Hotlanta/Atlanta…. Known for its party scene and home of most of todays music industry players. Artists to executives respectably & definitely a city once spoke, everybody knows the name. If it has to do with Entertainment, it can be found here. However, these pastures wasn’t always green. Let me introduce you to one of ATL‘s nightlife originators: Mark Barnes. Known to most as, “Biddy!”
Young Mark was born in Jamaica, yet raised in the mean streets of NYC. After graduating highschool, he packed his bags to attend one of Atlanta’s, Private & Historically Black Schools, Clark Atlanta University. He arrived wide-eyed. Gaining popularity amongst peers quick, witnessing an open field of opportunity.
A great judge of character, I coin myself, as I first met Biddy I knew he was special. He moves with an almost calculated, humbled approach. As if he’s trying to tame the NY arrogance that so many New Yorker’s hold. While he speaks with great pride in his accomplishments. He never takes full credit for anything. All the while plugging his peers, attempting to take the lime light off himself. He has mastered the art of making others feel necessary. His soft tone is calming. The only thing that lets you know that you’re talking to the shot caller, is the intellect he carries. Thinking before he speaks, while utilizing choice words to drive his point home. And lastly it’s his confidence. It doesn’t take long to realize that Biddy knows the Entertainment Industry. He doesn’t just know it. He can write the book.
I meet Biddy today Wednesday, August 24th, 2011. We have a 1:30PM appointment. And just to share a quick taste of his character. He walks in at 1:30 sharp. Says sorry I’m late. But I’m ready… Classic!
- ~~~”While in College for fun, we began throwing parties at an apartment complexes clubhouse. For $10 you could party, drink & eat all night long. And every time we did it, it was always packed. It was always crazy. One day I went to a party at this place called ‘Ethiopian Vibrations’ with, my man at the time, Mike. He was an Ethiopian…Eritrean one of those. It was a little hole in the wall spot, but there was an abundance of fine women. You know, I’m a New York dude…or whatever…by heart…but I don’t want to ever say that I was the slickest… I had a lot of experience when it comes to knowledge of the game. My older brother was a hustler. So I learned a lot from the ways him & his circle moved.
- I believe it was ’94. And back then nobody was buying bottles of champagne at a college party. So I’m in there. Then, a bottle was like $65. So me & two of the homies, motivated by the women, decided to buy some bottles. We purchased about four. At this particular time the person throwing the party was ‘Alex Gidewon’ aka ‘AG.’
- So we doing our thing. Mike was over there rapping with Al… Alex kept asking, ‘Yo who them dudes over there?’ So he ended up introducing me to Al. He & I conversed a bit. And from that day forth we got real cool. I knew some things. Al knew some things. We took those elements & forged them. From there I started helping him with what he was doing.
- He was promoting parties & trying to make money from it. Me… I never did a party trying to make money from it. The goal of my parties in the clubhouse was to cover the expenses. It wasn’t about the money making aspect of it. But when I got with Al, he brought in the business aspect… I’m very creative & I’m a people person all day. I respect people, regardless of how big or how small they are… So I believe from that standpoint people gravitate towards me…
- So Alex & I connected. Literally everyday from like ’94 to damn near 2003 we were always together. At the time Atlanta really didn’t have a party scene. And I would say that we are responsible for 80% of making Atlanta the party scene that it is today… We started off doing little spots like Essos, Kaya & Wearhouse. These events didn’t really make any money…
- But I think it was like ’95…either ‘Freaknik‘ or ‘Homecoming.’ We was doing this Thursday night party at Kaya, with my man ‘Wolf,’ God bless the dead. So Wolf, Al & I did this party called ‘Chocolate City!’ It was that Thursday…and we made a killing… Each of us went home with about 5 to 6 thousand a piece. This is when I realized it was real…
- We started building till we were doing like 5-6 parties a week. We went from club to club. At the time there weren’t too many promoters that were abreast of the game. Al was the dude that maneuvered the relationships at the radio stations. I was the guy that interacted with the people & came up with the creative ideas. I also had a lot of friends that worked at different Record Labels. And at this time they’d pay us to allow their artist to come in & host the parties…
- In 1998, fast forward, Al & I sat down for a meet. I was informing him on the fact that I was ready to start my own company. He truly supported it. My man came up with the name Cloud9. I later incorporated the company. For my first year, the only goal was to get people to know the name….you know….’Build The Brand!’ I accomplished that. AG & I still did a lot of things together. But now he had his own brand that was fully developed. And I had a brand that I was building on…
- In the mist of this time, my relationships allowed me to open the doors for many DJ’s. The Superfriends. DJ Mars, DJ Mars, DJ Trauma, Tay Rock, C Styles, all these guys…alot of who were the original DJ’s who weren’t from ATL. They came to the “A” & we opened up the doors for them. The Affiliates, Cannon, Sense, Drama, that whole movement…. I dealt with all of those guys & we just built really strong relationships…
- We took the club scene to a different level. To the point where when I first started I had a job. By the time I started my company I’d saved enough money to say, I don’t want a job anymore…this isn’t what makes me happy. So I quit my job & I went 24/7 party promotions…
- By ’99 we were making money for real! I remember every week going to the bank. And I’m talking about depositing 20 & 30 & 40 thousand dollars in profit money…from parties! And this is after I paid my staff. And everybody who worked for me ate! I always made sure that the people around me were paid decent. And because of this I gained a lot of respect from a lot of people…
- Even to this day, when I go to the clubs. It could be from security, the owners, promoters, to just a patron in the club. The type of admiration & respect that I receive shows me that I really put my work in. Because I still get that respect. I mean it’s 2011….we started back in ’94!
- I got to a point around 2003 that I realized I had reached my ceiling. So at this point I knew that I’d have to become a club owner or do something else. I don’t think I was mentally ready to be an owner. So I never even looked at that as a possible source. I love music! So naturally I put my feet in that pot to see what I could cook…
- My man ‘Dennis Murphy’ had met an artist named, ‘Jovan Dais,’ & he believed the kid was pretty hot. So we all sat down & decided to jump into this. But at the time we weren’t truly ready. I didn’t understand the Music Business as a whole, as much as I understood Marketing & Promotions. I took what I knew & I did that. I really didn’t understand the creation of music & what it took to come up with hit records. So we spent money & lost a lot of it. But in turn I learned some valuable lessons. But I’m not the type of person to give up…
- I took my hits & beatings. Went back to the party promotions to build my stash back up. Jovan & our team ended up splitting ways because it really started to not make any sense. We were making terrible decisions. But bad decisions amassed from day one. At the end of this particular situation a friend of mine, named ‘Ray Daniels,’ had some things going on. He knew the music business. I knew the marketing & promo aspect. He had a new group that he was getting ready to work with called Rock City. He wanted us to get together on that project…
- He played a song for me & I was like, ‘What Is This?’ This don’t seem hot… He laughed & said, ‘I figured you’d say that. I’m going to take you to see them perform…’
- I went to the performance…and that it was. I was floored! These dudes were incredible! A fusion between Rap, R&B, Pop & Caribbean. Their talent for performance & the unison between the two of them was like anything I’ve ever seen. At that point I told Ray I was in. So we started working the act. I took them to the clubs….and I’d just tell the owners… ‘I promise you. After they finish performing, enough people are going to say that these guys are pretty incredible!’
- We went to the clubs & did just that. We got signed to Konvict & then Ray was able to etch a deal with Interscope for the guys. But, you know, at the time…I guess they had one thought in their mind, while we had another. Things didn’t work out… This was my second experience in the music business & learning from it. The lesson: ‘It’s All Business! It’s Never Personal!’ Once the business is down…whatever you thought was personal disappears. People are only going to like you & jump up & down about you as long as the situation is positive. Once it gets to the point where things don’t appear to be working… Questioning certain things… You have to be aware that, for the people that’s pushing it & emotionally attached to the project, it’s all business… So don’t take it personal…’
- In the mist of this time I met ‘Verse Simmonds.’ He & Rock City are very good friends. They grew up in the Virgin Islands. He & I were just friends…you know…cool. Verse moved to Atlanta & worked with Ray as a writer. One day he brought some music to me… He told me that this was his music & that he wanted to be an artist. He wanted me to manage him.
- I listened to the music…I was like this is pretty good. From there we started building. Just like everything in life…you know…things change. Me & Ray ended up not agreeing on certain things. Ray ended up keeping Rock City…I ended up keeping Verse. Let’s rewind a bit. I started taking Verse to the club…creating some awareness around him. In the mist of that we were able to secure a deal at Interscope with Rodney Jerkins & Jimmy Iovene. I brung Verse out there. Verse performed. They liked him. They signed him…
- Upon signing him…there was a couple of producers I was dealing with. I asked them for a record. Like, ‘I need a club record! But I need a smash! All I need is the beat…’ Told them the feel or vibe that I was after. Shout out to my man Meko. He sent me the track that I thought was the one. I gave the track to Verse & we went to the studio…
- He started coming up with some little ideas… All I heard was Verse say (singing), ‘If Your A Single Lady… Let Me Buy You A Round!’ When I heard that I felt the chills. I was like damn… If the rest of the song is like this… We got one! When he finished I called Ray & I called DJ Trauma in. Before he had the, ‘Up & Down..Up & Down.’ It was, ‘We Could Get In… We Could Get It In.’But at the time 50 Cent had that song about getting it in. So they was like… Nah! Got to do something else…
- The following day Verse came back with the “Up & Down…” Trauma said it’s a smash… Im taking it to the club tonight & check it out. He said around 10:30…11…dance floor wide open, he threw the record on. Like 20…30 girls hit the dance floor. At that moment we knew that was the record. I called Interscope told them what we had. In the begin they didn’t believe. But I said, ‘We have to make them believe!’
- We took it to the clubs. Just so happened that one day Trauma was back in the same club. Lucky on a Wednesday night. It was a night that Mark Pitts was there with Ray. On the way out Trauma dropped the song. Mark was like, ‘Who song is this? It’s crazy!” When Ray heard him say that, that’s when he knew it was ‘The Record…’
- So we went to Interscope with the record. They finally believed in it after the A&R heard how Mark Pitts felt. But before the label jumped on it. With my relationships at radio I was able to get Hot107.9 to go on it. At that particular time the label probably wasn’t ready…and…didn’t know enough about Verse. The record ended up building…but then it dropped off. I believe it to be because it was an R&B record. We was leading into the fourth quarter. And Verse wasn’t a priority…
- So our record fell to the ground & we ended up getting upset. But once again with my relationships, I was able to push & keep us on the road. We’d do shows for $750…A thousand…whatever we could get. I would just try to put together shows that allowed us to do promo. In the mist of this we came up with the Sex Tape Chronicles 1. So we hit the road hard for a year with it. Got to the end of it & Verse & I sat down & talked. Ray & I did the same. We all decided that it was cool that we split ways. Again he took Rock City… I took Verse… And we just went back to the grind again… Building from the bottom up…
- Akon was always cool with Verse. One day he just called us to the office & was like he wanted to sign us. We was like, word? He was like yea… It took about three months before we went over there. So we made that happen, even though everybody was telling us we shouldn’t. Definately not them! We ended up etching out a good deal that was beneficial to both parties…
- We had been working on Sex Tape Chronicles 2. The single on there was ‘Boo Thang’ featuring , at the time, Ashley Chanel. We was pushing that. We had got that record up to about 100…130 spins a week on our own. When we got over to Konvict they got behind the record…got it up to 500…550 spins a week. After that DefJam came into the situation. We’ve since added the vocals of songstress, Kelly Rowland to the track…
- I remember Bu calling me & telling me, Barry Weiss just emailed me asking what’s up with this kid Verse Simmonds, who has all these spins on this record? You aint tell me about it… Bu replied, I just wanted to do it organic & see if you’d catch on to it. Barry asked to fly us up there. So we hit NY…sat down with the staff at DefJam. Verse performed & talked. They let us know they wanted to put a deal on the table. Ten days later we was signed to DefJam… Now they’re behind the record. It’s up to about 850 spins as of last week.
- In the mist of all this… I don’t know… Maybe a blessing from God… I wasn’t looking for it. But I got the opportunity to own a club. So I decided to Jump on it… ‘Jett Lounge,’ opens next Tuesday, August 30th, 2011. The opening day is coined Verses DefJam signing party… Which brings us to the present.”~~~
If I had one word to describe Biddy… It would be dimensional. I, like I’m sure you, was caught in a trance. He spewed the story as if practiced. Slow, northern fused with a touch of West Indian, drawl. Yet every word delivered precisely. I had an iPad full of pointer notes to touch on. Yet he’d covered them all. I can easily make a column on this site that reads, biddyspeaks! His Facebook page & Twitter are filled with positive quotes, teachings & shout-outs giving his team credit for their hard work. Biddy is a professional! And this is an understatement…
Mark “Biddy” Barnes also manages artists ‘Q Da Kid,’ ‘Ak Lucci’ & has reunited with ‘Jovan Dais.’ He also has a management team now. ‘MBM Management,’ with his partners David Jay Melhado & Jason Lane. They’re focusing on the other artists allowing him to give his full attention to Verse…
With the brand of his primary company, Carte Blanche & the motto/meaning behind it, “Everything Is First Class,” he’s back at it again. Mission… Make Verse Simmonds a World Wide Brand. Then become an agent & mange some basketball players. Lastly he has the will to become part owner of an NBA Franchise. With big visions & aspirations ahead of him, it isn’t hard to tell that Biddy is just warming up. He is in good hands…
And his positivity leaves the universe no options, but to return the favor….
See Ya’ll Here! – iqwespeaks