stealing her doobie wrap hair style she
carried to the 2013 American Music
Awards on Sunday from an upcoming
female rap artist named Patwa . The
manager to the small star is now claiming
the Grammy award winning pop star
knocked off her artist’s images without
giving a hoot! She even backs up her
accusation with a detailed letter to one of
America’s most read gossip sites.
This is shocking because hairstyles are
never owned by anyone, right? So while
most people were at least hoping that
RiRi’s Dominican doobie with bobby pins
hair will trend this upcoming season
seems that particular hair might just
become a problem for the star or a
platform for the unknown Patwa to have
her breakthrough.
We got the manager’s claims directly
from Necholebitchie,
I am writing to express my extreme
frustration and anger over the blatant
theft of an 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 “too street”, “too hood”
and “too 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.
Now, what do you guys think?
Did Rihanna steal or borrow?
