Photo by Ray Potes

In 1999, Detroit rapper MS-DL picked up a kid at a local nightclub, the Raven Claw, and took him back to his mom’s for the usual Friday-night deal. MS-DL doesn’t know for sure what happened that night—he pretty much blacked out—but whatever he did, the kid didn’t like it. In fact, he didn’t like it so much that he pressed charges. At age 22, MS-DL was given a seven-year sentence for indecent assault and battery of a child under 14. As you know from Hollywood, child molesters are the bottommost pariahs of the prison community, and if you believe his lyrics, MS-DL has been raped, oh, around 5,000 times. He also says he spent two years of his prison sentence working as a rent boy for his cell mate, Lorenzo, who sold him to fellow cons for $20 or four packs of cigarettes a pop. Not to be totally clichéd, but you know that thing about whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger? MS-DL is basically the scariest dude we have ever met in our entire lives. All that ass raping turned him into the toughest-ass rapper we’ve ever seen. But he’s not just a tough guy. He’s also actually talented. His beats are gritty and his rhymes make Jadakiss look like Hammer.

When his self-produced and released CD On My Knees came out last year, rappers from Los Angeles to Brooklyn took one listen and started squeezing into their tightest tracksuits and taking midnight runs, hoping to get a tenth of what this faggot MS-DL has.

Vice: I love your song “Don’t Be Gentle.” It seems to be about getting molested as a kid, though.
MS-DL: Yeah, well, I grew up fast if you know what I’m saying. I’m not going to bullshit you. A lot of guys, 24- and 25-year-old guys, they’re still babies, man. They think they’re gangsters or whatever, but they haven’t come up yet. Some never have to, if they have a more masculine appearance. Myself, I never been a child. I was a man at four years old.

What are you up to since getting out of jail?
I’m just doing my thing. It feels good to be free. I’m enjoying my freedom. First night out, I met my boyfriend for dinner. We went out to this real fancy spot. We ate some pork, we had some conversation…

I thought no rappers ever touched pork. Isn’t that a rule?
That’s the more religious types of people. If I can take a dick in my mouth, you better believe I can eat some pig. We had some pork chops and I am not afraid to say they were fucking delectable. And we had some of that, ah, Swiss chard? The greens. The ones with the red veins.

Another thing I did since I got out was I got my license yesterday. I filled out all the organ-donor parts. That’s some weird shit.

My mom used to work in a hospital. She said they’d let people die sometimes—like a crackhead with good eyes or whatever, if they had someone waiting for some eyes.
That’s what I’m saying. That’s what I’m talking about. They let you die. Fuck doctors, man. For real. I went to one in 2001 after I got my colon ruptured. That doctor didn’t even do a rape kit.

You used to have an underground following with sort of hipster gays, but not since you said you hoped they all die of AIDS.
Back in ’99, I was in general population and I got beaten and raped by a few Aryan Brotherhood dudes, so I was put on safekeeping. But then I got in some fights, and they realized I was too hard. I’m too hard for safekeeping. I fuck the safekeeping people up. So they put me back in general, where I was beaten and raped and pimped out by Lorenzo. It was during this time the doctors told me that I’d contracted HIV.

I take all the medicines for security, but nobody I know has died of AIDS. Some people are unhealthy. You can be unhealthy. But how many people really get AIDS? When I said that I hope they all die of AIDS, it was me saying, “There ain’t no fucking AIDS. If there was AIDS, I should be dead and you all should be dead, and a lot of niggas should be dead.” Have you ever seen an AIDS virus? I know I haven’t.

Well, I’ve seen what they’re supposed to look like. They’re little spiky squares.
Spiky squares? [laughs] Bullshit, nigga.

DANIEL WOODS