two-hour premiere on Wednesday (January 18) and old gripes still in the air, team leader Ceasar sat with AllHipHop.com’s @MrMecc to take about new business, old beefs, fresh starts with old enemies health, money and of course… Dutchess.
AllHipHop.com: Taking care of yourself now, the business is up and popping. You’re free and single. Your circle is back tight again.
Ceaser: Yeah, my circle is back tight.
AllHipHop.com: I got to tell you, it hurt my feelings when you and Puma fell out. I used to go to those parties in the backyard-
Ceaser: I ain’t going to lie to you bro’, it hurt a lot of people’s feelings. It’s something that I felt like it was like, we could’ve mended it but it’s gone now. You feel me? It’s too many people in between us. Like we can’t sit here and talk like … it’s too much this and there’s too much of a past bulls##t. If we can’t sit here and be like, “You know what, man? The past is the past. Man, f##k with this blame game. Who did this and who did.” You got what you got and I got what I got. We ain’t bad right now. You got your own business. I got my own business. What the f##k are we even beefing about, bro’?
AllHipHop.com: My father always said, “If didn’t nobody f##k nobody’s wife, send nobody to jail, or kill nobody’s kids, we can work it out.
Ceaser: It’s nothing when you look at like, “ni**a, we fought over chicken.” Like, come on bro’. Like we really don’t have nothing that we sitting here like man, f##k that n*gga, f##k that. Why? It’s nothing. It’s no … I have no malice towards you. I don’t hate you, no nothing; but when it comes down to it, it’s just like everything that comes on that side, like “f##k Ceas, f##k Ceas, f##k Ceas.” So, I just keep to myself, bro’. I don’t want … like, I’m not going to sit there and instigate nothing, bro’. I was never a person who instigate. I don’t be on the offense. I’m always on the defense, you know? I’m not going to sit out there and just come at you like that. You feeling me?
I feel like when you do s##t like that, you’re begging for trouble. You know?
AllHipHop.com: I’m holding out hope that y’all can squash it. I think it can be squashed. I think it can get back right. Maybe y’all won’t be hanging out at each other’s houses like you used to, but I’m holding out hope that there will be a party that you guys throw together, and everybody be good like that.
Ceaser: I tried last summer. Went down there, talked to him. Like go see if he really want to squash this bulls##t, just been going on too long. It was a whole bunch of other s##t, like … At the end of the day, I wish that man the best. I mean like, he has a family and regardless of how he think I think about him, I wish his family the best.
He, Puma, how can I say this? With Puma now, I’m proud of him. Yeah, we went through our bulls##t, but as a man, what you’re doing on your own, I’m proud of you bro’. Even though you have malice toward me and you have hatred, I don’t have that. He don’t remember that we know each other. I know what you been through, just like you know what I been through. You might sit there and say, “f##k Ceas.” I’m not saying that. I still got love for you, homey. That’s why I can sit there and say, “I’m proud of you.” At the end of the day, I know it ain’t the same, how you feel towards me. So, I keep my distance. At the end of the day, I got to stay positive. I can’t be going back to that old bulls##t.
It’s never that serious. It wasn’t about no money. It was just egos, bro’. Then when men have their ego problem, what we do? We scrap it out. Yo, we come back, we hug. Guess what? We knew each other too long to be saying, “f##k you.” When everyone want to say “f##k you,” it’s like, “Alright, f##k it. f##k me now.”