GOAL-Digger: Here's Why Tiffney Cambridge Is More Than Just A "Rapper's Ex"

Tiffney Cambridge might just be bringing the "modest woman" back in style. Not that they ever went anywhere, and not that the worlds between role models and "Instagram models" can't co-exist, but with the way social media and reality TV is set up these days, it's as if being a woman with a few values is the equivalent of a major fashion faux-pas.

I recently had the chance to speak to Ms. Cambridge--teacher, author and the only woman to ever publicly own the rights to the notoriously bad-boy bachelor and rapper, "The Game's," heart. As always, a talk with Tiff is always a "break-out-the-wine, keep it real but keep it cute at the same time," experience, and this moment was no different.

In between getting off work and picking the kids up from school, the lovely Ms. Cambridge opened up about her split from The Game (real name: Jayceon Taylor), as well as her life as a career woman, and the importance of having her your own. She also responded to The Game's most recent claims that all the good women are too busy working, and his track with rapper Future called 'Dedicated,' and much more.

It's safe to say, she set the bar high for who The Game will ultimately end up with.

Check it out below:

How important is it to you--both as an author and as a teacher of course and a businesswoman overall--to have a career although you do have this support and help from your children's father, The Game?

I think it is very important. I have been teaching for 18 years. And even though Jayceon and I have had a relationship for the past 11, I never stopped working. Even when I was doing the reality show Marrying the Game, and I had that extra income, I never stopped working. Even when things were good between the two of us, I never stopped working. And I think now that we're not together, you can clearly see why that's important!

You have to establish your own identity. You have to be able to create your own income. You have to be able to take care of yourself.

It has always been important to me to be self-sufficient, my mother raised me that way. My grandmother raised my mother that way--to never depend on a man to provide everything for you. Because then what if you find yourself in a situation where you are no longer with that man, it's like, then what do you do? Even though I'm not in a situation where I'm in a relationship with my child's father, I'm still able to maintain my lifestyle.

Speaking of working, I don't know if you heard, but Jayceon recently gave a shoutout to the independent woman, while implying that he's still single because, "All the real women are in the workplace," when he went on The Breakfast Club. What are your thoughts on him saying that?

I think it's interesting. Knowing Jayceon and the type of person that he is, knowing the type of women that he deals and has dealt with in the past, he is not going to be interested past a certain visual or past maybe a fling with any woman that is not really career minded or career oriented.

"He'll play with you. Have a couple of dates with you, maybe give you a little exposure by means of dating you or whatever. But that's where it is going to stop with him. I don't think he takes women seriously period, in my opinion. He is named 'Game' for a reason."

I feel he is very attractive and very marketable to a certain extent for women that are interested in living that type of lifestyle, the rock and roll lifestyle for lack of a better word. But I feel also that he doesn't, at all, take 95 percent of the women he dates seriously. It's a joke to him.

As a matter of fact, one time, we were in a conversation about his choices in women, and he told me, 'These women to me are like dishrags. I wipe my forehead off with them, I wipe my counter off with them, and then I'm done with them.' That was really what he said. And I think his behavior towards the women that he associates himself with are very indicative of that.

The women that I have known him to be respectful towards or to be serious about, I can name them on one hand. And they're none of the women that we have seen him out lately with.

You did say, though, that you feel it is difficult for him to get close to any woman. Do you feel there is a flaw in his "the real woman are in the workplace" concept? Because sometimes passing time with certain women makes you pass on a good opportunity.

I agree. He has had the privilege of traveling all around and so the access and the availability of women to him is there. And I think that it takes a level of strength, and a level of discipline and maturity to be able to say, 'Yes, you're pretty, and yes you have a nice body; however, this is what I have at home,' and I'm not sure, at this point, if he's at that level in his growth process.

As a career woman, how true do you think it is that sometimes we do get in our own way of dating? For example, have you been able to find a balance between career and dating? And how important do you think it is for women to find a balance?

I think that for me, I may be a little guilty of that, because since the book has been out, and I have a full-time job and I am a full-time mother, my time for dating is limited.

My goal right now is to be a positive role model to my five-year-old daughter (Calilynn Dream Taylor), to my eight-year-old son (King Justice Taylor) and to be there for them. I also have 30 kids [students] looking at me every day. They look to me for an example. So sometimes you do get caught up in that and you forgot about yourself and you forget about going out and seeing what other opportunities there are for you.

I think that we as women our lives are programmed when we have kids and when we work. It's just like doing the same thing every single day and you do lose yourself, but it is important to take some out for yourself and to really just enjoy yourself and to enjoy life and enjoy other relationships.

So Game has this song with Future called, "Dedicated." And we all feel it is about the lovely Ms. Tiffney. It's not a bad song, but it is a "strong" song and an emotional one to say the least. He does allude to the fact that you may be dating now. Are you? And what is that like for you, being a mother who is about her business who also co-parents and dates?

I think the insinuation that Jayceon made about the song was just really trying to compare his situation to Future's situation [with Ciara]. They're friends and colleagues and he can see probably a similarity with the direction that Ciara moved in and the direction that I would move in. And I feel that is where the song came.

"I commend Ciara for being able to step out of a situation with her child's father, a man that she had a child with and was obviously in love with, but the lifestyle wasn't for her. So she went from Future to this man that has values, and has morals, and that respects her.

I feel like that is Jayceon's perception of what will end up happening in our relationship.

That was a very nice answer. I like that--I see what you did there.

[laughs] Yes ma'am to Ciara! I have them posted on my Instagram, very royally. Because I feel that is exactly what should happen. I think when you go through a situation that is very unbecoming of you, very unbecoming of the lifestyle that you want for yourself and for your child or children, and then you are able to come out of that and put yourself and align yourself who is more in tuned with that you feel is appropriate in a relationship-- you go girl! And that is all I have to say about that!

When you have been in a relationship for a long period of time, you know what another person deserves. You know what they are capable of having. You know what they are able to attract. So I think the knowledge of that lead Jayceon to create the song with Future. I think the references to me validate my point. He knows what my expectations are in a relationship and you're going to either meet them or not. And that's it.

(Go to page 2 to find out what Tiffney had to say about being referred to The Game's "older ex," not believing in fighting for a man and what's next for her!)

Did the song even surprise you or come as a shock?

It did. I was surprised by the song but I wasn't surprised by the lyrics. I told him because we had a discussion about it, he played it for me, I said, "Boy, you know I don't have no million dollars worth of Birkin bag in my closet, so at least take that part out." So that was funny.

Like I said, I do think that in his mind, Jayceon knows what I'm deserving of and he knows what my expectations are and he knows what I'm able to achieve. All of them. So him actually, he knew it and he knows it, and for him to actually write a song about it, it was like 'Ok, alright!' He knows. He knows what's up with Ms. Cambridge. He knows!'

He and I are so different when it comes to how we handle ourselves. I'm very private and discreet. I don't let everyone know what's going on in my world. I'm not the one to broadcast my business. I just don't believe in letting all your business out there.

[TWEET "I think that just because your eyes see something that doesn't mean your mouth has to say something."]

You see enough things. When you have been a high-profile relationship like I have been in, it's very important to not share everything.

Have you ever heard the saying, 'Sometimes we're meant to be in a man's life to help them become a better man, for another woman.'?

Right, I have. I've heard that before.

Do you kind of feel like with you and Jayceon's experience that's kind of what it is? Was he supposed to learn in that experience with you to be that guy to someone else?

Well, when I think about that question, I don't only think about it in terms of just him, I think about it for myself as well. Is my role, for Jayceon, to be a teacher for him to get him all ripe and ready for the next woman? That could be the case. And it is in his position to have shown me exactly what I want, or what I don't want, when I'm ripe and ready for my next relationship. I think it can go either way. I think our relationship has been a learning ground for both of us. I'm older than him and maybe have more life experience than him and maybe have a different way of governing myself. So it may come across as I'm the older one and I'm the teacher.

So just as much as people may look at me and say, 'He learned on her and she is prepping him for the next person,' I think that the same thing could be said about me. I've been through a lot in this relationship. I've had challenges and struggles that you wouldn't believe. The things that you guys see aren't even half the internal struggle, sacrifices, the hurt that I've been through in my involvement with this man.

I've learned a lot from Jayceon. Learning goes both ways. Sometimes you learn what to do and that could be his learning, I suppose. And sometimes you learn what not to do, and that could be mine. And I think both are equally as important. And I think both will help in future relationships.

You mentioned the age thing and being a little bit older and being able to teach him, but do you feel like age played an ultimate factor in you two separating?

I don't think that a numerical number played a part in it because technically, I'm only 4 1/2 years older than him. Jayceon was born in 1979. I was born in 1975. He was born at the end of 1979 in November, and I was born in July of 1975. So we're technically only 4 1/2 to 5 years apart. So numerically, the age, I'm 40, Jayceon will be 36 in November, so I don't think that played a part. I think the level of maturity played a part.

You can have someone that is 36-years-old that is very mature, knows what they want out of life and can appreciate having a good woman and two beautiful children. And that's their choice. 'I want my woman, I want my family. I am a rapper, but this is what my focus is, so I'm going to do what I'ma have to do and then go on home.' There are 36-year-old men who do think like that. But then there are 36-year-old men who don't think like that. So I think that it is individual to the person and where they are in their lives and where they are in their level of growth and maturity.

So do I feel like the number matters? Jayceon is 36. Ok? You're not 26, 25 or 24 and I'm 40. You're 36. That's not...people try to make it seem like it's suchhhhhh a big gap, like I'm 10 years older than him, and I'm not. We're still right there [in age with] each other. So it's not the age, it's what I'm allowing and what I'm not allowing in our relationship. I'm not the one for a lot of different things so it makes me seem like like an old hag.

Maybe monogamy is not the hip thing. Maybe that's not the young thing. Maybe in this day and age, it's cool to have a harem of females around you, that makes you marketable or makes you hot. Whatever. But for Tiffney Cambridge, it's not for me. I don't do that. I am very old school.

I was born in 1975, I grew up in the 80's. I grew up in a time where relationships and commitment mattered. I grew up in a time where you talk on the phone until you fell asleep on the phone, you wrote love notes--will you be my boyfriend, yes or no?--and it was you two.

I'm not here to tell you, another grown person, how to live their life. I'm not going to force my beliefs or values down your throat. What I'm going to do is remove myself from the situation, and let you do you, and so basically, that's what I've done. And Jayceon and I have [still] managed to maintain a friendship. We have two beautiful kids. And both Cali and Justice, we both want what is best for them. We'll both be in each other's loves forever. We have a very close and special bond. He is the father of my children, and we're always going to be together in that way.

I think a lot of women these days have accepted, 'OK, I guess that's just what men do,' so their new thing now is fighting to be the "main" one. Not fighting for monogamy, but fighting for the "number one spot" on a list of women. And I guess that's something that you just won't allow or do.

No, I don't fight for a spot. The other person can just have it. It's really true. I don't have any problem with it at all. I don't do competitions, I don't do "choose me or her," the other person can just have you. Because if that's your thought process, I don't want you. So she can go and have you. My bishop, Bishop Noel Jones, told me many years ago:

[TWEET "Some battles are worth fighting even if you lose. And some aren't worth fighting even if you win."]

And that has really stuck with me. And it's a philosophy that I live and love by. Because I want to be in a situation where there is no choice. 'I want to be with Tiffney, and that's it.' And that is a turn-on for me. That's what makes my heart sing.

So if there is any competition, there is no competition. Just go on and be with the other person. That's it.

So what would it take to impress the lovely Ms. Cambridge?

I like loyalty. I like a man that is very respectable, career driven. I like a man who has a spiritual sense about himself, who is in tune with God. I love a quiet, calm, confident man. And in my next relationship, I would like to be the one that is lead. I feel like in this relationship I was the leader. So finding someone with the ability to teach me something, to be able to lead me in a positive direction, would be very intriguing to me.

You go, Tiffney! In-between teaching, Tiffney is still on her book tour for her children's book, "The Little Girl Who Lost Her Smile," which you can purchase here. She is also doing motivational speaking engagements on the weekends, and you can keep up with her tour dates (and all things Tiffney) on her official Instagram and Twitter.

Good girls may finish last sometimes, but at least they finish. Which is a lot more than most can say these days!