Monica Lynch
Monica Lynch | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Monica Lynch |
| Born | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Genres | Hip-Hop, R&B, Rap |
| Occupation(s) | Record producer, record company executive, A&R director |
| Years active | 1981–present |
| Labels | Tommy Boy Records |
Monica Lynch (born Chicago, Illinois)[1] is a music business executive, record producer, and former President of hip-hop/dance music label Tommy Boy Records.[2] She has hosted radio programs on free-form WFMU for several decades,[3] and worked as an A&R director for Queen Latifah and Martina McBride.
Lynch was born and raised in Chicago, and moved east in the late 1970s. "I was pretty starry-eyed when I got to New York. I came from Chicago to work in a fashion show in '78 and it was one of those impetuous things — I just didn't go back," she said in a 1999 interview. "I had no money, so a make-up artist I knew let me crash on her floor."[2]
According to a 2007 interview in Bust magazine, "Like many of the young hip-hop acts she helped turn into stars in the ’80s and ’90s, Lynch started out in the business with nothing more than a strong work ethic and a love of music, eventually becoming one of hip-hop’s most powerful women. In the 19 years she spent at Tommy Boy, ... Lynch helped launch the careers of major acts, including Afrika Bambaataa, De La Soul, [and] Naughty by Nature."[4]
Tommy Boy Records
Tommy Boy Records was founded by Tom Silverman in 1981, and Lynch was his first employee, hired in December of that year. She was named president of the label in 1985.[4][5][6]
She signed and managed Queen Latifah and De La Soul, and played a key role in the development of the careers of various artists and executives, including RZA, RuPaul, Dante Ross, Naughty by Nature, Coolio, House of Pain, Soulsonic Force, Digital Undergound, 808 State, and Prince Paul.[2] She developed the label’s clothing line and produced its popular compilation albums.[7] She also served as art director for many of the label's packages.[8]
"[Lynch] can vividly remember the night in March [1982] when she drove with [Silverman] to the basement studios of WHBI-FM to deliver the [new album by Afrika Bambaataa & Sonic Soul Force containing the song "Planet Rock"] to hip-hop DJs Mr. Magic and Marly [sic] Marl, not really grasping that the song would help to launch a sonic revolution whose effects are still being felt today," wrote Randy Reiss at MTV News. "With Sugarhill being the only rap label with widespread acceptance at the time and other major rap players such as Jive and Priority just getting started, success was a gamble for the hip-hop entrepreneurs." Lynch explained, "[S]oon after [dropping it off], we began hearing it pouring out of windows as Mr. Magic broke the record. For a label that, at the time, was just two people, it was a very heavy experience. This was a period when rap itself was very young, very much like a cottage industry."[9]
About the huge 1991 hit "O.P.P." by Naughty by Nature, Lynch recalled: "Tommy Boy always did well with acts that had something different about them. And with Naughty by Nature, having cornrows and being proud to be from New Jersey was not a very cool thing at the time. Of course, no matter what, a great record trumps everything else. ... [A]nyone from a 3-year-old to a 93-year-old could sing that chorus. It had a nursery-rhyme appeal to it."[10] DJ KayGee of Naughty by Nature credited Lynch for the band's successful branding. "Monica Lynch [at Tommy Boy] is a marketing genius, and she’s totally, totally, if not solely responsible for branding Naughty by Nature," KayGee told Spin magazine. "You know that logo? She got Mark Weinberg to draw that logo for us. And that logo he drew at dinner on a napkin with a crayon. ... That’s why the original logo has those ridges on it, that’s from him pushing down on the crayon and the crayon breaking off."[11]
In 1992 she was given a demo tape of songs by RuPaul. "I thought the idea of a drag queen recording artist would be great if the music was there," she told Paper magazine. "Otherwise it wouldn't stand alone on its two high heels." Lynch did like the music, and signed RuPaul to the label. While working on the artist's premiere Tommy Boy release, Lynch heard a demo of the song "Supermodel (You Better Work)," and added that to the album. She told Paper, "I knew that it was going to be the single."[12]
One of her last projects for the label was producing the two-volume film soundtrack compilation albums 54 (Music From The Miramax Motion Picture).[13]
She left Tommy Boy Records in February 1998.
Post-Tommy Boy career
Lynch joined the staff of radio station WFMU in 1997, during a sabbatical from Tommy Boy. At WFMU she hosted a weekly show for many years, and still hosts fill-in programs. "After 16 years at [Tommy Boy], she was burned out by the music business's overwhelming commercial imperative, as well as its constant extramusical annoyances," wrote Jaime Wolf in the New York Times in a station profile from 1999. "[W]orking at WFMU, Lynch says, has helped her reconnect to her original passion. When she talks about her fellow D.J.'s, she quickly falls into a wonderstruck tone, describing their knowledge as 'Talmudic.' Being at the station, she says, is 'like running away and joining the circus.'"[14]
She served as A&R Director for Queen Latifah's 2004 release The Dana Owens Album,[15] and on Latifah's 2007 followup, Trav’lin’ Light. The latter album's co-producer, Ron Fair, referred to Lynch as a “walking encyclopedia” of music.[16] Lynch also served as A&R Director for Martina McBride's 2014 R&B and soul covers album, Everlasting.[17]
In 2020, she organized for Sotheby's the first auction dedicated to vintage hip-hop memorabilia.[18][19]
References
- ^ Chicago Tribune, Oct. 9, 1986, "28-year-old Monica Lynch, the white, Chicago-born, Catholic school-educated president of Tommy Boy"
- ^ a b c LaFreniere, Steve, Interview with Monica Lynch, Index magazine, 1999
- ^ Monica Lynch program archives at WFMU.org
- ^ a b "Hey Get Down! Women Got Down, Too!". bust.com. Retrieved 2019-03-25.
- ^ Tucker, Bruce (1993-10-31). "Tommy Boy Can CD Future". Fast Company. Retrieved 2019-03-25.
- ^ "Rosie Lopez Named Tommy Boy President", AllAccess.com, January 24, 2013
- ^ The Cipher, "Monica Lynch: We talk to the woman who was at the center of it all with Tommy Boy Records", episode 171, October 10, 2016
- ^ Monica Lynch art direction credits at Discogs.com
- ^ Reiss, Randy, "Tommy Boy's Greatest Beats Documents Hip-Hop History", MTV.com, Sept. 2, 1998
- ^ Coleman, Brian, "The Oral History of Naughty by Nature's 'O.P.P.'", Thrillist, December 16, 2015
- ^ Weingarten, Christopher, "An Oral History of Naughty By Nature’s ‘O.P.P.’", Spin, December 7, 2011
- ^ Hershkovits, David, "Is the World Ready for RuPaul?", Paper, April 1993
- ^ Producer credit for release at Discogs.com
- ^ Wolf, Jaime, "No Hits, All the Time", The New York Times, April 11, 1999
- ^ AllMusic.com credits for The Dana Owens Album
- ^ Coveney, Janine, "Queen Latifah: Nature of A Singer", JazzTimes, December 1, 2007
- ^ Parker, Eric T., "McBride Samples ‘Everlasting’ for Nashville Industry", Music Row, April 2, 2014
- ^ Borrelli-Persson, Laird, "Sotheby’s Celebrates Hip-Hop With a Historic Sale", Vogue, September 12, 2020
- ^ Mamo, Heran, "Sotheby’s First Hip-Hop Auction Headlined by The Notorious B.I.G. & Tupac Shakur’s Prized Possessions", MSN.com, August 25, 2020