Little Brother comin soon!!!!

If I can my engineer to work on my time schedule it would've happened 3 days ago. Catch it Phonte, Rapper Big Pooh and DJ Flash on my dial in milliseconds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JwaStarOrbit.Blogspot.com is up

Go check out Jose James and footage from Janelle Monae at Summerstage and tell me what u think!!!!

I just wanna apologize for the integrity that I have been lackin in getting the articles up in time and the footage that I need to sort through. I want all my readers and dedicated friends to just pray for me as I try to work out the consent dillemas that seem to keep persisting. Both websites will be up soon and so will the LITTLE BROTHER feature. thank u.

www.JwaStarOrbit.blogspot.com

Too many nights in the studio. I've been so exhausted working on these websites and giving them my all but I'm still busy!!! Check for http://www.jwastarorbit.blogspot.com/ to see what my summer or moreso my birthday month was all about!! Jwa's Starz will be back shortly as I gear up for the editing in the Little Brother feature!!!! U can check the other websites for reviews on some of the hot spots from the summer that I got to check out. On http://www.jwastarorbit.blogspot.com/ u'll get a chance to see footage on Summerstage with Janelle Monae, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott and J*Davey to name a few. I've been so busy with all this I haven't really given myself a moment to breathe but trust me I'll have sumthin up in a few hours or so and I cant wait to see what u think. Dont forget to leave a comment!!! @(^_^)@

Peace.

Fly As A Lady Part 4

"Sometimes people get inspiaration from things that they may not know about. Things that came before there time. Its like the evolution of the human brain." - Jwastar*

I guess we all got a chance to learn what it’s like inside the life of an artistically gifted individual who never stops. This month was the month of Fly Lady Di and in learning about who she is as an artist I got to also learn who she was as an individual.



How do you move inside a male driven world and make your own footprints without them being erased without notice? The fast lane of an NYC resident on the go isn’t something that ever really stops. Relationships, career, work, leisure, food, dance, paint, sleep and then she gets up and does it all over again. Finding time for friends, fun and work can actually happen all in the same instance at times. I ran into the Ms. Fly Thang herself at the infamous APT Wednesday night with Rich Medina (with no locs :-O) spinning on the ones and twos.




It’s one thing to be all about work but it’s definitely important to find time to “chillax”. I found pleasure in finding out new things about Fly Lady Di on a regular basis. Running into her in the most dopest settings. Seeing how much of an inspiration she is to not only me but to many others around her.

Summing her up isn’t the easiest task for me since her growing popularity isn’t something I can catch. What I’ll say is as an artist, she reigns supreme in creating a movement called Live Art. What she’s able to bring to the table with her work and motion in paint shows her versatility to grow into a spectrum for much debate. Looking at the many greats in Art such as Basquait and Warhol to name a few, I see a realness and sanity, a human quality that they seem to sometimes lack. So focused in her work and the longevity and effectiveness of it all, she shows what it means to be a real person behind the art.


As a woman, she holds an un-equatable amount of feminity that allows her to exude something that a man could never offer. Inside her art, who she is storms onto the paper in such a dynamic way that it’s no question that a woman did it. There’s something different about doing these pieces in front of a live audience that cannot be duplicated. It’s almost like being allowed to sit inside a room and watch her work as an invisible being, yet it’s not. Ms. Di seems to always sit herself in a room of an unimaginable amount of Hip Hop. There will always be an embodied source of our culture oozing from her canvas. Ode to Hip Hop.

As a Philipina, she represents a country that brings about her grace. The Asian community is very pleased with the legacy she is choosing to leave of them as a whole.



As a star, she’s something to be reckoned with. Creating her own path, she’s shown me what it means to grow inside of your own art and allow yourself to create from an area that doesn’t have anything to do with people. It has nothing to do with a crowd, nothing to do with ex-boyfriends, nothing to do with friends or family. It starts from inside first and then… there is room to tell a story. From being who she chose to be when she wakes up every morning is the first thing that makes her who she is. The paintings she draws from engulfing her life with the people she loves and the artists she encounters is the story behind the beauty.

She’s working on a business right now with 2 other artists, Ibrahim and ------ to create places for them to do their art and travel with it. She’s created a movement you might not know about as of yet. I guess that’s why it’s an extraordinary story. It’s definitely why she’s a Star in my terms.

Fly As A Lady Interview Part 4 By Jwastar


You can find her at www.myspace.com/FlyLadyDi

Fly As A Lady Part 3

What is it that truly defines an artist as unique? Is it their movement of Godly moments set to stage in an array of what the public would call art or the multifacets of their character that sets them apart from the regulars? Inspired into a movement of life is what puts together an artist and also it’s what brings them to the next level.


“You bled my Mama! You bled my Papa! You won’t bleed me! You won’t bleed me!” The statement meant much to the year 1971 as pride and sacrifice were given in the name of Art. The infamous words that rang throughout the art form of the Van Peebles legacy ring long and hard in my ears. As I figure out what comes out of fighting for your beliefs, my answers reign loud and clear through the grandiose people I meet. Fighting for yourself to survive, achieve and inspire is what I find every time I get to meet someone new and enter into their world for a day or a week or a month of just understanding who they are.


Is it circumstance or coincidence? Not really sure which one you call the happenstance of meeting Mario Van Peebles in a restaurant and finding the might to actually approach him comes from but whatever works… worked. Di used to work at a trendy little hot spot in the city called Lotus. She walked in for her shift and she’d just come off the high of watching his masterpiece bio-pic of his father’s classic Sweet Sweetback’s Bad Ass Song and there he was. Already seated in the restaurant sat her new idol. The dynamic of the autobiographical movie based off the making of what Blacks would look like and how they would be portrayed FOREVER, changed the view and inspiration of Diana to become a better artist and intricate person. Baaadasssss was a movie that set the standard for what Blacks in the 70’s really looked like and what they really felt about the injustice of their lives, history and representations on television and off. After being nudged by her co worker to go and tell him how much of an inspiration he was for her, the rest became history.


A year later Mario is Diana's mentor and he supports her work in every aspect of art she’s focused on. I chose to watch BaaadAsssss to get an idea of what was the inspiration that came out of her. And sure enough, I understood a whole different dynamic about what it takes to live your dreams and believe in yourself when the whole world is telling you “NO”.


BaaadAsssss is Mario Van Peebles rendition of his father, Melvin Van Peebles movie, Sweet Sweetback’s Badass Song. The 1971 movie was the first to spark the revolution of what would now be called blaxploitation films. It was before Superfly, The Mack, Shaft, Foxy Brown and the likings of what we called black culture when it became televised in the 1970’s. It was the introduction to Earth Wind and Fire (who got there break doing the soundtrack of the movie). It was what struggle and a vision looked like in the face of colored people. It’s also the biggest hit movie for 1971 that was tagged the underdog film before it was even released.



Being able to have a mentor who is the renowned Mario Van Peebles is an honor and a privilege all on its own. She gets to hang out with him and meet his father and just shoot the breeze about regular things. It’s a chance to be invited into the mind of a brilliant artist. In all these things she’s able to shine as bright as she possibly can off the inspiration of the Sun.

Fly Lady Di Interview Pt 3 by Jwastar*

Fly As A Lady Part 2

This is a chick that totally MOVES inside of Hip Hop. Life in the fast lane for women on the move tends to be a never ending day. Catching up with Fly Lady Di was more than a hustle but well worth the while. On the scene from hot spot to hot spot all over the fab NYC leaks paint from the subways as I grab a moment of this bright, young inspirational spirit in her own right.


She’s a renowned dancer, studying jazz and Hip Hop, she made her way out of it all to become a B-Girl/House dancer inside videos for the likes of Fall Out Boy and many others. In every area of whatever art she chooses for that day it always oozes Hip Hop. Always oozes femininity. Always oozes Flyness. And in it all you’ll always find her. Even down to just peeping her myspace page… if u don’t get all the pics of hotness she’s got plastered across the page downloaded, you’ll at least hear some old school Hip Hop (i.e. Who Got Da Props by Black Moon :-O) or some serious House music for your soul.


I’ve gotten the privilege to see Ms. Di at some of the hottest events in the inner and outer area of NYC. Experiencing these different outlets inside the Hip Hop culture has been amazing to me. I’ve been blessed enough to see her perform at the Art Battles (covered by MTV) in Noho, at the Ladies of Hip Hop Launch in Philly (dope dope DOPE). Recently at the Afro-Punk Festival she worked with many other painters who ran a colleague of one painting into the next. Women hold their own reign inside this culture and they are creating a path to accomplishments inside a male driven world.



I’ll be forever awed and inspired by this young lady. Inspiration means to have immediate influence of God or a god and/or to be inspired. This is something that the Holy Books were birthed from, something that our own talent is resurrected from. Where do you find such artistry inside yourself? A feeling of Life being blown into you, a feeling of God moving in your steps, how do you grasp such a moment of mastery?


I believe it comes from people and our environments. Today’s inspiration lies in the hands of a brilliant painter named Fly Lady Di. In her I’ve found energy to begin something that she has made profound in her very own right. Art and a paintbrush.

Catch part 3 of the Fly Lady interview coming soon!!!

FLY LADY DI INTERVIEW BY JWASTAR* PART 2

Fly As A Lady

From the pages of TRACE magazine to the streets that b-boys and b-girls move upon to the intellectual musing of this Asian bombshell comes a person that moves only inside of her inspiration. Gifted souls appreciate what they give to the world and truly understand that at the end of the day it’s a God given talent given so that it can manifest into the next thing of pulchritude. I give u the first in the series of Jwa’s Starz… Fly Lady Di.


Tracking down great talent sometimes seems like it can be the hardest thing to do for a reporter but truthfully it’s usually staring you right in the face. In the midst of standing in the cold to get into the infamous annual Dilla Tribute party at SouthPaw in BK, Houseshoes spinning on the ones and twos and Evil Dee pacing the front and many other hot cool kids walking in or standing in front of the spot. One cool kid comes out and she’s short with a ponytail and she has the biggest Giselle glasses I’ve ever seen. Who wears glasses that big on such a small frame … and thinks they can pull it off? …someone way too intimidating to talk to maybe.

Ms.Intimidation is Fly Lady Di.

FLY LADY DI INTERVIEW BY JWASTAR* PART I





She’s the renaissance woman of the hip hop culture. Birthed in the 80’s yet molded from the 90’s, Fly Lady Di has grown into a commodity that she is still trying to develop. Artist, dancer, model, actress and industry savvy Diana Reyes grew up in Canada with aspirations to move to NY and live her dream. Learn more about this hot commodity by revisiting http://www.jwastar.blogspot.com/ each week to hear a new piece of my interview with her and freelance pieces of who she is behind the scenes. You can find Fly Lady Di at http://www.myspace.com/flyladydi.

The Intro BITCHES!!!!

Welcome to the Jwa’s Starz blog! I’m really excited to launch this blogspot. It’s about all the dope interesting people that I meet in my life and the stories they have about living their ultimate dreams. I’m a person that’s always out in the art and hip hop scene. I take pride in the culture of hip hop. I’m a freelance writer for the hip hop community. I’ve worked alongside Lamont “Liquid” Burell who is the videographer for Alicia Keys, Ronnie Wright (106 and park) who is famous for his celebrity photography for over 20 years, Rocke of the Verbilisms (a female derived hip hop magazine), Impaq who was the editor-in-chief of SpeakEZ magazine and last but not least I now write blogs for the Brooklyn based Media website GakCity.com, which is hosted by the infamous Jeremy Hassell. My blogs on Gakcity will be intros to the blogs for blogspot on the artists that I cover. In my career, I’ve interviewed the likes of Chrisette Michele, Arsonist of the Heatmakerz, and Midi Mafia just to name a few. There is a long list of other jobs that I’ve had and done in the industry but I’m more focused on this right now. I’m what you call a hip hop conosieur and I’m all about the hip hop culture and what’s new on the scene. This blog is dedicated to people who inspire me to believe in our hip hop culture as a constant moving solar system. Welcome to Jwa’s Starz!!!