Grace Jones has always been one to be upfront with her opinion, and so with the release of her new autobiography I'll Never Write My Memoirs will likely come a lot of strong opinions on popular icons in the entertainment business.
Grace Jones / Credit: FAMOUS
Time Out this week published an excerpt from the book, which saw Jones claim that a majority of today's stars have "no long-term vision".
She writes: "Trends come along and people say, 'Follow that trend'. There's a lot of that around at the moment: 'Be like Sasha Fierce. Be like Miley Cyrus. Be like Rihanna. Be like Lady Gaga. Be like Rita Ora and Sia. Be like Madonna.' I cannot be like them - except to the extent that they are already being like me.
"I have been so copied by those people who have made fortunes that people assume I am that rich. But I did things for the excitement, the dare, the fact that it was new, not for the money, and too many times I was the first, not the beneficiary."
She goes on to say that Rihanna "does the body-painting thing I did with Keith Haring, but where he painted directly on my body, she wears a painted bodysuit. That's the difference. Mine is on skin; she puts a barrier between the paint and her skin. I don't even know if she knows that what she's doing comes from me, but I bet you the people styling her know. They know the history."
And whilst she doesn't directly name who she's talking about, she explains how she rejected a collaboration with a popular artist because she "will get nothing back except for a little temporary attention. No one could believe that I said no, but I am okay on my own. I am okay not worrying about a new audience. If the f**k don't feel right, don't f**k it."
She continues: "With this one, who I will call Doris, I thought she was trying on other people's outfits: she's a baby in a closet full of other people's clothes, a little girl playing dress-up, putting on shoes that don't fit. I could see what she wanted to be when I watched her doing something when she started out that was starker and purer. Deep down, she doesn't want to do all the dressing-up nonsense; she loses herself inside all the play-acting.
"The problem with the Dorises and the Nicki Minajes and Mileys is that they reach their goal very quickly. There is no long-term vision, and they forget that once you get into that whirlpool then you have to fight the system that solidifies around you in order to keep being the outsider you claim you represent. There will always be a replacement coming along very soon - a newer version, a crazier version, a louder version. So if you haven't got a long-term plan, then you are merely a passing phase, the latest trend, yesterday's event."
This isn't the first time the star has thrown shade at fellow singers, saying of Lady Gaga in 2010: "I really don't think of her at all. I go about my business... I wouldn't go to see her."
I'll Never Write My Memoirs by Grace Jones is published by Simon and Schuster on September 24.
Read Time Out's full extract here: http://www.timeout.com/london/music/grace-jones-autobiography-extract-rihanna-miley-gaga-kanye
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