Wale Teams Up With Chrisette Michele

chrisette-michele-wale-fragileWale assisted Def Jam’s soul singer Chrisette Michele on the remix of her latest single, Fragile

The video had its world debut on Chrisette’s official IMEEM page this Tuesday Novembe 2nd and it shortly after appeared on urban/music blogs.

Wale definitely added a little funk to the track and you gotta love Chrisette’s raspy vocals.

Check it out…

The video was shot on location down on the streets of New York City (Harlem???), a hair salon, and Chrisette’s entrance to her concert gig (wild guess).  (Did Wale give Chrisette the cold shoulder in the opening shot??? The song plays into that factor when you read the lyrics.)

If you’re keeping up with Chrisette, she had her first number one record thanks to the release of her sophmore album, Epiphany. Wale’s debut record Attention: Deficit has its album release date on November 10th. Wale has been said to be the rap industry’s next Kanye West.

Chrisette released a 3-part making of featurette onto her official website, THISISCHRISETTE.COM.



In case you missed Wale and Chrisette on their previous musical teamwork, check out them out on The Roots’ go go infused song, Rising Up.

Get To Know: Lola Jaye

British-Nigerian* author Lola Jaye joined the heated discussion on the very short/ bald head trend hitting Hollywood in a interview with Essence. Fashionistas like Solange Knowles, Amber Rose, Nia Long and Rihanna are all into this trendy hair look  and Lola talked about her own hair experience to the urban publication earlier today.

short-bald-hair-style-solange-amber-rose-nia-long-rihanna

I like ‘em fro’ed, relaxed, weaved, braided, wavy, straight, curly… Yes, I happen to be one of those women who just loves being able to switch up hairstyles whenever the mood grabs. Even as I write this article, I’m enjoying the shadow my current ‘Afro’ is making on my wall, whilst my mind is brimming with the possibility of yet another new style.

So waking up one day and shaving off my hair is unthinkable. Yet it was exactly what I decided to do one misty morning a few years back.

What led me to this, perhaps had less to do with temporary insanity and more to do with high costs both in time and money. Besides, after years of ‘pulling’ and ’sowing’, my head was crying out for a break – so the hair had to go.

I enlisted the help of The Hunk who after a false start and me squeaking; ‘I’m not ready yet!!’ placed the shears at the starting point before calmly shaving the lot off. To this day, all I recall is The Hunk placing a mirror in front of me as my eyes chose to focus on the sorry sight of my hair gathered roughly on the floor beside me. It took a while to pluck up enough courage to take a peep into the mirror and what I felt surprised me, this feeling of utter freedom.
Having my hair taken off was cathartic and amazing!

I was grabbing back control. No more arduous trips to the hairdressers, no more emergency overdrafts to pay the hair bill… I was bald! Ready to face the new world that was now a bigger and brighter place. This was the new me, the old me, whatever! But another peep into the mirror started to breed insecurities as I began to notice just how BIG my head was. I mean it was HUGE! (I was clearly no Solange or Erykah) – I resembled an alien. Instead of ‘take me to your leader’ it was more a case of ‘take me to your dealer (of wigs!)’.

As quickly as the tresses had disappeared, so had my new found ‘hair confidence’.
So what to do? I grabbed The hunk’s cap and found myself as if by magic, inside a nice warm hair shop with a very reasonably priced wig department… Exhale, exhale, exhale.

Chris Rock may have a film out called ‘Good Hair’ – but for a few short liberating moments, I had NO HAIR and it felt great! ESSENCE

My two cents: Sitting under a hair dryer for a hour just for deep conditioning treatments every two weeks can be tiresome to a single girl’s wallet. Sitting for three to four hours to get box braids can be numbing. However nothing beats rocking your own hair like Michelle Obama, Estelle, Alek Wek, and India.Arie surely beats having to decide what to do with y0ur hair first thing in the morning.

Quick Facts on Lola Jaye
Author Lola Jaye

  • Born and raised in London but lived in Nigeria
  • Author of three novels http://lolajaye.com/books.html While You Were Dreaming, By The Time You Read This, and Reaching for the Stars – How to make your Dreams Come True
  • Obtained a BSC Degree in Psychology from The University of East London
  • Has a Masters in Psychotherapy and Counseling from Regents College
  • Has a twitter page http://www.twitter.com/lolajaye
  • Has a blog http://www.lolajaye.com/blog/

*Lola is a common nickname for Funmilola which is Yoruba in Nigeria. So is she Nigerian??

photos: zimbio///lola jaye//amazon//getty

Halloween Delight: Barack & Michelle + Seal & Heidi

Halloween 2009 was celebrated by power couples US President Barack Obama & First Lady Michelle Obama + soul singer Seal and fashion icon Heidi Klum. (Barack decided to go as himself – POTUS!)

halloween-2009-obama-heidi-klum-seal

The Obamas held their first Halloween celebration at the White House with 2,000 students and military children outside  the North Portico, reports The Huffington Post. Each kid was presented with a goody bag filled with sweet dough butter cookie.

halloween-2009-the-obamas

First Lady was dressed up as catwoman (wild guess) with fierce eye makeup and furry kitten ears as she and her husband passed out candy for a half-hour to trick-or-treaters.

Obama thanked the military members and their families. “We are so grateful to you,” he said. “Especially now, a lot of the times, you guys are separated. It’s tough. The spouses who are at home are serving just as much as folks who are deployed. So we are just so thrilled that you guys could be here and we could say personally ‘thank you’ to all of you.”
Michelle Obama said the kids were “just so cute.”
Obama added: “They’re adorable, as is, by the way, my wife, a very nice looking catwoman.” thehuffingtonpost

Over at West Hollywood’s Voyeur, Seal supported his wife Heidi’s held their 10th annual Halloween bash where this year they were dressed as black crows. Can you believe Heidi seems to have adopted her pre-pregnancy figure in less than three weeks since the birth of her daughter Lou???

halloween-heidi-klum-seal-black-crows

Photos: daylife///life//just jared//getty//huffingtonpost

Get To Know: Chris Ofili

chris-ofili-painter-brit-naijaBritish-Nigerian painter Chris Ofili has a four page feature in the latest edition of GIANT magazine (the one with actress Paula Patton on the cover.) So I decided to do a “Get To Know” feature on him for FG2BH.

Ofili became famous for his portrait of the Virgin Mary that was filled with (wait for it) porn and elephant dung. The painting spark controversy when it was showcased at the Brooklyn Musuem of Art in 1999. Former NY mayor Rudy Giuliani proclaimed in reponse to the painting – “There’s nothing in the First Amendment that supports horrible and disgusting projects.” (Quite interesting, isn’t it?)

Ofili talked about that incident to Giant: “It is the most exciting thing to some people to wake up in the morning to check and see if people still recognize you. But that’s not really what I’m about. For me, it’s always been about the work and to continue to be inspired by the work. I have a fear of ever feeling mediocre.” giant mag

Ofili has moved to Trinidad from his native London because “it felt like I’d be moving right into the heart of my subject. The things that I see now that interest me are right there and so close, like sitting in the first row of a cinema.” giant mag Ofili’s artwork has references to traditional African art, popular culture images and hip-hop music.

Quick facts on Chris Ofili via Wikipedia & BBC News

  • Born in Manhester on October 10, 1968
  • Uses blaxploitation films and gangsta rap references to question racial & sexual stereotypes in a humorous way.
  • Studied Fine Art at Chelsea School of Art
  • Obtained Masters degree in painting from Royal College of Art
  • Awarded a British Council Travel scholarship to Zimbabwe in 1992
  • His trip to Zimbabwe influenced his artwork style.

Below is a must-see YouTube clip of Chris Ofili artwork…

Below is two of Chris Ofili’s most famous artwork…

Left: The Holy Virgin Mary (1996)//Right: No Woman No Cry (1998)

chris-ofili-virgin-mary-no-woman-no-cry-artwork

photo credits: Guardian Arts 1 & 2