Allison Jayne
Sherman Oaks, California, United States | SELF
Music
Press
There are as many mashups and covers in the PopWrap jukebox as there are little yellow guys in “Despicable Me,” and each one is just as adorable. Today marks the day that we start our official infatuation with the music video cover-ups, and they have the potential to be just as brilliant.
Music video cover-up ,,, what the jazzle-stick are you talking about Ryan!? Well hold your figurative horses (read: unicorns) and let me explain.
Music video cover-ups are quite simple. They start with a familiar song, then they are broken down into beats and tracks, layered with additional vocals, mashed up with a new chorus and laid down on video for your eyes/ears/pants to feast on. The reason for our new infatuation with funk lies solely on the well-moisturized shoulders of a pint sized freaktastic rappstress who once went by Fan_3 (later by Fanius III) but now just goes by plain ‘ol Allison Jayne.
Last week she announced her summer cover series on YouTube by plopping up her version of Semi Precious Weapons' self-titled track and last night she loaded up her rendition of Vampire Weekend’s “Giving Up The Gun.”
The video is below, and it makes me super smiley time every time the play buttons gets tickled. So do it ... tickle it ... and then jam your face off. - NY Post
You can’t miss Fannius — she’s the fuzzy-haired presence dispensing hugs outside the Viper Room on a cold Tuesday night in lime-green Adidas high-tops, red-framed glasses, wallet chain and black-leather jacket. The buckle on the rainbow belt around her blue jeans is taped together, rainbow-colored bracelets adorn her wrists, and a red-plaid scarf is wrapped around her neck. On this night, the rapper/singer, who turned 21 last month, is supposed to perform a half-dozen songs at the Sunset Strip club, but the show is running late and Fannius — Fan to her friends — feels bad that her entourage is out here in the chilly air. If they are impatient, though, they don’t show it.
“Rock it, girl!” shouts a young woman who walks up to Fan with a big smile. Fan, whose full rapper moniker is Fannius III, smiles back and takes a drag from her Camel Light.
“It started as Fan 3,” says the native Angeleno, who now lives in West Hollywood. “I got the opportunity to be on the first Lizzie McGuire soundtrack when I was 14, and they asked me what I wanted to be billed as. So I said Fan 3 because I was a huge TLC fan. Then someone started calling me Fannius, and I liked that, so I stayed with it.”
Fannius has “FAN 3” tattooed on four fingers on her left hand (much to her mother’s dismay) and naturally owns an anti-authority streak that was enhanced by her dealings with the entertainment industry, which tried to stage her look.
“If it was up to me,” Fan says, “I’d be wearing sweat pants and slippers. But Jack, my keyboard player, said my ‘plain’ was showing and that I needed to dress up for the show.”
By Fan’s senior year at Calabasas High School, she was signed by Geffen Records, finished her schooling with a private tutor, and went on the road for Disney’s “Jingle Jam” tour. Disney and Geffen Records saw her as a rapping Hilary Duff, but Fan wasn’t entirely happy with her role as a clean-cut Top 40 rap star.
“It was so much not my thing,” Fan says. “I was always very arty and I had tattoos and piercings and they told me I had to clean myself up.”
In what may have been a blessing in disguise, a mother of one of the teenage members of the “Jingle Jam” tour saw Fan smoking pot one night. She reported the incident to Disney honchos, who severed all ties with Fan once the tour was over. Without the Disney image, Geffen Records decided to drop her too.
“Geffen didn’t really know what to do with me,” Fan says. “Most major labels don’t know what to do with talent.”
Soon after, Fan, who now only smokes cigarettes and drinks lots of sugar-free Red Bull, started a new band called Shut Up Stella, signed by Epic Records. But before Fan could release an album, Epic dropped her as well. She’s not looking for a big record-company contract any time soon.
“I’m definitely not into signing a major-label deal,” says Fan. “In a perfect world, I would sign with a really cool indie label and sell 100,000 records myself.”
But the mishaps with the major labels brought Fan a certain kind of freedom. Six months ago, she came out as bisexual, which is something the show-business world still frowns upon. She also started releasing her own music, including the power-pop single “Girlfriend,” on the Internet at myspace.com/fan3, instead of waiting for a major label to pull the trigger. And now the Viper Room has taken a liking to Fan, giving her regular gigs to help her break out.
At 10:25 p.m., Fannius III finally stands on the small stage inside the tiny club with a microphone in hand and a full band behind her. A guitarist starts a riff, the drummer takes off and Fan kicks into a song about a bad lover. She jumps and raps and the audience claps and sings along. Backstage mothers, squeaky-clean images and major-label demands are forgotten. Fan is now enjoying herself. - LA Weekly
he story of Fannius III (a.k.a. Fan 3 or just Fan) is the stuff of rock 'n' roll history. Knocking down doors. Getting lucky breaks. Major label deals. Getting dropped. Doing drugs. Getting dropped again. Getting second and third chances.
It's a story you've probably heard before, all part of the lifelong struggle to become a rock star. Typical, really. Then again, Fan is just 21. A 21-year-old, white, bisexual female rapper from a cookie-cutter Los Angeles suburb.
Not so typical anymore, huh?
These days, Fan is making music on her own terms. Her solo EP (technically her third album, but her first to ever see the light of day) is garnering her big attention, propelling her onto coveted stages... - Curve Magazine
THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM: Thanks to Simon Renshaw for sending us this
clip of female rocker Fan 3's "Major Label Blues," which details her
adventures in the sputtering music business, set to the tune of Jane's
Addiction's "Been Caught Stealing." Apparently she's been signed twice
before, and this YouTube clip includes a montage of music executives
including Ron Fair, Charlie Walk, Barry Weiss, David Renzer, Jordan Schur,
Jimmy Iovine, David Massey, Doug Morris, Lyor Cohen, L.A. Reid, Bob
Cavallo, Clive Davis, Tommy Mottola and P. Diddy. (5/16p)
http://www.hitsdailydouble.com/news/rumormill.cgil.cgi - Hits Magazine
Discography
Geek Love, Geffen Records (radio/internet radio spins)
Digits (Shark Tale Soundtrack), Geffen Records (radio/ internet radio)
Welcome To My Party (Baby Momma Movie) Epic Records
Girlfriend, Self Released (internet radio)
I plan to release an EP first quarter 2011.
Photos
Bio
Allison Jayne, formerly Fannius and fan_3, earned her first platinum record at age 15, one year later, 'fannius' was signed to Geffen Records. Although her tracks were used in a number of film and TV projects, the label never did figure out how to market the white, female, teenage rapper they had signed, and after 2 years, she was dropped.
Not losing a beat, she formed the female trio ShutupStella and they were promptly signed to Epic Records. Again, industry domos who loved the music couldn’t figure out a way to package it for the masses. So, by her twentieth birthday, Ms. Jayne had been with two major labels and made two albums that never saw the light of day.
But it’s always been about the music and she keeps making more. Working with a coterie of top producers and co-writers with whom she’s developed ties over the years, the new stuff is coming fast and furious. Typically for Ms. Jayne, its fresh, smart, different and accessible. “Girlfriend”, “Hi 5” and her caustically hilarious take on the biz, “Major Label Blues” are just a few of the new ones that it would behoove you to check out.
Allison Jayne will be performing and recording through the year, a wily veteran in her twenties, still aiming to bring it to the people.
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