LOS ANGELES — Alt sensation Skin Diamond has seeped back into the mainstream with a starring role in hip hop artist B.o.B’s single “John Doe” from his Underground Luxury album.
“I felt really honored to be part of it,” Diamond told XBIZ, adding that B.o.B.’s production crew reached out to her via her agent and asked that she audition.
“I don’t know how they found me or if they saw me in something, but I think B.o.B. personally requested me,” she said.
Introducing herself in the video as Raylin (which happens to be her birth name), Diamond tells an off-screen interviewer that she’s “a small town girl, but I loved acting from a young age. I studied theatre in college, so I packed my bags and decided to come to the big city and try and make it.”
“How’s that going for you?” the interviewer asks.
Cue cautionary tale: the video cuts to a shot of a toned Diamond sprinting in Runyon Canyon, but quickly digresses into a montage detailing addiction and unfulfilled dreams.
Diamond pops pills while simultaneously driving and trying to memorize lines from a script, before finding herself at a debauched party, stripping for suited business men.
According to Diamond, B.o.B. — who is best known for his 2010 megahit “Nothin’ on You’" featuring Bruno Mars — wasn’t present at the one day shoot, but she enjoyed meeting the production crew and cast and getting to do some “serious acting.”
No stranger to the mainstream, Diamond’s resume includes modeling jobs for haute-and-famous companies like Louis Vuitton and American Apparel. In October, she collaborated with photographer Terry Richardson for an oft-topless pictorial.
Nommed for the prestigious 2014 XBIZ Female Performer of the Year, Diamond told XBIZ that she “has her all dress already" for the award show this Friday at the Century Plaza Hotel. [It’s] something gothic. I’ve been really getting back into my goth roots.”
Improbable as it sounds, the starlet said she grew up as a geeky misfit, who remained mostly friendless until she connected with a group of goth and alternative kids. Significantly more befriended (she has 104,899 Twitter followers), Diamond still rocks an edgy aethetic that has defined her adult career.
Underground Luxury, B.o.B.’s third studio album, was released Dec. 17 2013 by by Grand Hustle Records, Rebel Rock Entertainment and Atlantic Records.
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