THE WOMAN BEHIND THE MIC

A CONVERSATION WITH ENTERTAINMENT MARKETING MAVEN, MICHELLE JOYCE by Chloé Francena Adams

“You need to get your sh*t together.” That’s what Michelle Joyce said to me one day on the phone while I was frustrated with where I was in life. “Girl, I don’t say much, but you’ve got so much going on. It’s time to step into your magic.”

Think of the golden era of hip hop. I’m talking 90s, Bad Boy top of the charts, Puffy Combs, Biggie Smalls, Faith Evans, Lil Kim, and Mary J. Blige. I can almost guarantee you wouldn’t see a thing without the magic touch of Michelle Joyce (also known as MJ), the former marketing director of Bad Boy Records.

There’s no doubt MJ has always had a love for music, born and raised in the Boogie Down Bronx. “There’s always been a very eclectic sound that ran through my house,” said Joyce. “My dad listened to a lot of jazz and soul, and my mom liked rock and country.” But coming from the birthplace of hip-hop, MJ was no stranger to this genre, either. “People would walk by with boomboxes on their shoulders, and DJ’s would host parking lot parties. And that’s when I fell in love.”

Having got her start at a college radio station, MJ quickly worked her way up with the help of someone who pushed her to do so. “I got my first job at The New Music Seminar,” she said. “Anita Daly was my first mentor. She believed in me, she gave me that first shot. I was really lucky because she really educated me on the process [of marketing]. That’s when I fell in love with the art of marketing: taking something from nothing and growing a brand. I loved all of it.”

From there, she took her talents to a label called East West Records. Under the supervision of Manny Bella and Jodi Williams, she had the opportunity to develop a new division, the College Promotion Department. There, she partnered with Fred Jackson from Elektra Entertainment to launch the WEA Urban Street & University (WUSUP): a platform created as a tool to promote new and developing artists to colleges and universities nationwide through PR packages, live shows, and more. She then went to Big Beat Records to become the manager of urban marketing. It was there she made her way to Bad Boy Entertainment via a connection with her good friend, Kirk Burrows.

“I just remember my eyes filling with tears because it was my first opportunity that I got to see an office staffed solely with beautiful, young, black people,” said MJ. “I just felt like ‘Wow! This is our moment. I’m going to go really hard because this is one for us, this is one for the culture.’” And she meant that.

Original Bad Boy Staff (1994)

“You may not know me by name or know my face,” said MJ. “But, I promise you that you know my work!” As the first director of marketing for Bad Boy Entertainment, she and the female staffed marketing division laid the blueprint for what went on to become the most successful hip-hop record label of all time. Bad Boy disrupted the market in a way that had never been done before like with the legendary B.I.G. Mack campaign featuring The Notorious B.I.G., Craig Mack, and Puffy (a.k.a. Diddy).

You may have seen the picture floating around social media on popular hip-hop pages or on Diddy’s personal page. In the ‘90s, this single campaign transformed the scope of ads from magazines and newspapers to CD covers and merchandise. “There was not a single thing that was too ridiculous for us to do,” she said.

Bad Boy “B.I.G. Mack” campaign photoshoot

There was very little room for mistakes from late nights in the office to long flights across the country to parties and quick turnarounds. “It was the job that I think was the most challenging of my career because Puffy had an expectation that whatever he asked for, we needed to make it happen,” Michelle told me. “He operated with such a high level of black excellence, you had to step up with that same level.” But the blessing in it was that she felt her Bad Boy family was the tightest knit music family she ever had.

MJ’s story doesn’t stop there as she transitioned from working in music to TV production. She still celebrates her first production deal, Women Behind the Mic, a project MJ has been working on for some time with Mary J. Blige who is an executive producer.

“I’m getting to tell the story of women who many don’t know by name but definitely may know by work,” MJ said about her project. “I feel like I contributed in such a significant way to the culture… because the record industry had so many incredible female executives and managers and writers and dope spirits. It was really a girl’s girl industry. We had each other’s backs. As the documentaries and biopics started to come out, I felt that they were not telling a complete story of music because it was not inclusive of the women like myself and so many of my other sisters, that played such a big integral role in launching some of the biggest labels and artists. Our stories weren’t being told. I said to my friend LaJoyce, ‘It’s time for us to tell our story.’”

We hear stories about the hip-hop industry through the media, but listening to her story gives a different perspective on the ones that live behind the scenes. It’s the stories of the women who made it happen and did more than what was required. The ones who were the first in the office in the morning and the last to leave at night. These are the stories and the legacies of the women who did the damn thing.

So, every time you pick up your headphones and choose a classic song, or every time you see a new campaign in a magazine or commercial, or every time a melody welcomes a new mood... Remember the women (yesterday and today) who got it done. Remember the ones who made it happen, and that the sound you hear today came from the woman behind the mic.

Life has always been an instructional path for us. Through the many experiences we may have or the people we come across, we can always learn a lesson that has helped shape us into who we are today. Many of those lessons, for MJ, were inspired by her dad. “He taught me to never give up and to really believe in myself. Because of that, I don’t think there’s anything that I look at as impossible.”

This article is in remembrance of William David Joyce (March 6, 1934 – April 19, 2020). May your memory last on and your love be felt through every melody and song.