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

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31 Jan 2025 · 1 min

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Wendy Day pulled an artist off Russell Simmons' Def Jam label in the early 1990s by leveraging a relationship with accountant Bert Padell to negotiate the deal. She calls it terrifying and self-righteous, a first major win that taught her to trust unconventional allies.

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My question would be, that first deal that you had to pull him out of, what was that like doing it for the first time though, Wendy? Oh, it was scary as fuck. Can I curse? Say what you feel.
So it was scary because I didn't really know what I was doing, and I was so self-righteous because it's like, you know, and Russell's an icon. So here I am, my first thing is I'm pulling an artist off of Def Jam, off of Russell's label. Yeah, you know, and this is in '92 or '93, it was very early, it was '92, very early in my career. And I was able to do it because I had a relationship with an accountant called Bert Padell. And Bert was the one that acted as the go-between to actually get the contract and get Russell to agree to let them go. And then once I did one, it was like, oh, pfft.