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AAPRC Weekly: Rhonda Ridley

Rhonda Ridley
President & CEO
Affinity Communications PR
Riverdale, NY

In 1999, Rhonda Ridley was a busy woman, teaching grammar school full time, running a hair salon out of her Jersey City apartment and doing occasional publicity projects. “I was that strong, independent Black woman who didn’t need nobody,” says Ridley of her former self. Her life changed drastically, though, after a catastrophic fall down a flight of stairs. Ridley broke her ankle and wrist and severely damaged the tendons in her back. For more than a year-and-ahalf she lay paralyzed, unsure if she’d ever walk again, unable to work, with no income and mounting debts. The only thing she was able to do was pray.

According to Ridley, God showed her miracles she hadn’t thought possible –– the landlord let her live rentfree, the credit card company forgave her debt and many other wonderful things. “Then I believed and trusted and said ‘Lord, I’m available to you, use me,’” Ridley says. “He said ‘well, then get up and walk, Rhonda.’ And I got up and I’ve been walking since that day.” Her survival and recovery sparked a spiritual renewal for the enterprising New Jersey native and a journey that’s led her to Affinity Public Relations, the full-service entertainment publicity and special events firm that Ridley founded in 2001. The company, headquartered in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, has represented a wide range of clients, including the popular Christian hip hop duo Corey Red and Precise, actress Ericka Alexander (”The Cosby Show,” “Living Single”), photographer Ernie Paniccioli (Who Shot Ya?: Three Decades of Hip Hop Photography), boxer Mark Breland and others from the worlds of music, fashion, film and sports.

In 2003, Ridley announced that the firm would exclusively represent Christian clients. Affinity has since added emerging gospel artists Maurice Lauchner, John W. Gray III and Brian Dillard, as well as renowned music producer Todd “Bangz” Elliott (Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre), and Xii magazine, a new Christian lifestyle publication, to its roster. “At first I tried to be as liberal as possible and call this a Christian PR firm but still represent secular clients. That became very difficult because the belief system was different. The standards were different,” says Ridley. “I took it to God and let him direct me.”

For Ridley, identifying Affinity as a Christian firm came part and parcel with her newly developing lifestyle of turning to her spiritual resources as a prelude to every one of her life’s choices. She expects her clients to stand equally as firm in their convictions. She uses producer Todd Bangz as an example of an ideal Affinity client. “Someone from Busta Rhymes’ camp heard Todd’s beats the other day and tried to buy them, but he said these are God-made beats. These beats are for Christian brothers and sisters. I can’t sell them to you. It would be compromising myself and I can’t do that,” says Ridley. “One of the things that we follow is to never compromise your convictions…Clients definitely need to assess and identify what those convictions are.”

The first several months of Affinity’s new Christian-oriented focus, was, to say the least, a challenge. The surprisingly gritty gospel hip hop duo, Corey Red and Precise, was Ridley’s first big test. Ridley, who’d been working in publicity for nearly eight years before founding Affinity, had plenty of mainstream media contacts. When she started pitching Corey Red and Precise though, all she heard was “no.” The born-again-Christian group came to gospel from past lives of drugs, drug dealing, violence and womanizing, and has a hard-core look that their audiences would identify with. Record labels were skittish. Mainstream media was only interested if the duo was willing to downplay religion. Even Christian media shied away; they were only interested in cleancut gospel rap. Ridley prayed for assistance and the answer came in the form of an idea. She started keeping the CD near the phone, and when she got a “no,” she played the album for the person on the other end. “I hadn’t played it for them. I was just pitching them,” says Ridley. “When I called Vibe, at first it was just no, no, no, no, no. I played that album –- I only played one song –– and it was over. They were like, send it now.”

Ridley was equally persistent with the religion reporter from the New York Times, setting up lunches and visits to “the ‘hood” with the journalist and her clients. Her efforts landed Corey Red and Precise on the coveted first page of the Times’ Arts section in September 2004. “Corey and Precise is what God used for my testing ground,” Ridley says, reflecting on the experience. “He gave me the hardest possible task: get these hardcore, gritty, bold, courageous hip-hop brothers’ names out there. Let people know that they even exist, to make the way for whatever other clients you have easier. That’s what happened. Getting them out there made it much easier to get the other people out.”

Ridley’s strategy and dedication has paid off. Affinity is thriving. The firm employs two account executives, in-house graphics and stationary designers, a filmmaker, two special event coordinators and a chef. Needless to say her home office in Riverdale, just 12 minutes north of Manhattan, is getting crowded. The firm is on the lookout for office space in Manhattan. Ridley believes the move is necessary as she expands her roster to include the corporate clients who’ve been calling. “The company truly belongs to God,” says Ridley. “I’m letting him use me every day to help people further their walk with Him, further their ministry with Him, and get His name out there –– because that’s what He wants. I have to be a publicist for Christ first and foremost. If I don’t wake up daily with the heart and desire to first represent Him, then I can’t possibly call this a Christian PR firm.”

Ridley is confident about the future success of Affinity, in part because she believes the general mood of the country will continue to create opportunities for Christian entertainment to grow. September 11, she says, was a major factor. “You would have never heard about a bible being at someone’s workplace and being accepted before 9/11. You would have not heard about people having bible studies at their job before 9/11,” says Ridley. “A lot of these artists were really holding on to their faith…they had to really hold it in and not speak freely about it because they knew it wasn’t acceptable. People are accepting this music now because this music is speaking what people have been afraid to say for so long.”

Ridley, who received her B.A. in Business Management and Marketing from New Jersey City University, shares management duties at Affinity with her husband Kevin, a filmmaker and computer programmer. The two spend their free time with family –– especially their nieces and nephews –– going to movies and teaching covenant classes for couples at New York Covenant Church in New Rochelle.

AAPRC’s Mission
The African-American Public Relations Collective (AAPRC) is an assemblage of professionals who provide communication conduits among clients, journalists, media and our communities. We come together as a collective because we recognize the importance of building those same conduits amongst ourselves.

A great deal of what we do is professional development––updating our skills, keeping pace with technology, refining and streamlining processes, providing a forum to tackle the issues that impact our work environment––but we believe our professional lives benefit most from the forging of effective alliances. Connected to one another, we possess the power of a nationwide body of committed, knowledgeable practitioners with an eye on the future.

As we move into the 21st century at lightning speed, mass media and its potent messages occupy an ever-larger part of our daily lives and our collective psyche. The AAPRC is focused on helping our members gain a deeper understanding of media’s force and supporting their growth as powerful participants in the global communications network.

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By Gwendolyn Quinn on 9/26/2005[read on] [Make a comment]

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