Author: Jake Paine
Without question, Wendy Day is the most feared woman in Hip Hop. Day, founder of the Rap Coalition, has helped pry numerous household rappers from sharecropping-esque record contracts, she has been instrumental in helping get many rappers to positions of wealth and power through innovative negotiating. Artists like David Banner , Ras Kass and the Cash Money Records family have publicly endorsed the three-decade industry veteran, and they've seen the results to prove it.
One of Wendy Day's latest ventures has been branding In The Know, with another respected Rap industry name, Kim Ellis. "I met Kim when I first moved to Atlanta," Day explained to HipHopDX recently. "She was everywhere. Like you know how when you go into a new market and you just attend everything because you got to get immersed as quickly as possible? I kept seeing her like everywhere. And about a year after I was here, I started working with Blood Raw, who was signed to Young Jeezy, and Kim was the publicist on the project and we went out on the road and she was without a doubt, the most efficient person I have ever dealt with." The mutual respect birthed a collaborative idea, "She had approached me with this phenomenal idea that she had doing seminars online and I loved the idea."
In The Know was born, taking the expensive regional and very exclusive seminars and Rap industry information panels of yesteryear, and making them accessible online to anybody - keeping the personal attention and losing the extra costs. Wendy Day told DX about how the questions from participants are changing, and how digital needs are leading to digital dollars. "I have been doing this for 18 years and I have actually done and organized most of the panels at most of the urban conferences. Like I did a couple of Jack the Rapper [events]. I coordinated a couple of How Can I Be Down [events] in the early '90s, Urban Network; I’ve done so many. I’ve organized and coordinated so many panels that I’ve really got an insiders glimpse of how they’ve changed, and they’ve become more digital obviously, more Internet based questions obviously. We’ve gotten more away from the history and the knowledge and more into the money aspect, meaning how can I make money with my music, how can I get a record deal, just things that control one’s career, and therefore one’s income."
As Wendy spoke of the shifting trends, Kim Ellis affirmed their purpose and unique outlet in the ever-changing Hip Hop information space. "One of the benefits with In the Know is that it’s a controlled atmosphere. You’ve got Wendy, myself, and five panelists that are the only ones allowed to communicate via the telephone, and then the attendees have the capability to type their questions over the Internet. And what I’m finding is that questions are either more thought-out or they are able to actually get them off their mind and then move onto the next question. One of the things I noticed in live conferences is there was hardly anyone who would raise their hand to have that microphone put in front of their face in a room full of 400 people. So my observation is that there is a lot more questions being answered with In the Know than I’ve seen in live conferences."
Both Ellis and Day commended participants right now, for their intelligence and their ambition. "I think a lot of people are self conscious and aware and wanting to take control of their careers. We all know the economy is suffering so a lot of people don’t have the money to hire multiple people into their realm even though we always suggest that they have like a team, but I’m finding, or at least from In the Know, that our attendees are very educated on top of it, like they know about what they are needing to learn or ask," said Kim.
"Really it is a mater of signing up through our website which is InTheKnowSeminars.com. There is a registration process. We have been offering some specials because again the economy is really kind of jacked up. [Looking at rappers in remote markets], that was one of the main reasons why this initiative came to light, because I sat there and thought two to three days of registration and travel and everything else, that’s a $1,500 ticket at least. You know here every single month we do these once a month. It costs as low as $29 to get it from the comfort of your home for two hours." In The Know is hosted the third Saturday of every month.
In addition to In The Know, both women are active in other facets of their careers. Wendy Day, known for creating labels for artists from Twista to Young Jeezy said, "One of my focuses right now is to build a successful label for an athlete. It seems like nobody has been able to do that yet and it has become my goal in the past year or so. So what I’m doing is meeting with athletes like a crazy woman. Trying to find the perfect mix of a budget and talented artist. It seems like most people have one or the other. And I’m certainly not looking for a label where the athlete is the artist, you know I don’t want to do a basketball rapper. You know I’m really just looking to do something and make it successful for an artist. I do a lot of educational work in the industry. So I am still doing panels, live traditional panels as well. What else am I working on right now? I’m pulling Young Buck off of G-Unit - his debacle."
Kim Ellis is presently serving as editor-in-chief of the national Street Report Magazine, as well as consulting for New York Rap duo Physha P.
For more information, vistit InTheKnowSeminars.com
hiphopdx.com
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