Amber Rose has been in the public eye since Kanye West pulled her from the shadowed corners of Sue’s Rendevous and into the spotlight in 2009. But Yeezy’s influence stops there. Instead of disappearing back into the abyss of oblivion after their 2010 break up, Amber has taken the reigns of her fledging brand going further than most celebrity girlfriends to take advantage of what has been laid out on the Givenchy platter for her indulgence which includes her own career in creating club bangers. The Philly bombshell is also preparing for a spot on BET and Smirnoff’s deejay competition Master of the Mix.
The irony of a glittering socialite judging deejays head-to-head isn’t lost on Amber as she boldly notes that she knows nothing of the technicalities and only what makes the party jump. However, there’s something to be said of the bravery it entails to step into opportunities, all the while, wise to the venomous criticism it will yield. Unfazed by naysayers and (still) floating on the love of her current boyfriend, Wiz Khalifa, Amber Rose is ready for whatever comes and whoever dishes it out.
HipHopDX was able to speak with Amber about her upcoming move into music, “Master of the Mix” and Kanye’s dedication of “Runaway”
in Philly earlier this week.
HipHopDX: What’s the most important element that you’ll be judging for in Masters of the Mix?
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Amber Rose: Me judging in Masters of the Mix, I solely place my opinion and judgment on the party aspect of it. I’m not a deejay, obviously, I don’t know how to scratch. I don’t know how to mix but I do know how to party, and when a deejay is playing a dope record and everybody’s going crazy and everybody’s dancing and the deejay messes up and plays a bum-ass song, everyone leaves the dance floor and goes to get a drink or just goes home, that’s when I intervene like, “You were doing so great and then you just messed up the party.” That’s exactly why I’m there.
DX: So, by your standards, that’s the worst thing a deejay can do on there to get eliminated…
Amber Rose: Yeah. I mean, I’m very fair, these are young and up and coming deejays, competiting for a quarter of a million dollars. That type of money can just totally change your life so I really think long and hard when we have to do eliminations and stuff like that. I take it very seriously because this is someone’s livelihood.
DX: Can you speak on the music that you’re working on for yourself?
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Amber Rose: I’m in New York, in the studio all freakin’ night [Laughs]… I’m really, really working hard. My music is Dance, House, fun, up-beat music. Just happy music. Right now, I’m working with two really big names, but I can’t say them right now because I want it to be a surprise but it’s really huge.
DX: What’s the style of it going it be? Are you singing? Rapping?
Amber Rose: My inspirations would probably be… Definitely Missy Elliott, definitely, Fergie – when she’s rapping and Pitbull. Just big, big music – Dance music that just makes you happy.
DX: How long have you been interested in making music?
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Amber Rose: Well, I’ve always loved music. I grew up in Philly and my mother… Before school, there was always music, after school, music and during dinner we had on music. So I know music that a lot of people my age probably don’t know. I’ve always really been into music my entire life and um, it was just waiting for the right time to do it. Now is the right time, I just feel so inspired now, you know?
DX: What would you say was the primary part of that inspiration?
Amber Rose: Definitely Wiz [Khalifa]. He’s definitely a part of that influence. Just seeing how he works, how he is in the studio and just how talented he is. He really… Like, I write all my own stuff, I’ve been writing music for a period of time, and it’s always been personal for me. I never really opened up about it but you know Wiz is the love of my life, so I told him: “Babe, I wrote all this stuff…” and he’s like, “Baby… You have pure talent. You can do this.” So I just took what he said and I feel so inspired to do it, and when I’m in the studio, you know, just the reaction I get from my peers, and the engineer and the producers and stuff, it’s really good. It’s definitely great feedback.
DX: So you got that deciding vote of confidence from Wiz and made the jump.
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Amber Rose: Yeah! I’m really quiet. I’m to myself and you know I’m the only child from my mother so I was always like, just a loner, and I always liked to just do shit alone, but just opening up to Wiz… And Wiz’ll tell me the truth, like, “Baby… music just isn’t for you sweetheart. I love you to death but let’s just take a different lane.” You know? We’re just like that. We’re very honest with each other. Not in a mean way, but he would definitely let me know. And just having him really, really believe in me makes me just wanna do better.
DX: Is it true that you’ll be producing on his upcoming LP?
Amber Rose: Me producing? No. No. No. Like, I said, we inspire each other. We help each other with music but I’m not producing anything.
DX: On this past Wednesday evening, the Watch The Throne tour stopped in your hometown. And your ex actually dedicated “Runaway” to you. His words were: “To the city of Philly, I wanna thank y’all for making the person that this song was made for…” Do you have any comment on that?
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Amber Rose: You know… [long pause] My past is my past. You know, obviously, me and Kanye [West] were together and I know that he wrote that song for me. I knew when it came out because he told me, um… I know a lot of the songs on that album [My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy] were about me, and inspired by me but you know… There’s no hard feelings. I think a lot of people think like, just because you’re not with somebody anymore and you’ve moved on to a different relationship and you’re happy that you’re just supposed to hate that other person and… I don’t hate Kanye at all, I just… You know, I guess I, uh, appreciate it.
