Follow The Leaders: Complex's November Fashion Story Features The Internet's Next Style Icons

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Understanding one's self is the key to sharing your personal story, and Josh DST has travelled that difficult road. Along the way he's picked up the confidence to be who he is and share that with his audience. From growing up in Co-Op City in the Bronx, and dealing with the inner turmoil of his sexuality, Josh DST has a message, maybe not for everyone, but one that needs to be heard. 

How would you describe your music if you were telling somebody who had no idea like what you do?
I would describe my music as visual because I want to tell a story but I also want you to envision what I’m saying. I try to write in a way that shows what I’m talking about. I would say cinematic.

I've heard "Watch Me Bleed" which is one, if not the only song of yours I could find. What's the message behind the track?
There were two relationships that I spoke about on that song. The first one was with an ex. It was just a real toxic relationship. It got to the point that things didn’t necessarily get physical but things were really bad and ended really bad and still to this day, they’re still bad. Writing about it helped me with that. The second one wasn’t really a relationship, it was about basically being number two and I was the other person. I realized that I didn’t need to be someone’s number two at all. I think everybody’s been in that place, male or female, gay or straight. So many people relate to that song. 

Do you talk about your sexuality in your music?
I don’t really label myself. I’m attracted to a certain type of person and I’m with whatever right now. I just don’t feel like we have to label ourselves, it shouldn’t matter anymore.

I agree. You have plenty of time to categorize yourself if you need to. While you're young you should just discover yourself. 
I say it in "Watch Me Bleed" and "Hour Glass" and I say “I’m cleaning out the closet and you never put me in the closet.” That’s not saying that I’m going to be flamboyant but I'd rather people accept me as myself instead of putting up a front and keeping up a front. I don’t feel like, because I’m not that type of person in my normal life, like the way I am right now, I’m not in the closet at all. Almost all my friends are straight. That’s not intentional, that’s just the way it’s designed. They accept me for who I am. I don’t feel like I have to change that. 

Where does your inspiration come from? It's obviously through personal experiences, but you share a lot. Most people would be afraid to expose similar personal truths. 
I almost always write about things that I have seen or experienced myself. If not, I will talk about it from the first person as another person but it’s always real for me. If I feel like someone can relate, or be helped through a simiar situation, then I'll do it.

You have a big fanbase, a lot of people have watched that video.
The main thing that surprised me about that is that it’s all off word of mouth. There’s no, like, machine and that’s how I know people really connect to it. That’s the best feeling for me—that people could really connect to it. If you tell me that my music makes you feel something then that’s the most important thing. I want to bring content. I feel like you could be fly and still talk about a subject. I feel like there can be combination of both worlds. I want to bring some type of substance.

Are the connections through Instagram or...
I really wasn’t big on Instagram, I’m more of a Facebook person because I’m more in my head. I like IG now because I take more pictures but I think for me, Facebook is going to be my zone. Facebook allows me to express my feelings the way that I want. To be honest, I’m awkward on camera but I’m more a one-on-one person. I enjoy the conversation. As of right now, social media is the only way we as artists can connect with our audience at this level. I can just put it online, and if you want to hear it you can hear it. It’s just crazy how you can go from writing a song in your bedroom to 2,000 views on YouTube.

Speaking of awkward on camera, you seemed really...uncomfortable with the outfit we picked out for you during the shoot. I thought you would love it. I could also sense you were being reserved, and I wanted to pull that other side out of you.
To be honest when I first saw the picture, I was like, "Wow this is a little bit extreme." Then I was listening to the songs that I have done on my album and thinking about every aspect of my life and I was like he got me to a T because it is something that I would wear. There is that side of me and I feel like as an introduction it’s the perfect side of me to show. It really fits one side of my artistry. 

When it comes to style and fashion, what are you attracted to? Do you have any favorite brands?
Personal style to me is just comfortable. On a daily basis, I wear what’s comfortable to me. I wear the same running shoes, I have these Nike Huarache Frees and they’re really comfortable. I like fitted, I’m more into cuts and fit rather than color. I used to be into all the colors but now it’s all black. I pay attention to the way things fall—layering, you know. I don’t really throw anything away. Now I wouldn’t say I’m getting into any one thing. I’m expanding my horizons in terms of fashion. I’ve always been into fashion. I really been into En Noir right now and Hood By Air, I really like the stuff that they do. Stussy is one of my favorite streetwear brands. 

The understanding that education is the best way to build a great foundation for any passion is not lost on film maker, writer, and part-time photography assistant Jasper Briggs. His subject matter is close to his heart, and by all means well beyond his years. He is deep, by all means of the word, and authentically so, and he is fine tuning his talent slowly and not interested in anything but the work. That type of focus is what will make him a household name in the years to come. 

I hate titles, and categories and all of those labels that confine creativity, but what would you classify yourself as?
Filmmaker and a writer, maybe also a photographer, because I've shot a few images, and it's an interest of mine. 

Right now you are a full time college student?
Yes, i'm a film major at the School of Visual Arts. 

What prompted you go to school for film?
I’m really into visual storytelling. I really like writing and just telling stories so I think that’s what made me get into it. I’m a very visual person so I wanted to learn how to do it. I want this to be my career.

Video and photography are two different mediums but they kind of share the visual aspect. I always wonder how you choose one over the other?
Well I haven’t yet. Primarily I want to be a filmmaker but I think photography is something that I’ll always do because I think they are different but at the same time they are both visual storytelling. They both hold a lot of emotion, mood, and character.

What type of subjects interest you?
Well they’re a little different. Film I would say is more about storytelling so it can be personal experience, it could be my personal problems, and I take that and I write about it to make films out of it. I think film is very powerful. It comes from inside, it reaches people. I did a short film about "stop and frisk" called "Hands Off the Kids," and I am working on a bigger film about my mom, which may be my end of the semester project called 'Bonita.'

Oh, "Hands Off The Kids" was amazing. It's such a huge issue here in New York City. Do you think your experiences would be different if you lived in another part of the country?
I do. In New York, there’s so many opportunities to really explore and do what you want to do. So absolutely. I’ve been to places like Oklahoma and I feel like it’s so limited to what you can do.

Switching gears. The first time met saw you, you were wearing really expensive Prada shoes. How do you explain how material ills fit into your world?
Okay yes, I can explain that [Laughs]. I wanted that shoe for like a year. I always loved that shoe and when I turned 18 and got like a shit load of money, I just splurged a little bit. But that’s like the most expensive thing I own. Other than that, it’s comfortable and easy-to-wear things. 

Are you a fashion head? Any brands that really speak to you? 
Honestly, it just comes down to me being comfortable. I really appreciate fashion but personally on me, not so much. I just want to be comfortable. 

How does social media affect your craft? How do you use or not use social media to push your content?
I feel like social media has its ups and its down. It can be used to your benefit but it shouldn’t be overused. I think I even got caught up in overusing it but now I use it for my work. My Instagram, I use it to pretty much put up pictures of my photography as opposed to pictures of me. I think social media can be used to help you for your work but you can’t get caught up in it as in terms of who you are. Because we’re all young and we all need to do work to get to our places.

Just because a lot of people follow you on Instagram or Tumblr, you shouldn’t let it get to your head. Just because you do work and you finish one project today, you can’t just stop right there. You have to keep moving.  You could enjoy what you've done but you always have to be thinking about what’s next. You can’t think you’re a celebrity because you have a bunch of followers on Instagram.  

Robot Moon Juice, is a true artist, inside and out. His Instagram is private because he doesn't want to be overexposed, which is the exact opposite of what most people his age (21) want. His talent crosses over several mediums from music, to visual, to performance art. His video for 'Gravity' is a work of art, but only he knows what's next for this unpredictable multifaceted ingenue. 

As a stylist, I am a big fan of everything you do because the visual aspect of your atristry is captivating, and then the sound is so complementary but it's so unconventional. How do you describe your craft to people? 
That’s the hardest question. I get asked that so often because people know me by so many different dimensions. I went to school for theater and I originally thought I wanted to be an actor. Then I got out of school and went to college and I was like I want to paint. I majored in fine arts and advertising but in that whole thing I was always doing music. I don’t know, I dabble. I'm a dabbler. I’m a multimedia artist. I just do. I’m always ready, with it, and about it.

But out of everything, what medium really speaks to you?
Video performance art. I feel like that’s what really captivated me to make music first. When I would hear music and close my eyes, I would always see visuals and automatically create a video from start to finish in my head with a lot of detail. That’s what I want, that’s what I want to really make a statement with first. I feel like we have lost making good videos and it’s tragic because we grew up on the Madonnas, the Christinas (Aguilera), the Britneys (Spears). Now it’s just like people have lost it and just want to give good looks, bright lights, and hair flips. I’m trying to really give you a show. Do you remember that thrill of watching MTV and seeing somebody go off and feeling like “He ate that and nailed the performance.” I’m trying to eat that, and make those types of memories. 

What's the flow of the music. Is it rap or more singing?
I think it’s everything and the way I’m going about it because I dabble so much, every song that I drop is going to be a different and a different persona. The first CD is just me rapping—that’s just the hood me from the block, it’s just a part of my blood. But then my next project, 'Vincent Prince,' it’s all just vocals. That’s how I always want to do it, create and change characters to give you this new music. I feel like the generation has come to that. Just having a MacBook, you have everything at your fingertips so it makes you more dimensional.

Are you a champion of instagram? Your posts are amazing.  
Hell yeah! I use it in a sense to just display my work. I don’t post anything personal, it’s all just looks, stories or something. It’s a way to promote myself. Some people throw shade and are like fuck this digital era but I love it. We have a voice now. 

Your style is advanced. It's beyond. You should be a fashion editor the way you put things together. It's so editorial. Since you are going in and out of character, and from character to character, what role does style play in your performances or just your day to day life? 
Honestly, you know what I get called? Roger from American Dad. It’s more like I just be having mood swings and they’re powerful. One day I’ll wake up and put on my basketball shorts like, “Yo Wadddddupppp?” And then the next day I’ll wake up like, “I’m feeling so cute.” I gravitate towards attitude and how clothes can create emotions. I don’t really care about labels and all that. I don’t really speak fashion, that's not my language, but I can give you a nasty outfit like no other. 

There's real power in being an individual, there's never been anything to hit the market quite like you and I can say that firmly. There's a kid out there that needs to hear what you have to say, and will hopefully see what you are doing. 
I kind of feel in many ways that I'm the Black Sheep. I feel like, I’ve been in the scene for mad years since I was 16. But I was always just, like, in the mix but not in the mix. You know how in Disney movies the villain always loses? Well I'm the revenge of the fallen villain. It’s my time to get my coins. 

At 24-years-old, rapper Phreshy Duz It is starting over at an age when most people are just getting started. He already scored a lucrative deal with a major label, but left that behind because he didn't want to be anything other than himself. Phreshy has gone independent, and is building an empire all his own. 

First thing's first—why did you leave your label? I know quite a few artists that left their label and are looking for a new deal, but they were very established. As a new artist, what kinds of things happen for you to leave all of the opportunities behind that labels provide?
I made the decision to leave because everybody there was trying to push me in different directions that I wasn’t comfortable with, and mold me into some artist that I was not. 

That's really brave of you, and I have to respect you for not conforming. So now everything is done independently?
Yeah, it’s like some viral shit. The internet is a beautiful thing. Thank you YouTube! But I’ve started entertaining the major shit again, and if that doesn't work, I'll take a page out of Mac Miller's book. He hasn’t been signed to a major. There’s Macklemore also and he's also independent. So independent isn’t impossible, you just have to make it happen. It’s just more about your team, how focused they are, how driven, how many connections you can make without the major push, and the music. 

Do you feel like you can do what you do without social media?
I don’t think so. I think social media made me who I am. It got me my first record deal, it got me my second record deal. Started off with MySpace and transitioned to Twitter and Instagram. But Instagram kind of catapulted more because they’re seeing me more on a day-to-day. Just got a sense of who I am more than any other social media network.

I agree, Instagram is amazing. The power of a visual, you control it. How important is image for you an an artist?
I feel before Instagram, being with the label, they always hired stylists and I feel like there was never my sense of style being pushed to the mainstream audeience. All the earlier shit that they would put me in was all their stylists and it was terrible. It was all based on budget and they were all dressing me in shit I wouldn’t wear. They kind of wanted me on some heartthrob shit and I was kind of more cool, more of who I truly am. I was like in bow ties and fucking peacoats.

I mean a peacoat could be...fly...depending...
It could be! DEPENDING. 

Where does your sense of style come from?
I’m just a fan of fashion. Like the stores I shop at. I’m a big fan of Opening Ceremony, I’ve always been a SoHo kid since moving out here. Prior to moving from Detroit, I was always like the weird kid. I spent my summers in New York with my sister so there was that New York style and Detroit was more hood. That’s why I had the East Coast fashion but more fitted. I was always a SoHo kid and a big shopper. I always needed the new shit. As for as what I buy, I like mixing high end with streetwear and skaterwear.

And from the looks of it, your Instagram feed is a means for designers to find you and send you some of their stuff. That's an awesome perk of having great style. Style is subjective, but designers are clearly feeling you. 
I really like Christopher Shannon's clothing.  I was shopping at Opening Ceremony and I liked their shit and I was buying a lot of Christopher Shannon and uploading it to Instagram and hashtagging it like crazy and they followed me. They then started sending me shit, and that's how it started and took off from there. 

I feel like your music, your style, and your journey and message is a winning combination. Where do you see yourself in five years? It's a silly question, but where do you think all of this will lead you? 
I feel like, all that I have been going through the past few years is grooming me for success. I’ve grown through the independent route, I’ve had the major route, and I’ve had the grind. I’m still pursuing the grind and I’ve learned more along the lines of having relationships in the business side, and now I understand how to pursue my music. So I think that whole process of fails and wins has made it where I’m at the point where it’s go time with the next project. And I’ve did my first tour already so I feel comfortable with whatever happens next. But I feel like it’s time to get to another platform. 

Internet popularity is a lot of smoke and mirrors, and often trickles into your everyday life. After getting 20k+ followers on Instagram, Jude Liana, formerly known as @yungbambi, decided to drop all of the pretenses and negative energy, and reintroduce herself and her true passion to the Internets. She's a real chick, born and raised in New York City's Lower East Side, and that natural grit is what attracts people to her—not only for her obvious beauty, but the sense of mystery that surrounds her. 

The day of the shoot, you were telling me and Kevin why you recently left Instagram. 
I was just kind of fed up with how easily it was for someone to judge me based off of my Internet persona and that really didn’t sit well with me at all. It wasn’t even about being judged badly. I don’t know but I just had some people that were freakishly obsessed with me. I’m not trying to sound conceited or pretentious but that’s what it came down to and I just really didn’t understand that. So I just felt very overwhelmed and I feel like I have to live up to something which I don’t. I can do whatever the fuck I want to and portray myself however I want to. It was becoming like an alternate universe to me and I just had to fall back from that shit and do my own thing.

No, I totally get it. Once you open yourself up to the public, you either have to take all of the good with the bad or not take either at all. But now, you are back?
Yes Yung Bambi is RIP-ed. Not the name personally, that’s still my nickname but I literally can’t get back that name on Instagram. There’s like all these wannabe young bambis on there now. I saw  “younger bambi” and “yong bambi” and I was just like cracking up. But yes no more Young Bambi on Instagram, it’s just Jude Liana.

Which is good. I really like when people have profiles under their real names. 
Yeah, all in growing up. I went all summer without it and it was really nice to not have it. It’s crazy how, and it’s kind of embarrassing to admit how much time and energy I put into that thing, that it was becoming a really negative distraction. So I just had to fall off the map a little bit. I’m using it again solely for sharing my photography and photographs of me from professional shoots that I have done. So it’s way more selective and way less impulsive than it used to be. More focused. 

Why photography over anything else? Because a lot of people who are in the same position as you—who are popular on the Internet and have a name for themselves—could just be a model and make money off of just being in the pictures.
I do model here and there but I've been picking up the camera since I was 11 years old [Jude is now 20 years old]. It’s not like something I picked up two years ago, it’s something I’ve be doing for almost ten years. So for me to stop doing that would just be absurd to me, I’m just doing what I like to do. It’s not really a matter of why not do this, it’s just me being like I don’t want to do anything else.

Let's talk about some of your subjects. What do you like to shoot, and what kind of camera do you use? 
When I first started taking pictures, I was shooting a broad range of stuff. It was nature, it was people, it was photos of myself, self-portraits. But in the past year I’ve gotten really into portraits of people, my friends especially. I mean I don’t have a problem with taking a picture of someone I don’t know because that comes naturally to me but people are definitely my favorite subject to shoot. I shoot with a Contax G2. 

I don't know much about cameras but I know that one is super rare. 
Yeah it is, I got lucky. 

Being that you deleted your profile and started over, you basically are having a rebirth on social media. What role does social media play in our generation, and then, for you?
Well that’s like our generation now, it’s our world. I totally respect people who cannot be a part of social media and still do their thing, but I’m the kind of person where if this is the generation we’re living in then I’m just going to embrace it and use it to my advantage. That’s what I’m been doing the past couple years ever since I started my Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter.

I learned how to use it to my best advantage and I feel like if I can do that then I can pretty much kill it. Like it’s all around me and I’m going to embrace it. I’m not going to bash it, curb myself away from it. It’s there so you can use it to your advantage or not to your advantage and I’m going to choose the high road with it. It's fine to recreate yourself, and take a break, but to avoid it is almost impossible. 

What are some of your favorite brands that you wear?
That’s a really hard question because all of my shit is from so many different places. I love buying stuff, but at the same time, I feel like I’m not that materialistic enough to pay attention to what I’m buying. It could be Rainbow for all I care, the white jeans at Rainbow are my shit, they fit like a glove. It can range from like jeans from Urban Outfitters to like a vintage jersey from a thrift shop. That question, people ask me that pretty often and I can never answer it. 

That response is amazing on so many levels. It’s truly who you are. It’s funny because when a lot of people start out, they’re like I wear what I want to wear and fuck it. Then later on, they traveled the world, got a huge check, and then you ask them again and they’re like honestly I’ve been dressing the same way for years like vintage mixed with this. It’s like I wear what looks nice on me. Or some people when you ask them they’re like "I only wear Balmain, Givenchy." 
To be honest, I don’t know shit about that stuff. I don’t know shit about fashion. People assume I do for whatever reason and they ask me stuff. Or I’ll have a Jordan conversation with friends and they’re talking about Balenciaga, it’s like I don’t fucking know. All I know is that I fuck with furry hammock in the Alexander Wang store. That’s all I know. 

Hard work and perfecting your talent is one way to build a name for yourself, but building a foundation that is composed of a unique sound, and an unconvetional message is exactly what Ian Isiah is doing. With the upcoming release of his EP 'Love Champion', R&B's last hope will be at the forefront of music's new wave.

I don't even need to ask, you were born and raised in New York City. 
Yeah. Been here all my life. My father's side of the family is Trinidadian and my mom’s side is from here. They all started in the South—Alabama, real country folk. Now my whole family is in New York. It’s my town.

And you are a singer?
I am a singer, songwriter, musician, whatever you need that involves music.

That's awesome, because New York is a city that breeds a lot of notable rappers, and R&B singers. Do you have roots in music?
It definitely comes from my past as I did grow up in the church. Actually most of my family is in the church so music was always like, either you got the talent or you'd find the talent. Thankfully I was brewed in talent. I started off playing the drums and I thought I was pretty good. I mean, a lot of other people thought I was really good but I actually wasn’t good at all. It was a total trial and error and still to this day I be trying to tell drummers that I got it and they be like, "Ian, just stick to singing." But I did get tempo out of that whole thing. But singing and writing, those are my things. 

You make blatantly genderless music, which is great because it's funny when girls are singing a song a dude is singing. For you, it's all about the lyrics or the visuals, right? Your single for "M1NDFVCK" was exactly that. Boychild usually plays a more masculine role, but in the video she was playing a more submissive role. How did people respond to the visual because that was the biggest message there? 
People really, really love that video. Which was really, really a weird thing. It was a good time because we’re really good friends so our chemistry was natural. I want people to understand the sound and then be ready for the visual that comes after it because it’s the sound that I feel I should keep very dear, very pure. The visual can always change and will always change. It’s the sound that I’m trying to make genderless. I feel like when you listen to music, you have to be genderless about love because love is genderless. I don’t want just gay fans. It's not about straight or gay. 

And your latest single 'Sweat" which is produced by Brenmar, it's the exact opposite. It's got a direct message—shake your ass on the dancefloor until you sweat. 
Yes. Sweat is for the girls. Sweat is for anybody that got ass in the club who needs to get down and tear it up because they had a long day at work and they’re really cheap and simple and they need to like...let loose and TEAR IT!

With a fanbase that is rapidly growing, how does social media play a part in that? Is it via Twitter, or more of an Instagram thing? 
Well I think the people on Instagram get me. I think it’s just really cool that things that I was raised on or raised surrounded by is so big right now in art and culture, so I reflect that in the things I share on instagram and in how I dress. When Lil' Kim and Diddy were my idols, and they were so fresh and young, they didn't have social media to help them, but they became icons off music and image. Now with the help of social media you can be an influencer just by posting shit, random pictures. I like the idea that I can share my talent, and my every day with people and just interact with people. 

How was Montreal? Saw that you were out there performing, and shooting with Ssense, which is one of our favorite stores at Complex.
Yo, Montreal is popping. I went out there to perform at Pop Montreal, which is one of the craziest music festivals ever. Montreal really gets it in, and while I was out there I did a shoot with Ssense. They have a way with supporting the up-and-coming music artists before they pop off. They have a good ear and eye. I was just honored they asked me. It was a really cool shoot, it was very different from anything I have ever done.

So let’s talk about your style. I know it’s not the most important thing to you now but it's becoming a big part of the business.
I think style is...it’s definitely leading the pack and not following but observing.

I saw you, shutting down a Williamsburg performance with that fresh off the runway Givenchy look. 
Oh you were there?!?

No I wasn't there, but I follow you on Instagram. So what would you say are some brands you really associate with?
It’s really less of the brand and more of the style with me. I’m very that. Shayne [Oliver of Hood By Air] is my best friend so he’s one of my favorite designers. Then it’s Rick [Owens, whom Ian has spent time with at his home in Paris]. Old Margiela when Margiela was there. Also Telfar. I’m more of a fabric lover than a brand lover.

I think people are starting to dress with more freedom, and being really creative. Especially the guys, which is something you and guys like Shayne have been doing for years. Would you agree?
I mean it’s all culture. The way you dress, the people you hang around, the music you listen to, it's what makes up our culture today. Guys dressing a little reckless and less traditional is because times have changed, and it's a great thing. It’s a new era, a new fresh world. Diversity is an amazing thing that we should embrace. 

At the time of our interview multimedia artist Princess Nokia, formerly known as Wavy Spice, was embarking on a new journey of leaving behind her public persona and revealing her true self. She was about to unveil a fully realized body of work that she had full creative control over. 

To really give people perspective on who you are, lets talk about Wavy Spice," and how that moniker came to be. It's how I became familiar with you, and I was hooked from my first click on YouTube. 
I don’t know, there’s so many stories about it. It really just came from my friend calling me Wavy Spice one day on Facebook, my friend Steven and I was like, “OMG, that’s the best name anyone’s ever called me.” Because what we were previously talking about was my style and he was like you dress like a Spice girl from Harlem so it’s like Wavy Spice.

And you are a a singer? 
No, my craft is multimedia. I have a background in journalism and writing, I have a background in sexual help activism, and a little film background and I also photograph, I was interning in the fashion world for a little and then I started to pursue music professionally.

Really? I can't tell, I got put onto "Bitch I'm Posh," which is one of the first YouTube videos that comes up when you search your name. It's so '90s, it's great feel good music. 
It's very that, it's very Crystal Waters. But I think the biggest misconception about Wavy Spice was that Wavy Spice was a musician in the first place. When I made “Bitch I’m Posh,” I did it in one take in the penthouse of someone I didn’t even know and just recorded it with a friend and we put it out that night. The next day, it got attention from radio play and that was something that happened very rapidly. Not to say that it was a bad thing but if it had gone my way, I would have put out a better body of music and then introduced myself as a musician.

When I put out “Bitch I’m Posh” I was introduced to the world as Wavy Spice. That wasn’t my goal. My goal wasn’t to be a rap/pop-star and Wavy Spice wasn’t it at all. We just needed a name to put on the title like who made the song and Wavy Spice was a Facebook name so I just used that. It just came altogether.

So when you present yourself to the world fully with your body of work and all of your talents, you’re not going to go under Wavy Spice?
No. Wavy Spice represents the rap persona that I have. And it's very true that I’m very embedded in rap music and my life as a rapper. I take a lot of pride in what I do in that sense but I think I’m very multi-faceted. I have many monikers and conceptions of music and when I do my banshee girl raps, I’ll go under Wavy Spice.

But at the moment I’m currently transitioning from Wavy Spice into an artist named Nokia. Wavy Spice is more of a persona and Nokia is more of a sound and I’m focusing on the sound now and I really want to make amazing music. So I’m releasing it under the moniker, Nokia, becase Wavy Spice is very limiting—it’s very trend associated and I’m anti-trend. I may look like I give looks for the guys and I do. I’m very much into that and I could be open and humorous with my involvement with the gay community and the fashion world and I am a post-adolescent girl and I love shoes and bags and talking shit but I’m also very intellectual and I do make very conceptual music.

And you’re kind of growing too as a young adult, and as an artist. Truly creative people like yourself, this indistry can be tough. 
Oh, completely. I had a very, very eventful year of almost getting thrown in the so-called music industry and not getting thrown in, all this back and forth. I’m very well aware of the evils in the world so I have this little shell around me because I don’t want to be tainted by a lot of things.

And all of last year, I’ve just been observing and learning and realizing to myself, “Oh wait, there’s no pressure, you didn’t want to be a fucking musician in the first place.” So it kind of just happened like everything else. And I’m very spiritual, I was once told that I would be a successful musician and I knew that two years ago so I always left it in the hand of the Divine to let it come about. But as a young woman, I also have to learn things by myself. I don’t regret anything, everything is a learning experience so I’m just learning as I grow as a woman. 

That growth is documented and and accessible to the public because you are sharing all of this on social media. You are very active on Facebook. You seem to have a natural and very genuine dialogue with people who reach out to you, and then the visual component of your artistry. Does social media hinder...
OMG, no, not at all. Social media is very emotionally personal to me. Dating back to preadolescence, pre-MySpace days, like the Live Journal days, I was in foster care. To escape what I was going through I loved going on the Internet and blogging and I was a big blogger, very into blogging. Blogger.com, before Tumblr, and I was really into that subculture. It was always my safe haven—writing, looking at cool pictures, expressing myself.

I'm one of those emo girls from MySpace so it was very, very that. And then over the years, when I was 13, me and my friends would do photoshoots and one of the first people I started working with when I was fucking little, they were very much involved in fashion and so was I. We were like two little kids from the hood that had this predisposed knowledge of fashion and art and just everything so we started doing little stuff in the park and posting online so that kind of just grew with it.

And me myself, I think that people have always been attracted to me on the Internet. I mean, it’s like this: I’m a regular little Spanish girl from Harlem and Spanish girls love the Internet. Spanish girls love to post pictures but when I was in high school, I wasn’t the girl with the cute camera angles. I was posting pictures of me smoking weed and half naked and wilding out because that was my self expression, my uniqueness, my identity. I’m a wild child, I’m a citizen of the world so it was kind of always like that.  Years passed by, I turned 17 and I became a model and I just think that I posted a lot of intellectually stimulating, consciously stimulating, spiritual stimulating things at the same time. It made me seem like a real person because I am a real person and I’m very observant of Internet culture and people and and music culture and people and things like that. 

Wait, so how old are you now? 
I am 21-years-old. 

Your sense of community, awareness, and devotion to spreading a message an positivity is apparent through you sharing your experiences in your music. Sharing without a filter, where do those cojones come from? 
There’s this thing that I really incorporate in my music and my movement and it’s talking to the youth which is connecting through digitalism. I could connect to a whole spectrum of women and put out some advice about domestic violence, self-worth, and that gets across to them and that raises their vibration. I don’t mean I have a song about it yet but it’s there, it’s providing a space for them to feel like, "Oh she’s pretty, she’s a model, she’s not stuck up, she’s like me. She talks about being weird and locked up and doing all this random shit." I think that’s why I’m very big on the Internet because I provide a space where people can connect. I think it’s life experiences, I think i'm connected to the world and I think I’m one of God’s special children, I think I was brought here for many reasons. 

You are an inspriration to many, from the ones you talk to on Facebook and Instagram, and the ones who don't have the courage to reach out. That's real power, and a gift, but that makes me wonder what inspired you?
I’m very inspired by very strong women. I really, really love Joanna Newsom. I love Gwen Stefani. I really love Kelis and she is my main inspiration because I’m sort of doing what Kelis did. The reason why Kelis is so underrated, the goddess that she is, it’s because people didn’t understand the breach of alternative from an urban voice. People did not understand it, her concept, and point of view.

She talked about aliens, she talked ghetto children, about domestic violence, she talked about real banji shit like “I hate you so much like I sucked your dick, how could you do this to me?” and I’m all about that. So that’s the direction I want to go, I want to do alternative pop, I want to do hood fairy music. I have this song called Nokia that talks about all these conceptualisms and being in the projects. I think the girls from my hood and the inner city girls are gorgeous—those with nameplates, those with babies, nothing but their pajama pants and their chancletas and they doobie scarfs and still looking over. I live for that and I connect with it very much.

The beautiful conceptualism of the women from the inner city, which I think is very important to embrace now because media has put the whole ratchet thing, and the whole “turnt”  thing as the definition of the inner city community and the black community. I’m Latin, I’m Afro-Latina but I identify as a very strong black woman and I do not want to be associated with what the fucking media assumes I am. 

Oh, so that means no twerking a la Miley for you?
NO! That’s bullshit. That’s not even what we call it, we been dancing like that since fucking forever from middle school!

Sometimes, your future is dictated by your bloodline. Having a mother who is a former stylist, and currently employeed at media giant Conde Nast, and a father who is a fashion designer, Luka Sabbat was essentially born into the world of fashion. The rising star is quickly creating a lane and a name for himself as a model and aspiring wardrobe stylist. 

So from the looks of it, you know a lot about fashion, because not only are you wearing a lot of expensive clothes, but they are put together very well. Most people wouldn't think your pants cost $1,000. 
Well my mom was a stylist, and now she works for Conde Nast, and my dad is a designer who has his own label. But I grew up at fashion shows, I used to be at the John Galliano shows at like three years old, and I used to cry because the music was too loud. I used to think that the shows were boring and it was just people walking and now looking back that’s exactly what I want to do. 

That's where it comes from—you've been exposed to some of the most iconic moments that have happened in fashion, which leads one to wonder which brands you connect with, and enjoy wearing? 
Some of my favorite brands are Valentino, Balenciaga, and Margiela.

That's some really advanced clothing. How old are you again? 
I'm fucking 15 going on 16. 

Well no wonder you were annoyed by fashion for so long, you are still really young, there is nothing to appreciate there at that age. But you obviously have an affinity towards it. Could you see yourself ever having a clothing line of your own?
Yeah I’m actually working on one right now. I’m going to open up a pop-up store in 2014. I'm gonna drop a bunch of crazy shit. It’s not going to be streetwear. I haven’t copyrighted the name so I can’t say the name yet. But it’s going to be more couture because my dad makes women’s couture, he makes most of the stuff by hand so I’m going to learn from him. I already know how to do a few things. I’m going to incorporate prints on stuff but it’s really going to be about the cut and how it’s made and not necessarily about the design that’s on it.

That sounds exciting, when can we expect to start seeing your designs? 
I'd say the middle of 2014.

Now about the modeling, because your face is everywhere. I've seen a few magazine spreads and lookbooks for brands. Modeling and fashion go hand in hand but most designers are not moonlighting as models in their free time. 
People and brands see me on Instagram and think I would look dope in thier clothes. You literally get paid to stand there and look at the camera or not look at the camera, and look pretty. I show up, the photographer takes a couple of shots, and BONG, I get paid. Why not? 

Why not is right, and i'm glad you mentioned Instagram because it seems to be the way you connect most to people. What is that you do on instagram that garners this attention from brands, and also builds a base for your followers? 
I just post pictures of myself. I never post pictures of money because that just attracts the wrong group of people. I never take a picture of stacks on Instagram, and so many people my age do. I just think that when you show off too much, you attract the wrong people that just want shit from you. So I just post pictures of my outfits, the shit I’m doing, of me modeling. I've linked up with so many people from Instagram, I've met so many people. It's helped me build a career. 

And what do your parents think?
They are supportive. As long as I am being smart, doing me, and still keeping my shit straight in school, I'm good. 

This is such a boring question to ask, but do you have plans for college? I just wonder where that fits into your life, if it's something you gave thought to. 

Well I'm in the 11th grade now, and I plan to go to school in Antwerp and study design because that's where all of my favorite designers come from. To be there where all of the greats started, I want to be in their company one day.