Just going with the flow is not in Buffie the Body’s nature. She wants to know everything that’s going on. Thanks to her voluptuous back-side, she’s gone from working odd jobs in Athens, Georgia, to being one of the most desired models to grace the covers of King and Black Men’s Magazine.
She appeared in Tony Yayo’s “So Seductive” video and several others, and this vixen has the Hip-Hop community in the palm of her hands. For someone who never had any plans of being in music videos, she’s done pretty well for herself. Despite the pre-perceived notions about most video models, don’t get it twisted – this lady means business. Manning the controls of her brand name with the distribution of calendars, DVDs and regular hosting gigs, she’s turned herself into a true commodity. Buffie is marketing her self-produced 2007 calendar “In Your Wildest Dreams” via her own website, and that’s just the beginning of her new ventures.
While she claims that she doesn’t understand the obsession with all the junk in her trunk, this aspiring real estate tycoon is doing the damn thing. We got deep with Buffie about her rise to stardom, her enterprising business moves, and the phenomenon that is Buffie the Body,
AllHipHop.com Alternatives: How does a girl from Athens, Georgia, go on to become on of the top names in video modeling?
Buffie the Body: Basically, some photos taken of me were released on the internet without my permission. I did a photo shoot with a photographer back in Baltimore, because I wanted personal pictures for myself.
AHHA: How did you feel when you first found out about the pictures being released?
Buffie: I was upset! I got into a big argument about it because [the photographer] didn’t have my permission to do it. I was mad at him, but then I saw the response and what people were saying about the pictures. Everyone was overwhelmed. I don’t even know the words to describe it. All of a sudden, I wasn’t upset anymore. I was like, “Damn, people are acting like this about my pictures? I might be able to do more.” King Magazine saw the pictures and then they hit me up on the e-mail. That’s how everything began. The King spread, and then the Tony Yayo [“So Seductive”] video is what set things off.
AHHA: How has your family responded to the success? Are they supportive of the modeling?
Buffie: Yeah, from the beginning, they thought that it was good. No one has been negative. Everything has worked out good.
AHHA: What were you doing before you blew up?
Buffie: Just odd jobs here and there. I wasn’t doing anything special. At least nothing to really speak about. When I was young, I wanted to be a teacher. Once I got out of that, I wanted to work with computers. I always had a thing about them, programming, everything. I was always on them.
AHHA: Do you still tinker around with any programming like Java, .Net or languages?
Buffie: I don’t have time. I’m on the computer lot, but not how I used to be.
AHHA: There are a lot of video girls out there. Besides the ass, why are you in such high demand? Is it the look, the on-set professionalism?
Buffie: I look at it the same way. There’s a ton of girls, like thousands and thousands of girls that are trying to do the same thing as me. It’s crazy how everybody is so stuck on me. I used to wonder the same thing. I don’t make nobody try to think that I’m better than the next girl. I only try to be Buffie. I never try to compare myself or act like I look better or that my ass is bigger than the next girl’s. It’s crazy, because I was never trying to model. It’s crazy how everything happened.
Everything that I’ve done, the videos, these people have reached out to me. It ain’t like I was out soliciting, trying to get into a magazine or anything. All of it just came to me. It does make it relatively easy because of this, now I’m doing it. I’m making sure that I stay relevant. I make sure that I do a calendar or DVD every year. I host seven to twelve parties every single month. I’m doing clothing campaigns, and there are a few other projects that have in line. There’s a lot of good things that have happened from really being nobody to now, all of this.
The reason why people love me so much – of course, the big ass. Since I came out, I’ve seen so many females with big a#### that I don’t even know if it’s that. It’s crazy how people see this Buffie the Body phenomenon. I’m just glad that everything is going good for me. I just bought a new car and house. I’ve got a lot of good people helping me out. Although, real estate is something that I wanted to do for the past three or four years. I’m taking speech and diction coaching, because if I’m going to be hosting shows on TV and parties, I need to learn to speak. I have a bad southern drawl. I don’t have a problem with it. I don’t want to loose my accent, but my grammar isn’t the best. Southern people have a way of letting what ever come out our mouths.
AHHA: Sounds like you’re learning so that you can have longevity in your career.
Buffie: Exactly. That’s one thing that everybody told me when I first started doing this. You don’t want to be there for 15 minutes and then you’re out of there. Ya’ gotta’ keep doing it. I even went out and got a publicist. Actually, I have two now. I’m doing an interview every week. The publicist brings a lot of attention to you, so they’ve been a big help.
AHHA: The music industry, especially the video arena, has been known to be shady. Karrine Steffans’ book, Confessions of a Video Vixen, discussed the underbelly of the music and video industries. How have you managed to either avoid or overcome those types of circumstances?
Buffie: There’s been a lot of people that I’ve been in contact with like from modeling. They claim that they can do this or that. There’s a lot of that, but I don’t follow it. I haven’t had any really bad experiences while in modeling. I mean of course, ni**as lie. That’s nothing new. That’s been going on forever. They try to use you and get some pu**y. Hey, that’s nothing new. It’ always been like that. I just haven’t experienced anything that was so bad that it made me not want to model anymore.
People make promises that they’re gonna’ help you, but it’s not a big deal. For me, when one door closes, two more open. I just continue to keep my name out there and to what I have to do. I don’t wait for anyone to bring anything to me now. When it was time for me to do my calendar, I didn’t wait. You know, a lot of models are like, “I need someone to do my calendar or bring me a job.” Not me. Everything that you see with Buffie the Body, I’m behind it. I‘m behind everything that you see.
AHHA: With such a busy schedule running your career, do you ever get any down time?
Buffie: Usually, sometimes during the week. I’ll have three days off. It’s down time, but I’m still at home on the computer; making contacts, checking my myspace, sending and responding to e-mails. There’s down time when I’m traveling, but I’m always working. I have an office out of my home, some I’m up till three or four in the morning making sure that things are being taken care of. I can’t sleep knowing that something needs to be done. No one cares about my career like I do. I hate weekends because everything closes down. Corporate America closes. You’re not getting your wires in. No money is coming in.
AHHA: At least you’re doing the damn thing!
Buffie: That’s why I tried to tell people. When I first came out, it might have just been the big ass, “Oh’ she’s fine.” But I’m like, “How long can you keep looking at an ass?” That’s how I how I look at it. If I was a guy, and I was looking at Buffie the Body, I’d be like, “We’ve been seeing her ass for a year-and-a-half, what else can this girl do?” I would get over her. That’s why I gotta show that there’s more to me than just a cute face and a phat ass.
AHHA: Where do you see yourself in the next few years after this is all over?
Buffie: Ultimately, once everything is said and done, there’s a lot that I have to do in order to do real estate. My credit is one. Since everything took off, my credit has shot up. I have to open accounts, save money, get on the computer and read about the latest real estate. The guy that I bought my house through assesses properties. I’ve been meeting up with him and going to assess properties. He’s been showing me how it’s done. That’s ultimately what I want to do once all of this has boiled down. I’m gonna’ be a tycoon rich off of real estate! [laughs]
AHHA: What type of real estate?
Buffie: Investing in homes. Buying, fixing and then selling them. I haven’t invested anything yet. I’m learning the processes right now. I want to be able to get my own personal business going. I’ll know what I’m doing. I’m not going to just hand my money over to someone not knowing the business. They’ll end up taking my money. Again, I wanna know what’s going on.
AHHA: Does that “Always be aware of everything” mentality come from how or where you grew up?
Buffie: Yes, because it’s hard for me to trust anyone. Even the nicest, most honest person, I feel wants something. I don’t easily trust people, especially when it comes to money. You can loose a friend or family member over some money. That’s why I try to learn all that I can. So I can narrate myself, because I’m educated about the situation. If you don’t educate yourself, you could get took.
AHHA: You’re a very independent woman, but for all of the male readers, is there a special someone in Buffy’s life?
Buffie: Um… I have a crush on someone…
AHHA: Oh really…
Buffie: [laughs] I don’t know if you’ll know him. Do you know Twista’s manager? Well I have a crush in him.
AHHA: Ok, so what do you look for in a guy?
Buffie: I don’t know. I like guys that are sort of quiet. I don’t like guys that talk a lot. I like guys that are business orientated and that have goals. They don’t have to be rich, just have goal and be working towards achieving them. I also like a guy that has good conversation. I’m traveling a lot, so I don’t have a lot of time to hang out. If you can hold a good conversation on the phone, that’ll hold me over until I see you again. It has to be good, because someone with a wack conversation, I don’t like that. Also, he can’t be worried about what I’m doing.
AHHA: So, he doesn’t have to be in the business?
Buffie: No, he doesn’t have to be in the business. Sometimes I almost prefer him not to be.
AHHA: With you being in the public eye, you have to keep your personal business on the low?
Buffie: People have tried to say that I was with Tony Yayo or 50 Cent. I don’t know, people have tried to say that I’ve been with a lot of people. That’s the thing about it. My name is not tarnished, because people say, “Buffie has been with that person.” No one has ever really seen me with anyone. I don’t have a bad name because I haven’t done any f***ing to get to where I am now. Everything that I’ve done, I’ve consented to or helped build. But I haven’t slept with anyone.
AHHA: How has that affected you? Other girls sleeping with people to get to the top, opposed to you taking a business approach?
Buffie: Some women have to do it, but I don’t. My name, I’m respected. I get people coming at me to hang out or go out to dinner. When you turn them down and show then that you’re there for business, that you’re not there to mess around, you’re respected. They don’t come at you in that way. It all depends on how you get into the business and handle yourself. If you come into the business f***ing, then they’re always going to come at you like that. How I’ve been since the beginning, especially now when they talk to me, they talk business. They know that I’m not down like that. If I’m gonna’ f**k you, I’m gonna’ f**k you, regardless if it’s gonna’ do anything for me or not. I’m not trying to go out like that. A lot of girls don’t feel that they’re good enough to move up to the next level on their own, so they have to f**k. I always knew that I was good enough to get to the next level. If they don’t give me a deal because of that, then someone else will.
AHHA: In the past, we’ve seen a several video models move into singing or rapping. Do you see yourself making that transition?
Buffie: There was an artist out of Atlanta that was trying to get me to rap a verse on his song. I thought that it was the funniest thing in the world. Come on, Buffie, a rapper? I can’t rap. They were really trying to get me on the track. Buffie rapping? [laughs] So don’t be surprised if you hear me on someone’s song. I’m willing to try anything for money, as long as it doesn’t get me in trouble or sent to jail. Hey, I didn’t really believe in this modeling thing and look what happened. Who knows, I may rap on a song and become the next 50 Cent.
AHHA: Like they say, “Good things happen to good people.”
Buffie: Exactly. If it doesn’t make money, I’m not interested. If it’s gonna’ make some money, then hey, it’s worth sitting down and talking about.
