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Days after Christmas, a clip surfaced previewing an upcoming Oxygen reality show based around ATL rap star Shawty Lo and his rather large family -- 10 children from 10 different women to be exact. The pilot garnered outrage from critics, some saying it's a new low in reality TV and others outright calling for a boycott.
Shawty Lo, who has a deal with 50 Cent's G-Unit Records, sat down down with MTV News to respond to critics, saying he takes care of his kids ... very well.
"You can hate all you want to, I didn't ask for it. It just happened. Now that it happened, I'm supposed to turn my back against it?" he explained of his untraditional family structure. "If I wasn't taking care of my kids, then you would really dog me out, but I'm taking care of my kids, providing for my family. I don't know what else to say."
Also in the interview, Shawty Lo revealed all of his children were born before he was even a rapper, hooking up with all the women after becoming a millionaire early on... in the streets.
"I came to be one of the largest drug dealers to come from Atlanta, Bankhead area and I started havin' kids. When the money came, a lot of women came," he said, estimating he was a millionaire by the time he turned 21. "Once you feel like a girl was your girlfriend or whatever, the rubber probably came off.
"They wouldn't have an abortion. They used to take the money and run with it, and they'd have a baby by the most popular guy in the street, and that's how I had all them kids."
Despite the scrutiny, the rapper insists he is a good dad, and contrary to what people may feel, he doesn't have as much baby-mama drama as folks think.
"I take care of all my kids. ... Outta all the 10 baby mamas, I just have problems outta one. That's it," Shawty Lo explained. "She has two kids by me, and she feel like I'm supposed to do more for her kids, and she don't wanna work. She just want me to straight take care of them, but it's all love. I handle it."
"Even if you ain't got the money, you gotta be a father to your child. You need to be in your child's life, 'cause that means a lot to them," he said. "Comin' up, we didn't have Thanksgiving, we didn't have Christmas, but if I had my father there, if I even had my mother there, I probably wouldn't have been that person I was in the streets."
Details about the show, and when it will air was unknown at press time...
