With an ink-still-wet signing to Atlantic, ATLien lyricist Donnis speaks on Japanese wives, idolizing Jermaine Dupri and teaching Ciara the wrong way to ride

Did you see the Air Force as a possible career option if rap didn’t work out?
Not really. Honestly, what pushed me to start going hard with the music was seeing Ciara, because I actually grew up with her. Jonesboro is a small area, so we lived near each other. I remember seeing Ciara on TV when “Goodies” started popping; it was crazy for me to see somebody who I actually knew to be having all this success in music. After that, I spent every dollar I made from the Air Force into pushing my music.

Were you guys were close?
We weren’t best friends, but we were definitely cool. I actually used to date one of her friends, so we used to hang out. One night, we were all chillin’ and I had this raggedy 1989 Honda Civic Hatchback—the worst car ever. We decided to all pack in and go to this party T-Boz’s younger brother was throwing, but along the way my car broke down and we had to push that thing. It was straight embarrassing, man.

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