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SOCIAL NETWORKS FACEBOOK /amicmills INSTAGRAM @ami_mills TWITTER ami mills
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Ami was born in Vancouver BC and grew up on a farm riding horse and dirt bikes. She is a self-proclaimed tomboy at heart who has always stayed true to her farm girl roots. Healthy eating and active living was instilled in her at an early age. Now she is a certified personal trainer who is known for encouraging others to transform their lifestyles and uncover their inner fitness enthusiast. This winter you will find Ami snowboarding the BC mountains and playing hockey which is another one passions. In the summer you will find her wake boarding or relaxing at the lake with friends. This past May she started competing in the Bikini division of the BC Amature Bodybuilding Assosiation and excelled from an amateur to a national athlete in three months. She credits her hard work, determination and amazing support system for reaching this level of achievement in her sport. She plans to continue competing with the CBBF and aspires to earn her IFBB Bikini Pro card. Ami was the featured fitness model in celebrity trainer, Ramona Braganza’s 321 level 2 workout video and is currently working on a new video series for a Vancouver based company that will be released in 2014. Ami has enjoyed this year as an up-and-coming fitness model and is thrilled to expand outside of fitness, to other avenues of modeling. Ami believes you must live life to the fullest, be happy and go after what you want.
Height -- 5’2’’ Weight -- 109 Favorite Food -- Three Cheese Tortellini, cesar salad and garlic bread Favorite Sport -Hockey
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Mindy is a fitness model athlete, competing at the pro level with the International Drug Free Athletics Association. She is also a bodybuilding judge, rising star published model and freelance lifestyle writer -determined to show the world that a year-round fitness physique can be maintained without depletion dieting. Mindy will attempt any form of fitness activity at least once. Much of her regimen involves bodybuilding but she works to balance her training with yoga, running, plyometrics, hiking and boxing. In early 2014 she will be certified as a Corrective Exercise Specialist and Fitness Nutrition Specialist with the National Academy of Sports Medicine. When she’s not working or training, Mindy is chipping away at her bachelor degree in Communications and preparing for a career as a motivational speaker. Mindy is known for her young-mindedness, and for encouraging others to not take life too seriously. She wishes to share with women of all ages that it’s never too late to design a life that they love -- that anyone can live confidently and anyone can achieve self love
Stats: Height: 5’4”Weight: 120 lbsEye Colour: BlueHair Colour: BrownNationality: CanadianHometown: Vancouver, B.C.Profession: Communications SpecialistFavourite food: holiday turkey feastsFavourite TV show: The Walking Dead and The SimpsonsFavourite movie: Gone with the WindFavourite outdoor activity: hiking in the mountains.
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If you were to walk into a music cafe and ordered a blend of original Hip Hop with a splash of classic R&B, the barista would bring a hot cup of L-Smooth. L-Smooth grew up in Midwest City, OK ( a suburb of Oklahoma City) and has been in the underground Hip Hop scene the past 4 years. “For certain Hip Hop and R&B music have been an influence on my life since I was young” says L-Smooth. “I remember the days of when I was working my first job and every Tuesday when a new music came out I made sure I was one of the first to get the latest”. “I was one of those guys with the 2 or 3 books full of cd’s”. L-Smooth always freestyled playfully with friends in school and later when he and his friends would be on the way to clubs on the weekend. Eventually through passion, support and encouragement from friends and family he decided to put more time into it and recorded in a professional recording booth just 4 years ago. With the help of longtime friend D.Stern, L-Smooth also came up with the independent label Street City Enterprises LLC. “Its just something that kind of happened”. “I cant say that I woke up one day and said that I wanted to be an emcee, but I can say that I’ve always been part of the Hip hop culture and have a natural love for it. L-Smooth prides himself on making feel good, timeless music with a message. Hip Hop music is suppose to make you feel good and inspire. When I write, I speak from experiences therfore its more relatable, uplifts and speaks to the soul. L-Smooth also loves to perform and is known to put on a awesome show. “Performing is an area to where you can
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win over a lot of fans so its important to be a good performer”. Whether there is 5 or 500 people, Those people expect a show”. Its up to you to deliver! L-Smooth has performed in areas across the country such as Los Angeles, California, Columbus,Ohio and SXSW last March to name a few places. He took 2nd place in a Coast 2 Coast event held in Dallas, Texas last year artist such as Killer Mike, Twista, Rockie Fresh and Cyhi Da Prynce to name a few. His original Hip Hop sound, stems from L-Smooth being a fan of many artist on all coast such as Wu tang Clan, Biggie Smalls, Redman, Busta Rhymes,LL Cool J, Gangstarr, Scarface, Mc Eiht, Dj Quik, 2Pac, NWA, Kool G Rap, Big L, Outkast, Black Starr, The Roots, Nas and Jay-Z to name a handful. L-Smooth is also influenced by other artist that were prominent in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s such as Al Green, Barry White, Bobby Womack, James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, New Edition, and Jodeci to name a few. “Oklahoma really doesnt have a distinctive sound so their are lots of different styles here”. says L-Smooth. If you look hard enough you will find a talented Hip Hop/ Rap artist that will cater to your style. Its not all country like people think. By listening to L-Smooth’s music, you can tell that he doesnt follow most mainstream trends or conform to mainstream radio. “I just like to do what comes natural which in turn allows me to create my own lane”. “There are several artist in the state creating their own lane successfully so much respect to them” says L-Smooth. L-Smooth is currently promoting his latest project “As Smooth As It Gets” which can be found on I-Tunes, Datpiff or Bandcamp. He is also gearing up to release his next project “Fortunate” as well as another joint ep called “Assassin’s Breed” Live Poet Society with fellow emcee Stretch Luv. DECEMBER 2013
Brandon “B.A.M.” Alexander Hodge recalls back in 2011 when he first linked up to work with Tyrese Gibson, producing a majority of the songs on Gibson’s grammy-nominated album “Open Invitation”. He credits this as the time when things really started to take off for him in his career. “After that…one thing after another just kind of fell in place,” said Hodge. Fast forward to today and the 26-yearold has producing credits on songs by Mario, Marsha Ambrosius, as well as Tyrese, Ginuwine and Tank’s debut album “Three Kings”, which peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Top 200. And Hodge makes it all seem easy. In reality, it has been a long road of hard work that started out way before that 2011 meeting. Music was meant to be a part of Hodge’s life in some way or another. The Hartford native was brought up in the church and surrounded by musicians and artists growing up. “My mom used to sing with a famous gospel singer Tramaine Hawkins, my dad had a group in the ‘90s,” said Hodge. He describes his father’s group as one of the best undiscovered groups in his region of the country during that time. “Everybody in my family does so much so that’s kind of where I came from and it was just everybody from my little brother all the way to my cousins,” he said. “There’s a bunch of us and we all play and sing and it just comes natural.” But it was Hodge’s cousin Doobie Powell who actually inspired him to take action. “I looked up to him,” said Hodge, “ and he was a drummer at the time and I just wanted to be like him so I started playing drums as far back as I could remember. As soon as I could walk I was over there on the drums.” Hodge was 16 before he moved on to the bass in his music fundamentals class in high school and within months was performing gigs. His music career started to pick up right as he graduated high school. From there, the young bass player was touring with the likes of Jaheim, Mary J. Blige, Chris Brown, Blackstreet, and Teddy Riley. By the time he was in his early 20s, Hodge took a slight turn in his career and moved toward producing. At the age of 22, Hodge signed with SRP/Universal in a joint venture deal and has been working steadily to grow his success. “It’s just kind of been off to the races ever since then and I’ve just been working and every year it’s just gotten bigger and bigger and bigger to this
point.” But it has not always been an easy road and he is well-aware of the challenges that exist in the music industry since he started out making beats, because, as Hodge puts it, “You can’t sell a beat…you sell songs.” It was a concept that he had to learn early on, the difference between a beat-maker and a producer. “I didn’t get it until I even... until I started having success and I started having records come out,” said Hodge, “and...I was around other producers and I seen how they worked and started to understand certain terminologies and just understand how it works more.” Other downfalls that Hodge noted early on. Placement. “I was skeptical of, you know..when you hear...producers taking advantage of other producers, like a bigger producer kind of, you know stealing beats from other guys.” Since then Hodge is more aware of the process and the business of the music industry, but he had to go through an experience where someone took credit for his work before he could fully understand. Not mentioning any names, Hodge looks on it now as a learning experience. “I understand now that it wasn’t that and I think that’s just one of those things that you kind of have to be in it to get it,” he says, later adding, “and then once you get to a certain place you’ll see for yourself like, oh that’s what that means or that’s what they were saying,” later adding, “… you have that aha moment and that happened for me so now I get it.” The levels that exist for artists are the same for those working behind the scenes. The bigger the name, the bigger the reach of the song. Pair that with the competition that exists and you’ve got a perfect storm for anyone trying to make it in music. “Oh, the competition is crazy because there’s all of the producers that are known and the producers that have hits out and the producers that are all over on the radio,” said Hodge. “But then even more than that there are the people that nobody knows and there’s a lot more of those people and they’re just as talented if not more talented so you got competition everywhere.” Hodge brushes off the idea of competing with those around him, citing himself as his only competition. And this attitude has
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brought him great success. Hodge has managed to earn his spot with placements on Chris Browns unreleased album “X” as well as unreleased credits with Usher, Trey Songz, and August Alsina. “Just the same projects everybody else is working on,” said Hodge. “All of the main priority projects that, you know, with the artists that are coming out and coming out soon everybody is kind of trying to get one of those slots.” Since linking up to work with Tyrese in 2011, Hodge has gained praise from the producer, actor and grammy-nominated singer-songwriter who calls Hodge the “future of music”. They are currently working on Tyrese’s “Black Rose,” set to be released in 2014, a double album that Tyrese announced to be his last solo album. And Hodge doesn’t feel any pressure from the hype. “That’s a lot to live up to,” said Hodge, “but I don’t mind the pressure because I feel like I was built for it.” It might seem like the family who was so involved in his introduction and love for music would also be first to celebrate his success. But moving away from the music that he grew up around in church has made it difficult. “They just kind of don’t agree with my choice to do the music that I do” says Hodge, who added, “…making music that people make babies to… it’s just different.” An example: The lead single “Sex Never Felt Better” on TGT’s “Three Kings” album was produced by Hodge. The record peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Adult R&B chart in
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May. And although his family may not agree with it, Hodge understands their point of view. “I think that they’re happy for me in my success and they’re happy that, you know my few years in the business hasn’t tarnished who I am or hasn’t changed me, I’ll say that.” Describing himself as strong-willed and opinionated, he is nowhere near finished. At the age of 26, Hodge is making a name for himself as a solid and consistent music producer. But he’s not in the business all for the music. The multi-talented producer has his sights set on moving into other fields later on. “I’m not sure to what capacity yet but I know I want to be in film, whether that’s writing, whether that’s directing, whether its cinematography,” said Hodge. “I just know I want to be in film because that’s the one thing beyond music…that I do more than anything.” Looking at his accomplishments to date, Hodge has set the bar high for any future projects he plans to have his name on. For more on B.A.M., check him out on twitter or instagram @ Bam_dilla.
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