A talented actress known as the “It Girl of the Indies”, Augie Duke has appeared in numerous films, TV shows and shorts spanning the last decade. She starred in many horror features including the much-loved Bad Kids Go To Hell, The Badger Game and Spring. Augie played Joan Jett in the Amazon Original series “Red Oaks”. She also played Steve McQueen’s wife Neile Adams in Chasing Bullitt. She won Best Actress for the feature Burning Ketucky at the Mammoth Film Festival.

Augie recently earned rave reviews for playing lead in Angelica Zollo’s feature Trauma is a Time Machine. LA Times wrote “Zollo, and her daring lead actress, Duke, create a courageously personal, experimental piece, tapping into a raw emotional state not often rendered on the screen with such depth and intelligence.”

Armen is an actor and writer known for The Departed (2006), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), and American Hustle (2013).

Thomas G. Waites was born on January 8, 1955 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is an actor and director, known for The Thing (1982), And Justice for All (1979), Money Train (1995) and is perhaps most well-known for his role in the cult classic film The Warriors (1979).

Ray 'Boom Boom' Mancini was born on March 4, 1961 in Youngstown, Ohio, as Raymond Michael Mancini. He is an actor and producer, known for 6:45, Timebomb (1991) and Who's the Boss? (1984).

Mark Howard James (born October 16, 1961) professionally known as The 45 King, is an American hip hop record producer and disc jockey (DJ) from The Bronx borough of New York City. The 45 King first gained fame with his breakbeat track The 900 in 1987. He was also featured on the 1989-Hustlers Convention album on the UK label Music of Life, which is considered by many to be hip-hop's first-ever live album. The 45 King's big break came when Queen Latifah signed with Tommy Boy Records in 1989 and released the album All Hail the Queen. The 45 King did extensive production on this album, and it is considered by critics to be among his best production work. In 1998, The 45 King produced Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem) for Jay-Z. The song was a hit that featured a looped chorus from the original cast album of the Broadway musical Annie. In 2000, he produced the platinum- certified track for Eminem.

The legacy of Remy Ma is as tightly woven into the fabric of hip-hop history as a bass line. Over the course of nearly two decades, Remy has impacted rap music both near and far, setting a bar for how artists of all genders should approach the art form. However, we lost her physical presence for nearly half of her career span—a story she details in her long-awaited second solo album 7 Winters and 6 Summers. The Bronx-bred Grammy-nominated legend delivers a brand new iteration of Remy Ma, one who is not only integral to the foundation of hip-hop music, but is elevating it as one of the brightest yet timeless stars in the game.

Born Reminisce Smith (now Mackie), Remy Ma’s come-up tale is widely known. Having her first taste of fame on the remix to M.O.P.’s pivotal single “Ante Up” in 2001, Remy popped up earlier on the late Big Pun’s seminal Yeeeah Baby (then Remy Martin). It wasn’t long before her Castle Hill Projects pedigree of sharp lyrics and slick delivery placed her at the helm of the burgeoning movement known as Terror Squad. Her appearance on the hit single “Lean Back” in 2004 yielded a Grammy nomination in 2005 for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. A year later she would drop her groundbreaking debut There's Something About Remy: Based on a True Story in 2006, armed with the classic “Conceited.” Remy was on top of the world, yet it would all come to a screeching halt in 2008 when she was jailed. Her term? Seven winters and six summers. And so the next chapter of her story began.

“Some people—haters mostly—might say, ‘Oh that’s all she talks about is jail’…but that was a very large portion of my adult life,” Remy expresses about her prison experience in Westchester County’s Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women. “That’s all I know. I’m not making this up to sound cool. This is my reality.”

On August 1, 2014, Remy left the prison walls for good, with a new lease on life and a husband (rapper Papoose). She would collapse the game once again, as her track with Fat Joe and French Montana—2016’s “All The Way Up”—would earn her two more Grammy nods, along with a Soul Train Music Award win as well as a BET Hip Hop Award. Remy would also return as the BET Awards’ Best Female Hip-Hop Artist in 2016, coming full circle from her previous 2005 win. More Platinum plaques and a starring role on VH1’s Love & Hip Hop: New York would seal Remy’s return to fate as a superstar, though her next step is perhaps her most intimate. 7 Winters and 6 Summers will detail Remy’s experiences while away, breathing life back into female rap, while returning to her old life with a new state of mind.

“When they put me in my cell, I had a window…and all I could see were the tops of trees,” Remy Ma recalls. “I knew if they were green, that means they were Summer trees; if they were just branches they were Winter trees. I would count my time by the trees.” The collected time became the title of her album. “When it was all said and done, I did 7 Winters and 6 Summers.” While the project is named after Remy’s length of time away, it spans much wider than that. “It’s a story it takes you on a journey from before I was away, when I was away, and now,” she says. Every experience, every feeling, and every moment is detailed on what will surely be revealed as Remy Ma’s magnum opus. 

While the cut “Wake Me Up” with Lil’ Kim served as the warm-up, thanks to Cool & Dre’s infectious take on Kim’s classic beat to “Queen B@$#H,” other radio-ready joints include “Company” with A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, and “Melanin Magic” featuring Chris Brown—the latter being a lesson in self-love. “My Instagram comment section was filled with negative shit like: ‘she looks like a gorilla, she’ll never make it mainstream,’” Remy says. “I was talking to my friends about it, and they told me, ‘You didn’t know about the silent war between dark skinned girls and light skinned girls?’” The track explores inner and outer beauty while celebrating both. 

However, a chunk of 7 Winters and 6 Summers travels in depth through Remy’s prison experience. “I have a couple of different songs that I wrote while I was in prison, and I kept them because I don’t think I could ever go back into that space out here. There’s nothing like writing it in the moment.” From losing everything that meant something to her, to the pain of watching other people leave (“I would see people on the bus home and wonder, ‘Why can’t that just be me?’”), Remy leaves no stone unturned. “On this album, I’m not holding anything back. You’ll hear the different emotions and styles. It’s all me. I wanted people to get a sense of the rollercoaster of emotions I experienced even once I left prison.” 

On the outside, life wasn’t immediately sweet. The night she was released, Remy headed right to the studio to record her verse on DJ Khaled’s “They Don’t Love You No More” remix, but soon after Remy realized that her career had the potential to suffer. “When I came home, people were acting weird like they didn’t know what to really expect of me and what I was going to do,” she explains. “I had this horrible reputation. It was really bad, and I would cry to my husband. He would say to just give it time, but people weren’t trying to give me a chance.” LHHNY gave her an opportunity to open up and show a different side of her. “I thought, ‘I went on so people can see another side of me. I can humanize myself as a wife, as a mother, as an artist.’ And it worked.”

While on the show, Remy would suffer a miscarriage, another emotionally traumatic experience she details on the album. “I felt horrible, I felt ashamed, I felt embarrassed,” she admits. “I felt so many emotions, that I couldn’t even tell which was the right one to feel.” One lesson she did learn was that all eyes were on her, so talking about that experience on social media allowed other women to voice their stories. Aware of her new platform, Remy is putting that inspiration back into the music. “I wanted to put every feeling I’ve had through this journey into this album—the fun times and the sad ones.”

As struggles do permeate the project, like Remy says, so do happy times. “According to statistics, I’m supposed to be in a halfway house or public assistance, struggling and I’m not,” she adds. “I couldn’t be happier and more proud of the events of my life. I’ve been given a second chance when some people haven’t even been given a first.”

Releasing through Remy’s new deal with Columbia Records, 7 Winters and 6 Summers is perhaps the most idyllic reintroduction to a rap legend who did the impossible: went away and came back greater than ever. “I had to watch hip-hop from the bench for many years,” Remy says. “I put everything into this project. This is all me. I want people to hear this album and say, ‘Wow Rem didn’t hold back.’” 

Being the nucleus of female rappers is indeed an honor bestowed upon Remy Ma, but for her, there’s a bigger goal in mind: to move beyond the confines of gender and reach the upper echelon of greats. “I want to be up there with the B.I.G.’s and the JAY-Z’s. The Eminem’s and the Tupac’s,” she humbly advises. “My name is only four letters; you can squeeze me in there.” After 7 Winters and 6 Summers, there’s no denying her spot.