Sophia Chang may be The Baddest Bitch in the Room, but even she has a soft side.
In an exclusive excerpt of Chang's upcoming memoir, out September 26, the music business icon, who has managed the careers of RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Q-Tip, Raphael Saadiq, D'Angelo, and more, gets advice from some of her famous friends to let that part of her personality show.
In addition to guiding those aforementioned careers, Chang has also been General Manager of both RZA's Razor Sharp Records and Joey Badass' Pro Era Records. But after years of helping artists, she's finally telling her own story in her upcoming Audible Original memoir The Baddest Bitch in the Room.
Chang gave Complex an exclusive excerpt of the audio memoir—one that contains cameo appearances from both Meth and Saadiq (the latter of whom has just released a new album, Jimmy Lee).
She sets it up for us: “In this excerpt, I've just left the father of my children and my love coaches, Raphael Saadiq and Method Man, are giving me dating advice. Raphael and Redman say ‘Damn, Sophie, you're strong as shit!’ every time I hug them. I guess I don't know my own strength, but I do know how hard I love them. Meth never says anything because he hugs me back just as hard. And, for the record, Saadiq still thinks it's gonna be hard for me to find a man.”
Listen to the excerpt below:
Cameos by Method Man and Raphael Saadiq aren't the only novel elements of The Baddest Bitch in the Room. The project, which contains over a dozen guest voices, songs, an original score, and other elements, was extremely complicated to create.
Chang explains, “Putting together this project was a behemoth task. I always knew the Meth studio story would open my memoir and I wanted his actual voice to help tell it once I knew I was doing an audiobook. Cut to there now being over 20 guest voices! Let me tell you something, you know I love my boys, but I never want to chase another rapper for the rest of my life. Ever. Complex can have the exclusive breaking news that Sophia Chang is no longer managing artists [Laughs]. Look, I'm better at it than anyone I know, but I'm so done. This project was straight up planes, trains, and automobiles. I went to LA multiple times, Virginia, Montreal, Ottawa, Jersey, and Vancouver to record folks.”
She adds, “In addition to the features (to put it in hip hop terminology), there's original score, sound design, and actual licensed songs. As far as I know, no one has ever combined all those elements in an audiobook. My team and I have created a 360 degree immersive audio experience. And the songs aren't simply getting dropped in, they're getting scratched in by DJ SCRATCH, one of my first friends in hip hop and to me, the greatest turntablist of all time. I am incredibly excited and honored to share my story in this robust and unique fashion with the world. And I am eternally grateful for the village that assembled to help me create this adventure. Shout out to Hello Sunshine and Audible for believing in my story.”
You can pre-order The Baddest Bitch in the Room here.
