Aspirational. It’s a word typically reserved for celebs behind the goops and the Draper James and the Maisie Jasper Asher Imogens or whatever the latest celebrity lifestyle brand is. We’re supposed to look at Gwyneth or Reese or Jessica Alba and want their life, then subsequently want their advice on how to live life. Well, they can keep their plaid aprons, vaginal steams and hemp diapers, the only celebrity I want to aspire to be is Issa Rae. Issa is living her best life.
Yesterday, Issa was nominated for her second Golden Globe. Last week, she hosted a party at Art Basel in Miami. The party was in the Versace mansion and celebrated the8th Annual Bombay Sapphire Artisan Serieswhich celebrates young, emerging artists. Doesn’t that sound like some sh-t Blake Lively would have loved to cover for her failed lifestyle brandPreserve? I don’t know anything about Art Basel except that every year, super rich people get together, talk about bougie things, look at expensive things and go to fancy parties. I love that Issa Rae is now at the Art Basel level of her career.
“Art, and in particular visual art, is so personal and so up to interpretation. I just find that fascinating… I’m trying to build my art collection. I love stuff from artists of color that represents specific time periods, a cultural reflection of a specific period, but in general [I’m open to] whatever it is! If it feels personal to the artist. [If it speaks to] something that is within their lineage. If it is a window into them.”
Issa’s quote to Vogue reads like an editor’s letter on how to pick great art. She’s hosting parties, becoming a fashion darling and building a TV empire. I’m telling you, she is the black millennial Martha – she just doesn’t know it yet. I want recipes from her#LemonPepperKickback party. I want style advice. I want it all. Not that she has the time but I really want black, awkward and beautiful Issa Rae to be a celebrity we associate with Aspirational. Can you be relatable and still be aspirational? Can you be a “They’re Just Like Us!” celebrity and the one partying in mansions? Allow Issa Rae’s迷人的解释of how to pronounce “basel” to Essence answer those questions.
"I'm like 'basil. Someone told me it's 'ba-sell-e.' They even have me correcting somebody like, [scoffs] 'Girl, this ba-sell-e.'"
I just love her so much. Finally, can we talk about Dro? The actor who plays Dro onInsecure, Sarunas J. Jackson, attended Issa’s party at Art Basel in a floral suit that is making me feel inappropriate things. He looks GOOD. Lainey likes to call him “F-cking Dro” because that’s pretty much what we say out loud every time he appears on screen onInsecure. He’s F-cking Dro onscreen but off-screen, he’s just a tall drink of FIIIIINE. I’ve got two names for the Gossip Genie: Issa Rae and Sarunas J. Jackson. Please.
