She’s the coolest Korean-Canadian 54-year-old single mother you’ll ever meet. Why? Because Sophia Chang, former manager extraordinaire to some of the most legendary hip-hop acts like RZA, GZA, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, A Tribe Called Quest, Raphael Saadiq and more, is indeed the baddest chick in the room.
Chang recently spoke with ESSENCE’s Yes, Girl! podcast about her new audiobook The Baddest Bitch In The Room which chronicles her journey as a music industry veteran and delves into how she’s managed to live a life on her own terms.
The book has hit a high note with many women of color and that’s just the audience for whom the memoir was intended. Recognizing that her life was peppered with experiences that could be of use to women she now mentors and the women of color with whom books like Lean In did not resonate, Chang decided to share her philosophy of self-love and confidence.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about invisibility and erasure, and I think that any of us who live on the margins, we are so consistently, systematically and institutionally erased,” Chang shared.
“I wouldn’t have to jump up and down on the table and come out here and scream that I’m the baddest bitch in the room if I had always been seen [and] given the space that I deserve.I shouldn’t have to fight to be seen but I do. And so I behave the way that I do,” Chang told Yes, Girl! hosts Cori Murray and Charli Penn.
Chang continued, “I think that all women, especially if you’re a mother, and if you are a woman of color, we walk a tightrope every day. And our tightropes are different. For me as an Asian woman, it’s different for you as Black women.”
And make no mistake, it’s not about competing with the next woman for time, attention, accolades or anything else. According to Chang, it’s about who you decide to be and what you think of yourself personally.
“What I try to explain to people is that being the baddest bitch in the room, it is not a competition. Right? It’s not all of us coming in here going, ‘Yep. I’m doing a survey and saying I’m prettier than you, I’m thinner than you. That’s not what it’s about. I just said this on Instagram, it doesn’t matter whether you believe I’m the baddest bitch in the room. It only matters that I do.”
To hear the full episode: