Author: Cory McClanahan

For the August/September issue style issue of UPTOWN Magazine, Lenny Kravitz sat for a candid interview with the magazine and donned some kick-butt fashions as well. He opened up to the mag about his childhood saying, that he was often teased in school and called “zebra” because of his Jewish father and Black mother. “I was the kid they knew was different. They knew who my parents were
and would call them Mr. Day and Mrs. Night, or they’d call me zebra.” He added that when the family moved to L.A. for his mother (Roxie Roker) to do “The Jeffersons”, he was enrolled in high school but rarely attended. His friend and musician Jill Jones said, “Lenny would move easily through all the groups. There were black kids who hung together in the cafeteria, the geeks, the Asians, surfers, the rocker kids. He
hung with all of them.” He also revealed he had a close relationship to Teena Marie. “She would cook a lot. It was her and
Penny Johnson, Rick James’ little sister. They looked after me, fed me. She took
me to concerts. She took care of a lot of folks. The big reason why I am here 
[is] because of this sister. She was for real. She was self contained,
a multi-instrumentalist, a writer, producer

After a breakout year, Odd Future’s Frank Ocean get his first cover story with FADER. Catch the fade and read an excerpt below. When he was nine, Frank Ocean’s godfather subscribed him to Robb Report, a magazine for the ultra-rich. Less interested in fiduciary smarts, it’s a catalog of conspicuous consumption, highlighting tropical vacations, invaluable antiques and, as Ocean came to know, really expensive cars. Though he comes from a middle class family, he obsessively read the magazine’s classified ads, fixating on exorbitantly priced used Bentleys and Maybachs. “I would just fall in love with all their cars. That was the start.” Ocean, whowas born Christopher Breaux (and goes by Lonny to friends), downscaled his material desires, and when he was 13, began going door-to-door, detailing cars for cash. “I would bring all my supplies. Literally, it was like a movie, I had a wagon, those long red wagons, like a Radio Flyer-type wagon, and I used to buy my own soaps.”