Rap mainstay Mister Cee has been at New York’s Hot 97 station for twenty years, and today is his final day.

It’s no secret that the last couple of years have been hard on the DJ; he’s had countless brushes with the law for less than savory affairs and while many of the more visible speculations fall firmly into the rumor category, there’s no denying that it’s caused plenty of heat for Hot 97, heat that was likely to continue as a new set of allegations arose today. This heat is apparently the reason for Cee’s decision, and fittingly over Notorious B.I.G.‘s seminal ‘Hypnotize’ beat, he had this to say:

“Today is my last day on Hot 97. Mister Cee, I’m resigning today. It is not a mystery that the past two years I’ve been through a lot and I’ve tried to deal with it the best way that I could deal with it and Hot 97 has tried to deal with it the best way they’ve had to deal with it. But when you’re dealing with corporate America and you’re dealing with a station you love as much as this station, I don’t want to put this station through more than what they’ve been through I’ve been thinking of this for a long long time.

I’ve been thinking about this day for a long time, I never want to be in a situation where I get pushed out anywhere. I’ve been at this station for 20 years since 1993 and if I’m gonna go out let me go out with me saying I’m gonna go out. Allow me to have that and so the station is allowing me to have that today and I appreciate that.”

Anyone who has listened in to Hot 97 over the years will know how sad it is to see Mister Cee leave, but hopefully it will allow him the space he needs to get his business in order. We’ll leave you with the DJ’s phenomenal hour-long Ruff Ryders mix, which you can listen to below. [via Complex]