Ace Hood recently spoke to LowKey in an Instagram Live interview with REVOLT. The rapper opened up about finding his purpose outside of music and how his wife helped him remember who he was.

“It made me kind of like take some time away from music,” he said. “Which was very hard, you know, because all I knew was music and I always had in my mind that you had to be consistently be working, consistently be dropping music and stuff like that and I believe that up until a time period it started to affect my family life and stuff. I needed a better system for myself.”

He continued, “Over time, I started doing everything outside of music to find happiness and find a place for myself. Once I was able to arrive back to the music, it made a lot more sense and the stories are a lot more powerful and a lot more truthful.”

“In terms of the foods that I was eating, in terms of what I was focusing my attention on, all of that. I just wanted to develop that’s really the journey I was on man, and been on,” he added.

Ace recently married his longtime girlfriend Shelah Marie in Florida. The “Body 2 Body” rapper talked about the role she played in helping him stay on-course during his mental transition.

“She played a very important role man,” the artist told LowKey. “She was my partner. We’re really partners in it. Before I had an idea of what partners really looked like. She supported me in every way. She was what I needed because she was also like, what I love about her, she stands in her own truth. She’s always going to stand up for the greater good of things, regardless of what people may see as wrong or right.”

He continued, “Even if I wasn’t able to see my true self, she was there to remind me of who I was, remind me of the journey that I was on and remind me of what I was trying to create.”