Wendy Brandes Jewelry Blog

Never Is the Next New Thing

Meet Gorgeous Rapper Gangsta Boo (and Her Jewelry)

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In November, rapper Yelawolf (aka my new favorite dick-grabber) put out a song called “Throw It Up,” featuring Eminem and former Three 6 Mafia member and forever black Marilyn Monroe Gangsta Boo. I took notice because — Hello?! A lady rapper who is NOT Nicki Minaj? I love Nicki but I feel like it’s strange that she’s practically the only woman rapper getting top-of-the-charts attention these days. In the 1980s, I listened to Salt-N-Pepa, Roxanne Shanté, MC Lyte, Queen Latifah and Neneh Cherry; the ’90s had Missy Elliott, Lauryn Hill, Da Brat, the late Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes of TLC, Foxy Brown, and Lil’ Kim (Princess Superstar had a quick moment); in the first decade of the new millennium, it was Eve, Remy Ma, M.I.A. (Lil Mama, Ms. Dynamite and Lady Sovereign had their moments too). A lot of these wimmins are still doing their thing, and there are plenty of up-and-comers, but only Nicki is in the white-hot spotlight and, so far, she’s not sharing it with Kreayshawn.

The first woman I EVER heard rap was New Waver Debbie Harry. Click for “Rapture.”

That’s a long way of saying that Atlanta-based, Memphis-born Gangsta Boo seemed exceptional to me, so, like you do these days, I started following her on Twitter.

Click HERE to follow Gangsta Boo (@GangstaBooQOM) on Twitter.

Here she is — Gangsta Boo.

Pretty soon, I thought, “Damn! This chick rules Twitter.” Boo was tweeting (and re-tweeting) up a storm. I was very entertained, so I kept a close eye on her timeline. One day, she said something along the lines of “Why are you following me and not saying anything to me” to the general Twitterverse. In my mind, I answered, “Um, because we’re all freaky stalkers.” In reality, I was too embarrassed to say anything to her, so I tweeted something about her. She retweeted that, and I think my very next tweet was, “I’m going to make jewelry for Gangsta Boo.” After that, we got to chit-chatting and I told Boo (real name: Lola Mitchell) how most of my jewelry is inspired by special, ground-breaking women, including royalty. And my favorite royal ladies are those who take on male roles or titles, such as Empress Wu, the 7th-century Chinese ruler who was called “Emperor” during her lifetime.

My Empress Wu dragon ring in 18K gold. Click for more information.

Now, I usually don’t do any kind of entertainment-industry “gifting.” (Supermodel Gisele Bündchen got to keep two rings from a Harper’s Bazaar photo shoot, but that’s it.) But someone who calls herself “The Memphis Queen” and works in a male-dominated industry is my kind of gal. It’s just meant to be.

Click for more info.

At first, I planned to send Boo a set of sterling-silver swear rings from my WENDYB by Wendy Brandes line, figuring that was as gangsta as I got.

Click to purchase your own swear rings.

But Boo’s signature “Yea hoe!” — heard throughout “Throw It Up” — made it obvious this had to be a custom job. I hinted at it here. Y’all ready for this?

Click to see on my website. Photo by SquareMoose.

I normally make these multiple-ring sets with adjustable bands to fit a variety of finger sizes, but I sent Boo to the jewelry store at the mall to get her fingers measured. I wanted to make sure her rings fit her exactly so she didn’t have to worry about losing one on stage. (You can have custom-word and custom-sized rings too. Holla at me at wbjewelry at hotmail dot com to discuss.)

Boo also got a set of my LOL rings. Add the “A” from the “YEA HOE” set and what does that spell?

Click to see on my website. Photo by SquareMoose.

Here’s a little snapshot of Boo showing off her LOLA rings. We’ll get a better one soon!

Isn’t she Boo-licious?

You can check out Boo on Yelawolf’s Radioactive album. There’s also a good interview with her here. And here’s her new video for “Laughing at Them Haters.” (You can follow the song’s producer, Drumma Boy, on Twitter here, and the [female!] DJ Speakerfoxxx here.)

For you YelaWolfPack peeps who need no introduction to Boo because you’re already big fans: Boo and I will be selling a brass version of the YEA HOE rings soon. If you want to pre-order the brass rings, click here. I expect them to be ready by March 26, at the latest. Of course, I will never stop anyone from spending tons of money, so you can also request the much-pricier sterling-silver rings Boo has. The turnaround time is a lot faster for the real thing because I make them here in New York. You’ll have ’em in about three weeks.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. i am right there with ya on the Blondie rapping
    i used to play that album and my mother would say i was listening to trash! lol
    love the lola ring
    brett

  2. You little Dynamo! I love the Yea Hoe! If I wasn’t so shy I’d have a little Sulky made!
    What about a little necklace with a small Sulky? But I don’t want to have to do my first bank Job to pay for it!!

    • I think it would be cool for you to do your first bank job. Isn’t it about time to cross that off your bucket list? But yeah, I can do a little Sulky for you. I’ve been wanting to do some little — and big — letter necklaces to match the rings.

  5. My much younger sister (23 years old) met Da Brat (tat tat tat) a few weeks ago. She snapped a picture with her and attached it to an email to me and wrote in the subject line “you are the only person I know in the right age group to appreciate this…”

    I felt old and awesome at the same time.

  7. I love my girl Debbie (and Fab Five Freddy!), but it’s nice to see some girl power in the rap world which has been seriously lacking as of late. Your rings are perfect for Boo(Lola is a hottie in that beach pic!). Love how they are mixing and matching since you added the LOL. She can even spell, “HOLLA”

  8. Ooh I like the idea of customised rings. What word could I get to encapsulate me? BTW speaking of chick rappers, you left off 2 of the very best, most excellent gals, Missy Elliot and the wonderful Lauryn Hill.

  10. This is why I love Twitter! So, good on you. Btw, hubby wants some swear cuff links. We need to pick out what two symbols though.

    • That would be great! The design might have to be changed to place the back Of the cufflink. See the emoticon cufflinks for example.

  12. oh my Wendy .. that is just such a cool story. I want to live in your world .. you just sound like you are so much fun!

  17. HAHA I was looking at your website the other day (before this blog post came to fruition) and was EXTREMELY confused by the “yea hoe’ and sorta confused by the “lola”

    I thought it through in my head for about 15 minutes or so before grabbing another glass of wine (as that is what 22 year old women do when they feel confused)

    Im glad im not confused anymore, and to celebrate, Imma go pour myself a glass of wine.