Kat Stacks Talks from Behind Bars

Kat Stacks took the hip-hop world by storm two years back, making videos alleging to having sex with a plethora of MCs. She did it with straight attitude and didn't care that she was being called a jump-off, slut, whore, liar or worse. But since November 5, 2010, Stacks has been living a completely different life—one that has her locked up behind bars as a deportation detainee in Louisiana. Gone are the phrases like "It's Kat Stacks, bitch!" She's sobered down and even sounds normal. Her mother raises her two-year-old son. Here, Kat Stacks talks to XXL about her situation, how she tweets from jail, looking back at her videos, the one rapper who has shown her support and changing her life for the better. —Mark Lelinwalla (@XXL_Mark)

XXLMag.com: For those that don’t know, describe your situation for the past two years.

Kat Stacks: Well, I was going to the court for immigration and they had changed my court date to two days earlier without notifying me or my lawyer. So, they put that I didn’t show and put out a warrant for deportation [to Venezuela]. But once I told them that they didn’t notify me, they re-opened my case again. By the time they did that, I got apprehended at the airport in Nashville and they took me to the cell detention facility in Louisiana. They didn’t give me a bond, so I had to fight my case there. The judge didn’t like my Kat Stacks persona. He didn’t like it at all. That’s the reason he told me that I’m not allowed to stay in the country, even though I showed him evidence of underage sex trafficking and domestic violence. That’s violating my freedom of speech and press rights. Now, I have to stay here and fight them back.

What’s your daily life like behind bars?

I guess I’m just used to it, I guess. It goes over my head, now, I guess.

What have you missed the most while in jail?

I haven’t even see my son walk for the first time or talk for the first time or anything. The only time I see him is behind bulletproof glass every two to three weeks. It’s hard seeing my son out there. He thinks my mother is his mother. The judge is heartless. He knows that and doesn’t care. He just wants to judge me for the WorldStar videos. I told them I’m not going to do that anymore. I told them I changed and I want to be a mother. I never finished the seventh grade. I asked them to give me a second chance to make my life right. I came to jail when I was 20 years [old]. I told them I changed, I go to weekly therapy, I take my medication, I go to bible study. I told them I’m trying to do right. I even had a woman from a sex trafficking organization tell me that I could join the organization when I get out of here and get the help that I need to be a better person. He just doesn’t want to listen. He doesn’t care about evidence or anything.

You changed your Twitter handle from @ihatekatstacks to @AdmireAndrea after your first name. When and why did you do that?

I decided to let the whole Kat Stacks name go, so when I’m outside, it’s not, "It’s Kat Stacks, bitch!" I wanted to come outside and be different. I left it at that @AdmireAndrea and I told the judge that I’m gonna let go of the Kat Stacks thing, but he didn’t listen.

You’re saying you changed, but when you look back at all your videos, are you sickened by what you see?

Well, back then I wasn’t capicitated back then. I was just messed up in the head and I just lashed out on hurt, on pain, on being mad. I just wasn’t right back then. I just had gotten out of the pimp scene. I was in that scene since I was 14 years old. I didn’t know any better. I didn’t know anywhere else to go and WorldStar was just an open door for me not to be in the street working and getting beat up by a pimp. The father of my child is a pimp. I explained that to them. When I first got in there, I used to tweet about every little thing that gone on here and they used to get mad. They used to get really pissed! They used to harass me all the time.

How do you even manage to tweet, while in jail?

There’s no Internet access here or anything. The person, who I’d like to remain anonymous, tweets for me. I have somebody who handles it.

So, you speak to that person and the person tweets your messages?

Exactly.

When you were first incarcerated, did your reputation precede you? Did everyone know who you were and did your persona create problems?

Well, it created problems because of my Twitter page. One of the officers raped a transsexual and I tweeted about it. I tweeted about the Haitians going on a hunger strike because immigration wouldn’t release them. One of them had to get 14 stitches. They didn’t like that because the place was under investigation. They were like, "You need to stop tweeting about that if you want to see your son again." They always, touched me looking for a cell phone and even strip-searched me when they weren’t supposed to. They kept harassing me. They even took my letters too.

Has any rapper actually come to your defense during this time?

Not at all. They just be like, "Free Kat Stacks" if anything. The only person who actually came out to help with my court issues from the heart was Mims.

You known him before?

Yes. We weren’t even that close and he came to help me. That made me see a different light. The people that I was outside with all the time, everybody, they just tweet me and that’s it. They don’t write or visit me. I needed letters to give to the judge, saying that everything I did outside was for publicity, and they all said they’d write letters and never did. The only one who did was Mims. I was really surprised.

You been called disparaging every name in the book. What do you want people to know about you then and now?

Well, back then, just like my psychologist said…I suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder because of what happened in my childhood and that’s what started the whole Kat Stacks character. Now, that my head is right and I know better now, things have changed. I was young then. Everybody deserves a second chance and the government won’t give it to me. It’s not right. People will see a different side now. If they’re going to persecute me for being Kat Stacks then they should persecute rappers for their lyrics and what they do in the videos.

Looking back, does any of your old videos and behavior embarrass you?

Well, kinda…yes and no. I stood up for women. I just did what most men out there and most rappers rap about, "Hoes this and spending money." When I did that, people thought it was wrong. I felt like I just stood up for what I believe in. I didn’t know any better. You can’t change the past, you can only make the future better.

FOR MORE ON KAT STACKS AND HER NEWFOUND WAYS, GO TO THE NEXT PAGE

No matter how much you have changed or said you will change, your videos and actions of the past will likely always be attached to you. How do you feel about that?

I’m okay with it. I got it tatted on me, "Kat Stacks." I know people are always gonna judge me for it, but I don’t care about it because I know inside people are always going to judge me for it.

How was it that you always found yourself with one rapper to the next and the next?

Umm…I guess it was destiny.

Do you regret anything?

I don’t regret anything in life. I just regret not being able to be a better mother and not focusing on him.

One of the videos that people always talk about was the infamous coke video with you and Soulja Boy. What do you have to say about that?

I knew that question was coming. The real story from that day is we got together—again, because we were seeing each other on the low…we had a low-down relationship—and that day, he pissed me off. I was drunk, he was drunk too. He left me stranded alone at the hotel and when I kept texting and calling him, he didn’t answer. He just texted me a ticket number to the airport. I was pissed. So, I called my friend to take me to the airport, but he came with his boys and ordered room service and all got drunk. I had a headache because when I was on the plane on the way there, I drank a lot and threw up, so I had ordered Advil for room service. So, there were Advil pills there, sitting around. My phone had died and I had bent down to charge it and the laptop fell on the floor. My boy was like, "What you doing, coke up in here?" When I went to go look, the laptop had crushed up the pills. That’s when the boys got the coke idea to set it up. They set up the scenes and I didn’t care because I was already mad at Soulja Boy. But when I did the video, I didn’t know it was going to be that big. I apologized, but I didn’t know how to make things right again. I felt really bad. I got in contact with him again and he told me to tell the truth. I went on my Twitter and told everyone the truth, but he did everything in his power to hurt me, so I just let him go. I don’t need to deal with that stuff.

Most rappers you were linked to denied being with you.

They all denied me!

Was there one who annoyed you by doing that?

Well, the one who wouldn’t let it go was Nelly. He was annoying.

And you were with him?

Twice. I did kinda make it seem more than it was, but it was just sex. I tried to make it seem like it was deeper than that, but it wasn’t. He couldn’t believe a girl like me would say the things I did, but I was always drunk. Before interviews, I used to drink a whole bottle of Hennessy or a whole bottle of Patron or Goose.

There was also a video with dudes beating you up.

They don’t scare me. When they did that to me, I only went harder.

If you’re able to get out, what is it that you want to do?

First of all, I want to finish my education. I have never finished the seventh grade. I want to get my GED. I want to get my record expunged, so I can work social work to help younger people who were in my shoes. I want to do that and go in a positive lane and leave all the rappers and drinking and going nuts alone. Just be better and show people that people can change.

You say you want to leave the rappers alone. All of them?

Well, some, we can stay in contact, but we’re not gonna be involved intimately because it will just bring me back to the situation I’m in now.

People are going to read this and that you say you changed, but still label you as a hoe and  the bottom of the barrel for your past. They’re going to think you’re going to revert right back to your old ways. What do you say to them?

I just pray for them. Bless them. I’m going to prove them wrong, when I get out. Actions speak louder than words.