M: remember this letter

M is for Moxy. One day about three years ago, while living at home in Puerto Rico with her parents, the then 17-year-old M (she politely refuses to reveal her full name--for now) woke up and booked a flight to Los Angeles. With a successful modeling career underway (she had recently represented Puerto Rico at the Miss Intercontinental Pageant), M wanted a change of locale to get her musical career started on the right path.

Her debut album--due out this spring on 7th Sign, the label founded by blazing-hot producer 7 Aurelius--is a potent brand of R&B, with just a twist of Latin sabor. It's a sound that reflects her past. Her father, an engineer, played timbales, and her mother gave her an appreciation for the piano and Barbra Streisand. "My parents would play Spanish music and then Stevie Wonder," M says of life at home.

More recently, M has been working with Foxy Brown (who will appear on M's first single, "I Need a Man, Part II") and Busta Rhymes--the latter job initially slated for Mariah Carey. Not that M was nervous about filling in for the uberdiva. "I would never want to fill anybody's shoes," she says. "I'm wearing my own."

Dimitri Ehrlich is Interview's Music Editor at Large. Left: M wears a top and skirt by STELLA McCARTNEY. Right: Suit by FENDI. Cosmetic colors: CHANEL BEAUTE. Styling: NAOMI DE LUCE WILDING for Luce Formation. Hair: CAPRICE for Epiphany Entertainment. Makeup: KELA WONG for Beauty and Photo. Special thanks: MAISON 140. For fashion and photo details see page 189. Photographer: PATRICK HOELCK.

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