Product Description

Once the sought-after video girl, this sexy siren has helped multi-platinum artists like Jay-Z, R Kelly and LL Cool J sell millions of albums with her sensual dancing. In a word, Karrine was H-O-T. So hot that she made as much as $2500 a day in videos and was selected by well-known film director F Gary Gray to co-star in his film, "A Man Apart", starring Vin Diesel. But the film and music video sets, swanky Hollywood and New York restaurants and trysts with the celebrities featured in the pages of "People" and in "Touch" magazines only touches the surface of Karrine Steffans' life. Her journey is filled with physical abuse, rape, drug and alcohol abuse, homelessness and single motherhood - all by the age of 26. By sharing her story, Steffans hopes to shed light on an otherwise romanticized industry and help young women avoid the same pitfalls she encountered - and if they're already in danger, she hopes to inspire them to find a way to dig themselves out of what she knows first-hand to be a cycle of hopelessness and despair.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #402212 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

About the Author
Karrine Steffans is a former hip hop music video feature star who made the transition into film as an actress co-starring opposite action star Vin Diesel and veteran actor Lorenz Tate in the hit film, A Man Apart. She lives in southern California with her son. Karen Hunter is one of the most sought-after collaborators in publishing. She has teamed up to write five best-sellers in her last eight books including: On the Down Low (2004) with AIDS activist JL King, Wendy's Got the Heat (2003) with nationally syndicated talk show host Wendy Williams, and I Make My Own Rules (1997) with LL Cool J. She has also written critically acclaimed AI on America with Rev. AI Sharpton. In addition to writing, Karen also hosts a New York morning talk show on WWRL (1600AM) every weekday from 6 a.m.-10 a.m.-one of the first women to break the morning talk genre as the lead host. Karen is also an Assistant Visiting Professor in the Film & Media Department at Hunter College. She lives in Orange, New Jersey.

Customer Reviews

Shamelesness wins again
If ever there was a book that epitomised the contrasting contradiction that is America, it is this one. This is not a feel good book with a Hollywood style happy ending. It is more an ode to self delusion, self hatred, self pity and a testimony to the futility of the worship of Mammon. It is a stuttering rollercoaster ride into the bowels of a hell adorned with the false image of celebrity.

Prior to reading this ‘book’ my initial sympathies lay firmly with the author. I was aware of the family hardship that she suffered at the hands of her promiscuous and emotionally flawed mother and the stifling, paranoid, and violent behaviour of her husband, Kool G Rap. Upon reading the first few chapters it became clear that the author was still in denial as to who and what she had deliberately become whilst seeking to blame everyone for her self inflicted predicament.

This so called book is nothing more than National Enquirer type drivel in hardback. The writing style is Barbara Cartland as a drugged out hoe meets hip hop royalty in a club, then back to the hotel. In an era of utter shamelessness the author proves once again that lack of talent is not a barrier to so called celebrity.

The one person that I have the utmost sympathy for in this book is her son, Naiim. For the author to dedicate this mishmash of a book to her son is a cruelty beyond her comprehension. This is the final confirmation that she really has lost contact with reality.

This book should be read though. It is a stark warning of the intoxicating nature of pop culture and strips bear the illusion that this genre has any respect for women. It is a warning that there are two Americas and that you should choose carefully which one you wish to participate in.

This book has been packaged as that of a triumphant, strong black woman overcoming the odds and emerging victorious at the end. With respect, I beg to differ.

Everyone else was reading it so I figured...why not?
I had heard all about this book on the radio and television but had no real desire to read it but after a friend lent it to my husband and he read it in one sitting I decided to see what all the hype was about and I was hooked after the first page. Don't get me wrong this was not necessarily what I would call a good book, in fact it was difficult for me to decide how many stars to give it because it was more like reading a gossip magazine than a book and therefore hard to judge on the usual 5 star rating system. However, I settled on three stars because though it was horribly written and I felt a little bit dumber for having read it...it was a page turner, girl. Every time I wanted to put it down Kerrine Steffans aka Superhead talked of something more scandalous than the last scandalous thing she did and it kept you wanting to read more! Sure had she not be talking about people we know of this book would have been a bore but that is the thing about tell alls, they are not to be confused with any type of literature.

While `CONFESSIONS OF A VIDEO VIXEN' did hold my interest for a day, I didn't really walk away knowing a whole lot more about the music industry or Hollywood or its inhabitants. Nor did I feel as though this book should serve as a warning to young girls headed down the same path that Kerrine went down, as she suggests was her purpose for writing it in the introduction. Kerrine's story did very little to deter like minded young girls from this life style other than to warn them of the hazards of drug use. She tended to glamorize everything else by telling of how easily everything came to her (supposedly) and what great people all of these men who treated her like dirt actually were. Moreover since her lifestyle seems to have changed only minimally I didn't walk away from reading this with a feeling of "oh well at least everything worked out for her in the end". She seems very content to be doing the same things but on "her terms". Overall "CONFESSIONS' was a quick read best left to those mature enough to already know that all that glitters....

Oh Please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don't get me wrong, I am deeply sorry for what she has gone through, in terms of the childhood rape she has suffered, as well as the destructive relationship she has with her mother, but she uses it as an excuse for her apalling behaviour constantly. For someone, who has apparently learned the error of her ways, she never takes responsibility for her own disgusting actions. She constantly insists that her behaviour is the result of all the people (mainly rappers she has had sex with) that have done her wrong in her life, not reflecting on the fact that she has done many people wrong, for example, I can't think of a single man she slept with in this book, that wasn't married. HELLO?! What about their wives? At times, I had to remind myself that what she was saying was 'factual'. I get the feeling, that she wanted to be the most respected and desired video girl, so she did whatever it took. Whilst all it took her to was a place of self destruction, and she didn't get the crown she was so looking for. The book is basically an A - Z of who she has slept with in the industry. If you want entertainment value, read this book, as some of the stuff she reveals is in fact funny, whilst others are pathetic. At the end of the book, you will not see the point of view, she seems to be so desparate to get across in her t.v interviews and this book, you will only come to the conclusion that she is a pathetic ho!