The Baddest Bitch in the Room: A Memoir

Music manager Chang, who’s worked with the Wu-Tang Clan and A Tribe Called Quest, shares life stories in a candid memoir about hip-hop, kung fu, and being a “hustler.” Chang moved from Vancouver to New York in the 1980s after college and became immersed in the music scene. A charmer with “titanium confidence,” she got a job as an assistant to Paul Simon and parlayed that into several positions in the music business over the course of an eclectic career, including head of marketing in the alternative department at Atlantic Records and an A&R job at Jive Records. The book’s most engaging sections concern her friendships with musicians, like GZA and RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan, who treated her like family and employed her as a manager (RZA is also godfather to her two kids). A long time practitioner of kung-fu, Chang writes with humor of first having sex with monk and Shaolin kung-fu teacher, Yan Ming, with whom she became involved and had her two kids; of leaving him after he cheated on her; and of struggling as a single mother. There’s a self-empowerment vibe throughout: “I am defining myself and telling the world who I am.” This impassioned memoir is filled with energy and will appeal to fans of early rap and the Wu-Tang Clan. (Sept.)