This is Bria’s second time in BlackMen’s 40on40 Issue. As a prerequisite, you gotta have at least 40” hips to be featured in this issue. I have to give a shout out to my man Marcus Blassingame for reaching out to Bria to feature her in this issue. With the direction this magazine is going (with fewer black models), I doubt she would have snagged this feature without him.

It’s actually an interesting issue. Many of the photos are pictures we net veterans have seen before. So here you see some reverse pilfering--instead of a website grabbing original content from the magazines and posting it, here BlackMen took some infamous images that were already in cyberspace and solidified their legend in the magazine.

Tags: Bria Myles

You heard it here first. The ethnically questionable model who walks out of the building in the beginning of Ron Browz new "What Up Bro" video is the talk of all the message boards and will probably be an XXL Eye Candy Girl or a SHOW cover girl before you know it.

If anyone knows her name, tell her to hit me up for an exclusive interview.

Nice! Visit Miss Koi on Twitter here.

Tags: Miss Koi, Koi

Just had a great shoot with Bria and a couple other beautiful models. It was different from the norm. It will be interesting to see how people react to it.

Tags: Bria Myles

The screencap of eBay bidding below is from three years ago, and shows one of Melyssa Ford’s magazines going for upward of $200. Check eBay today and you’ll see that many Smooth and BlackMen auctions end without so much as a single bid, let alone reaching $200. On average, these magazines sell for about $3, about $4 below their newsstand price. What gives? Even old issues of the now defunct KING don’t seem to have any value on eBay. Is it a sign that the urban eye candy market is officially dead?

Click to enlarge.

Tags: Melyssa Ford

I was never a big fan of hers, but I’ve got to say that her most recent pics have been smoking! Job well done Mia. Looks like you’ve got a new fan in Indosplace.com. (Click to enlarge)

Tags: Mia Michelle

So I’m waiting in line for take out tonight at California Pizza Kitchen in Westwood and suddenly I see this girl behind me that I know has to be Nikki B. All of sudden Mr. Photographer who has shot several major urban models became a stuttering, bumbling fool: “Uh, excuse me, are you uh... Haven’t I seen you on the cover of Smooth? etc. etc.”

Anyway, this girl is gorgeous in person. I mean for real, super pretty and very nice. She was telling me how addictive Twitter is for her, so join her here.

Tags: Nikki B

Bria is hosting a party tomorrow... (Click to enlarge)

Tags: Bria Myles

Now I don’t want to go getting all racial, but it seems to me the urban eye candy genre had its origins in hip hop/rap music videos. The women in those videos and the early issues of BlackMen (note the name, Black men), KING, and Smooth were, by and large, black. So this genre started off showcasing black women for a mainly black male audience. But over time, this has changed dramatically in the magazines. It’s no longer about black women. It’s more so about white and Latina women. Let me state for the record that I have nothing against women of other races, but I don’t see a whole lot black women on Lowrider or Maxim covers. Yet, white and Latina women seem to dominate the few covers a black model can be featured on.

Coco has had at least 6 - count ‘em, SIX - BlackMen issues in the last two years. More than any black model I can think of. SHOW magazine just finished with the Latina Black Lingerie issue. Now the next issue is the SHOWcase, also featuring two Latina models on the cover: Jesika Maximus and Jessica Burciaga. I know for a fact issues with Bria Myles and Khyrsti Hill on the cover are waiting in abeyance while these new SHOWcase Latina issues come out.

Maybe this all comes down to dollars and cents for the magazine owners. Maybe black males don’t buy magazines with black women on the covers. If so, that’s a sad commentary and not an issue I expect a profit driven magazine operation to take on. But it sure would be nice to start seeing sistas return to the forefront of a genre (urban eye candy) they founded.

Tags: Jesikah Maximus

If you wanna be an urban model, you’d better be a brick house, because it’s going to be a tough road ahead if you’re not. Don’t get me wrong, you might get a little shine if you’ve got just an okay body. But you won’t be remembered or in demand like Maliah Michel or Bria Myles. Take Khrysti Hill for example. She hasn’t done anything new in over a year. Yet, while other girls are dancing around half naked on Youtube trying to catch a break, the die hard fans are still pining away for new photos of Khrysti. That’s because she epitomizes what the market wants.

So what if you don’t have a great body? What if you have polite, demur curves. Be a commercial actress. That’s where ethnic women with pretty faces and petite bodies do best. You have to remember that urban modeling began because up until 10 years ago, the only place a woman like Bria Myles got props was on the streets of her neighborhood or in the club. No magazine would dare feature her on their pages (except maybe Jet), let alone a cover. But after J Lo and the birth of hip hop, a small chasm finally opened up in the mainstream for truly curvy models. The women guys had discussed at the barbershops for years were finally acknowledged in a legitimate way.

About two years ago, in rebuttal to what seemed like a tidal wave of ridiculously voluptuous women trying to get in the business (the Buffie effect), the magazines started trying to force more svelte models upon us, in an attempt to appease their advertisers no doubt. (Advertisers consider women who look like Buffie and Bria near porn.) Guess what? It didn’t take. The origin of this market was thick women and that’s what it will remain until it disappears. Models built like Chanta Patton can always find work in commercials or Maxim magazine or at Hooters. But girls like Khrysti only have this market, and it’s loyal to them till the very end.

Khrysti Hill’s Twitter page.

Tags: Khrysti Hill

Lisa Raye is still looking very good at fortysomething. To think, she started off bumping and grinding to Tupac videos. She’s come a long way.

Tags: Lisa Raye

Even though posting Love Barnett will do absolutely nothing for my Quancast or Alexa ranking (because few people are searching her name these days), it’s very important to remember the foundations of the urban eye candy industry. Love Barnett is one of those models that a lot of guys really liked back in ‘04, but she never quite made it to the Melyssa Ford level. She was in some iconic hip hop videos too - the best of their day. Check her out on YouTube and Google and you’ll see why I think she’s worth remembering. You can join her on Twitter here.

Tags: Love Barnett

After all, she was number 10 in my Top 10 list this year. At any rate, this is yet another example of some exceptionally shoddy post production work by Smooth, as anyone remotely familiar with Photoshop can see the retouching just behind the arch in Cubana Lust's back (it's that abnormal distortion on the ocean waves around her back). Otherwise a nice pic. (I removed her tatt because I don't like tatts.) Click to enlarge.

Tags: Cubana Lust

The second issue of the Smooth Girl Live From Jamaica issue has hit the stands. Bravo to Smooth for pressing on in these dire times for the urban eye candy market, and also for giving some fresh faces some shine, like Courtney Starrburst, who granted me an interview a few weeks back. It just so happens that hers is my favorite pictorial in the issue. I’ll leave it for someone else to scan the Cubana Lust photos. (Click horizontal photo to enlarge)

Tags: Courtney Starrburst

This should help start the week off better. Miss Koi is an avid Twitter user and she’s looking to up her followers, so return the favor and make her Monday by joining her here. Photo compliments of me (Click to enlarge)

Tags: Miss Koi, Koi

Every aspiring urban model out there should read this interview with Melyssa Ford in the new issue of Jamrock. If nothing else, this girl knows what she’s talking about when it comes to this business. Among the stand-out quotes:

[1]"A video vixen is kind of like a diva but a level below. It is a woman whose career commands respect, because she's worth it. So a vixen is a diva with her training wheels on..." [2] [On the show Candy Girls] "It's great TV, but the unrealistic part is the girls living in the house. A bunch of video models living in a house funded by this agency? Okay, let me know where the hell that happens!" [3] "I'm trying not to be part of the [Hollywood] machine but it's difficult not to feel like you have to conform in order to find another level of success so I am definitely here to tell every girl, if you are thinking that videos are going to be the springboard in helping you get a career in acting you have another thing coming. It's not going to happen, and if it does, well more power to you, because I couldn't figure it out."

Click pics to enlarge.

Tags: Melyssa Ford

This is a collage of some of the pics I’ve taken of Bria over time. A pattern starts to emerge of very straight ahead, no frills, colorful images. Baby oil rarely enters the picture and the retouching is more on the photorealistic side. (Click to enlarge)

Tags: Bria Myles

There’s been a lot of speculation about what happened to Khrysti Hill since she disappeared from the scene about two years ago. Well, she graciously granted me a very candid interview about what she’s been up to, her feelings about the Amsterdam video, why she shut down her website, and a lot of other things fans have been wondering about. So sit back and enjoy this Indosplace.com exclusive. (Click photo to enlarge image and interview pages.)




To read using Acrobat’s Reader, click here: K.HillInterview

Tags: Khrysti Hill

Lawd this woman is fine.

Tags: Melyssa Ford

First, credit where credit is due: ClicknSpark’s blog. I love that place and have been known to “borrow” a thing or two from them. Hopefully, my buddy Dub doesn’t mind too much.

Anyway, Mixed Magazine looks like a pretty good e-zine. (Aspiring models take note: possible place for exposure.) These photos of Mia Michelle are impressive to me - looks like the photographer really controlled his environment. Shooting outdoors is actually more difficult than studio work in many ways. Finally, it’s noteworthy that Mia has a better collection of photos than your average urban models, due in part to her association with Marcus Blassingame, who makes sure any model he likes gets the 1st class treatment.

Tags: Mia Michelle

When I was growing up and getting interested in shooting models, photographer Marco Glaviano was one of the first photographer’s whose work really struck me. Specifically, his work on the 1990 Cindy Crawford Swimsuit calendar - probably the best swimwear calendar I've seen even to this day - was especially influential.

Tags: Marco Glaviano

In addition to being amazingly sexy and cute, Jenna Shea also keeps an interesting micro-blog on Twitter. Unfortunately, her account got hacked just before she hit 1000 followers, so join her on her new Twitter page here. (Click to enlarge pics)

Tags: Jenna Shea

If you’re like me, you never get tired of looking at this girl. Leave your comments and let Koi know what you think - she reads this blog. Join her on Twitter and you’ll find out there’s more to Koi than just her great looks. (*Click to enlarge)

Tags: Koi, Miss Koi