When it comes to careers, the golden trifecta of money, power and respect can be hard for anyone to achieve, particularly in the music biz. The path to profitability hinges on a tenuous tightrope that swings on the whims of a buying public, a truth known all too well by industry insider Shanti Das.
After starting her career in the 1990s with LaFace Records and molding some of the biggest names in their roster (Usher, Outkast, TLC and Toni Braxton, to name a few), Das went on to become the VP of Marketing at Columbia and Motown Records, amassing the priceless skills and experience now shared in her book “>The Hip-Hop Professional 2.0: A Woman’s Guide To Climbing The Ladder of Success In The Entertainment Business.
“I always had dreams of being like [music and film producer] Suzanne De Passe, so I knew I had to carry myself with a certain level of respect,” the 43-year-old executive and entrepreneur shared during a recent promotional stop in Dallas. Das is scheduled to moderate a panel on hip-hop at the Essence Music Festival Saturday in New Orleans. “Even with the social aspects of the entertainment industry, women have to work twice as hard to not be considered a groupie or wanna-be. We have to be smart about how we conduct ourselves.”
Das’ Hip-Hop Professional offers advice and anecdotes that will benefit either gender, but women have unique traits that can make the path harder to navigate.
“I’ve been told ‘you don’t have enough ‘b’ in you’ to be taken seriously, but it’s a fine line: You have to be aggressive to a point, but it can be done while showing your charisma and personality,” Das says. “Being self-confident and doing your homework is also important, so it’s about finding that balance.”
Workplace politics aside, Das is also passionate about the present state of hip-hop, a culture that’s less grown less inclusive of individuality over the years and seems more focused on partying and perpetuating trends rather than setting standards.
“I hope we get back to the point like back in the glory days, where there was more variety,” Das says. “We had rappers like Monie Love, Queen Latifah and MC Lyte as well as the Lil Kim and Foxy Brown types, so there was balance in the universe. For whatever reason the masses aren’t into supporting that anymore, so more of leaders in the hip-hop culture need to help those women shine. People have been good and bad since the beginning of time and it’s not about getting rid of any one approach in any genre, but we need male and female perspectives and more groups.”
In a business that seems to cannibalize new talent, Shanti Das is intent on nurturing it: she hosts a yearly live music showcase in Atlanta GA called, “ATL Live In The Park” and her consulting firm, Press Reset Entertainment, provides representation and concierge services for established and evolving performers. The key to staying relevant in an ever-shrinking entertainment biz, according to Das, is changing with the times.
“When I came in, there wasn’t even e-mail,” she says with a laugh, “but today, we do everything off of our smartphones. We ladies have to be innovators as well to get into more positions of power. Bring that great idea to the table and work together with others around you, there’s power in our numbers and we can’t let the industry change who we are as women.”
