Rock has made a name for himself as a member of New York's Boot Camp crew and one-half of rap duo Heltah Skeltah, but he's recently made headlines for being hit with an attempted murder charge.

In this exclusive we talk to the Brooklyn MC about his mind state in the wake of his arrest, his upcoming music projects, and the silver lining of lockdown.

As previously reported, Rock was arrested for attempted murder last Tuesday (Jan. 15) for allegedly working as a pimp and gunning down a rival in a dispute over a prostitute. He was released on $125,000 bail this Thursday (Jan. 24).

"It's just a motherf*cker talking some sh*t basically and that's the bottom line," Rock told. "We don't know why, and if we did, we wouldn't be able to say why. It's just an unfortunate situation that's working out kind of fortunately, because to a certain extent, I ain't been talked about this much in hip-hop since [Heltah Skeltah's debut] Nocturnal."

If there is a silver lining in getting arrested, it's that people are talking during a time when the so-called Rockness Monstah has several releases on the horizon, including his solo mix CD Shell Shock, which is scheduled to drop next month.

"It's a beautiful monstrosity as I like to call it," he said. "You know how I rap. I keeps it gritty, I keeps it ugly, but it's put together so beautifully, and it's off the chain."

The rap vet is also working on a movie titled Gotta Get Mines in which he plays a "tough guy," and is reuniting with Sean Price aka Ruck for the summer album D.I.R.T. (Da Incredible Rap Team), Heltah Skeltah's first release since 1998.

"D.I.R.T. - that acronym is so self-explanatory, you understand what I'm saying," he said. "The incredible rap team. Me and Ruck, I don't know, it's like havin' two Jordans on the same team, or Kobe and LeBron on the same team, something stupid like that ... and it's like, it's just so powerful that we have to be careful with it."

Rock also has plans to release the solo CD Monstah Music, which has been in the works for several years. He expects to be back in court within a month and said he looks forward to making the facts known; in the meantime, his focus is on his career and he maintains that his mind state is positive.

"[I feel] extremely blessed," he said. "I've been locked up for things that I haven't done before. I see it happen a lot of time ... So knowing these kinds of things and also being in trouble before, falsely accused for things smaller than that in my own lifetime - never anything this big - just having gone through this experience, I feel blessed that this happened and I'm here. Because n*ggas getting lost behind bullsh*t like this."