The 35th Annual Whitney M. Young, Jr. Memorial Conference
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Shante Bacon
Co-Founder, The 135th Street Agency
From a young age, Shante Bacon knew she wanted to work in the music business. Growing up in the Queens Village area of Jamaica, Queens, her older brother, William “Pookie” Bacon aka MC Pac, introduced her to the inner workings of hip-hop culture. He fascinated her with stories of late-night hip-hop shows, MC battles and parties, and schooled her on the prominent rap record labels of the time: Def Jam, Select, Profile, 4th & Broadway and Delicious Vinyl. In high school, Shante would devise marketing campaigns for her mother’s vocational trade school, The New School of Business Careers, Inc. Yet, it was a Billboard article on the success of renowned mogul Russell Simmons that ultimately inspired Shante to pursue a career in the music industry. She decided that, like Simmons, she would transform her passion for music and marketing into a flourishing empire.
After graduating from high school, Shante enrolled in Hampton University as a marketing major with a concentration in the business of music. In the summer of 1995, she landed an internship as a promotions coordinator at Pendulum Records, home of rappers Heather B., Digable Planets and Lords of the Underground. She returned to Hampton in her junior year and got a job in the school’s radio station, WHOV 88.1 FM, where she became the station’s promotion director and worked with such luminaries as Jay-Z, Dr. Dre, Mase and Redman.
The following summer of 1996, Shante worked at Perspective Records as publicity coordinator and reported to legendary producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis as well as seasoned publicist Sheila Eldridge. While at Perspective, Shante drafted a 10-page proposal explaining why record companies need college representatives in Virginia. She sent the proposal to over 30 record labels and distribution companies. Def Jam was the first to act on Shante’s pitch and hired her as the first Def Jam college rep in their newly-formed College Rep Program.
Two months later, Shante was hired as a black college representative for Polygram Group Distribution (PGD), a music distribution company that serviced labels like Def Jam, Island Black Music, Motown, Mercury, A&M, Verve and CGI. Working for both Def Jam and PGD, Shante conducted numerous campus promotions for the companies’ artists. To prepare for her May 1998 Graduation, she assembled a 200-page book of all of her promotional events and submitted it to Def Jam in November 1997. The book found its way to then Def Jam president Kevin Liles, who immediately hired Shante as Def Jam’s Sales and Field Marketing Coordinator in 1998.
As a member of Def Jam’s sales team, Shante’s duties included Soundscan analysis and distribution, supporting the PGD distribution field staff, and assisting in the execution of retail marketing campaigns and radio advertising flight schedules. Upon the merger of Def Jam and Island Records, Shante was promoted to executive assistant to Julie Greenwald, the Senior Vice President of Marketing. She also went on to become manager of field marketing. One of her biggest assignments as field marketing manager was the “Are You Hip Hop’s Biggest Fan” contest, a multi-million dollar marketing campaign that promoted Def Jam’s 1999 4th quarter releases. The project culminated into a game show that aired on BET in March of 2000.
Later that year, Shante rose to the position of National Director of Field Marketing, in which she executed several independent retail promotions, including the Def Jam South Scooter Giveaway, the “Thirsty” visibility retail contest, Redman’s “Malpractice” Mascot Retail Tour, Jay-Z’s Blueprint “Win Your Tix Right Now” campaign. She also purchased radio advertising for all Def Jam/Def Soul releases from 1998 - 2003.
In January of 2003, Shante became Director of Marketing. Her new role allowed her to oversee the marketing strategies for projects such as Ludacris’ triple platinum “Chicken-n-Beer,” Kanye West’s double-platinum ”The College Dropout,” Freeway’s “Philadelphia Freeway,” the 2 Fast 2 Furious Soundtrack, Ghostface’s “The Pretty Toney Album,” Method Man’s “Tical 0: The Prequel,” and more.
However, in the summer of 2004, Shante left Def Jam to pursue a full-time entrepreneurial venture, a strategic communications firm called the 135th Street Agency, LLC. Based in Atlanta and Harlem, the 135th Street Agency specializes in campaigns targeting the Urban Youth Consumer and Urban Business Professional. The company has designed and executed campaigns for the U.S. Postal Service, National Education Association, AllHipHop.com, ESSENCE, Coca-Cola Summerscope, Radio One, BET, Def Jam, and the Independent Black Film Festival. The company has been featured on AT&T’s Online Tech Channel, Redbook, Crain’s NY Business, Black Enterprise, EBONY, VIBE Vixen and Today’s Black Woman.