where is the security yall

This situation I am about to talk about annoys me to the point of like arrrggggghh!. Anyhoo Saturday night, the artist 9ice and a few friends were coming back from the artist Morachis album launch where he went to perform, when they were hijacked by 8 gunmen aka armed robbers with pistols, ak47's, the works.. I guess they were about to jump on the 3rd mainland when they got attacked. Well, after being layed out, beaten up, ( like why even beat anyone up with your flipping gun, collect and go, haba!) the robbers took everything they had and left them to attack another car. We thank the lord no lives where lost but it annoys the crap out of me like, imagine, who is safe sef!.. I was asking him if they knew who he was and from his response I guess they don't care about all that.

Reminded me of Jan 05 when 2face Idibia got robbed. These fucccers broke in through his walls to gain access to his house and of course they either did not know or give a rats ass if he was 2face or not, poor baby ended up in the hospital with a huge thingy on his neck.. Not long after that Azadus gets robbed on his way from the studio (I think). So its like who the hell is safe out there.

I made a comment a while back on Fumni Iyandas blog about how I dont see myself living in NIg regardless of how much money I have because my security means more to me. Now this situation here enforces my stance like "seeeeeeee, thats what Im talking about"

Anyhoo, a lot of people don't mind being all careful and watching their back 24/7 but me myself and I, do mind. I really wish the govt would do something about this, create jobs, hire new police, train somebody, do something. I don't wanna have to go to NIg and be scared to leave my house. The other day I was reading Dimeji Alaras note on facebook about how they rob in traffic, and how he had to abandon his car, arrrrrggghh, makes me just soo mad to hear stuff like that. Anyhoo, yeah NIG is such a lovely, fun place that if not for that one aspect of it, oh and nepa, it would be a wonderful place to live. :( Anyhoo NIG is always going to be in my prayers, I pray for divine intervention because we need it.

weddings.. mag feature. tyler perry

I am a huge fan of Tyler Perry, ever since I watched Diary of an Angry Black woman I just cant get enough of his movies and Medeas character. The movie Medeas family reunion was one of my favs especially the wedding scene, kinda left me curious as to naija wedding planners. Lets say I have this friend of a friend who is getting hitched and this friend of a friend wants to do it in naija and this friend of a friend took my advice about getting the same set up as the wedding scene in the movie, well I guess what I am asking is, are there any naija wedding planners who are sooo ultra hot that they can produce scene 1.32 to 2.00 in the clip below? btw.. u may wanna stop at 2.00 so you don't go through the torture of watching the corny scene after, that chicks acting made me want to errr puke. If my husband cries on our wedding day, Ill smack him upside his head and tell him to man up. teeheeee..


anyhoo as I was saying, the set up would basically be Paris in nig. I saw some hot pictures from a few planners in nig that weren't too bad, but im thinking something straight out of a fairy tale like Cinderella type stuff. and because my friends friend is soo cool I think she deserves it. :) and hmm I wonder who will replace Johnny Gill, maybe 2face.. (lol, I'm soo naughty) and lets see, we could see if Maya Abdul form katsina state would come and read a poem.

Anyhoo such a beautiful wedding set up cant be cheap, which brings me to my next question. Is it worth it spending sooo much money on just one day. I was talking to my neighbour 2 days ago and he was like, vegas, vegas, vegas.. lol.. and I'm like, haaaa you wanna kill my mother abi.. but yeah, is it? I mean I know weddings cost at least 20k, gosh I could invest that 20k and my turn over would be like soo much.. geez, hmmm maybe Vegas is not sounding so bad afterall..

BTW: TP was featured in the Spanish mag alborde.. yeah I am thinking this is the first nig owned comp to be featured, can someone say putting nig on the map one mag at a time.. Seeing akanke and oriki all up in there in Spanish made me super proud..
anyhoo have a lovely weekend..

Shady Business Ethics

Ok so I am mega, super, originally irritated this morning. Now, I am all for supporting your own when it comes to business but how do you do it when your own proves to have shady business ethics. arrgggh, ok so this whole drama started like 2 months back when we shipped some good for the lere store to NIG. We used Galaxy Cargo Services in downtown LA ( and yes I am calling these super unprofessional nincompoops out) because I honestly believe no one should have to go through what we have gone through because of these people..

Anyhoo, so 2 months ago, we shipped several boxes of goods for the store, paid the guy, and the goods were supposed to go out that week. Long story short, dude lied that he had shipped the goods, gave a fake airway bill number, and kept saying dont worry next week, next week, next week, for 2 whole months. So finally last week I went down there and threathened him with legal action and he was like yeah the boxes are in transit bla bla bla. (All Lies BTW) and to please wait till friday ( which is today).

Long story short, come to find out today, the guy just shipped the boxes LAST WEEK!!!!!!!!! so he had our goods and money for 2 whole months and sat on goods that could have made money to get even more good to make even more money, basically fucking with our living. Ok to say I am pissed is an understatement, I am boiling hot and honestly people like this guy give naijas with good business ethics a bad name. I am not tryna toot my own horn or anything but one thing I pride myself in is the way I do business, in the 4 years I have been in business, I have had only 1, I repeat o 1, customer complain, and that was a misunderstanding that I made sure was resolved asap. I don't joke around with my customers and make sure I do what it takes to keep them happy, rules are clear, statements are clear, and you are always updated on your order. I can't even imagine doing it any other way so when I run into people like this, it just makes me wonder where their ethics went..

If I got a penny for those that say they are weary of doing biz with naijas Id be building my mansion.. arrggh! The funny thing is, there is this other Hispanic lady we ship with to naija and she is always on point, that right there speaks volume. Your own peeps cant even do a good job with something soooooo flipping simple as shipping to your own country.. like wow!!!!!!!!!! it aint science men, in fact woooosaaaa!

Happy Birthday Ruggedman + Store Launch Party

I just wanted to say Happy Birthday to my darling friend Michael aka Ruggedman. Many Many Many happy returns darl, and even though I stay mad at you half the time, I still love you like the big bro I never had. Our friendship has a history that you can't buy in the bank, and even though you probably don't believe me half the time, It means a lot to me and I miss you a whole lotta. * sniffs* yeah yeah yeah, I wont get all sappy on yall but yeah, wishing ruggedy baba a very wonderful birthday.

with that said, I wanna invite yall, well those in LA or that will be in LA to the TP store Launch. Flyer is below so hope to see you there cash in hand. lol..j/k don't worry your presence will do just fine. teehee, but please do RSVP at the email below, a confirmation will be sent once your name is on the list, first name and last initial will do just fine.

My first Heartbreak

It all started Saturday morning, I woke up to prepare myself for a long day at work. Seeing as I had woken up a bit early, I decided to kill time and surf the web and that was when I saw it. I can't believe he would do this to me, at first I tried to convince myself that it cant be true, no he would never be,he was just too fab, what would happen to my dreams, my fantasies, do I have to find a new candidate..? I had to ask again why, why would my future baby daddy do this here to me!

lol.......just kidding o, heartbreak ko, heartbreak ni..lol........ ahem, Jaded June, I know for sure you are curled up in your bed right now crying about this.. hahaha. Ok so I found out this weekend that super hottie, Wentworth Miller may be Gay, gosh why is it the super fine ones. Id be totally ok with the not so hot men being gay. Like no wahala. lol. If you do not know who Wentworth Miller is he is the dude from prison break and he is pictured below.

Then again, Perez hilton does talk a lot of crap, but then again again his crap usually turns out to be true. Gosh even the so called boyfie is a flipping hottie. Sighs!.. Well Ill still oogle at him sha, Gods beautiful creation should always be admired.

This reminds me of a little incident that happened to me a few years ago. I and my friend U, went to this lounge/mini club in Santa Monica, so we are chilling upstairs looking down at dancers when the most gorgeous guy walked in. I'm talking finer than Mr Miller up there fine. So I poke my boy like dayuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum. Anyhoo, of course a lot of girls were up on him. To cut a long story short, so he walks past me, grabs my elbow and says nice shoes. I was like in my mind " get the fucccccccc out of here, did he just stop and say nice shoes" lol.. Anyhoo he continues to talk and whispers in my ears, I really just wanted to tell you how gorgeous you are, at this point I'm looking over my shoulder like, Halle Berry must be behind me. lol. j/k

Anyhoo we talk for a little bit and standard, he asks for my number, bla bla, but me I was like hmm I wanna know more, actually I just wanted to oogle at him some more. lol (big mistake). I should have just given the bobo the digits and hollard later.. So we sat there and talked for almost an hr. During this convo, bobo told me he was bisexual, and he was going through this phase and he realy wanted to marry a girl but felt he needed to explore first to make sure bla bla bla.. Nothing against being bisexual but he totally lost me there. I still swapped numbers with him though because he did seem like a cool guy, plus I appreciated his honesty, but when he called I couldn't just get it out of my head, plus he just had a whole lot of other family issues and me I no like drama. Eventually I was like yeah buddy you would make the hottest male friend that I can oogle at and nothing more. I like my men 100% sure of who they are and what they want. Dint change the fact that he was probably the finest man I have seen till date. Tall, pretty grey eyes, beautiful skin, tone body, just YUMMM. lol

Where are you from

Before I go on to the topic for today I just wanted to talk about a recent interview I did with the artist 2shotz. I swear that guy is one of the funniest people I have ever encountered, as in I had tissue by my side from laughing too much. Anyhoo he made mention of an artist called Zeal, now from his description of this chickala, I am dying to see a picture of her so pls if anyone has a picture of Zeal, holla at me with it.. anyhoo here is the interview.. you should also read the other interviews in the current issue anyhoo on to my topic..

I am sure I am not the only one who has encountered this problem. When someone goes, where are you from, its like err should I say I am nigerian or american, well technically I am both but technically again, I am american but really I am nigerian. Gosh this can be confusing. lol. Usually I just say LA if its a brief convo because I hate having to go into details or explain myself. Like yeah my dad is naija and my mum is naija but she is really american who feels she is 100% naija but leagally she aint and yeah well technically cos my dad is naija I am naija too and even though my mum is technically yankee she considers herself naija and bla bla bla. Gosh I feel bad for my kids.. Maybe I should scratch the idea of going to have them in France. That would really confuse things. So Im wondering in reality, lets forget where your heart is, if you are an american citizen and have lived most of your life in america but your roots are pure naija what do you claim? Like my little cuzzos that have never even been to naija be claiming naija. lol. naa actualy they claim "African" lol.. that always cracks me up. When you ask them where are you from, some of them will say " I am from Africa" and o dont let my mum, Mrs Nigeria 1900-10,000 be there o, she will give them a history lesson. I call her Obasanjos wife.. lol

Now I know what it feels like to be mixed, errr well my dad is indian and my mum is black but I am more black because I grew up with my mum but then again I am indian because my dad is indian.. phewwww! the confusion!. anyhoo I did this interview with this spanish mag today and when the question where are you from came up, I almost said, technically or really? lol. anyhoo I went for really and repped naija. Even went into detail about our wonderful culture and how its something to be proud of and how oprah and all them need to quit it and stop trying to make naija look bad with their one sided shows. BTW: I think I know what Oprahs problem is, I heard one gist one time that some naija guy was cashing checks under Harpo and made away with a lot of dough under her name/company name. I don't know how true this is but I heard this back in 2001 or so, so maybe she has a 7 yr old grudge.. who knows.

So Oprah and that dateline dude can kiss our naija u know whats. We rock and they just cant understand it.. and errmm all them naija 419ers with their ashejus also need to stop and quit making us look bad.. and the govt, stop the greed and spread the loot, create jobs, infrastructure. We don't wanna have to think about where we should be claiming any longer. If naija were fab people wont be moving out and having babies in yanks.. you dig.


Ah! I havent even finished typing when I saw this on facebook
Headline: Nigerian kid heats Up american hip-hop Scene
Body: Washington, DC - a city known for many things, but hip-hop isn't one of them.Enter wale – a 22 year-old first generation american of nigerian-bornParents, the first mc out of the district to truly make it beyond the midatlanticRegion.

sooo is he naija or american?

BTW: I am soooo excited about something that I kinda wanna share but wont..lol. don't you hate when people do that, like if you are going to say it, say it.. teeheee.. one clue:Song, Ill post the lyrics soon and Ill see if you guys can figure it out.

eheem: It has come to my attention that I have a good number of browsers on my blog who stop by, read, and dont comment.. haba! well I guess I cant be that boring if you guys come back.. anyhoo just saying hello to the ROM folks out there..

New store in the heart of Hollywood

After a long time weighing and thinking and contemplating and maticulating ( lol hey that could be a word), and gesticulating, and salivating, lol, Toni Payne is finally going to be opening its doors in Hollywood. The new store will be located inside Peeler a trendy celebrity hangout/boutique/artistic haven/the perfect home for TP. Its soo friggin fab because you can buy tees, makeup and get a tattoo.

The grand opening date is TBA but there will be a pre grand opening sampler next weekend so once details, contracts etc are finalized I will post the flyer here. This is very exciting because the relationship between Toni Payne and Peeler just looks like one made in heaven, the perfect match. The store is located off Santa Monica and Western, minutes from the Hollywood walk of fame so you can come shop and when you are done go do some touristy things. Ill have pictures up for you guys soon but most importantly you can view clips of some of the events we will be holding on my new show. So if you are in the LA area, now you can come have some wine with me, that is of course, if you are not driving, oh yeah and do some shopping.

Talking about Celebs, now there is this issue I have been dealing with for quite some time. The issue is people calling me the naija Paris Hilton. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggh!, My friends and associates, but most especially my friends. Its like they have decided to gang up on me or something. Well I think she is cool and all but I also think Im cooler.. hehehe, naa I don't see the connection and I think I had my chihuahua first. I don't have a sex tape out there, ( I think, lol), I may have a small budunk but its sure as hell not that small, and I am not a party girl plus Im more than likely smarter. Its a conspiracy I tell ya.. They are trying to label me an airhead.. (even though I don't think Paris really as airheadish and she pretends to be). anyhoo let me stop rambling. and post pictures as requested

weinna, since you wanted to see some pictures from the wedding... these are the ones I have managed to save. so enjoy.. I know for sure there are tons more on FB..

The couple had to arrive in style

The Lovely Couple: Uyi and Hana ( I love this guy to pieces mehn, great match)

They ask how I did it, and I replied it aint easy being T.. lol, went from this friday

To this Saturday ;)

The Fab 12 ( well I dont think you can see all 12)

Representing the city of Angels

The Original LA crew, (missing some people) many are called but few are chosen

have a lovely weekend yall.

Branding....

Gosh! If anyone is thinking about starting their own business I cannot even begin to emphasize the importance of branding. Like, sit down properly, think of the perfect name and most importantly, do not limit yourself because what you start out with may not be what you finish with. If you are anything like me, you will not be limited to one industry so you want a versatile name, luckily TP is very flexible and can be used for almost anything, but if you pick a name like shoeology or tshirtsrus, and you decide you want to start selling makeup, chances are it will end up confusing you and your clients and you will most likely have to start a whole new company to do that.

Anyhoo, before I start going off on a tangent, the point I am trying to make is, its probably better to choose a versatile name, nothing specific and just work on building your brand, well at least till you have the loot and man power to handle 20 names like Donald Trump.. lol.. Heck, even Trump is a major brander too, Trump this and Trump that. My day has literally been hell because I had to go through so much paperwork to compress everything under one brand. So its going to be XXYX by TP and DDFG by TP and DDFFG by TP, with the common denominator = brand being TP. Names like Toni Payne, Onna Ehrlich, Roberto Cavalli, Ella Brown, Marc Jacobs, Nina Ricci, etc work well because they are not limiting and you can still identify with the brand and such names can be extended, like for instance, Brown, by Ella Brown, Just Cavalli, T-Payne, you dig?

Anyhoo let me not bore you with my rambling. Just thought Id share, and ooo always always consult a lawyer and accountant before leaping. This will save you a lot of headache.

Next topic: Vindictive people... hehehe

good to be back.. i think

So I am back in LA, Im super tired but I have to admit it was nice to get away. The wedding was lovely, it was interesting to see one of our own getting married. The sermon at the church nuptials actually got me thinking hard, the priest put the fear of God in me, literally. lol. He went on about how marriage is a challenge and how you are making a vow and how you cant break it by doing this and that, and half the this and that he said you cant do had me saying, whoaaaa this is STANDARD.. hehehe does this mean I would really have to do a 360. Anyhoo, yeah men it was nice to hear him speak, caught and held my attention. As much as I would love to post pictures its past midnight so if you are my facebook friend, I think Ive been tagged in several pictures from the wedding.

Ahah, so I'm like such a friggggin LA chick I swear, like I never really thought about it but on Sunday night we went to NY. I had a great time taking the subway, walking around (not my first time though) but I was like, gosh, I cant do this everyday. This is fun when you are on vacation but living this everyday, waiting for some train, sitting with a bunch of people and lets not forget the germs, gosh the dude sitting across from me on one of the trains was casually picking his nose like it was nothing. Now get this, girls walking around time square in HEELS. lol. That I really could not get over, like how do they do it.

Now one thing I have always noted about NY vs LA are the men, gosh NY has some frigggin good looking men. Phew, they say the beautiful people reside in LA, but that's a big fat lie. NY has gorgeous men, specially the Italian men, I think I fell in love twice this weekend. hehehe. Lord help me, Im so gonna get in trouble for this. lol.. Yeah! Also, the great mix of people, its like you can almost find people from every single country in the world in NY, also noted weirdos, especially on the trains. I would hate to take that thing at night. Anyhoo its good to be back, but not really excited about being back to work yet. BTW, the weather out here has to be hotter than hell. I came home and was like What the hell is this? teeheee