It’s kinda hard to make it in the rap game for a woman. In an industry where so many business meetings occur in an “boys-only” environment, heterosexual women have a hard time getting their props. You would think that being business saavy would help, unfortunately it seems that insecure A&Rs are reluctant to sign artists who know more about the industry than they do themselves! As a writer, MC, editor, manager, publicist, record label owner, radio host and promoter Taura Love a...
It’s kinda hard to make it in the rap game for a woman. In an industry where so many business meetings occur in an “boys-only” environment, heterosexual women have a hard time getting their props. You would think that being business saavy would help, unfortunately it seems that insecure A&Rs are reluctant to sign artists who know more about the industry than they do themselves! As a writer, MC, editor, manager, publicist, record label owner, radio host and promoter Taura Love a.k.a. T-Love had the opportunity to study the music business from every angle. One of the first things she learned is how important it is to build your catalog. The golden rule is to keep control of your music : don’t put your soul on 2-inch reel that you don’t even own.
After the unreleased album of her group Urban Prop, that they recorded for Capitol, T-Love made it a point to always control everything she writes and records. She also made it a point to understand business, minus the “music”–the business which is behind every firm operating today, no matter it be music, film, agriculture, or babyfood. While still an MC in the group Urban Prop, T-Love secured her first marketing hustles: Wild Pitch (Ultramagnetic MCs, The Coup) and Beatnuts.While she and her group Urban Prop were still being signed and “slept-on” by their then production company, she also studied/read business books (to avoid EVER having to sign to a production deal again), but she also fulfilled a childhood dream of becoming a journalist. Her first-ever interview was with rap legend, Snoop Dogg. The uniqueness of this interview was that it was both T-Love and Snoop Dogg’s first-ever published interviews. She tapped her resources, which trailed her to his home phone. She then took it to URB, where it became a feature, and then HHC [UK's Hiphop Connection], where it became a cover-story.
From there, she arrived at the skateboard mag, SLAP, Rappages, VIBE and RapSheet’s Fashion Editor. She founded indie-hiphop marketing firm, Gyrlz On Wilcox. T-Love promptly hustled a column for this entity, in URB Magazine. Nervous Records (DJ Evil Dee, Buckshot Shorty, Black Moon Re-Issue), Correct Records (Mannish, Al Tariq), Arista Records (Biggie Smallz, Craig Mack), EMI (D’Angelo) were just some of her marketing clients. During this time, T-Love had her first-ever release, Nobody Knows My Name, via Southpaw Records, under the moniker Love N Props.
T-Love also co-authored Brian Cross' "It's Not About a Salary: Rap, Race and Resistance"(Verso) and Hillary Carlip's "Girl Power: Young Women Speak Out" (Warner Books). Eventually, she became a music editor at URB Magazine, all the while recording her first-ever project, “Return of the B-Girl”. Concurrently, providing marketing services for US indie hip-hop music companies like Rawkus (Mos Def, Company Flow, Mike Ladd), Fondle ‘Em (Siah & Yeshua), Fatbeats Distribution.
As if all this weren’t enough: She also marketed and managed herself, along with Jurassic 5’s/Ozo Matli’s DJ Cut Chemist. When Jurassic 5 members Chali 2na and DJ Numark asked her to help them, T-Love drafted and implemented both Jurassic 5’s marketing and business plans and negotiated a “ground-breaking” non-exclusive license deal with a distributor. When both Virgin Records [USA] and Universal Publishing [London] offered her contracts, she quickly and wisely decided to use the money as capital investment, rather than to further her career as an artist–and moved to London, to begin setting-up shop. Upon the release of her first album, Long Way Back, she did a European tour and removed herself totally from the music biz, to see her child to a ripe age. During this time, she collaborated with France's Hocus Pocus, Jazz Liberatorz and created a band called Vidableu, which went on to win thePrintemps Bourges Music Festival Competitions.
And now she’s back, after having worked Dwele, J-Dilla, UK's The Herbaliser, Bassment Jaxx, Chemical Brothers, France's DJ Mehdi, Jazz Liberatorz and Hocus Pocus.She has had the fortune of opening up for Maceo, Nneka, Eddie Palmieri, Ultramagnetic MCs, Brand Nubians, The Pharcyde, The Alkaholiks, The Beatnuts, The Beastie Boys, etc.
Now stronger. Wiser. Pickininny is no longer just T-Love’s “vanity” record label, but also a T-Love “vanity” indie-talent management firm and home to her international hiphop crew, Picki People. Comprised of DJs, beatmakers, composers, recording engineers, musicians and graphic artists, Picki People recently released "Taura Love's Picki People Volume One"--which received stellar reviews and critiques.
T-Love is STILL does marketing, but no longer “hires-out” her services to other entities/firms. Her goal is simply to market the talent she has ALREADY accumulated over the past years. Different from many management firms, Pickininny is not out soliciting for new talent, but using its precious time/energy to market the talent roster it already has. She is not looking to “expand.” In this roster, are not just talented people, but T-Love’s family, her “Picki People.” And unlike many other management firms, T-Love isn’t looking for superstar talent to place on Pickininny’s roster–but to make superstars out of the talent she already has.
#unitedstatesoftaura #internationalbgirl #pickipeople
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