Sip On This...: Magazine Roundup: Cover Girls

Jazmine Sullivan is "focused on her music, not fame" in Rolling Out Magazine!!! She is making a fierce comeback and I am here for all of it!!! Looking absolutely gorgeous.

Snippets from the Interview:

When we bring up your name people really love you. How does that make you feel?

I’m grateful. I’ve been away for a few years so to come back and get this much love it just feels so good and I’m so grateful.

How do you feel about being famous?

I don’t really consider myself to be famous first of all, but I thought it was interesting. Like I said, most of all, I’m grateful. I’m grateful to be able to do what I love more than anything. Not a lot of people can do what they love, and I’m able to make music and the side effect of it is it happens to touch people, so that’s the best part of it.

Some people believe with a voice like yours, it’s easy to find fame. Would you like to set the record straight?

Easy to find fame — no, no, this was a long journey. I started very, very young and with somebody particularly like me who doesn't sound like the typical artist, who doesn't look like the typical artist, it’s definitely been hard kind of breaking in and getting people to see past the physical, because that’s what everybody thinks of. That’s what you think of when you think of a star having all of those different qualities. So that’s been the most difficult thing, but I’m just trying to be true to myself; and I think that I’m representing a lot of people out here being who I am, being the way that I am. I’m representing a lot of people who may not look like the typical artist or sound like the typical artist, but we still have a voice and we still!

You can read the full interview via Rolling Out!

Jazmine also covers Hello Beautiful's Digital Issue where she is unphotoshopped, unfiltered with her #selfiesteem in tact! LOVE IT!!!!! She mentioned in various interviews that she's put on some weight but who the hell cares? She still looks awesome. #werkbish
In the interview she gives it to us straight, no chaser about the love pains and abuse she endured during her most recent relationship.

Jazmine Sullivan Doesn’t Know Sh*t About Love:

When I asked about the catalyst for her departure from music, she answered with visible discomfort. Initially she offered one of those generic prepared responses. “I don’t really have anything specific; I’m just ready…I feel like I took enough time off… I’m kind of just ready to tell my story.” When I pressed it further, she elaborated only to say, “I went through a bad breakup and a bad relationship.”

But the next day, on stage at the Gramercy Theater, Sullivan finally confessed to hundreds of fans what precipitated her abrupt departure from the business— she had been in an abusive relationship.

In a later, post-concert interview, I asked her to elaborate about the type of abuse she experienced and the degree to which she suffered. This time she obliged, albeit carefully. “It was all kinds of abuse, I mean it started out verbally and got to a point where it became physical. It was a bad relationship. It took a heavy, heavy toll on me, so much so that I didn't even have a song to sing—I didn't feel like I did anyway.”

Sullivan said she began to alienate herself from her family and friends and admits she intentionally kept them in the dark about her personal life. As she tried to navigate her feelings, she became increasingly reclusive and moved to California, where she ultimately lost her will to perform.

“For a long time, I kind of kept away from everybody. When you know you’re not right, and you know you’re not doing something right, you try to stay away from people who will tell you that.”

It only takes one listen to one of her latest singles, “Forever Doesn't Last Always” to imagine the hurt and pain she was enduring. When I ask her if she’s worried about joining Janay Rice as an unwilling face of domestic abuse, her desire to share her story, whatever the costs, was unwavering.

“It took me a long time to feel comfortable enough to say it. I went through a lot of guilt myself, like, should I expose this? Am I being petty by talking about it? It’s a lot of feelings that women have in regards to this. But, [I realized] this can possibly help somebody to see that someone that they look up to, or listen to, or are a fan of have actually been through it, and not only have I been through it, but I came out of it. I just felt like it’s a part of my story so why not share it? I’m the face of my own situation. I don’t know if I can be the face for everybody, but I definitely want to share my story the way I’ve experienced it and I hope people can learn from it like I have.”

You can read that full article over at Hello Beautiful!

Finally, last but not least, Rihanna is Swimming with Sharks, for new Harper's Bazaar shoot.I don't think you understand what I said. Rih Rih posed with REAL SHARKS for this underwater fashion shoot!!! #dope
Gearing up for RihRih Season, she sat down with Laura Brown to discuss her fashions, guilty pleasures and her goals for 2015.

Asking someone to jump in a shark tank for the sake of fashion is an exercise in insanity. But Rihanna is not just someone. When I talked to her about the concept last fall, she just thought it was "cool." (Her team was slightly more anxious.) Cut to the Florida Aquarium in Tampa, one day in December. In the tank live three sand tiger sharks, none shorter than eight feet long. The sharks are used to divers, but photographers and pop stars are another thing entirely. Photographer Norman Jean Roy donned a scuba suit and jumped in. Rihanna followed—a dozen dives, and three outfit changes, while the sharks circled her intently. When the shoot was done, she was shivering, more cold than "cool." Then she flew to Germany. Just another day in the life of a global pop star who spends her life swimming with sharks.

You can read the full interview over at Harper's Bazaar. In the meantime check out these photos from the shoot!!!! #shedidthat