Since being released from prison this August, Remy Ma has been pushing to get back on the music scene and turn over a new leaf with her family. In the October issue of Sister 2 Sister, the newly-freed rapper poses with husband Papoose and opens up about the friendships she formed while behind bars for six years, her relationship and the toll that being convicted took on her and her loved ones.

"I really made myself numb to certain things. I don't talk about it. I feel like there was some things that were handled crazily on several different people's parts. But I was sentenced to a certain amount of time in the end, so I don't want to keep revisiting that. I don't want anybody feeling any type of way, because there's a bunch of people that feel like, 'Oh, she should've went to prison for her whole life,' or, 'She should've done this, she should've done that. I felt that, whatever was given to me, I took it and I went through it. And I went through it not just by myself, but with my loved ones that I really care about. They suffered as well. At this point in my life, I don't want to prolong the suffering by dwelling on what happened that night. I don't have ill feelings towards anybody or anything. I'm on such a different page and a different chapter in my life that that book is gone. That book is read and it's over."
In 2008, Remy Ma was convicted of assault, illegal weapon possession and attempted coercion after pleading guilty to shooting Makeda Barnes-Joseph, who she accused of stealing $3,000 from her. She was sentenced to eight years, but only spent six behind bars at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in Bedford Hills, New York. It's sad to think that Remy Ma formed some real bonds with her fellow prison mates, but due to her parole rules, she can never see them again.
"I miss them so much already," she said of the friends she made behind bars. "It's so crazy. I had already been packed because I had expected to leave the day before. So I'm like, 'It's just a couple of things I wanna grab like my Bible and some paperwork and pictures that I took over the last couple of days.' And they just really rushed me out of the whole prison. I caught a glimpse of my friends; they had locked them inside the gym and they were all banging on the doors screaming like, 'We love you, we love you, we miss you.' It was a wonderful thing. But I'm probably never gonna see them. So who knows? I spent six and a half years with them. They're going through all types of situations, but one of my stipulations on my parole is that you cannot contact people that have a criminal history. So it's like you build these relationships and just, due to the new criteria that I have to follow based on my release, I can't even contact them or let them know everything's alright and I miss you guys. But that's part of the situation."
Luckily, she has her husband Papoose and son to hold her down as she eases back into her life and career. In fact, the rapper said Pap would visit her practically everyday and despite how trying their circumstance was on the relationship, he stuck by her through her sentence.
"That's right. In a marriage you get a visit 8:30 in the morning until 3:30, Monday through Friday. Then your weekends alternate. And he was there. If you saw my first year, every single day, Monday [through] Friday — canceling whatever he had to do for shows and interviews — he was staying in that prison with me from 8:30 in the morning to 3:30. Then we'd stay on the phone until 5 or 5:30 until lock-in," Remy Ma recalled. "It was crazy looking back at it now because I just had to tell him one time, like, 'Yo, you can't stay here every day with me.' I think he kinda felt, 'Well, as long as you're here, we're both here.' 
"Most of the time they split. Initially, I was surprised. But really, if I thought about the type of person that he is, I shouldn't have ever questioned it," she said. "He proved me and everybody else wrong. After that first year or two I was like, 'Alright, it's no need for me to worry anymore; he's definitely in it for the long run.' And it's obvious how much he loves me. I never have to question that."
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(Photo: Sister 2 Sister Magazine)