(AllHipHop News) Winter Ramos has over 15 years of experience in the Hip Hop industry as everything from a wardrobe stylist for Murder Inc to manager for Fabolous. Unbeknownst to the majority of the people who watch her on Love & Hip Hop is the behind the scene stories that would lead someone to writing a tell-all book detailing the entertainment industry’s secret world. Winter Ramos talks exclusively with AllHipHop about h0w she got herself caught up in this industry, how she could write thousands of pages worth of industry stories and more.
[ALSO READ: EXCLUSIVE: Game and Jadakiss Appear In Winter Ramos’ Tell-All Book]
AllHipHop: What were your motivations and your mindset for writing this book?
Everyone had been telling me ‘you should write a book.’ I started hearing it from so many different people. Honestly, I didn’t think my story was that interesting. I lived it. That’s my day do tday. It’s not a big deal. But, when you start talking to people who are not a part of the industry and start start telling people, male and female, it’s like ‘That’s crazy.’ That’s an aspiring for a young woman who want to get in this industry. They watch videos and they think that is all it is about. When in actuality there is a whole world behind those cameras that people do not know about.
AllHipHop: What was one of the toughest situations to talk about in the book?
Nothing. I’m usually an open book as far as things that are bothering or issues that I have. I do not embarrass easily and I am not ashamed of anything that I have done. For me, I like to tell my story whether it makes me look crazy or makes me look good. I rather tell my story so I can get honest opinions. I don’t like to pick and choose what I tell people. Even with me being on a show like Love and Hip Hop. I could get on the show like a lot of ladies and say ‘Oh I don’t do that. I don’t date celebrities.’ Then people get up in your business anyway. The hardest part of writing the book was picking what stories to put in the book. What fit with the timeline. What was too much information. If I told everything the book would probably be 10,000 pages long.
AllHipHop: So how did you choose what to put in and what not to?
We just put a list of names and I jotted down situations with each. I also had journals that the publisher went through. It was a matter of process of elimination. The majority of the events in each chapter, I learned something from them so if it was a situation where I felt like I didn’t learn anything from it or I felt no one else could learn anything from it then we didn’t use it.
AllHipHop: You’re as controversial off the show as you are on the show Love & Hip Hop. What do you think is your character on the show?
I have no idea. I don’t think they gave me a character. You know why I say that? If it’s someone like Tahiry or Raqi. You see every week in three to four scenes an episode so you can get a better idea of the person that they are. When you see me for eight seconds in one episode and then see me for 30 seconds in the next you cant build a character. There was no character building. No one knows how I talk. No one knows that I’m funny. No one knows that I’m caring. They don’t know what the hell is going on in my life. All they know is that a book is coming out. Period. People on Twitter always saying “well what does she do?” You don’t know any of that if you didn’t watch last season when I was on with Emily. You didn’t know I was Fab’s assistant. You didn’t know I did styling at Murda Inc. You didn’t know I worked at Slip-N-Slide Records. I worked Rick Ross projects.
AllHipHop: You’re as controversial off the show as you are on the show Love & Hip Hop. What do you think is your character on the show?
I have no idea. I don’t think they gave me a character. You know why I say that? If it’s someone like Tahiry or Raqi. You see every week in three to four scenes an episode so you can get a better idea of the person that they are. When you see me for eight seconds in one episode and then see me for 30 seconds in the next you cant build a character. There was no character building. No one knows how I talk. No one knows that I’m funny. No one knows that I’m caring. They don’t know what the hell is going on in my life. All they know is that a book is coming out. Period. People on Twitter always saying “well what does she do?” You don’t know any of that if you didn’t watch last season when I was on with Emily. You didn’t know I was Fab’s assistant. You didn’t know I did styling at Murder Inc. You didn’t know I worked at Slip-N-Slide Records. I worked Rick Ross projects.
AllHipHop: Which storyline is your favorite on Love & Hip Hop?
I don’t watch the show.
AllHipHop: Oh you don’t watch the show?
No. [Laughs] There are episodes of myself that I still haven’t seen. I don’t know it’s weird seeing yourself on TV. It’s awkward. I don’t look at myself as Winter Ramos on Love & Hip Hop. I’m just a Spanish girl from the projects that has grinded in the industry that has got the chance to get on TV because of her hardwork.
AllHipHop: How did you get into the industry? What made you want to get into this industry?
When I was in High School I used to go to this club called The Tunnel. A lot of the biggest artists now used to hang out at The Tunnel. The Jay-Z’s, the B.I.G.’s, the Puff [Daddy]’s. They were no ones at the time. I had met [Junior M.A.F.I.A. member] Nino Brown. I was always hanging out with them and seeing them come into into this industry I was like ‘This is cool.’ There wasn’t a lot of money being made but you’re hanging out at the house with someone, you turn on the TV and oh sh*t they have a video on Video Music Box. It intrigued my interest but I did not know what to do. But I hung around and saw what was going on. Then I saw there was wardrobe styling and how you can bring clothes to these events to these photo shoots and video shoots and make great money.
AllHipHop: You were in college for a while. When did you decide to do styling full time and how much of college did you get done before you left?
I was in my third year of school. I had this friend, Dan Tan who used to throw parties in New York and I used to go to a lot of his paraties before I left for the parties. I ran into him at the Def Jam building when I was with one of my homegirls whowas working at Interscope with Foxy Brown’s brother Antoine. I ran in to Dan Tan and I told him I was doing the styling thing on the side and going to school. At the time, Murda Inc had fired their stylist at the time. He was like “You want to work with Rule” and I was like H*ll yeah.” I never went back to school.
[ALSO READ: Love & Hip Hop’s Winter Ramos Preps To Rock Music Industry with Tell-All Book]
AllHipHop: What were the factors that led to you starting to become intimate with some of these entertainers?
In this industry. It’s not a job. It becomes a lifestyle. 24 hours a day. Seven days a week. You’re around these guys on a consistent basis. You’re at the offices. You’re at the video shoots. You’re at the photoshoots. You’re at the dinners. You’re at the house. You’re at the events. I’m not a bad looking young lady. I’m the typical female they go for. Spanish, long hair and pretty girl. Since those were the guys I were around all the time those were the guys who would approached me that kind of intrigued me. So why not? I wasn’t hanging out anywhere else. So of course I’m going to end up dating all of the guys I end up surrounding myself with.
AllHipHop: Is there any one relationship that stands out the most to you?
Hell no. [Laughs] They weren’t all the same but they all ended the same. It was all game. That’s why I named the book “Game Over”. Regardless of who he is these celebrities are human. They’re men . They have feelings. They care, they cry and they bleed. Just because they are on television doesn’t make them superheroes. It all starts out the same. ‘Oh he’s feeling me, we’re spending a lot of time together, we’re on the phone a lot. He’s busy, he’s doing his thing and then it all kind of ends the same way. It’s just game. It’s A LOT of game that you have to play. When you get sick of playing the game with that particular person you move on to playing the game with someone else.
AllHipHop: What story didn’t make the book that you think people would be interested in knowing about?
Hmm.. There’s not one story in particular but in the book I’ve only named one athlete that I have been with because that was a relationship that I was in. So I would say dating an athlete takes a certain type of person. Any young lady who is currently in a relationship with in an athlete or that is her goal need to know that there is a lot of sh*t that goes on. It takes a certain woman to date an athlete, stay sane and live a normal life with a man that rich. You have to expect things. I always get confused is a woman strong for withstanding all the bullsh*t that comes with these types of relationships or is she weak for accepting for allowing this guy to put her through this because he has money and he is on TV.
AllHipHop: What type of celebrity was the best to date? Athletes? Entertainers? Executives?
I would say an executive because he is more stable and he’s in the office a lot of the times. Unless you have an executive who wants to be an artist who when the artist is on the road he wants to be there. But with executives it is a more stable environment. Where they are home a lot of times and able to work these long hours. For the most part they don’t have to attend . They get to pick and choose which events they go to. When you’re an artist, you go wherever they tell you to go. An athlete is on the road 6 months out of the year, you have no control over that. He’s in Chicago and from Chicago he goes to New York. From New York he goes to Miami. That is everyday life for almost half the year.
AllHipHop: You’re very forward. Do you think your personality could be abrasive at times? Are you cynical towards love?
No. I think everything happens for a reason. All these guys that I had mentioned in the book, I don’t have a problem with them. I don’t want to see somebody not getting money, not being successful or not doing their thing. I don’t look at it like ‘I cant believe he did this, eff him.’ No. They handled me that way. It is what it is. I’m straight forward but I’ve always been like that. I was the assistant to a multiplatinum selling artist. I had to be like that and get down to the point. There was no beating around the bush. There was no playing around. I didn’t have time for that then and I don’t have time for that now. When you in an industry where you’re surrounded by a bunch of men you cant be emotional and you cant be a typical girl is in certain situations because you got to keep it moving. If I dwelled on that s### I would’ve cut my wrist a long time ago.
AllHipHop: Will there be other books?
There’s definitely going to be more books. I might do some non-fiction. I have so many stories that I can write an entire book off of one incident. Once this I put out and we maximize its exposure I’ll see what’s next. But ther will definitely be more books. I have a publisher who understands my hard work. If there’s anything that needs to happen I make it happen. I put all my people in a place where all of us can get money and not just me. So in a situation like that I can talk to her
AllHipHop: You are in a relationship with someone who is not in the industry. How’s that?
It’s cool. It’s fun. It’s totally different from anything else that I’ve done before. It’s a learning procees having a situation where this person is around all the time. This is a better situation and at the end of the day this is real and this is not some bullsh*T.