GlobalGrind caught up with hip-hop fly girl, model, designer, actress and fashionista Amber Rose, hours before she was to attend the launch party for the second season of BET and Smirnoff’s Master of the Mix launch last week.
EXCLUSIVE: Amber On Kim K, Bieber And More
Amber, who is a judge on the DJ battle reality series, chatted with GG about the Kim Kardashian/Justin Bieber deluge that’s currently poppin’ in the media, her role on the show, her trip to Ghana and much more.
Here’s Part 2 of our interview with Amber!
Can you talk a little bit about your role on Master of the Mix?
I am one of the judges! It’s me, Kid Capri and Vikter Duplaix. I am not a DJ, I do not know how to mix, I don’t know how to spin vinyl, but I do know how to party! That’s actually one of my jobs: to go to really dope parties all around the world. On the show, I solely base my opinion on the party aspect of the DJs. If the DJs are playing a really dope song, and the crowd is going crazy and then they just hit you with some old dumb sh*t, that just makes the crowd go, ‘Aw, man! I just want to go to the bar and get another drink!’ Or, ‘You know what? I am over this shit! I am going home!’
So that is exactly what I am judging them on. I am really nice! I never want to hurt anyone’s feelings.
You’re like the Paula Abdul of the show.
Oh, that is so funny! That’s what Wiz said. I am not, though, because the fact of the matter is that I did jump on board with the show and I was very excited about it. I also knew that I needed to take it seriously because this is somebody’s livelihood. It is a quarter of a million dollars they are in competition for, so I have to be very serious. I have to push them.
Sometimes I really had to tell these DJs off. I really had to let them know about themselves. You’re putting your ego in front of all this shit or stop playing top 40 hits. ‘I’m bored as f*ck, like, let’s get it poppin!’ Give me some sh*t that I haven’t heard and make the party go crazy! That’s the reason why I am naturally sweet and nice. But, at the same time, if I don’t tell them, they won’t get better. Sometimes you need somebody to let you know about yourself in order to improve.
[pagebreak]
It seems like you are a great choice as a judge because you have a really rich history with music. When you danced you probably listened to some incredible music. Do you have an iPod?
And the fact that I am from Philly! Philly is a very musical city. At a very young age, I was 6, I knew Anita Baker, Luther Vandross, The Four Tops. Then I got into super heavy metal in my teenage years. I had a mohawk before a mohawk was cool, and I was listening to Guns N Roses and Metallica and bands like that. Also ’80s pop. I have a very eclectically diverse musical palate. I had to sit the DJs down and let them know: don’t be scared and don’t think you have to impress me by playing Wiz records all the time; you don’t have to play something that Kid Capri did, really, really go in!
Did you have any favorites on the show?
I definitely had a favorite DJ but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t tell his ass off neither! You can only improve and get better! I had a favorite but I am always fair. When me, Kid and Victor go back for deliberations and we have to let somebody go, we really take it seriously! This show has a lot of emotion; it is a life changing experience!
The last time we saw you on TV you were on Ru Paul’s Drag Race as a judge on Season 3. What was that experience like for you?
That was amazing! Ru Paul is legendary. He is super talented, he is super funny and I love drag queens. Drag queens are fabulous and I had a lot of fun watching all of the girls get dressed. I learned a lot of things about makeup but it is really hard to judge a drag queen because I am not a drag queen. I do not understand what it is like. I can put on sweatpants and a t-shirt and still look very feminine with my short haircut, but drag queens have to do so much to look like that: they don’t have any hormones. It is a man dressed as a woman, but some of them will definitely fool you.
So what can we expect from you on the show in terms of your wardrobe?
I wore a lot of Brian Lichtenberg and it was a lot of big shoulder pads, a lot of really dope shades and ill shoes.
One of the happiest we have seen you this year was when you went to Ghana. You were on stage at the Vodafone concert and you were wearing these gorgeous designs from Ghanaian designers. What was that like for you, wearing those designs?
Oh, thank you! You know, I really wanted to go out there and I wanted to support the Ghanians. A lot of people in fashion are extremely superficial, they are label whores and they will only wear labels that are super expensive. I really believe in people being creative. I wanted to go out there and I wanted to represent the fashions out in Ghana.
Going to Africa, and me being West African, was a life changing experience, just seeing how beautiful the people are out there and how loving they are! They are genuinely compassionate people.
I initially went out there for work and I only worked for one day. I was out there for four days so I wanted to do humanitarian work; I wanted to help out. I couldn’t go really save anyone’s life, so me and my friends, we all went to the supermarket every single day and bought out the supermarket. We filled up a whole truck with food and we just went and gave out food to the villages. We fed the kids, we fed their grandparents, we gave out water! It was just such a beautiful experience, and I can’t wait to go back.
[pagebreak]
Do you speak Portuguese?
No, I don’t! My mom knows a little bit. She is from Brooklyn and my grandparents are from Cape Verde. My mother is American like me. When [my grandparents] came over here they wanted their children to be very Americanized, so they never got the opportunity to learn. But it is never too late.
For Halloween you dressed up as Slash. We understand he is one of your favorite musicians.
He is one of my favorite people in the world! He has been my hero since I was a little girl; I always looked up to him. He was a biracial rock star, and anytime he plays the guitar it just takes over my body. His sound is just amazing to me. Most of my persona has a lot to do with Slash. I have a very mysterious persona and there are a lot of things that people don’t know about me and Slash is like that. He is like that to this day! He is very mysterious and people are just so intrigued by him and he has been out for 20 plus years! He wrote a book and you still want to know more.
You were dressed as Slash. What was Wiz dressed as?
Oh, no! On Halloween I had to fly to New York and he had to fly to Europe to go on his European tour, so he was on an airplane during Halloween.
