Vibe.com: http://vibe.com/content/maliah-michel-drake
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. The day of Drake's debut album release, VIBE took a few minutes 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 Fresh
VIBE: 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.
When did you transition into music videos?
A director who I met, Derrick White, was trying to get met to do videos for a while and I finally just said yes one day. He casted me in the Ying Yang Twins feat. Mike Jones “Bad” video. After that Sean Cummings who was working for Smooth said he wanted to shoot me. Then everything started rolling along. King hit me up after that and gave me my first feature. But it took me a while to get my name out there.
Well, you certainly have made a name for yourself. Recently, your part in Drake’s “Find Your Love” really caught people’s attention. How’d you link with Aubrey?
Drake had actually come to the club where I work at in Houston called Dreams. I think that’s where he first saw me. I didn’t even get to speak to him that night and like a week later everybody started telling me Drake shouted me out in a song. I thought that it was so cool because I hadn’t even talked to him before. I mean, obviously he saw something he liked [laughs].
