Testimony: B.G.

If you know nothing else about New Orleans rapper B.G., know that he gave the English lexicon the term, "Bling Bling," the title of his 1999 hit song which was officially added to the Oxford English dictionary in 2003. After a lengthy battle with heroin addiction, the 25-year-old says he's been sober for about two-and-a-half years (though he was just arrested on Dec. 23 for marijuana and gun possession) and mentions that a record deal with G-Unit South is "in the air," having left Cash Money Records. In the meantime, the former Baby Gangsta is set to release his independent album, 'The Heart of Tha Streetz' on March 21.

B.G.: It all started back when my dad died (I was 12) and the streets adopted me. I started cutting class and smoking weed and not listening. When I was 15, a good friend was murdered. That night we ain't pour out some liquor. I was about 15 and my success was kinda camouflaging [the addiction], but really it wasn't doing me right and I was running into brick walls. My vision wasn't clear.

I was always in denial. And I always used to try to stop for all the wrong reasons because I was catching cases. I was trying to stay clean for my probation officer, and trying to stay clean for my auntie or so the judge won't lock me up. It was all the wrong reasons and then one day came when I had to try for me. I dealt with that for the years and I got to a certain age and a certain stage of my life and I got tired. I did it for me and I ain't look back since. July 23 will make three years that I've been clean.

My lowest point is when I used to do it in the house when my son was knocking on the bathroom door wondering what I was doing. And I couldn't open the bathroom door. Then when I came out, I'm in another world and he's looking at me and he sees I'm in another world. He was growing up, you know?

I made a choice. It's either this or that. Money and drugs don't mix. I'm on a whole 'nother level. I'm trying to be an entrepreneur. How am I going to be an entrepreneur and a junkie? That ain't gone mix. So I based my final decision on that.

My source of strength was my kids, it was my family, it was my career. It was either this or that. I got a lot of people depending on me, a lot of people look up to me, a lot of people respect me. I can't let them down. I can't let myself down.