Iggy Azalea’s Ex “Husband” Hefe Wine Takes Credit For Her Entire Career

Recent headlines about the back and forth between Iggy Azalea and her ex, Hefe Wine, have been rocking the internet for weeks now, especially with the mention of an alleged sex tape which was being shopped for millions. With news first surfacing about the tape last month, over the last few weeks things have gone from 0 to 100 real quick. Amongst the heap of shock value surrounding the situation, more recently Wine even named Iggy as his wife prior to serving the Def Jam rapper with divorce papers, while Iggy has filed a lawsuit claiming Wine stole music from her computer.

With so much unclear and even more set to be uncovered, XXL hopped on the line with Hefe Wine to talk about who put his sex tape with Iggy Azalea on the market, the details about their alleged common law marriage and his motive behind everything that's happened in the past month. —Miranda Johnson

XXL: Why did you decide that now was the time to put all of the Iggy stuff out to the public?
Hefe Wine: Let me see how I can start this. I had a contract on her, I have a contract on her and in spite of her going to sign with a different label, in spite of her lying that she’s not signed [to me], I took the high road. Even though contractually I could have just stopped it from the very beginning. I said, I’m just going to take the song I wrote and produced, the songs that I can lawfully put out, and put it out. When I did that and they got wind of it—it's actually in iTunes and Warner Music put it out—they attacked it. Like, "Hey, you can’t put this out." That’s when all of the smoke hit the fan.

So in a way, you felt like Iggy betrayed you?
Extremely. She already betrayed me by lying to these major labels, telling them that she’s not signed. As if all the hard work and years of me writing songs and producing them [didn’t mean anything].

What’s your relationship like with Iggy now? Have you guys talked since theses things have surfaced?
No.

When you guys split ways what was your relationship like at that point?
It was mutual. It felt mutual, but you can never read another person’s mind. But it felt mutual when we parted ways.

What year did you guys meet?
We met in June or July of 2008. Late June of 2008. I’m positive on the June; you can quote me on the late June.

What year did you end the relationship?
Last year.

So this came about recently. So after she signed her major label deal, you guys were still cool?
I can’t say. Just like a brother and sister, you love them but you still don’t appreciate—Do you have a sister?

Yeah.
You love her but you don’t appreciate that she stole your shoes and didn’t return your shoes. That energy is still there. So it's just like that. That situation.

So the rift was caused by you attempting to put out the music and her team's reaction to it?
It was before that. It was a little before that.

Recent headlines have said that you’re filing for divorce. What’s that about?
You can keep a lot of things quiet or you can start revealing the truth about things. The truth of the matter, she doesn’t write her music. When everybody was saying this and that, I didn’t say anything. I’m the one that taught her how to rap. I’m the one that began her career, producing and recording—I’m going in another whole different lane. You'll have to excuse me. What was the question again?

Why did you recently claim that Iggy was your wife?
You’re talking about the divorce. Well, it was time to sever my ties to her. A lot of people... The easiest way to become an American citizen is to marry someone. Now when we met, things started happening and eventually we fell in love. Then she wanted to become an American citizen and she wanted to be married. I was slow to it, but we began that process of being married. We became common law married and we were moving to the more traditional stage of marriage. I was kind of slow to do that. But if you go off and you’re trying to do other things and [people are] like, "Wait a minute, you’re married. Your wife Amethyst Amelia Kelly has to sign off on things." You have to sever those things. It’s just she’s so famous and now I’m so famous, it’s in the media as soon as I do anything. If nobody knew her and nobody knew me it would have just been normal procedures.

So even with common law marriage, all these things still hold up? Like, she can become a citizen via common law marriage?
It’s the paperwork. No, she’s not a citizen. She’s still not a citizen. She’s on a work visa right now. After that you have to start submitting the proper paperwork to customs and stuff like that. I was slow about doing that.

You guys became common law married in Texas?
It was in Texas but I was advised not to give any information on that from my attorneys. It was in Texas.

But when you guys were living together, I believe Iggy had said you were living in Atlanta?
We moved to Atlanta for a little minute.

About the sex tape, you said it was stolen off your computer? How did you know that? Did you know when it was stolen?
A hard drive. I didn’t know until it hit the media. I was floored just like everybody else. My momma called me. She’s an old lady, so she has the TV on everything that is news. But I’m going to state it like this: I helped a lot of people and a lot of people know me as being forgiving, being humble. I come from the streets so I’ve survived a lot. I’ve been shot in my head with a .38 and lived through it. [I was] shot in my face with a 9mm, died and came back to life. I lived through it. I’ve been through worse things as a teenager.

So surviving that, finding God, you learn to love people and you learn to forgive. I walked away from that lifestyle. So I can take a lot when people do me wrong, but the people around me—the people that love me, the people that I’ve helped see what’s going on—they’re like, "Man, you got a contract on this girl and she’s doing this and you ain’t doing nothing? The only thing you’re going to do is put out a project?" I’m not trying to attack her career. I have my own lane, my own money.

But these people who love me, they’re seeing these things and some of them are the only ones that have access to any form of my belongings. So news hits that she took my music down, snatched it off—that was illegally done. Some person got it in their mind that they would steal something without me knowing; we got to the bottom of it and they did what they did. I didn’t find this out until weeks later, to be honest with you. That’s what happened. People [were] watching me be wronged—DJs all in Texas and in Georgia, are like, "Whoa, what’s up. You the one that..." Everybody is like, "Man, you should..." I’m just quiet. So that’s how things got revealed.

When Iggy says you’re just after her money, how does that make you feel?
Oh my God. It pisses me off, but I’m a little different. You know how somebody would just go off or be ready for whatever when somebody is lying about them? If it’s a man, I’m going to be ready. I’m going to smash him. I’m going to be ready for verbal confrontation, physical, whatever. But when a woman wrongs me and does me like that, I don’t know how to retaliate, even verbally. It’s been hard, even though I’m the one being wronged. I don’t know how to retaliate on a woman physically or verbally. This is new.

If you listen to my song “Beautiful Liar,” I don’t bash her. I poetically tell the truth about the situation. A lot of my friends are saying, "Man, you were too nice." It was hard, and it hurt me to do that song, which is so crazy. It shouldn’t hurt, but it hurt me to do that song. I don’t have the inward ability to bash a woman. I have that type of respect for all women, even if it’s an evil one coming at me.

In your voice, it seems like it even hurts you to speak about the situation.
Yes. It’s three sides to every story.

How did you and Iggy initially meet? Were you in the country?
I met her through a friend of mine named Mr. Lee. It was in Houston. He was partly running a label that just got started and he called me because he knew I produced. I produce and write for others better [than] I do for myself. I’ve been in the business 15 years. When I got to the record label, she was there. He said that she had hit him on MySpace. That day, the day that I sat down with her, is the day that I met her. The day that we sat down with her was her birthday. I met her on her birthday. Her 18th birthday.

Filed Under: Divorce, Feature, featured, Hefe Wine, Iggy Azalea

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