Some of you have already heard the news, The Trinidadian Hip-Hop Diva Nicki Minaj has teamed up with OPI. Together Nicki Minaj has come up with her very own collection of mind blowing hues to rock on your nails. It is set to come out in stores early January of 2012.

OPI has come together in the past with celebrities such as Justin Bieber and Katy Perry to launch their own nail polish collections. With Nicki Minaj’s outrageous personality and style it’s not a surprise that she would be great for a loud colorful nail polish collection with colors inspired by Nicki Minaj’s own catalog of music hits. Anyone who has seen Nicki Minaj’s many music videos knows not to expect neutrals in this nail polish collection, which featured Metallic glitters & Neon colors. Just to name a few ,“Metallic for Life”, and the another Confetti like glitter named, “Save me”.  There is also a Purple Shatter, “Super Bass Shatter” and a neon green, “Did it on ‘Em”. If you don’t want your nails to pop this is not a collection for you.

This is not Nicki’s first time grasping the Cosmetic industry and I doubt the last.  Just last year when her debut album, “Pink Friday”, was released, Nicki Minaj collaborated with MAC to create a limited edition Pink Friday MAC Lipstick.

What can we expect next from this female MC who was recently nominated for several 2011 American Music Awards? Maybe a wig line? Or bright eye popping eyeshadow colors? I, along with many other fans, can’t wait to see what she will come up with next.

Amy Winehouse's Pet Project

In the last year of Amy Winehouse’s life, the troubled Rehab singer was focusing her attention on mentoring and promoting a singer and recording artist named Dionne Bromfield, whom Winehouse felt could be a sober and more well-adjusted mini-me version of herself. Apparently, Amy Winehouse was very passionate about siring her music protege, and GodDaughter, Bromfield’s, recording career to the top of the charts under Winehouse’s own fledgling record label, Lioness Records.

Before Amy Winehouse’s untimely death, here is what the website MixTapeMaestro.net had to say about Amy’s behind-the-scenes attempt to tout her Goddaughter:

“We’re still not entirely sure it’s a good idea for Amy Winehouse to be helming a label right now (since A: we’d rather have her focusing all her energy on shaping up and recording another album, and B: well, would you want her as a boss?), but then again, what do we know. Her Lioness Records imprint is set to be launched this Fall and it’s first order of business is in releasing the debut album by her 13-year-old goddaughter Dionne Bromfield.”

Dionne Bromfield was only recently unleashed to the public on July 20th, when she appeared on stage with her Godmother, Amy Winehouse, during Winehouse’s final public appearance at the iTunes Festivial.

According to AOL Huffington Post, Bromfield was hit with the hard news of Amy Winehouse’s passing only minutes before hitting the stage for a live performance in Pontypridd, Wales. Dionne Bromfield was shaken but “remained composed and performed her scheduled 20-minute set,” states Huff Post.

Bromfield was the first artist to sign with Amy Winehouse’s own record label imprint, Lioness Records, back in 2009. With all of the buzz swirling around Amy Winehouse and her final career moves before she passed from, as of yet, unkown causes, we anticipate that interest in Dionne Bromfield and her music will only continue to grow, though I’m sure Bromfield would rather have had a road to fame paved with some happier news.

Dionne Bromfield rocks the same soulful sound as her late mentor, Winehouse. The girl is talented! For those not familiar with Bromfield’s music, check out this Dionne Bromfield music video for her song, “Yeah Right” :

Franki Love, "Now Is The Time"

Independent recording artist, Franki Love, puts you in a happy place with the musical equivalent of a crackling fireplace, a warm and fuzzy blanket or a delicious box of chocolates. Love’s groovy, soulful tunes just make you feel good, and her newest album, Now Is The Time, builds on her earlier self-titled debut with some meticulous production value and a slightly edgier sensuality.

I have known Franki Love for some time and have followed her music career in recent years. With an A-list producer on her latest album, and songwriting and instrumentals by Love, herself, I knew that Franki Love would have to be the subject of my inaugural Allison’s Word “New Artist Buzz” Q&A series.

Allison Kugel: What’s the name of your upcoming second album, and how would you describe its musical genre?

Franki Love: My second album is called Now Is The Time and the genre is really a mixture of pop, R&B and soul.

Allison Kugel: Being that you write your own music, you play the piano and you blend musical genres, how do you categorize yourself as an artist?

Franki Love: I feel like with this new album it’s going to be more mainstream. My first album from 2008 (titled, Franki Love) was a little more of me as the indie artist. This one I’m pushing to go into mainstream because I would love to be heard by more people.

Allison Kugel: Tell me about the first single off the album, and what inspired the lyrics for this first single?

Franki Love: It’s an interesting story. The first single is also called “Now Is The Time.” I wrote this song four years ago with a couple of my songwriting friends. At the time, we knew that Shakira was looking for songs, so we said, “Let’s write a song for her and let’s write something that’s different from what she usually does.” We decided we would write a song about the world and empowering people to change their lives; something inspirational. The song turned out to be incredible. Shakira didn’t pick it up, but we had this song for many years. I kept listening to it in my car and on my computer, and thinking that it is one of the best songs I’ve ever heard! I said, “What are we doing with this song?!” It was four years later and no one had done anything with it. When I was in the process of doing this album, I felt that if a really famous singer isn’t going to sing it and nothing is going on with it, then I would like to put it on my album.

Allison Kugel: It’s sort of like when you go shopping for a gift for a friend and you buy them something that you really want, and you’re kind of hoping that you can keep it instead.

Franki Love: (Laughs). Basically, that is what it’s like. But sometimes when you write songs for other [artists] you can’t even picture yourself singing it. But yeah, this is definitely that situation. I’m excited that I got to keep it.

Allison Kugel: How long did you spend in the studio recording Now Is The Time?

Franki Love: The process of writing the songs was over the past four years. Actually getting into the studio and recording it was an extremely intense five months.

Allison Kugel: That’s a long time, no?

Franki Love: It’s a long time but we didn’t spend every single day [in the studio]. I did two songs in March, and then I did a lot of pre-production for the other songs with another producer in April, and then we did more recording in May and June.

Allison Kugel: There was a specific producer you wanted to work with on this album, and you used the website Kickstarter.com to raise money for your budget for this album. Tell me about that.

Franki Love: One of my friends connected me with a producer named Warren Huart who did The Fray and who is now doing the new Aerosmith album. Warren and I met, we really hit it off and I like his style. But I had to raise the money because it was a very expensive process to record the album.

Allison Kugel: When will the new album be released and where can people purchase it?

Franki Love: The album will be coming out August 10, 2011. You can buy a physical copy of the album through my website, www.FrankiLove.com or through Amazon. Digitally, the album will be on iTunes, and most major digital venues. iTunes is the major venue for purchase.

Allison Kugel: Many independent artists these days are only releasing their music digitally. What is the advantage for you in releasing hard copies of your album?

Franki Love: The advantage of getting a hard copy is, first of all, everyone who backed me up on KickStarter.com, a lot of them pledged for hard copy CDs. The other advantage is, I’m doing a lot of shows and I do sell quite a bit of CDs at my shows. I find that when people see you perform live, they enjoy being able to get that actual CD of your music in their hands to take home with them.

Allison Kugel: I saw some gorgeous new pictures of you posted online. Every single one of them looked like an album cover! How do you choose which images will make the final cut for your album art?

Franki Love: It’s been crazy to choose the cover. I work with my manager to sort through them. We picked out the top five. My manager said to me, “This is your album and your expression. You’re an indie artist so you have the freedom to choose the image you want.” That’s what’s so fun about being an indie artist. I printed them all out, put them on my table and over a three day period I began to narrow down all of the covers I didn’t like. I ended up with the one I liked that would speak the truth of this album and represent it.

Allison Kugel: Your name is Franki Love, and knowing you, I know that you are a very new age and spiritual person.

Franki Love: My message as an artist, singer, and musician is I want to be a messenger of love and to share my music with others to inspire them. When I am being as vulnerable as possible, I feel like those are my true colors. When I sit at the piano and write a song, and when I work with photographers and they take photos of me, they feel that’s my style and they tend to bring that out of me.

Allison Kugel: I know that you’ve always played the piano, and you’re a real musician at heart. So many artists, now, are not recording with live instruments in the studio. It’s a lot of manufactured beats and sounds created with digital technology these days. Did you play instruments in the studio, and were there live musicians recording with you for this album?

Franki Love: I played all of the piano parts and that was a lot of fun. We also had some of the best musicians play on these songs, musicians who have played on Colbie Caillat’s record and Sheryl Crowe, and other big records like that. So a lot of it is live. I had a whole full band.

Allison Kugel: Will you be going on tour to promote Now Is The Time?

Franki Love: I’m going to be doing a lot of show dates to promote the album, lots of college dates. I will also be celebrating the release of the album in New York and in LA. We’re having a record release party on August 12th in LA at Room 5, and then it’s on to New York where we’ll have a record release party on August 30th at The Livingroom. I’m also going to be doing something really cool with StageIt.com. It will essentially be a skype-like show where people will buy tickets for $6.00 to tune in to me doing a live show from my home. People will be able to talk to me through the computer, watch me perform and they can download my album at the end of the show. I’ll be doing my StageIt.com show on August 7th at 3PM PST.

Anything else coming up for you in the near future?

Franki Love: I’m always looking for talented producers and co-writers to collaborate with. I’m also hoping to start collaborating with other artists.

Franki Love’s second album, “Now Is The Time” will be released August 10, 2011on itunes.com

Visit www.frankilove.com and Follow Franki Love at facebook.com/frankilovemusic, twitter.com/frankilovemusic and at her YouTube Channel.

Long Island Country Singing Sensation, Lisa Matassa, To Perform at Freedom Fest 2011 @ Long Island Ducks Stadium July 3rd

Country music on Long Island? Apparantly so! Lisa Matassa is the new darling of a country music movement that is sweeping the Northeast. Matassa is set to sing the National Anthem and perform music from her EP, Me Time on July 3, 2011 at the Long Island Ducks baseball team’s stadium at Bethpage Ballpark on Long Island. Five other country acts are expected to perform as well, followed by a big fireworks show. The event is also being put on by WJVC My Country 96.1 FM, Long Island’s country radio station.

Check out the promo clip for Freedom Fest 2011 on Long Island, NY at Bethpage Ballpark: