This is just ridiculous! Accepting the AMAs first ICON award from her mom last night, Rihanna showed up on the red carpet AND the stage with a dubi [you may know it as doobie] and some bobby pins in her hair with no shame! Of course, people had many things to say, and most weren’t giving her props – can you blame them? After all of this, there is an artist’s “FORMER” manager claiming that Rihanna stole the style! To back up his claims, the manager also states that he’d once ran into RiRi rocking a, “borrowed” hairstyle from Cassie!
First, a wrap has been around just as long as weave and second, why you claiming this as an everyday STYLE!? People need to stop. Hit the jump to see what the manager had to say.
Don’t forget, check out the gallery before you go!
I am writing to express my extreme frustration and anger over the blatant theft of a image that my former artist and I cultivated. A few years ago I worked with an up and coming female rapper named Patwa. She’s a Bronx born 2nd generation Jamerican who fused hip hop, reggae and culture into her music. During 2010 we began generating a buzz in the underground hip hop community. This lead to a couple of meeting with some big wigs at def jam, Geffen, Atlantic and yes Roc nation who manages Rihanna. While meeting with A&Rs with these labels we were continuously told that the imagery we were trying to brand was not “lady like” was “to street”, “to hood” and “to ghetto” we were told that “white America would never get behind such ignorance”. Ratchetness had yet to become an accepted house hold term. The image we were trying to run with was what Patwa knew from the streets which was the doobie wrap. She wore it proudly with jeweled pins to signify she was a Queen and this was her ghetto crown. Something that many females coming from where she came from could relate to. You know when you get that hair wrapped you feel like the Bomb You just got your hair did no one could tell you nothing. After putting a couple of videos up we met with a certain head honcho in roc nation who will remain nameless. We were offered what amounts to a development deal if we softened image and sound. Sticking to our guns we declined because we really believed in the look and knew with a proper push it would catch. So we left that office with our respect. Unfortunately offers started to dry up. Maybe we were too hard and middle America would never understand the doobie wrap. Eventually Patwa and I stopped working together and she returned to school and I to a less then glamorous 9 to 5. I’ve never told her but i always wondered what if we had softened up and changed that hair.
Fast forward to 11/24/13 and who do I see grace my flat screen while sitting in my modest one bedroom apartment wearing a doobie wrap with jeweled pins at the AMA’s. Roc nations own Ri Ri. I honestly felt violated. You see during 2011 Patwa and I crossed paths with Rihanna at a Roc Nation event. Rihanna who on that evening was wearing a hairstyle that she “borrowed” from Cassie, complimented the jeweled pin wrap said it looked nice and even inquired as to who did it? We of course were flattered out of our socks and felt almost validated. Two years later it appears middle America is ready and Rihanna really liked what she saw. By no means did we invent the doobie wrap or name. However prior to the AMA’s no one had attempted to wear the doobie as a hairstyle in public. No one!!!!!! I just find it very insulting that something we brought to those people was to “ghetto”. But now Rihanna can accept awards while proudly displaying it. I am really hurt by this and wanted to scream. But I wrote to you guys. Wanted to let someone else know that she stole that look from Patwa.
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