After parting ways with her long time crew and recording home Disturbing Tha Peace, Shawnna spoke exclusively to SOHH to give her feelings about the split and what's next for her career.
As previously reported by SOHH, Jeff Dixon, co-CEO of DTP Records stated that the official announcement of Shawnna's departure will be made at a press conference tomorrow (April 26). In an effort to clear the air and dispel any misconceptions that her fans may have, Shawnna gave her two cents on the situation.

"My feelings...I'm ecstatic. This is something that I've been pondering for a while," said the Chicago-bred MC. "When I first got with Luda, I let him know that I had to go back to the crib. But we had a wonderful run, I put out two great albums with them and I just feel like right now, it's time for me to do something independently. You can be more instrumental in hip-hop being solo. John [Monopoly] and Hustle are behind me and we're about to do it."

Feeling that the transition is more of a growth experience than anything, Shawnna maintains she was not dropped from the label, but rather asked to be released, stating that there are no hard feelings involved and that she remains close to her DTP affiliates.

"Luda understands. That's my ***** outside of this rap shit. We're both kind of hurt about it, but we know that we're going to [continue to] work together. I still love everybody over there. This is more like a graduation."

Signed to co-CEO of G.O.O.D. Music John Monopoly's Hustle Period management, the newly released free agent insists that she has been constantly recording, revealing that she has an entire album along with two mixtapes ready to go, but will take some time to figure out what her next move will be.

"I'm just about to flood the system with my music," she said. "I don't want to jump out of one situation straight into another one. I'm going to wait it out. I'm not just trying to be another artist on a label. I want to be a CEO."

Having always repped for the ladies in the game, Shawnna also sees her new found freedom as an opportunity to be one of the first artists to usher in a new era of female MCs that are able to compete, on every level, with their male counterparts.

"We 'bout to do what the boys are doing," she stated emphatically. "The girls, they tell me what to put out. I listen to them and they tell me what they want to hear. The girls, we want to make it rain in the club too, we want to buy out the bar, own companies and just have that swag. We about to move around just as freely as the men. We're not just Chanel-rocking females, ya dig? We about to do it like Ciara said, like the boys."

With seemingly a renewed hunger, the Chi-town rhyme-spitter is adamant about proving herself as one the best MC's period, regardless of gender.

"I spent a lot of time being down with the team. Now it's time for you to hear Shawnna with Mannie Fresh, Shawnna with Scott Storch, etc.," she said. "It's time for me to sew my royal oats. When you pick up these major rappers' albums, you don't see no Shawnna feature on there, and they're about to pay for not reaching out. They're about to stop playing with me. I'll air out 85% of these male rappers out here. I'm tired of playing. Ya'll are going to have to honor me."



I like her confidence and drive to succeed, and for that, I wish her nothing but great success. What song did she have out? Or even collaborated with Luda, or anybody, on? Remy Ma keeps popping in my head, so I'm real clueless on Shawnna.