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Tell the readers all about Exclusive?
Yasmin
Shiraz-Exclusive is
about this journalist who basically wants to have a
relationship with someone who has something in common
with her love of music. What you get to see in addition
to her wanting to have this relationship is you get
to see the behind the scenes going on's in the industry
and you have an executive by the name of Jordan Ellis
who is sort of put by her record company in control
to manage and manipulate this rapper so she has to use
everything that god gave her to get this man under her
thumb. It was inspired by all the interviews that I
have done with celebrities and working with the different
labels in the capacity that I did. I worked with the
promotion departments, I worked with the marketing department
and I got to see what some of the executives were doing
in the line of them doing their jobs. With this Jordan
Ellis character that so many readers said, "I hated
her," she's like a real life person. So that's basically
what it's about.
So you had Mad Rhythms magazine for six years and
then you released the very successful book Blueprint
for My Girls, and now you are back to hip-hop,
so does it feel good to be writing about music again?
Yasmin
Shiraz-I think so. Exclusive
is very close to me because of the research I've done
in the industry so it was close to me to write
Exclusive because how much I love hip-hop music
and how I have been empowered and things that I saw.
So it felt really good to sort of be amongst the people
again as it related to hip-hop culture.
What hip-hop artists are you feeling right now?
Yasmin
Shiraz-Kanye West and Common.
"Gold Diggers" Yikes. I'm going to be in Target on August
30th. I'm really feeling Common. I remember being at
a music industry conference in the late 90's probably
99 and a record executive was talking about how they
would never give a Common the type of deal that say
they would give a DMX. So he's getting his due. I'm
always rooting for the underdog.
Are there any chances that you might get into magazine
writing again?
Yasmin
Shiraz-Probably. I will probably own
another magazine. I don't know how much writing I will
do but I will definitely own another one. I do a lot
of consulting to people who want to start magazines
and they are in the embryonic stages of building their
brands. I love the power of the written word, so its
something I cant escape it.
How did you go about starting such a popular magazine
at a young age?
Yasmin
Shiraz-I loved music, I was someone
you have people who love hip-hop and you have people
who really really love hip-hop and love rap music. I
love music. My dad is a big music person and I was just
brought up loving music in a music filled household.
When I started Mad Rhythms the first Mad Rhythms was
printed at Kinkos so that lets people know I didn't
come out with a full glossy. It got to that point. It
was what I could afford at the time. I was teaching
college I had my Masters Degree at 24 and I took every
dime that I had and I said I am going to pay for the
printing of this magazine so I always looked at it as
an investment in the future. When it started I wasn't
making any money but I thought it was the right thing
because it was what I wanted to do. I was just always
moved by my love of the music and it was the artists
that I liked, those were the people that I featured.
If there were people out there doing despicable things
I wasn't wasting my ink on them. People were like "How
could you not cover so and so?" Let the other magazine
cover them.
What will be your next release?
Yasmin
Shiraz-Exclusive has
a follow up that will be coming out in the fall. It's
called Privacy. Basically I wrote
my first novel Exclusive it ends on a cliff hanger because
I have written television scripts before movie scripts
but I had never had the public read it and see it. I
wrote my first book with a sequel in mind because if
this book is junk they are going to tell me. If this
book is good they are going to tell me. So I used Exclusive
as a barometer to help me. The next book is coming out
in the fall it's called Privacy. People
email me like, "You gotta get Privacy out
so they totally motivate me. The second blueprint book
came out this summer. It's titled The
Blueprint For My Girls In Love : 99 Rules for Dating,
Relationships, and Intimacy.
You can visit Yasmin Shiraz on the web at http://www.yasminshiraz.com.
I really enjoyed the book but I was mad at the
end! I'm sorry! I need "PRIVACY," the sequel.
If I would have had "Privacy" within arms reach
I would have been happy and this would have
been a five star rating. You know how R. Kelly
created a cliff hanger with his "Trapped In
The Closet" song? Well "Exclusive" is a cliff
hanger book. The main character is named Tisha.
She is a music journalist who falls for a rapper
named Shout. He is pretty much the biggest thing
going. A lot of different things go on in the
middle of the book, I don't want to write a
spoiler. Tisha basically loses all sense of
good judgment and I found myself mad at her
for her poor decisions and even more mad at
Shout. Tisha did some real dumb stuff and then
ran her mouth like diarrhea. This is a real
good but, so make sure you pick it up and get
the sequel too.
4
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 Interview
copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, and Thabiz.com 2005
Dorrie Williams-Wheeler is the author of Be
My Sorority Sister Under Pressure and the Unplanned
Pregnancy Book for Teens and College Students. She
is the founder of Thabiz.com
and Imissthe80s.com
and writes for the Rap,
Teen, and
1980s section
at Bellaonline.com. She is an ASCAP member as a writer
and a publisher. Please contact Dorrie for advertising
inquiries, lyric writing inquiries, reprint rights,
paying
entertainment jobs, or general comments.
Visit Dorrie on the web at www.sparkledoll.com
or e-mail her at webmaster@thabiz.com.
May not be reprinted, copied or distributed.
Interview copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, thabiz.com
August 2005
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