don't step to artest...

In my world
All I got is my fam
Important to live right by them
Do right by them
Support 'em
Don't abort 'em
Focus focus
But sometimes strangers think I'm hocus-pocus
'Cause I'm in the league
Like I won't Carlesimo choke 'em
Throw 'em, ice pick 'em, poke 'em
For starting problems
Then my dreams are smoking
Slowly leaving my mind
'Cause all I'm thinking is respect
When strangers get out of line.
- Ain't Easy, Part I, by Ron Artest



INDIANAPOLIS - An hour after igniting a brawl at The Palace at Auburn Hills by confronting a
Detroit Pistons fan who threw a beverage at him,
Indiana Pacers forward Ron Artest settled into the team plane, pulled out his BlackBerry and began writing the rap song that he says changed his life.

"It took me about 10 or 15 minutes to get it down," he says of the opening verses to Ain't Easy, Part I. "It allowed me to put my feelings into words, to calm myself down."

Eleven months later, Artest maintains he has undergone a renaissance after serving the NBA's stiffest non-drug-related suspension (73 games), forfeiting $5.4 million in salary and being sentenced to 60 hours of community service and a $250 fine for pleading no contest to misdemeanor assault and battery charges. And after ballooning at one point to 284 pounds.

When he and the Pacers open the regular season in Orlando on Nov. 2, Artest, 25, promises he will be a much-improved player, a more generous teammate and a wiser man.