After earning a degree in public relations from Howard University, and spending nearly 3 years in CNN’s communications department, I landed my first music business-adjacent gig in 1989 at the Terrie Williams Agency. Terrie, still a great friend and mentor, had recently launched her PR firm & put me in charge of many of the agency’s music acts.
Once I left the agency, I bounced around a bit, including stints back in TV and doing my own PR consulting. However, I never took my eye off another shot at the music industry.
Around 1992, Motown PR chief Michael Mitchell offered me my chance to get back into the “biz” and I joined the historic label as national director of publicity. Led by Jheryl Busby and Clarence Avant, I knew I was in the big leagues. And working with such acts as Boyz II Men, Stevie Wonder, Queen Latifah, Johnny Gill, Zhane, The Temptations and many more made this a dream gig. But, as anyone knows who has worked in the music biz, it ain’t gonna last forever. In 1995, I was laid off.
It was at this point I began to realize being loyal to a specific industry may not the best route, and I began doing media consulting under my company, OneDiaspora Group, doing public speaking, writing and teaching on the college level. I had to take control of my “brand” and define it based on the things that inspired me.
A long-time client was Hidden Beach, founded by Steve McKeever and home to such acts as Jill Scott, Brenda Russell, Kindred the Family Soul & Mike Phillips. I headed up communications nearly 10 years but I never let my idea of personal brand take a back seat.
Now, I’m an adjunct professor at both Cal State Northridge & Syracuse University, and I’m working on volume 2 of HBCU Experience – The Book, my collection of essays by HBCU grads. The grind continues; the hustle never stops. But now my commitment is to my passions and interests and not to an industry.
I still dabble via media training up-and-coming artists but the music biz and I have come to an adult understanding – one that’s good for us both. We love what we had but we know it can never be the same, and we wish each other well. Reach me at www.ChristopherCathcartSpeaks.com. #BlackMusicMonth