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What's up with our twisted obsession with wives of the rich and famous?

'The Real Housewives of Orange County, 'Basketball Wives,' and the ongoing legal soap opera starring Elin & Kelis.

"Since time immortal," Aliya S. King suggests, "we've been obsessed with how the other half lives." A journalist and New York Times bestselling author, King dives into the turbulent, sad, loving, dysfunctional and sometimes envious lives of rappers' wives in her new novel 'Platinum' (Touchstone, July 2010).



The book's idea came to King after writing an article for Vibe in 2005 about the same topic. She trailed the lives of several women married to rap artists such as DMX, Wyclef Jean, Snoop Doggy Dogg and others. 



She's honest in saying that media has "fanned the flame of our obsession" at times, to our, and the other half's, detriment. 



While our eyes are glued to the screen, and our ears to beauty shop gossip, do we ever stop to think that these wives are real people, not merely objects of our entertainment? Even when women like Shaunie O'Neal (who has filed for divorce from Shaq) ride the reality television bandwagon for motives unknown, do we ever stop and consider the pain behind the champagne lifestyle?



"Although they had many financial perks," King shares about the wives she interviewed, "quite a few of them were downright miserable and would trade their husband's fame and fortune for the simple lives they once had."



Besides her Vibe article, King also co-wrote Keep the Faith with Faith Evans, former wife of rapper Notorious B.I.G., a book which helped to give the R&B songstress a much-needed voice. 



In Platinum, King successfully avoids the cheesy fictional celebrity exposé trap. While juicy, (King admits that's the tone she was going for) it's also multilayered, honest, and compassionate. Through characters that are obvious composites of figures from the hip-hop world, King reveals some of the real life complications that these women face which rarely make it onto blogs or into barbershop discussions. 



Read the entire article at TheLoop21.com.