Describing Va$htie Kola as “hip-hop’s renaissance woman” feels lazy at this point.The director/designer/consultant/influencer has been putting her unique stamp on the game for more than five years now, boasting a resumé that makes her impossible to definitively peg. Past collaborators include Kanye West, Solange Knowles and the Jordan brand, the latter with whom the Albany, New York, native recently joined forces with to design her own Jordan sneaker, becoming the first female ever tapped to do so. Last week, she sent shockwaves through the internet with a tweet believed to be a subliminal shot at Beyoncé, who recently referred to herself as “King Bey." Va$htie, who promoted parties in NYC for years under the moniker “King Va$htie," wrote, “Its so entertaining that broads are referring to themselves as “KING…” now. its cute…” XXL got up with the woman who sets trends to discuss creative integrity, homophobia in hip-hop and why she’d rather be a king than a queen. —Calvin Stovall

XXLMag.com: Recently, Beyoncé starting calling herself "King Bey," which seemed to be inspired by you calling yourself "King Vashtie" for years. As a creative person, where do you draw the line between being inspired by something and biting it?

Vashtie Kola: It’s tricky. It’s a thin line. It’s very hard to kind of straddle that. You always wanna be inspired by the things around you. And if there’s something that strikes you as an artist that strikes you and inspires you, it’s important to give enough of an homage to what it is that you’re trying to emulate. But I don’t know. It’s a tricky line. It’s really important to get feedback from other artists around you and always try and review what it is that you put out there so it’s never infringing on the rights of the artists that you’re being inspired by… I think that all artists go through that. It’s one of those things. There’s nothing new under the sun. People get inspiration from everywhere they look.

It’s been rumored that you’ve been the muse for a few notable artists. Do you have a muse of your own?

Yeah, I’m always inspired by rebels. People who are kind of in their own lane and make their own path and aren’t really concerned about what everyone else is doing. That’s always inspiring. And I think in general, masculinity has always inspired me, [like] the way they carry themselves and their style. And even the athletics. I think that kind of mentality has always inspired me to be a little bit tougher. So in general that world has always inspired me.

Speaking of masculinity, where did the “King Va$htie” thing originate?

Well, it pretty much originated for me in high school. In the bible there’s a Queen Va$htie. I remember my boyfriend at the time was like, “You’re my queen.” And I was like, “No, there’s already Queen Vashtie. I’m King Vashtie.” So it kind of started from that and it just became a new thing… King Vashtie was the first alias I used in work, especially in the New York party-sphere starting in 2003 and continuing with the start of [the] “1992” [parties] in 2006...I've always had a dislike for feminine monikers like Queen, Princess, Babydoll, etc. As a tomboy I just always wanted to be one of the guys.

Is there something specific about your life that’s made masculinity so interesting to you?

I think that in general I’m just a tomboy. I’ve always just been interested in doing tomboy things. I think that I just was less coordinated— like the girls in school were doing double-dutch, and I couldn’t jump double-dutch… And the boys wanted to play games of like touch football or whatever. Although I’m not very athletic, I was just more interested in just kind of hanging out with the boys and that kind of thing. Hanging out and just having fun and not being so girly, I guess. It’s hard to describe. And I think as I got older, those are the things I was interested in. I was interested in skateboarding or BMXing. A lot of guy friends were interested in that. But I think as a girl who loves guys, there’s also something that I admire about men; just masculinity in all its different forms. And I think maybe also just having a very masculine, over-bearing father maybe. Just seeing the dynamic of my mom and my dad.

What was your dad like?

My dad was pretty aggressive and just kind of very masculine. And my mom was the opposite. I always felt as the youngest child and as someone who kind of watched that dynamic. I always wanted to be very strong and very on top of what I was doing. And I didn’t want my femininity or me being a girl (to) ever have an effect on what it was that I was doing. I definitely did not ever want to hear, “You can’t do that because you’re a girl.” So I think just having that kind of mindset of wanting to be viewed as an equal and also treated as an equal made me want to, I guess, express that.

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Homophobia is a big issue in hip-hop right now with things like Lil B’s album title and the Mister Cee incident. What do you think of how hip-hop is handling its homophobia? Do you see room for growth?

Well I grew up with a gay brother who’s older than me. I’ve been pretty much surrounded by the gay community— a lot of my friends are gay. So I feel very strongly and supportive [of] the gay community. And I think that in hip-hop it’s always like a very tricky situation, with men in general.

Why do you think that is?

Again, going back to masculinity, it’s always important to be masculine and not be soft or gay. But I think that it’s really weird that in 2011, especially in hip-hop that there hasn’t been any wave or any moves toward the future of, “You know what, there’s this rapper, he’s gay, and he’s out and who cares?” You know? I think that if there were, there would definitely be a whole lot less bullying going on, especially in the hip-hop community. And it might take a few martyrs for that, but it would be great because I think you have a lot of young people who look up to these people. And maybe they have parts of them that isn’t public with their sexualities. But I think that if they were public with it, a lot of kids would feel good about themselves and they wouldn’t have this self-hatred where they wouldn’t be committing suicide. I know that’s extreme, but I think that there’s a lot of that going on with young people. And I think it’s really important for people who are in this world and in this industry especially to kind of make changes with it. Even if people in the industry aren’t gay, just creating a safe place. I think we’re beyond that and I think it’s time that people just start to move in that direction. I mean honestly, who cares? I think if someone were to come out and it were to be an issue, I think that you have to [have] the attitude that, “this is what it is, let’s just move on.” I think it’s so crazy that it’s still a very big issue.

As a person who predicts trends for a living, how do you see the culture growing and changing in the near future?

Well, I don’t know… [Recently] I think it’s gone from being basically street culture, mainly hood culture, to going universal. I think now it’s expanding and there aren’t that many borders. There’s a lot of rappers who didn’t even grow up in the hood. They’re coming from the suburbs or they’re coming from the country. I think that speaks volumes about the culture. How much it’s evolved. And I think that eventually all of our gripes about what hip-hop should be is going to probably diminish. I think that it’s just gonna open up and be what it was initially about—just the music and the expression.

Are you happy with the state of women in hip-hop?

Oh yeah, I think so. I think that in the last 10-15 years, women have really come into their own in this genre. I’ve seen a lot of women just kind of make moves and have inspired other women to do things... Models and actresses have really gone from just being cute girls in the videos to getting a lot of respect... And then also behind the camera— women directing and producing. And even women executives in the music industry. It probably existed beforehand, but I think that it’s really coming to the forefront now and I think creating examples for other young women who are interested in this genre and can see themselves in this community.

Are you actively aware of how your moves inspire other women in hip-hop or do you just do you and not worry about it?

I think it’s kind of both. I don’t know. I think I am aware, but I don’t think I’m too overtly aware. I kind of was raised like most girls— your parents or your mom lead you in the right direction. You don’t want to be seen in the wrong light, [you want to] be with the right company, dress appropriately— so I think that that’s already there kind of and I’m aware of that. But I think also as a girl in hip-hop, you also have to think more about your presence and how you want to be perceived by others. You want to be taken seriously in this industry. It’s a male-dominated industry so you have to pay attention to that.

Who in hip-hop excites you?

I don’t know if this is the hip-hop community, but I really like Frank Ocean. I think that there’s like a wholeness in music where there are so many different movements happening. And I think that the music that he’s creating I’m really excited about. I love Big K.R.I.T. —he’s super talented. And I think that he’s gonna be a massive, massive megastar. Just like meeting him personally and hearing his music, I think that he’s really great.

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You are the first female to have your own Jordan sneaker. With the True Blues dropping recently, what are your favorite Jordans? Excluding the one’s you designed, of course.

The Jordan III’s. Black cement Jordan III’s.

I have a lot of friends who call themselves “Va$htie stans.” What’s been your best stan experience?

There was this one girl on my blog, she’s been commenting since probably 2006. So her sister-in-law had reached out— apparently they lived in Maryland or Delaware, I’m not sure—  and was like, “She totally loves you, she’s such a huge fan. We’re coming to New York for the weekend to celebrate her birthday and it’d be really amazing if you could come to her birthday party and just totally surprise her.” I was like, “I’ll definitely try to make it.” But that night I ended up on a shoot so I couldn’t make it. The next day I tried to reach out like, “Just finding out if you’re leaving. I really want to meet her. That would be awesome for me.” They were literally on their way out of the city and they were like, “OK cool, we’ll come meet you and surprise her ‘cause she doesn’t know." So they have like a stretch Navigator or something crazy, they pull up to this meeting spot that we had, and then I basically wrapped some Violette goodies for her. They open the car door and she just looks at me is like floored. And it was just really crazy. They told me after I left that she kept it together but she was crying [afterwards] and [was] really happy and excited that she got to meet me. I think that still really shocks me. I’m like, "if I can make her happy that’s more than enough for me." Just to have that effect someone is awesome. And meeting someone that’s been so supportive of me felt really amazing also.

Lastly, can we get a rrundown of your current and near-future projects?

Just working with a lot of new artists, directing videos. I just came from Trinidad and I did a couple of very amazing photo shoots with Jonathan Manion. And basically those things will be coming out soon. And the Violette collection will be out soon. A whole lot of new things to purchase and check out. And yeah, that’s it for now.

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