Hip-hop's Miss Mouth dishes e-newsletter gossip from Tampa

Devlyn Garrison's nickname is also her business: Miss Mouth.

Garrison, 30, of Tampa, is the woman behind the Miss Mouth Times, an e-newsletter about the local and national rap scene. As frequently as five days a week, Garrison sends out e-mails containing a mix of news, interviews, commentary, gossip, reality TV recaps and more. Among her most memorable stories were local rapper Plies' alleged relationship with 106 & Park host Rosci, a supposed brawl involving Miami rapper Jacki-O in Ybor City and her revelatory interview with rapper Freekey Zekey of New York.

Garrison works on the newsletter full time, selling advertisements and advertorials — that is, fledgling artists or record companies pay her to write articles about them. In addition, she plans to publish a quarterly print edition of The Miss Mouth Times starting in March.

"It's going to be like the National Inquirer — the first hip-hop tabloid," Garrison said.

Born in Durham, N.C., Garrison attended Tampa's King High School. An aspiring rapper, she moved to New York City around 2003 and began working in the TV and music industries under the moniker "Mouth of the South." But Charlemagne the God, a popular radio DJ, was already known by that nickname, so Garrison became Miss Mouth. She briefly worked as a writer for a record company, but then the label folded.

"So I fell out of love with music, and I just became disgruntled and started talking," Garrison said. In 2008, she returned to Tampa and became a freelance writer for allhiphop.com and vladtv.com. "I won't say they censor me, but I can't just go full throttle. I created that newsletter as a way to do that."

About three months ago, Garrison began sending out the Miss Mouth Times using information she gathers from parties, tipsters and the Internet. She also mines Twitter for the latest rumors, following folks like Charlemagne the God (@cthagod), comedian Lil Duval (@lilduval) and rapper Fabolous (@myfabolouslife).

"Twitter is where you can get all of the drama and gossip," Garrison said. "When I'm sent a rumor or I hear one on the streets, the first thing that I do is check reputable blogs like AllHipHop, NecoleBitchie, TMZ and SOHH." If details of the gossip are sketchy, she'll try to contact a publicist for more information, though she doesn't necessarily wait until something is confirmed to post it.

"As a gossip diva, I believe it is my responsibility to report what folks are talking about," said Garrison, who often sends multiple newsletters a day to confirm or negate rumors from an earlier edition. A few times, she has trash-talked rappers without realizing they get her newsletter.

This year, Garrison is holding a contest to give away $10,000 to help get an aspiring rapper's career off the ground. To compete, rappers pay a $99 entry fee that goes into a prize pool for the winner. Garrison and a panel of record execs will choose a winner based on image, a submitted song and an interview. The contest will run until 100 rappers have entered; as of Sunday, Garrison said there were 65 applicants.

Recently, Garrison teamed up with her older sister Adrienne Nelson to form East Exit Films. They co-wrote and are producing Sunshine, a movie about two high school girls who "let money, drugs and men ruin their friendship and almost end their lives," Garrison said. "It's kind of like Menace II Society, but from a female perspective in Tampa."

So look for Miss Mouth's name on the big screen, online and in print. But don't expect to bump into her in person. "My reporting style is different because when I go in a room, you won't know that I'm there," Garrison said. "That's how I'm able to get gossip. I'm like the fly on the wall."