In Conversation: Bitch is Not a Four-Letter Word: On The Baddest Bitch in the Room

Evelyn McDonnell is associate professor of journalism at Loyola Marymount University. She has been writing about popular culture and society for more than 20 years. She is the author of four books: Queens of Noise: The Real Story of the Runaways, Mamarama: A Memoir of Sex, Kids and Rock ‘n’ Roll, Army of She: Icelandic, Iconoclastic, Irrepressible Bjork and Rent by Jonathan Larson. She coedited the anthologies Rock She Wrote: Women Write About Rock, Pop and Rap and Stars Don’t Stand Still in the Sky: Music and Myth.

Sophia Chang is a Korean-Canadian who was the first Asian woman in hip-hop. She worked with Paul Simon and managed Ol’ Dirty Bastard, RZA, GZA, Q-Tip, A Tribe Called Quest, Raphael Saadiq, and D’Angelo. In 1995, Chang left music to train kung fu and manage a Shaolin Monk who became her partner and father of two children. She also produced runway shows, worked at a digital agency, and is developing TV and film properties. Fearless and unpredictable, Sophia Chang prevailed in a male-dominated music industry to manage the biggest names in hip-hop and R&B. The daughter of Korean immigrants in predominantly white suburban Vancouver, Chang left for New York City, and soon became a powerful voice in music boardrooms at such record companies as Atlantic, Jive, and Universal Music Group. As an A&R rep, Chang met a rapper named Prince Rakeem, now known as the RZA, founder of the Wu-Tang Clan, and that union would send her on a transformational odyssey, leading her to a Shaolin monk who would become her partner, an enduring kung fu practice, two children, and a reckoning with what type woman she ultimately wanted to be. Now in The Baddest Bitch In The Room, Chang is ready to tell her own story. In fact, Q-Tip said that “Soph was an integral part of the golden era of hip-hop. I’m so happy she’s telling her story because the world needs to know about her contributions to the culture.”