Willow Smith Covers Nylon Magazine July by AB+DM in 'Punk Rock Prophet'

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Willow Smith Covers Nylon Magazine July by AB+DM in 'Punk Rock Prophet' AOC Fashion

Willow Smith Meets Her Idol Avil Lavigne

Speaking recently with V Magazine, Willow Smith made it clear that she is forging a path for Black women in punk rock and into heavy metal — whatever price she will pay in her cosmic spirit for the journey. Smith was only 2 years old when Avil Lavigne hit the Billboard charts with “Sk8er Boi.” It took another 5-6 years before Willow Smith tuned into Lavigne’s music, a year before the release of her first single ‘Whip My Hair’.

By then, Willow Smith was listening to Avil Lavigne 24/7, the 20-year-old talent tells Nylon. “ . . . [I was] trying to dress like her and trying to just be her, honestly.”

Smith’s dream to connect with her long-time idol bore fruit in June 2021, when the two women connected to make a music video in Los Angeles. It was, says Smith, a “fever dream.” Jones notes that TikTok has decided that Lavigne is cool again — her first post, set to “Sk8er Boi” and co-starring Tony Hawk, has been viewed over 29 million times. Note that Lavigne herself is now really into country music.

Willow Smith’s now-completed album ‘Lately I Feel Everything’ was released on July 16. Read more in AOC Fashion

Willow Smith's Rock Revival Interview and Valentino Fashion Story in V Magazine

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Willow Smith's Rock Revival Interview and Valentino Fashion Story in V Magazine AOC Fashion Style

American singer, rapper, actor, dancer and songwriter Willow Smith is interviewed by Dania Curvy, digital editor at V Magazine and VMAN about forging the path for Black women in punk rock. Willow is styled by Nicola Formichetti in Valentino’s Roman Palazzo Collection and Cartier’s emblematic hardware.

Photographed by Domen / Van de Velde [IG], the multi-hyphenate creative blasts through the “lazy stereotype that associates Black female singers with R&B and soul”, making it clear that Black women intend to stay strong in a punk rock music genre dominated by white men.

V Magazine is quick to remind us that Smith’s mother Jada Pinkett Smith was the lead singer in a punk rock band Wicked Wisdom. Smith introduced Willow to Tennessee-based metal band Straight Line Stitch, led by a Black woman, Alexis Brown, now Alexis White.

Willow Smith was “super young’ age when ‘Whip My Hair’, her debut single released by Jay-Z’s Roc Nation came out in 2010. "I feel like I lost my sanity at one point," Smith said in 2018 of the time surrounding her song's release. "I had just stopped doing singing lessons and I was kind of just in this gray area of 'Who am I? Do I have a purpose? Is there anything I can do besides this?' "

In the 2018 interview words of Willow’s father Will Smith: “Willow was really the first person during 'Whip My Hair' that decided she didn’t want to do what I said . . . Because she was the baby girl, she really had the most power over me. As a man – if your daughter says no, there’s really nothing you can do.”

AOC says tell that to authoritarian right-wingers, who fight every day to control women’s bodies through shame and laws. Read Willow Smith’s entire new digital cover interview “Willow’s Rock Revival” at V Magazine.