Wendy DayCEO/Coach, PowerPlays Coaching, LLC · Helping rappers make money with their music. Building millionaires in the urban music industry since 1992.

"Only one of you is going to be successful" ...I knew it was going to be me...

29 Jan 2025 · 1 min

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In this spoken excerpt, the speaker recounts the personal journey that led to the creation of the nonprofit Rap Coalition. She explains that growing frustrated with the mistreatment of her favorite Black hip‑hop artists—specifically Eric B. & Rakim and X‑Clan—sparked a desire to advocate for artists’ rights. While taking a large New School class taught by Sid Bernstein and Burt Padell, Padell told the class that one student would become successful; the speaker felt certain it was her. She had already drafted a business plan and saved roughly half a million dollars from her job, which she presented as the financial foundation for launching the organization. The narrative blends personal passion, a pivotal educational moment, and concrete financial preparation as the core reasons behind founding Rap Coalition.

Chapters

What made you start your nonprofit? What was the situation? I got really tired of hearing about my favorite artists getting jerked. And I thought it was unique to black music. It's not. But at the time, I thought that it was, and that made me angrier, right? So it was really Eric B. and Rakim and X Clan. They're really the reason that I started Rap Coalition, because I loved them and I didn't understand why nobody was helping them. I was taking this class at the New School, and it was taught by Sid Bernstein and Burt Padell. But Burt Padell said to this class, and there were like 70 people in this class, it was not a small class. Mm-hmm. And he said, one of you is gonna be successful. And he looked around the room, and I knew it was me. Yes. And I'd put together a business plan, and I told him that I had made half a million dollars from the job that I had, that I had, you know, saved up. And I told him that I was gonna start Rap Coalition.