Cast as the leading lady in the music video for Drake’s cinematic love story “Find Your Love”, Maliah Michel went from a virtually unknown model to the number one topic on gossip blogs across the web. After that faithful trip to Jamaica, rumors started circulating suggesting that Maliah and Drake maybe sharing more then just a working relationship and on camera romance. Photos of the two canoodling in various nightclubs only fueled the fire, while Drake remained tightlipped on their budding relationship. On the same day Drake’s debut album was released, VIBE took a few mintues to speak with Ms.Michel on how she got into the game, linked with Hip-Hop’s new golden child and their current relationship status. —Mikey FreshVIBE: How did you get into modeling?Maliah: I just fell into it —modeling wasn’t really something that I always wanted to do. I knew that I wanted to work in the entertainment industry, but more on the acting side. Really, I kind of gave up on acting at an early age. Certain situations just made me feel like I could never really do it.What turned you off from acting?I had a lot of family problems growing up and I ended up leaving home really early to live with my sister. She was the one who taught me everything I know about life and being a woman. It was just really stressful having a bad relationship with my mother, everything really started falling apart after I graduated high school.Did you think about going to college or other career plans?I had a scholarship to Calstate Northridge for softball, but I just couldn’t go through with the whole college thing. I had no focus — life was just too much for me at the time.How were you supporting yourself?I was in this program called Americorps which was like an assisted living program, but it wasn’t much. My sister and I stayed in a one bedroom apartment with her two kids. We were basically just sharing everything we had and holding each other down the best we could. But when I turned eighteen — I went to the strip club and that’s when I started making my own money. I got my first gig at a club in Beverly Hills.Read the full interview on Vibe.com.
