Whoa

When a woman has been sporting the nickname Remy Red since she was 13, and a tattoo since age 14, you know she’s nothing short of interesting. That’s the least you could say about this Brooklynite. The 23-year-old brownie rocks a Caesar-low hairdo, more cake than Duncan Hines and a fusion personality defined by her Gemini sign. Remy Red is one part mother of two, one part TCI student/rising model and one part spoiled daughter of rich parents, who left home at age 16 to let her wildflower bloom. “You know how you get to that age, 15, 16, and you start wil’n’ out and your family can’t tame you? Well, that’s how I got on my own. I wanted to be out there,” says Remy, mother to Marcus, 7, and Tiana, 4. “My thing was, once I left home I could never go back. [My parents] wanted me to come home to have the baby, but it didn’t happen.”

Instead, the Black and Puerto Rican honey weathered the cold world as an underage adult. Constantly struggling between the little girl raised in the church and the young woman yearning for the streets, she conceded victory to the latter when it came to quieting her newborn’s stomach rumblings. Following a friend’s lead, 17-year-old Remy began stripping, and ended her five-year career in February 2005. “My mom always said when you young you party but when you get older you ain’t gonna wanna party no more,” says Remy, explaining her decision to leave the greasy poles behind. “Plus, the money ain’t the same like it was before. They let anybody dance now. Then prostitution started kickin’ in. So if you weren’t willing to do certain stuff... I’m a wild person, but growing up in the church, I knew what I wasn’t gonna do.”

Remy figured that a unique look such as hers could never be completely appreciated in dim lighting and through drunken vision. Her smooth cropped dome, man-eating eyes and heavenly hips (“Girls can work their bodies all day. I’m workin’ the body and the face”) were something the world needed to see––not just tip drills. In just three months, she landed in videos for Mos Def’s “Sex, Love and Money,” Young Jeezy’s “Soul Survivor,” Blue Da Vinci’s “Streets on Lock” and the unreleased version of Redman’s “Rush the Security.”

While directors have gone cuckoo for her heavenly ebony skin, she gets mixed reactions from men. “Black guys are usually scared to approach me. They always send their friends. White guys approach me all the time. They don’t care,” reveals Remy, who admits she’s not concerned with race.

“I personally like a thug, ’cause I’m thugged out. I can’t be harder than my man.”
But you know what stereotype is automatically thrown on intimidating women courageous enough to go hairless: She’s more licky than dickly. Remy dismisses that notion, but does admit to trying out for the other team in her younger years. “I tried [being bisexual] years ago,” she says. “I think women are sexy, but all I did was sit there ’cause I wasn’t returning the favor. So I guess it wasn’t for me.” [Laughs] Spoiled rotten, yet so sweet.