DRAYA--FROM STRIP CLUB TO BASKETBALL WIFE

via MaseTV:

Draya Michele is probably best known for being on Basketball Wives LA, for dating Chris Brown, and the child endangerment charges of her 11-year old son. However, despite her controversial come up on the dating and reality tv scene, Draya has still managed to make herself the hottest chick in the game, while also being a very smart and successful business woman with her lingerie line and endorsement deals. Like it or not, Draya is a force to be reckoned with---with her amazing sex appeal, and vibrant personality. From her sturggle days at the strip club to feed her son, to the bright lights of Hollywood with her NFL baller boo, Draya has truly went from Ashy to Classy!

Draya is a native of Eastern Pennsylvania, the half-Italian, half-Black Draya’s career really took off big in 2009, appearing in several music videos which included Walking On The Moon with The Dream Kanye West, with Usher and Nikki Minaj in Little Freak, with Fabolous in When the Money Goes, Honey Stay, The Game in Shake, Under by Pleasure P, as well as Watch The Throne with Jay-Z and Kanye West again.

Draya has modeled and appeared on the both the covers of and/or pictorials for such men’s magazines such as Show, XXL, King, and Black Man.

After catching the media’s attention with her short relationship with Chris Brown, and her infamous rants on Twitter, Draya was chosen to appear on Basketball Wives LA. Draya’s role (introduced to one of the existing characters Gloria Govan while in acting class) was to be pinned as the outcast and the bad person (the attractive non basketball wife), but with her no nonsense demeanor and witty winning personality, (delivering catchy facts such as: “Before you were a wife (while you were sleeping with the basketball player) what where you?”) made her the show’s favorite.

It’s Draya’s witty and “no nonsense” attitude, which urban America adored and eventually evolved Draya from being the cause of controversy to being the most lovable character on the show, which landed her a solo interview on the Wendy Williams Show.

Draya was actually brave enough to sit down for a full in depth interview with the gossip queen herself Wendy Williams! in the “Hot Topics” segment of her talk show, Draya held it down against Wendy’s harsh straight-forward criticism. The two actually played well off one another.

Right from the start of the interview, Wendy asks Draya how she made it on Basketball Wives: L.A. given that she’s not even dating a basketball player, much less married to one. Wendy follows up by calling her guest “slutty” and questions Draya about a rumor that Laura Govan’s ex boyfriend and baby daddy Gilbert Arenas had his way with her in a locker room before passing her off to a couple of teammates?

Draya kept it classy and handled herself with humor, responding,“I would have millions [of ball players] by now if I were doing crazy, wild stuff like that.” She continues, “The three basketball players… I haven’t even been with three basketball players in one month, let alone day.” Jokingly, Draya adds, “I like to space them out a little bit.”

Wendy refers to her guest, saying, “This girl has gotten around.” Draya takes the show’s host in stride, and stated, “Anything you do in your past can be cleaned up.”

Draya also remained calm when asked about the child endangerment charges which have been alleged against her. Draya responds, “I discussed it in 2010. I discussed it on the show, and it’s just like, I just want to move on with my life and show the people that I’m not this person that they created me out to be.”

Discussing her nine month relationship with hip-hop star Chris Brown, Draya says it occurred post Rihanna and that he was never violent towards her. She reveals, “We really didn’t discuss her. I saw a different Chris Brown.”

When it comes to her stripping past, Draya is brutally honest when she states: “I stripped for a few years. Kinda like off and on just whenever I needed something.”

As an entreprenuer Draya has developed her own resort swimwear line called Mint Swim , lingerie line, and was introduced as the face and spokes model for cosmetic line SECRET KISSES .

Draya is always very public in promoting her new clothing and lingerie line called FAGS, which stands for “Fine Ass Girls.”

It was on Basketball Wives that Draya came out publicly and discussed her past charges with child endangerment of her (at the time) 7-year old son. Draya mentioned it lightly in the show, but later reports surfaced of what really happened the night her son was found wandering around alone in Pennsylvania.

According to a local PA newspaper:


A 7-year-old Wyomissing boy was coming home from school to anempty apartment and spending nights alone while his mother worked in Philadelphia, borough police said Friday.

The boy told police that he would get off the bus most days and wait for someone to leave or enter the gated parking garage under the apartment complex in the 100 block of North Park Road so he could get into the building, police said.

His mother, Andraya M. Howard, 25, would leave the apartment door unlocked and microwave dinners in the freezer for him,they said.

Police arrested Howard at the apartment Thursday night on a charge of endangering the welfare of a child. She remained free on $25,000 bail after arraignment before District Judge Ann L. Young in Reading Central Court. According to court records:

A policeman found the boy alone in a disheveled apartment Dec. 16 about 2 a.m. after the boy called 9-1-1 and told dispatchershe was home alone. He told Patrolman Kevin M. Quinter that he called his mother’s cell phone about 20 times to find out where she was.

He last spoke to her when he called her after getting off the bus. She said she was at a tanning salon and would be home soon.

The apartment looked like it had been ransacked, with women’s undergarments scattered throughout the living room. A small dog was in a cage, and dog feces and dog urine were in several places in the apartment. While Quinter talked to the boy, the youth got a TV dinner from the freezer, stood on the counter and put it into the microwave.

Police called the boy’s grandmother, who took him home. She said she had been watching her grandson while Howard went to her job overnight in Philadelphia, but she had not been baby-sitting the boy for a few months.

Howard, who said she worked as a model, returned home about 8:45 a.m. and police told her that her son was in the care of the county Children and Youth Services while they investigated. Police did not know the status of the child Friday.

They charged Howard on Dec. 30, but did not immediately arrest her because she agreed to surrender to sheriff’s deputies. When she didn’t, police went to the apartment and arrested her.

Once news of the actual police reports broke, Draya was publicly ridiculed by America for her horrible past a parent, but Draya stood strong through the fire.

The criticism took a turn for the worse once Draya appeared on BET’s 106th and Park for a segment called ” #AskDraya ” , where fans were “supposed” to ask the hit reality star questions about herself and career. However, things took a turn for the worse when Twitter deciding to go HAM and blast Draya for her horrible parenting past.

weak!!!!!!!!!!!

The criticism has been harsh, but Draya has only become more confident and fearless with her career, and has now moved up to become a new model for Jay Z’s line RocaWear, and has begun datingDallas Cowboys player Orlando Scandrick.

With her new found love with a popular NFL player, and the next season of Basketball Wives LA set to release, Draya Michele is only getting ready for more success and fame to come her way. She has publicly announced her remorse over her past, and has moved her son and Mother to Los Angeles with her to reap the benefits of her controversial career.

Regardless if you hate Draya or not…..the girl has remained strong, hasn’t given up on what she wants, and has publicly gone from Ashy to Classy.

Don’t hate!!!!!