She’s about to premiere her own late-night talk show, is set to take over for Dr. Drew as the host of CBS Radio’s Loveline and has reinvented herself as an activist and author, but Amber Rose says she still gets the short end of the stick when it comes to commentary about her fame.
“The misconception — and I still hear this seven years later, to this day — is, ‘You’re only famous for Kanye.’ Initially, absolutely. In 2009, when they’re like, ‘Amber Rose — Kanye’s girlfriend,’ I was like, ‘OK, that’s pretty accurate. That’s what it is,’” she said in a recent interview with the Daily Beast that was conducted in mid-June and published June 30.
“But I didn’t ask to be famous, and I didn’t even talk or do interviews for two years, because I thought, I don’t want this. I’m not famous,” the 32-year-old model continued. “Over time, with going out in public, I realized it would never go away, so I didn’t have any choice but to progress. Everything I’ve done since then is my own doing, and I’ve worked my f–king ass off for everything I have. But Wendy Williams put Charlamagne on. Jay Z put Kanye on. But they don’t do that to men, and they always want to diminish my accomplishments and put them on someone else when I work really hard.”
Rose was among the 12 celebrities who were featured in the controversial music video for her ex Kanye West’s track “Famous,” which debuted Friday, June 24. In it, a likeness of her — and those of other famous faces — lay butt-naked on an oversized bed with their limbs tangled.
But even though Rose is outspoken about a lot of things, she made it clear in the interview that she does not want to spend her interviews talking about West, 39.
“Oh, I’m not talking about that. I am not talking ’bout that,” she said when asked about their relationship and eventual split in 2010. “I’m not talking about Kanye at all. I understand why you’re asking me that — you’re just doing your job — but I’m not going there.”
While Rose refuses to speak out about West — both past and present — fellow “Famous” video star Chris Brown publicly reacted to the rapper’s NSFW video.
“Why I gotta have the plumbers butt/crack showing WAX figure?” the 27-year-old quipped on Instagram, along with a screen grab of the video. “This n—a KANYE CRAZY, talented, but crazy.”
Other stars whose likenesses appeared in the video include George W. Bush, Anna Wintour, Donald Trump, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Ray J, Caitlyn Jenner, Bill Cosby, West and his wife, Kim Kardashian.
