Official bio: CINNAMON BABE is an emerging LA-based nu-metal outfit led by model, actress, and outright hustler Stormi Maya. The Bronx native, who grew up on bands like The Cranberries and would later find inspiration from the rebellious voice of acts like Rage Against The Machine and Linkin Park, has come a long way to make this dream a reality. As a black woman, an ally of BIPOC and the LGBTQ+ community, and most of all, a survivor, Cinnamon Babe is Maya’s vehicle to tell her truth. Cinnamon Babe is signed to Version II (Banshee, Beauty School Drop Out)
Sleeve cover
Stormi Jellison, better known to the world as Stormi Maya, describes herself as a hustler, but I don’t like the word. It downplays the real story behind this incredible young woman and multitude of her talents. Hustlers sell aggressively, they strive from one occasion to another.
Stormi was dealt a tough deck of cards when she started out: working class background, poverty, coming from a single parent household and being from a minority group. There is a term America’s working poor in social sciences. It may be hard to explain it to somebody who grew up in Europe because of its institutionalized inequality, biases towards ethnic minorities, lack of access to national health care and systematic oppression. If you are however curious here are some links that explain the nature of the beast: here and here. Rising up from a system that has been designed to keep you failing is in itself a success but putting strong foundations for a future empire is another. I strongly believe that Stormi Maya is building one, right before our eyes.
Stormi Maya is a model, actress, producer, director, voice over artist and a musician. She is The Cinnamon Babe – fearless leader of a collective of musicians who make uncompromising, catching and engaged music.
Stormi honed her skills in various theatres in her native New York, before moving to glamour modelling. And the transfer should not surprise you. It’s a proven track for women of colour to mainstream success. Let me explain a bit more. American society in the 70s started to incorporate elements of the Civil Right Movement in arts and magazines. It was a time of so-called Blacksploitation films. However low budget the movies were, they showcased a lot of powerful, strong Black leading characters. Productions such as Coffy and Foxy Brown made Pam Grier first African American action movie star and a trailblazer. Two-parter about adventures of secret agent Cleopatra Jones rivalled with James Bond movies and turned Tamara Dobson into cultural icon and a sought after model. A screen success often translated into well paid modelling jobs, some of them in men’s magazines and via glamour photography. In the 80s and 90s Black models were breaking down walls and moving into the catwalks – Naomi Campbell, Tyra Banks and Roshumba Williams being prime examples. Decades before Only Fans, magazines and pictorials were a source of income and independence for many models of colour. In 1989 Playboy made history naming Renee Tenison as their first Afro American PlayMate of the Year. They followed with a double cover between Rene and her twin sister Rosie Tenison in 2002. In 1984 Vanessa Lynn Williams became the first Black Miss America. Her session for Hustler has been published against her will and she was stripped out of her title. The scandalous way she was treated opened so many eyes in the country and doors for Vanessa. In the span of five years, she was both Grammy nominated singer and had several theatrical and TV credits to her name.
Stormi Maya/Cinnamon Babe photographed by Carianne Older
I am not naming all those successful and accomplished women just because. Stormi Maya with her music, acting, her modelling portfolio and a big Only Fans account haven’t appeared in a vacuum. She is following in the footsteps of females who not only revolutionized the entertainment industry and rose to prominence by using only their own talents.
Not everybody likes when a woman is successful. In a recent interview Stormi Maya had this to say: “Society does not seem to like women who are very loud and vocalize the things they have an issue with, especially as a black woman. I feel constantly silenced by society and when I speak up, I am called bitter or that I have a chip on my shoulder. I am constantly told by men to just be quiet and show my tits and look pretty.”
Since her arrival on metal stage with “Rock and Roll Is Black” in 2022, Cinnamon Babe has tackled all sorts of social issues in her music: racism and colourism, sexism (“Loose”), predatory and violent men (“Death of a Predator”), impossible expectations aimed at women (“Typecast”) and mental health crisis among young people (“Pure O”). She has both been hailed the best new metal act since Rage Against the Machine and an unwelcome guest in the world of rock and roll. I mean I`m not even gonna argue with those who think women can’t sing metal. Because that’s plain rubbish and not worth a point of view. Whoever has this outlook, please get yourself in a bin of history and save us all time. You are a hopeless case and frankly, nobody wants you in metal.
It`s worth exploring the other angle though.
Nobody made such noise, ruffled so many feathers and made people uncomfortable by speaking truth to power as Cinnamon Babe, well at least not in a decade. Art should make you uncomfortable, it should challenge the status quo, it should bring a new perspective to the table. In a world where rock bands resemble care homes (average age of heritage acts is now 80) and almost all new bands getting through are industry plants, it is the underground that offers salvation for the guitar music.
“Bad Dog” is a great example of how fierce metal music AD 2023 should be. It mixes spoken vocals (almost like it’s a drill record) with powerful screams out of hell and guitar work that brings the best of nu metal to mind. Few years in a church choir and I know a soprano when I hear one. Maya is such a powerful vocalist that she can easily stand in the same league with Carla Harvey (Butcher Babies), Tetiana Shmailyuk (Jinjer) or Otep Shamaya (Otep). Stormi can even take on male vocalists such as Burton C Bell (Fear Factory) and Mike Williams of EyeHateGod and hold her ground. I think a lot of folks on the scene look at nu metal and think Limp Bizkit and their follies, while completely forgetting the genre holds some supreme talent and incredible song writing.
“Bad Dog” is a firecracker that stays in your mind long after you stopped listening. Lyrically it is equally charged as music. Here Stormi Maya takes a shot at those who see a woman with a voice as a threat and refer to women who draw boundaries with a B-word. She plays with words, it`s no longer dancing on one`s grave but twerking. Fury and tongue -in-cheek attitude go hand in hand.
Video accompanying the single shows Stormi being arrested by a violent cop and being placed in the back of a police car from where she is shouting and snapping at the viewer. A sombre reminder of the treatment that women suffer at the hands of the institution that supposedly serves and protects.
When working on “Bad Dog” Stormi Maya was six months pregnant. Despite pregnancy, tight schedule and various professional assignments, she squeezes every second to make sure she stays in the game. If that doesn’t define a future superstar -nothing will.
In the next months Cinnamon Babe`s first EP “Fatherless” will hit the market. For one, I am sure we will see Stormi rising to the top. Watch this woman define pop culture for us for a long while.
You can follow Cinnamon Babe/Stormi Maya on socials:
https://www.weaudition.com/stormij
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8598252/
https://www.etsy.com/shop/CinnerBabe
https://www.instagram.com/cinnamonbabemusic
https://www.tiktok.com/@ultimatecinner
https://twitter.com/CinnamonBabe304
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0A64Cmp7_vsAbzTO5hYVXg
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0U2rJW6ug1KAvcegC2E004
Malicia Dabrowicz
Indieterria 
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