The Baddest Bitch in the Room
A Memoir
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4.8 • 5 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The first Asian woman in hip-hop, Sophia Chang shares the inspiring story of her career in the music business, working with such acts as The Wu-Tang Clan and A Tribe Called Quest, her path to becoming an entrepreneur, and her candid accounts of marriage, motherhood, aging, desire, marginalization, and martial arts.
Fearless and unpredictable, Sophia Chang prevailed in a male-dominated music industry to manage the biggest names in hip-hop and R&B. The daughter of Korean immigrants in predominantly white suburban Vancouver, Chang left for New York City, and soon became a powerful voice in music boardrooms at such record companies as Atlantic, Jive, and Universal Music Group.
As an A&R rep, Chang met a Staten Island rapper named Prince Rakeem, now known as the RZA, founder of the Wu-Tang Clan, the most revered and influential rap group in hip-hop history. That union would send her on a transformational odyssey, leading her to a Shaolin monk who would become her partner, an enduring kung fu practice, two children, and a reckoning with what type woman she ultimately wanted to be.
For decades, Chang helped remarkably talented men tell their stories. Now, with The Baddest Bitch In The Room, she is ready to tell her own story of marriage, motherhood, aging, desire, marginalization, and martial arts. This is an inspirational debut memoir by a woman of color who has had the audacity to be bold in the pursuit of her passions, despite what anyone—family, society, the dominant culture—have prescribed.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Music manager Chang, who's worked with the Wu-Tang Clan and A Tribe Called Quest, shares life stories in a candid memoir about hip-hop, kung fu, and being a "hustler." Chang moved from Vancouver to New York in the 1980s after college and became immersed in the music scene. A charmer with "titanium confidence," she got a job as an assistant to Paul Simon and parlayed that into several positions in the music business over the course of an eclectic career, including head of marketing in the alternative department at Atlantic Records and an A&R job at Jive Records. The book's most engaging sections concern her friendships with musicians, like GZA and RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan, who treated her like family and employed her as a manager (RZA is also godfather to her two kids). A long time practitioner of kung-fu, Chang writes with humor of first having sex with monk and Shaolin kung-fu teacher, Yan Ming, with whom she became involved and had her two kids; of leaving him after he cheated on her; and of struggling as a single mother. There's a self-empowerment vibe throughout: "I am defining myself and telling the world who I am." This impassioned memoir is filled with energy and will appeal to fans of early rap and the Wu-Tang Clan.
