How did you get the name Ms Rivercity?
I’m from Jacksonville, Florida, a.ka. The Rivercity. When I first got serious about writing, I was looking for a pen name that would rep my city. My homeboy actually helped me come up with it. So yeah, I’m from the city where they dump snitches and bad check writers in the river.
What exactly do you do?
I’m a writer/editor/sales rep/street rep director for OZONE. I do columns for a lot of other publications too. Through working with several media outlets I’ve made a lot of connections that allow me to do PR and promotions work on the side. I also shop beats for a few producers. I used to handle mixtape distribution for several DJs but the RIAA crack down really fucked up that hustle for me.
Do you have any other job?
Nope. I do this 24-7, literally.
What is your biggest accomplishment to date?
I recently won two awards – Bigga Rankin’s Diamond Award for Publicist of the Year and Industry Executive of the Year at the Southern Ent. Awards. Everyday I try to accomplish something else and work towards a higher goal.
What are some of your professional goals?
Pretty much the same as most people in this business – provide for my family, never have to be stuck in some dead end job wasting my talent away, and hopefully making someone else happy while I’m living my dream. As far as things I’d like to accomplish, I hope to work on movie screen plays and score a motion picture film. I want to place some beats that blow up worldwide. Anything that involves travel and making money I’d be cool with.
Being a female in this male- dominated industry, do you get hit on often? Yeah. The thing is, I never know if someone is hollering at me ‘cause they are really into me or because they are into what I do. I don’t really pay it much attention though. When you’re really focused on bangin’this shit out, all that other stuff takes a backseat.
How can you help independent artists? DJs?
I help artists every day get exposure for work they’ve put in. A lot of people get it twisted and think I can put them on but I’m just a small part of the overall picture. If an artist doesn’t already have some groundwork laid, me writing an article about them won’t help much because if people don’t know who they are they won’t read their interview anyway. The same thing goes for DJs. As far as my PR and promotions is concerned, my expertise really comes into play after an artist/DJ/producer has already been hustling for a minute. I don’t have the time anymore to start a promotional plan from scratch. I typically work with people that have a little bit of a buzz already and are looking to get exposure for what they have been doing. I’m also looking for people that aren’t going to fall off when things don’t move as quickly as they want. This business takes a lot of patience, and you have to be able to take a situation that may seem like a failure and turn it into something positive. But I do have a lot of relationships with people in the industry so I’m able to create a lot of outlets for artists that would otherwise be harder to obtain.
What’s your favorite restaurant?
Cracker Barrel, hands down.
What’s in your CD deck?
I’m bumping some Denver mixtapes from DJ Quote and DJ K-Tone. I literally have about 1,000 CDs to go through. I’m more of a DJ mixtape person; I like variety that’s why I rarely focus too much attention on one artist’s CD, unless it’s really good.
Contact info:
Myspace.com/MsRivercity or [email protected].