Shawnna also says she didn't want to join Cash Money Records.

Shawnna had been on Ludacris' Distrubing Tha Peace for 10 years, she says, touring and working on music. But she was absent from many important moments for people she loves. 

"I have children," Shawnna says in her Ladies First profile on Billboard. "I had missed out on so many monumental times with my children, in their younger years. I asked myself, 'Is it going to be beneficial for me and my kids to continue or should I go home, reevaluate some things, be there for them before its too late?' And I just had found out I was pregnant and that was my answer."

Shawnna released Worth Tha Weight in 2004 and Block Music in 2006. After this, Shawnna was set to join T-Pain's Nappy Boy imprint.

"T-Pain and I threw around the idea of me coming on board and being a part of Nappy Boy," Shawnna says. "We did some songs to see if we had the right chemistry. But at the time he was going through his own difficulties with his label...He eventually left the label and was in talks of signing with Cash Money. That wasn't something that I wanted to. I didn't want to seem like I was jumping from crew to crew or being an opportunist."

Shawnna is the fourth rapper featured in an edition of Billboard's Ladies First. MC Lyte, Angel Haze and Charli Baltimore have also been included in the series.

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