No stranger to controversy, LA Laker, Ron Artest continues maneuver his career to the beat of his own ball. Coming into the NBA about a decade ago, the proud Queensbridge native has consistently proved his athletic ability on the basketball court. However, his rough play, suspensions and admitted “wild behavior” early in his career have earned him a reputation as one of the NBA’s infamous bad boys. But with his first NBA championship title in place, Artest has become a hero of sorts to fans on both coasts.

From an unknown vacation spot, RonRon phoned into VIBE to discuss his surreal performance in game seven, his reasons for seeing a psychologist and working with Dr. Dre. Let the games begin.

I also heard that Dr. Dre actually worked on the record…
Well, Dre is my man and a couple of his writers helped out a lot on the record, but he didn’t actually produce “Champions.” Me and Dre wrote a brand new verse for the song but depending on the remix if we can get Game, 50 and T-Pain on the hook than we’ll decide what we want to do with it. Dre was just coaching me and telling me the verse was stupid. Right after the game, I went straight to Dre’s studio and recorded that new verse. Chris Brown was actually there, and I gave him my jersey.

Is Chris Brown getting on the remix?
Nah, he was just there, and he wanted my jersey [laughs].

How did you link up with Dre in the first place?
Well, I knew a lot of Dre’s people and honestly I was trying to talk to him for like five years. I kind of got lucky. One day me and my man Chalice went up to the Interscope offices with no appointment and of course we got shut down fast. But I always felt like they were the only people that could market me. They did Tupac, 50 Cent, Eminem and now Ron Artest—we are all rebels. Eventually when I did get to meet some people from Interscope and I slowly got to meet the whole staff and was finally introduced to Dre. It was a long ass process though.

So is Dre working on your album?
I mean it’s pretty much done but if someone like Dre or Polow has some ideas I wouldn’t mind taking them. He did help me out with a record or two, but he didn’t necessarily work on the whole project. He was just looking out.

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