Buffie the Body revisits her video-vixen era as hip-hop reexamines the women who defined it
TheGrio...
The model’s appearance on “The Tamron Hall Show” comes as hip-hop revisits the women who became stars in their own right through 2000s music videos.
Buffie “The Body” Lewis has a revelation about her video vixen days that has people doing a double take: She says she was already in her 40s while many of the women working alongside her were in their 20s.
Lewis shared the details during her Friday, Oct. 9, appearance on “The Tamron Hall Show,” reflecting on her time in an industry that helped turn women featured in rap videos into celebrities in their own right.
Her interview arrives during a week when the video vixen era has resurfaced in hip-hop conversations. On the Oct. 7 episode of “The Joe Budden Podcast,” the hosts discussed the women who once commanded attention in music videos, prompting former video vixen Gloria Velez to push back on the idea that they had disappeared.
“Living full lives, raising families, building businesses, and evolving, yet somehow we’re still the conversation,” Velez wrote in response. “Maybe the real question isn’t what happened to the video vixens. Maybe it’s why are y’all so obsessed with us?”
Lewis’ appearance offers another perspective on a generation of women whose public images often outlasted the careers that created them. She became a recognizable face in 2005 after appearing in Tony Yayo and 50 Cent’s “So Seductive” music video, later appearing in other music videos, grace magazine covers and landing a role as Big Booty Judy in the 2006 film “ATL.”
But becoming a video vixen was not part of a carefully laid career plan. In a 2006 interview with AllHipHop, Lewis explained that swimsuit photos she had taken were published online without her permission. The attention eventually led to modeling opportunities, including a feature in King magazine, before “So Seductive” helped propel her career.
Her experience illustrates how an unexpected opportunity could change a woman’s trajectory during hip-hop’s music-video boom.
Lewis has since pursued fitness and entrepreneurship, including her Bodynomics fitness platform and Brick Built apparel brand. Her social media now features workouts, gardening, carpentry and home-improvement projects.
In July, she poked fun at fans who still expected swimsuit photos and music-video appearances. In a parody of the popular Netflix documentary trend, she explained that she had not participated in photoshoots, music videos or hosting events in more than 13 years.
“I live an ordinary lifestyle. Nothing extra. Just simple,” she wrote.
The renewed attention comes roughly two decades after Lewis first became a fixture of hip-hop culture. Her latest interview offers a timely opportunity to revisit an era when video models could become stars in their own right, even as their public identities remained tied to the images that made them famous.