Do Whitney Houston, Beyonce and Alicia Keys Need to Sue Kola Boof?

NEW YORK, NY -- During a pre-taped radio interview in New York to promote her upcoming book signing at Harlem's Schomburg Center on Sept. 16th, writer Kola Boof was beseiged by two pop music gossip columnists who insisted the lead character in her spicy hot hip hop novel "Virgins In the Beehive" is really a thinly disguised Jamelia.

Says Kola Boof, "My character is named JennaSet Jones and she uses Model.Me hair care products and she's black, beautiful and becomes the queen vocalist of the entire music world--but she's also a Black American girl who's part of a singing trio like Destiny's Child, so she's not based on Jamelia. Honestly, I don't think Jamelia's life is as sinful and complicated as the girls in this book, I hope not."

Boof's novel, which is already causing controversy due to some white women in the book suffering with "silicone butt implants", won't be released in the U.K. until November 2007 (it's now at Amazon) and chronicles the lives of three sexy black inner city crunk singers who find more than they bargained for in the fast paced world of Hip Hop music and Hollywood.

In a review of the book by Miss Egypt on XM-Radio, the reviewer insisted that the character of JennaSet is obviously supposed to be Whitney Houston and that another character in the book is obviously sex symbol Buffie the Body and that the character "Darling Nikki" is definitely based on either Beyonce or Alicia Keys, but Kola Boof, who is a serious novelist and just won Sweden's Guddrun Schylan Pen Award for the short story "I Am My Own Daughter", wouldn't confirm or deny those rumors.

She said, "I love Whitney Houston, I'm a die-hard fan, but I felt very guilty last year when the media took a comment from my autobiography and blew it up into this outrageous tabloid story--Osama wants Whitney--now Bobby Brown's afraid for his life, which he shouldn't be, because that was 10 years ago and Osama's not thinking about them anymore, and quite frankly, I've never been anybody's 'sex slave', but the media lies, and anybody who's actually read my autobiography knows that it's a not a trashy, tabloid-type tell all. It's a very probing, eloquently written book. But even with my autobiography being chosen Best Book of 2006 by a Princeton critic--they still trashed both myself and Whitney Houston by using it to make fun of Whitney, and I feel really bad about that. I love her so much and I'm rooting for her new CD to be a kick-ass blockbuster, the Senegalese Akon says she's singing like a champ on it. Whitney really is the best singer of our generation--Mariah Carey, Celine, Christina Aggie and all the others would not be here if Whitney hadn't brought that style of vibrato in vogue, and none of them are in her league if you really know what true singing is. So I'm really praying that God gives her back to us, because she's the voice, period. The original."

One thing Kola Boof will confirm is that the book's leading man, Steven Frame, was inspired by director Spike Lee. Says Boof, "In the book he's described as looking like a cross between Morris Chestnut and Shemar Moore, but I really did base Steven Frame on Spike Lee, he's a very socially conscious filmmaker, the son of a Black Panther hero, and he's in love with the JennaSet character who book reviewers believe is Whitney Houston. JennaSet is really herself--JennaSet--and don't forget that the book is dedicated to JoAnne Jo-Jo McDuffie, who was the lead singer of the Mary Jane Girls."

Asked if she found it difficult to write a hip hop novel, the Egyptian-Sudanese-American writer said, "My only worry is that my fans won't be used to the level of sex that's in this book, but I originally wrote it to be published by Zane (Dear G-Spot), so it's really...really erotic, but then again, there's a powerful story at the core of it...about what it's like to be a black woman in this country and to have all these dreams and desires. My work is always about black women and the butt we're forced to kick just to stay in line."

"Virgins In the Beehive" is at Amazon.Com but won't be released until late November 2007. Fans of Kola Boof can meet her in person on September 16th as she headlines a book reading at the Schomburg Center in Harlem, New York.

*This item was written by Kevin Johnson for Bragman Media N.Y.

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