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Tori Cage
Tori Cage
A Hidden Gem
Robyn Easley, MOL - Robyn the Model
HIDDEN GEM-- something which is extremely out- standing and not many people may know about. This can be a person, who is sometimes unknown to the mainstream world, but fully esteemed, motivated, ac- complished, and still driven to accomplish more. Re- silience in times of despair, is like that of the gem’s cre- ation, when the rock undergoes metamorphosis. The rock has larges amounts of pressure and heat, against it—forcing it to change into something beautiful, something completely original, and of extreme value. The gem is not secret, forgotten, or unseen, because it illuminates bright amongst other shiny treasures. It’s rather rare, worthy of being preserved and exhibited for others to benefit from, for decades and centuries, to come.
Tori Cage, Positive Role Model, Mother, Entrepre- neur, Designer, Actress, Singer, and Philanthropist is a New Orleans, Louisiana native, who emerged in en- tertainment as a teenager. Upon meeting a male indi- vidual, she quickly acquired a record deal (1994) and would be in a girl group, “Azz Iz”. She took front seat as lead singer. With no fear, she moved to Los Angeles, California at age 18, to pursue an acting and singing career in 1995. That September, joining the girl singing group was challenging to start, as she soon found she was pregnant with a baby boy that October. The group wanted her to abort the baby, yielding her leaving them, to deliver her son. He was born, D’Quan Cage (23). Never losing sight of her goal to become a known singer and actress, Tori moved to New York City, for different entertainment exposure, while developing her craft.
Dating Moses, also her entertainment manager, she embarked a journey with independent label 12 Na- tions/SRC Records (associated with Universal Re- cords). She had high hopes for her expansion to take place, under their direction. Unfortunately, she was given what she calls, “the runaround”, in terms of what she expected from the deal she was contracted. This
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This was her first experience of utter disappointment, in the music industry. It’s surely not been the last. Shortly after, she was pursued by Ne-Yo, American singer, song- writer, record producer, actor and dancer, along with Tango, manager at Compound Records. They did regular work with Tori. One project was inclusive of work with artist, Heather Headley (In My Mind).
Impressed with Tori’s talents, the two (Ne-Yo and Tan- go) were also in pursuit of Tori, to partner exclusively in a record deal. At the time, neither of them knew Tori and Moses’ status beyond their manager/artist relationship. Regardless of it, the pair did not want Moses to be a part of the Tori Cage and Compound Records fuse. Trying to become knowledgeable of Moses and Tori’s personal re- lationship, Ne-Yo went as far as testing Tori in conversa- tion, when he picked her up for regular rehearsal. Quickly noticing what was occurring, Tori took extra precaution to salvage her relationship, dismantling the Compound Record relationship. Ultimately, she dissolved the rela- tionship with Moses shortly after. Today, she wonders what would have been produced, if she stayed connected with the record label members, from Compound.
The breakup prompted the move to Texas, in pursuit of her passion of fashion. While in New York, she had ex- posure to high-end fashion, by way of her ex-boyfriend Moses. She realized she had her own flare in the indus- try. In 2007, she envisioned her clothing line becoming