Chingy News

If Chingy could turn back the hands of time, he would rewind the clock back to almost three years ago, before he bolted from Ludacris' Disturbing tha Peace camp.

"A lot of time was lost because no words were said between us," he said. "We would run into each other but everyone had too much pride to say something, so nothing never got resolved. I regret that."

Chingy, 27, abruptly left the label for to create his own, Slot-A-Lot Records, under Capitol Records in 2004 after his lawyer informed him that Ludacris and his manager Chaka Zulu were mismanaging his contract royalties. But the St. Louis-based rapper now says that his lawyer lied about the whole situation, prompting Chingy to make amends with Ludacris and Zulu at an awards show in Las Vegas last year.

In April, Chingy resigned with Island Def Jam and Disturbing tha Peace, a label that helped him thrive on his first album, "Jackpot," which sold three million copies behind the 2003 smash hit "Right Thurr."

While not with DTP, his next two albums saw a steady decline in sales. His second release, "Powerballin," sold a million copies, and his next record, "Hoodstar," sold half that.

Now, Chingy is trying to regain his top-selling status through his fourth album, "Hate It or Love It," which was released in December.

"By now, everyone knows what type of artist I am," he said. "So it's a case where they either hate or love the type of music that I do."

On the new album, Chingy pays homage to Ludacris by switching at times from his usually higher-pitched voice to an animated flow on words like his mentor on singles, "Fly Like Me" and "Gimme Dat."

"When you get on the track with him, it makes you get into his level," he said. "It just came out. I always take something positive from him. Some people thought we were beefing, but it wasn't anything like that."

Chingy believes he has learned a lot after the past turmoil, and has taken more of a role in his business endeavors.

"I've been rapping most of my life, but I didn't pay attention to the business side," he said. "Now, I'm involved more than ever. Everything I've gone through has made me become a more business-minded person. It made me understand the music industry for its entirety."

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