Published in 2020
320 pages
Sophia Chang is a music business matriarchictect who has managed ODB (RIP), RZA, GZA, Q Tip, A Tribe Called Quest, Raphael Saadiq, and D’Angelo. Her extensive record company experience includes marketing at Atlantic, A&R at Jive, A&R Administration at UMG, GM of Razor Sharp Records, Cinematic Music Group and Pro Era Records. In 1995 Sophia left the music business to manage her then partner’s USA Shaolin Temple and have two children. She produced major runway shows for Vivienne Tam and “Project Runway All Stars,” was an account executive at a digital agency, and did business development at a cannabis company. She sold a screenplay to HBO and is in development on a number of film and TV projects. She is writing a memoir and speaking publicly about her journey through the industry as the first Asian woman in hip hop.
What is this book about?
Sophia Chang’s debut memoir The Baddest Bitch in the Room is an inspiring story about her life as the first Asian woman in hip-hop, working with such acts as The Wu-Tang Clan and A Tribe Called Quest. The book spans her career in the music business, 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.
