Ashanti is declaring her independence on “Declaration” and holds no punches in this month’s issue of Sister 2 Sister Magazine. The R&B songbird sat down for an exclusive interview with ‘S2S’ publisher Jamie Foster Brown to discuss her new album, her label situation, personal relationships and to set the record straight about Murder Inc.

A lot of people want to know where Ashanti stands since Murder Inc shifted to The Inc. She says she is still signed to The Inc but she is doing her project on her own. The producers, the budgets, the behind the scenes, the flying around, the creativity, is all handle by her and her team.

Discussing her relationship with Irv Gotti, Ashanti says “Sometimes, Irv—he gets very emotional. Sometimes it’s a good thing and sometimes it’s not a good thing. In this business there’s really no room for emotion because it can mess a lot of things up.”

When ask about the track “Judas” Ja Rule addressed her on, Ashanti says the platinum rapper could have just picked up the phone and call her. In regards to the two working together again, she says “It’s so expected for me and Ja to do a record, so we both kind of took control of our projects and wanted to do something very different this time. It doesn’t mean that we’re never going to do another record together. ‘Cause you know we have an amazing chemistry.”