Remy Ma: Outtakes From the October 2011 Issue

In July 2007, Reminisce "Remy Ma" Smith was arrested for attempted murder after allegedly shooting her friend, Makeda Barnes-Joseph, in the stomach outside of a New York nightclub. The bloody squabble began after the Bronx-bred femcee realized an estimated $5000 was missing from her purse. The morning after the public altercation, Terror Squad's former first lady turned herself into the police and in March 2008 was convicted of two counts of assault in Manhattan's Supreme Court and sentenced to a maximum of eight years.

Now referred to as inmate Smith 08G0485, the 30-year-old MC has spent the last three years and five months behind bars at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women. Just weeks after celebrating her birthday in May, Remy opened up to XXL about life behind bars and the real meaning of family for the October 2011 issue. Here are the outtakes from Remy's jail talk. —Amber McKynzie

XXLMag.com: This all started with whom many people reference as your best friend, Makeda Barnes-Joseph. What was the relationship between you two?

Remy Ma: I knew the people involved for about six months. Of that six months I was on tour here in the states for about two months and about a month-and-a-half or so in Europe. So you meet somebody and you know [them] for six months, and about four of those months you’re gone. How much of a best friend could this person be to you?

Okay, so you’re not really “friends.” Take us through the night of the shooting. What really happened?

I had just come back from Europe. I was out with Terrence J from 106 and Park and his brother. I had left my house with $5000 dollars in cash. I was telling them about this girl. She was trying to be a rapper. I had met her at some club. She was passing out her mixtape [and] she was from the Bronx. She had this manager at the time that was charging her to do this, and she needed money to do that. I was trying to help her [and] put her on a song with me. We had this idea to do a Bronx mixtape. She asked me to come to her birthday party. So me, Terrence and his brother, we all went to where the party was originally supposed to be at, but they weren’t dressed right. They had sneakers and stuff. They didn’t want to let them in. So I ended up going with [Terrence and his brother]. I didn’t pay for anything when I went with them, they paid for everything. They were trying to get me to go to Texas for some party. I was like, “No,” because at the time Papoose was still in Europe and I knew he was coming back. There was no way I was going to be in Texas when he got back. Anyway I was going home, and she texted me and was like, “You got to pass this to get home its right on the West side.” So I parked my car in the garage, went inside [and] chilled for a little while. It was like in some little hole in the wall bar or whatever. She had got into something with her boyfriend and he was punching her in the face. So I was like, Ok, let me talk to him for a minute. So I was talking to him, then I was like go talk to her. He went to go talk to her, and I was like, “Where is my bag?” She was like, “I gave it to this chick, Makeda.” I went over to [Makeda] and I [said], “Where’s my bag?” She [said], Oh, it’s sitting over there on the couch. So I’m like, Did you just drop my bag on the fucking couch in a bar? Are you crazy? I got my bag – it was pretty much over when I got there. So everybody leaving and shit.

Is this when you saw the money was missing?

When I got to my truck, the guy was telling me how much to pay for the parking. I opened my bag and I didn’t have no money. So some guy pays for the parking. I get in my car – I’m not spazzing or anything – and I call the girl who I originally gave my bag to. My first assumption was she took it out [because] she didn’t want to hand somebody else my bag with all that money in it. So I am like, “Did you take money out of my bag?” And she’s like,”No. I didn’t even open your bag.” I'm like, “Okay, where’s Makeda? Maybe she did it.” I’m just trying to figure out what happened, not because I care its just the principle of it.

So what happened next?

I known where everyone was parked. I drove over there, and she’s in her car. I go to her [and] was like, “Somebody stole my money. I kind of had an idea who it was, but just so nobody thinks I am singling them out let me just say that I looked through your bag so I can go check them.” She is like, “Okay.” She is reaching in her bag and taking out her lip-gloss – taking out her shit one-by-one, and I am like, “Just dump your shit out so I can catch them before everyone leaves because I am going to know it when I see it. There is 5000 dollars in crispy 20s and 50s.” She didn’t want to let go of the bag. When I went to grab the bag from her that shit was wild heavy. When we were fighting over the bag and shit her fucking gun fell out of the bag and that shit went off. At the time neither one of us realized that the gun even touched her at all, period. Everything was all good when I left. I went home.

As far as you were concerned, everything was all good except for your missing money.

I found out all this shit happened when I called the girl whose party it was to make sure everything was okay, but her boyfriend picked up, he was like, “I will tell her to call you back.” I just assumed everything was alright.

When did you find out what happened?

I found when I turned on the damn news on the TV. I called my manager. She called this lawyer guy. The following day he said that he spoke to the police, and that we’re gonna go down there and [I'm going to] turn myself in. So I’m like, “What!? What do I have to turn myself in for if they just want to question me?” I’m not agreeing at this point. He’s like, “It’s just procedure.” I wake up and go to the 7-11 and the shit’s on the cover of the newspaper. I was like, Are you fucking serious! We get there, and it’s wild reporters.

FOR MORE REMY MA OUTTAKES, GO TO PAGE 2

Were you taken in and booked right away?

They fuckin’ take me to booking and then they’re like, “Are you gonna post bail?” I’m like, “Yeah.” The lawyer was like your bail is gonna be anywhere from 25 to about the most $60,000. We go to the court and the judge is like, “Bail at $250,000.” I’m like they expect me to make that on a Sunday? Like I have $250,000 sitting on my washer machine somewhere. I end up going to Rikers. I’m furious.

What went on when you finally got to court?

I have all these charges – like 11 charges. They charged [me] from attempted murder to assault and coercion, and then gang assault. I was like, “Gang assault? How the fuck was it gang assault and I was by myself?” I didn’t bring no security with me, no best friends with me, no nothing. I was on my way home. I just figured let me do this chick a favor and stop by her party. Shit was just crazy. They ended up getting an indictment. I went from being a sweet person working on [her] second album, ’bout to find a new record deal, a movie audition and different shit to inmate Smith 08G0485 in a matter of eight months.

What was going on in your head once the trial started?

If I had stayed with people that I fuck with that would’ve never happened. [Makeda] told how she was shot in her stomach. She knows none of that is true. They had the perfect setup. I never thought in the beginning that somebody actually stole it. I don’t know, I’m just probably too naive like that. I’m just thinking like why would they steal it? I would’ve gave it to them. That thought didn’t cross my mind until I asked [Makeda] and she started fucking balling out the bag and she was acting all suspect and suspicious and shit.

So whatever happened to the money? Did you ever recover it?

No one cared. That wasn’t even brought up in my trial. Like who cares who robbed me. All we want is this rapper bitch in jail. I get into arguments. “Girl, you shot somebody over $2,000, you shot somebody over $3,000, you shot somebody over $4,000.” Like I heard so many different numbers and no one cared. People that are my fans are like, "Yea, if a bitch touch my money I would’ve did X,Y, and Z.” But no one ever brings that up. Hello, does anybody know where my money is at?

So it’s just something that’s never talked about.

So because I make money or cause I have money does that mean people can take it from me whenever they feel like? Like how did I come here and lose money? Niggas acting like I was wrong for even asking who had my money. I could’ve just took it as a loss, but who says I don’t have a right to ask? I have that right. When keeping it real goes wrong.

Your lawyer instructed you not say anything. What was your relationship with him like?

I can say I wish my appeal lawyer was my trial lawyer. And my trial lawyer I never met him. We weren’t on the same page.

Since being locked up, what’s one thing that bothers you most about the people around you in jail?

They ask me to spit something and I tell them, “What the fuck I look like? A karaoke machine? A fucking jukebox?”

So What’s your day-to-day like?

I have to wake up at like 5:30. They do a live body count to make sure everyone—this is to make sure no one escapes and to make sure everyone is alive. So, you have to actually move and show some type of body movement. Once that happens, I’m always up for a while. I might doze off for another 45 minutes or an hour and get up at 6:30am or 7:00am to take a shower. And then I might eat a bowl of cereal or something. At 8-o’clock you have to go to whatever your program is. Like, before I was working at inmate grieving. It’s where everybody goes with whatever their problems in the jail is. But now, from 8:ooam to 11:00am I’m suppose to be mowing lawns and weed whacking and shit like that. Between 12:00pm and 12:30pm, they’ll probably call the Mess Hall. If it’s grilled cheese or pizza I’ll have to go to the Mess Hall; other wise, I just sit in my cell and just read or paint my nails or write or do my hair. From 1:00pm to 4:00pm you have a program again. Then after 4:00pm I’m back. Probably make something to eat or whatever. I try to eat before 5:00pm. I have [a] girl [and] we play Scrabble, Monopoly, Backgammon— every game out. Like, I’m a game master. Like any type of board game—I’m a champion, like I’m trying to get to 700 points. The most I ever had was like 680 something.

What are your evenings like? Do you get to watch TV or talk on the phone at all?

At 6:30pm I’ll probably just—if I don’t go to the yard—sometimes I go to the yard and chill with my friends or whatever. If not, I’ll sit up here and watch Family Guy, and then at 7:00pm I watch Jeopardy. If like school is in session I’ll go down to the computer room and type out my report or whatever we’re doing. Do homework. Then every night I call home from 9:15pm to 10:15pm. I call Pap. Everybody know 9:15 pm I’m on the phone. Don’t even ask where I’m at.