Meet Lauren Nostro

“Lauren is the Music News Editor of Genius.com. She’s responsible for mining the internet for the stories behind your favorite songs, lyrics, and artists. Lauren was previously the Managing Editor of Complex Music where she profiled the best rapper alive Nicki Minaj, spent a day with Khloe Kardashian, and wrote Complex’s first digital cover story on Danny Brown. More importantly, she did her master’s thesis on Future and went on a SlutWalk with Amber Rose. She has bylines on VICE, Fader, Paper Magazine, Jezebel, and more. These days, she lives in Brooklyn with her cat, Tunechi.”

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Photography by Xenia Alexandra

“I moved to New York to get my master’s in writing at NYU. I ended up getting an internship with Complex and worked under the music editor Insanul Ahmed at the time. We work together at Genius now, too. I really had no idea what I was doing, I knew a lot about music but certainly not enough. I’m pretty sure I learned more in that year of interning at Complex than I did in all of grad school and possibly college. From there I was an editorial assistant, bounced around and worked at VICE’s Noisey for a bit and ended up back at Complex from 2013 to March 2016 as managing editor of the music channel.”

“My cat, Tunechi, usually wakes me up around 5:30 a.m. to be fed and then I’m in and out of sleep until 8. I’ve narrowed my morning routine down to 30 minutes so that I can lay around and pretend to meditate/snuggle with my cat all morning. I force myself to drink 4 glasses of lemon water before I leave the house.”

Top, Banana Repbulic ; Pants, H&M ; Shoes, Vans

“I’d been at Complex for almost five years and I think there was just a breaking point of, “OK, what now?” I ended up leaving to go freelance for a few months and grow up. Then I started talking to Genius and ended up doing some freelance for them before coming on as their music news editor. It helped that a handful of my old editors at Complex moved to Genius, too. What appealed to me was that Genius was solely dedicated to the music—the stories behind the lyrics, the songs, the production, and the artists. These days, artists don’t need media to tell their stories, they have their own sites, their own magazines, their own platforms. We work *with* artists to tell their stories. What Genius does is really just add another layer to that by dissecting and breaking down the meaning behind that.”

shop her favorite records

“My favorite record that I own is Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday—the vinyls are pink, but I have them framed on my wall. The others are all ones I stole from my college’s radio station—they basically had them outside of the studio in crates to give away and I came across them at midnight after a long night in the college newspaper office. I have so many random vinyls at this point—Ma$e, Lil Flip, Black Rob, Faith Evans, a lot of early Bad Boy records. Then Take Care, of course.”

“I also interviewed Khloe Kardashian and I had a very nice lunch at the Beverly Hills Hotel -probably one of the more honest and open interviews I’ve ever done. Then there was the Amber Rose Slutwalk, it was surprisingly one of the most emotional experiences I’ve had while writing a piece. It was a really incredible experience that I feel like opened a lot of people’s eyes to the women’s issues she’s trying to tackle.”

“Anyone that works in music should have a copy of egotrip’s Book Of Rap Lists, it’s like the bible for rap writers. Shea Serrano, one of my favorite writers, commissioned a ton of music writers for The Rap Yearbook, I was able to write about Kanye West and Jay Z’s Watch The Throne in it. As for So Sad Today, Men Explain Things To Me, and Joan Didion, I like to make myself cry.”

“I interviewed Nicki Minaj for a Complex cover story at 2:30 a.m. after an almost 20 hour shoot. It was rough, we were both out of it, but we ended up really connecting during the interview. I never wanted to interview my idol—she’s my favorite artist of all time—but I lucked out. After it was over, she basically gave me a pep talk on how to navigate the industry, handed me a Myx moscato, hugged me and then I ended up sitting outside in Hollywood crying for 30 minutes after the shoot.”

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Shop her favorite beauty products

“I use a L’oreal day lotion with collagen in it and an Aveeno ultra-calming night cream because I have combination skin. I love Mario Badescu rose water spray to refresh my skin throughout the day—and my hair. I’m also newly obsessed with their drying lotion for any blemishes. A lot of my make-up is Make Up Forever including their HD foundation because it’s easy on my skin and never feels cakey. I use the Anastasia Dipbrow pomeade after my friend put me onto it. Other than that I use a combination of drugstore makeup that’s better than any ultra expensive shit—Maybelline liquid eyeliner has been my go-to for the last decade. As for fragrances, I’ve been wearing Acqui Di Gio, the men’s cologne, since I was in my teens.”

“I rotate maybe four to five outfits and usually wear black jeans, white Sk8-Hi Vans, a white, black or gray tank/V-Neck, and some sort of sweater. I love robe sweaters in the winter and occasionally fuck around with spandex plain black dresses in the summer. I have no real aesthetic to my wardrobe I just like plain clothes that fit and then I just stack a lot of my grandfather’s old gold jewelry on.”