The photo, shot by British photographer Damon Baker, is
accompanied by an article on her rise to fame and forthcoming debut
album. In the meantime, the blond bombshell recently sat down with That Grape Juice
to talk about all things Roc Nation; including how her affiliation with
Jay-z came about, how she feels about being compared to Rihanna and her
friendship with Beyonce.
On being compared to Rihanna
I take it as such a compliment because we’re from the same team and family so it’s an obvious comparison but it’s a cool one. She’s so cool and she’s the best at what she does. It’s a compliment more than anything.
There are a lot of female artists dominating the scene but how does Rita Ora stand out from the pack?
Well, how Rita stands out from the pack I think is that I’m very honest with my music. I don’t really hide behind my lyrics. I don’t really sing something that I don’t believe in or that is not going to happen or that I want to happen, so it’s all things that I really believe in. There are no boundaries to my music; if I want to a reggae song, I’ll do a reggae song tomorrow. I feel like I want to embrace music to its fullest potential and want everyone to have fun with it and realize you can escape for three minutes.
On how the Jay-Z affiliation come about?
The Jay-Z affiliation basically came about because he has a great team and a very tight team. They heard about me through an A&R from the UK who gave them a call and said, “You know, you guys should check out this girl Rita. She’s unsigned right now and I think you guys would really love her and connect with her.” They asked me to send over some demos and I did. They called me up and said, “Have you ever been to America?” and I said, “No, but I want to go.” Then they called me over and I flew out there the next day and that’s when I met Jay Brown, Ty Ty and as soon as I met them it was the Rocawear Christmas party. I shook Jay-[Z’s] hand and went to Roc the Mic Studios in Manhattan and that’s when we played each other music and I think that’s when the first musical spark kind of happened. That’s when I was like, “This is the family I need to be with” and the rest as they say is history.
On her friendship with Beyonce
ROC as a whole is like a family; they take their artists very seriously. They look after us very well as a label. She’s obviously a part of the family and very, very, very, very humble and such an honest beautiful human being that she’s even so nice to give a comment on my album. I’ve grown to be very, very fond of her. It’s one of those things I don’t really want to speak about that much but you kind of can tell if something is real or not. I don’t really feel like I have to [be] vocal [about] it. It’s just a friendship that has its own thing.
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