If there were a supermodel of the moment, Joan Smalls would certainly be it. She’s the face of Estée Lauder, ranked no. 1 on Models.com and currently holds the no. 8 spot on Forbes’ list of top-earning catwalkers. On top of this, she is also the star of countless editorials and campaigns (currently iCB and Fendi). Not to mention she just snagged Elle‘s January cover, which was considered something of a feat because, well, it’s not often a model — as opposed to a Hollywood starlet du jour — is on the cover of an American magazine.

Lucky for Fashionista, the stunning Smalls sat down for a pre-fashion week chat at the Modellounge x Microsoft space (which, not coincidentally, is the brainchild of her boyfriend, Bernard Smith). Afterward, she was set to hop on a plane to Canada for a quick two-day shoot before returning to New York for runway duty. (Just thinking about her schedule makes us lose our breath!) Read on for her thoughts on models vs. celebs, a little gossip about her good friend Cara Delevingne and, duh, what it was like to work with Beyoncé.

What was it like to work with Beyoncé on the “Yoncé” video?


Wow! Incredible. That woman is someone you can look up to. She’s so professional — so well-rounded and grounded. It just goes to show you that being nice in an industry pays off. She’s so involved when she talks to somebody — and encouraging — so I admire that quality in her. She’s really, really talented, so it’s nice that I have that off my checklist. It’s like Beyoncé video — check!



Source: Fashionista

Me and 40 work on projects and he normally hits me like, “Hey, I might need something for this.” I think at the time we were working on [Drake’s] Nothing Was the Same and then he came and said, “Yo, Beyoncé, we gotta do something.”

So then I had some ideas and he was like, “All right, that’s dope!” We had the idea, then we added some chords and we took it to the studio, Drake added some words to it and the rest is history. It was all done at Jungle City Studios, which is right in [New York City].

Initially, I didn’t really know where it was going to go. I didn’t know it was going to be for Beyoncé’s album. I figured it could have been one out of a hundred tracks she recorded or listened to. So I didn’t know it was going to be ‘that’ joint. I’ve been in the game for a little while so I’ve learned you can’t really expect anything. You usually have to wait until something happens. You can’t really have high expectations in this music industry.

I was just like, “If it happens, it happens.” Then of course it happened sort of out of the blue. I sort of knew when everyone else knew. So when everyone else found out [after Beyoncé did the surprise LP release], that’s when I found out. You have to treat it as business as usual. It’s definitely a boost because in this industry, it’s about relevancy. You’re as dope as your next record or album.

Now show us if you are reppin’ or co-sign any artists out in North Carolina! Get at us on Instagram with #sohhpix

Check out Beyoncé’s “Mine” (snippet):

Source: SOHH

Unless you’re asexual (or Keri Hilson), it’s impossible to hear Beyoncé’s “Rocket” and not feel an intense urge to invite your guy/gal/cutty buddy over to do the no-pants dance. And according to the song’s author, the song was written with that in mind.

Miguel, who penned Bey’s 2013 update to D’Angelo’s rhetorical classic “Untitled (How Does It Feel),” says he was challenged by Mrs. Carter to push the envelope with some of her most risqué lyrics yet.

“I’ll never forget the conversation I had with Beyoncé and her insisting that nothing was off-limits,” Miguel tells VIBE. “And me being like, ‘Oh yeah, you sure? Because I can really take it there.’”

And take it there he did. Once Miguel got the OK from Yonce, he came up with the song’s definitive opening line: “Let me sit this ass… on you.”
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When Beyoncé’s surprise self-titled album touched down last month, a minor mystery quickly shot out from the forest of the album’s liner notes. Among the usual suspects—Timbaland, the-Dream, Pharrell, Hit-Boy—someone by the name “Boots” was everywhere on the record. He wrote and produced “Haunted”, “Heaven”, and, perhaps most strikingly, “Blue”, the song dedicated to Beyoncé and Jay Z’s daughter. He sang backup vocals on and performed many or all of the instruments on several songs. In an interview, Beyoncé name-checked him as “an innovator,” while a member of her creative team tweeted the only currently available picture of Boots, with the note that he had “co-produced 80 percent of the album.” Within seven days, the query “Who is Boots?” had racked up 452,000,000 Google results.

So who is Boots? When I meet him at a Brooklyn restaurant down the street from his apartment, I have already agreed to some ground rules: I can’t ask about his real name—even though Complex, The Broward Palm Beach New Times, and now even his freshly-minted Wikipedia page identify him as Jordy Asher, a Miami-based musician who spent time in a number of rock bands, including Blonds. He doesn’t want to talk about any of the projects he’s worked on before now. And he’s cagey about how, exactly, Beyoncé discovered his demo, saying only, “That’s for Beyoncé and me to know.”
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These Grammy-nominated ‘Sisters with Voices’ cranked out back-to-back R&B hits and sold over 15 million records worldwide. After a 15-year separation, the trio reunited in an attempt to recapture their spot at the top of the music charts. WE TV’s new reality series SWV Reunited profiles the R&B trio as they embark on their make-it-or-break-it comeback tour. The series follows SWV as they write new music, tour and finally face the issues that ended their friendship and their careers once before.

During an interview with theGrio’s Chris Witherspoon the ladies of SWV—Cheryl “Coko” Clemons, Leanne “Lelee” Lyons and Tamara “Taj” George, opened up about their breakup, which happened at the peak of SWV’s fame.

Watch the video after the jump…
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Kevin Hart stopped by On Air with Ryan Seacrest to talk about everything from meeting President Barack Obama, geeking out at a Beyoncé concert, and his new movie Ride Along.

Another star struck moment he had was when he attended good friend Beyoncé’s concert in Los Angeles. However, this time, he was only kidding with his enthusiasm.

Of the video of him fanning-out that went viral, the comedian laughs: “I know her, so I was doing it to be silly. At first, we were in the Beehive and I was like, ‘I love you, Beyoncé! I love you!’ And she was like, ‘Shut up, Kevin!’ … but then there’s a moment where she … throws a towel at me and this guy behind me might have been the biggest Beyoncé fan in the world. He’s like, ‘You’re so lucky, Kevin Hart! What are you going to do with it? You’ve got to frame it!’”

All jokes aside, Kevin goes on to explain he is a real fan of Beyoncé and her husband, Jay Z. In fact, he considers them mentors. “When you look at people who have taken this entertainment thing to another level …and know how to expand their brand to where their voices are powerful,” Kevin explains. “Jay, especially. Jay is definitely a mentor to me just talking to me on the business side. He’s the reason I got my own company. He’s the reason why I’m producing myself.”

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B.o.B. has no problem with Beyoncé’s surprise album release last month. Just its timing.

“It’s like, ‘Dang, couldn’t you have waited for 2014!’ ” he tells Billboard with a laugh. His third album, “Underground Luxury,” dropped just four days after “Beyoncé” appeared and gobbled up the spotlight, but B.o.B. hastens to add that there’s certainly no hard feelings. “It was definitely, like, Whoa.. She showed the world how powerful an artist can be, and at the same time how powerful the Internet is. That’s how to end the year, y’know? She ended with a bang.”

Read the full interview after the jump…
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