Mark “Money” Green Book Signing + Discussion

Mark began his ambitious journey in music as a musician.  As a kid, he learned to play drums and piano and just always knew he wanted to do something in and with music because he knew The Isley Brothers and Ben E. King, both of which were huge in the music game, lived nearby and he knew that The Robinsons (the husband and wife team of Joe and Sylvia), who launched Sugar Hill Records (and Sylvia had a #1 hit called “Pillow Talk),” he knew more was possible. And Mark had already learned to fight for what he wanted.  A childhood sickness was likely responsible for a period in his young life when, at 11, he found himself mysteriously paralyzed for 6 months. He was active and actually in a wheelchair, but he never gave up.  It was his mother’s ferocious faith that kept him going and when, slowly he found himself healing from his sickness, he found a faith and a fight of his own that didn’t just push him to get up. He got up and he started walking and walking became running. Mark became a track star who set records and found a passion.  But there was still passion in and for music and when the music teacher told him that his working out might be making him too bulky for his favorite instrument, the drums, he had to choose.  Mark Green chose music, because he would soon discover that the show must go on and the music lived in him.

He formed a band as his first foray into the industry, but it was a chance visit to his guitarist friend’s home, just to hang, where he spotted gold records on the wall with the name Freddie Perren on them.  He didn’t know who they belonged to, but he knew what they meant.  Those records belonged to his friend’s uncle Freddie Perren–the iconic songwriter, record producer, arranger, and orchestra conductor–who co-wrote and co-produced songs including “Boogie Fever” by the Sylvers, “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor, and “Shake Your Groove Thing” by Peaches & Herb and who was responsible, as a member of Motown’s collection of songwriters and record producers for the monster hits of The Jackson 5, including “I Want You Back,” “ABC”, “The Love You Save” as well as “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday” for the Spinners’ G.C. Cameron from the motion picture Cooley High, (later a hit for Boyz II Men). ark was bitten by the bug of music and he wanted in.  That took him to the library to read up on music and every job he saw in the book he read, he wanted to do.  If he wasn’t going to be a musician, he was going to be involved in making music somehow.  The show had to go on and he found his way to the turntable. 

Still in high school, he started “messing around with the equipment” that he and his band used to rehearse and found that he got innately good on the wheels of steel.  That finesse opened the door to DJ a local dance and that brought more gigs and a chance to compete in a battle of the DJ’s in the homeland of hip-hop, the Bronx (aka The Boogie Down). He got introduced to rapping at the battle and brought it home to Jersey and started doing his thing. “But I heard some dudes talking over the records and I had never heard that before.  I wanted to do that.”  After connecting with his friend Guy O’Brien, who heard him and wondered what it was that he was doing, he began to work with the young artist.  That young artist, who, with 2 friends, would write the song that is touted as the debut single of the rap genre:  “RAPPER’S DELIGHT.”  O’Brien would put the moniker Master Gee and he and The Sugar Hill Gang would go on to change music forever, with O’Brien still claiming Green as a mentor, so much so that he wrote the foreword for “THE SHOW MUST GO ON!”

Mark continued to show prowess for music and musicianship and writing and all the skills that should have led him onto a stage and into the game as an artist. But it was a chance meeting with the legendary Freddie Perren was the real spark to his belief that he could succeed in music, that made the young titan FOCUS!  And a simple statement changed everything.  When he was excited to tell the music giant that he was ready to be a superstar on stage and in the rap game, Perren implored him:  “No, no, no. You don’t want to play the music.  You want to make the music.  The money is in making the music.”  Perren also encouraged Mark to go to college (where he went to Virginia State University, earning a BA in Music Education),  get focused and get smarter and come out and make his mark. He continued to deejay on campus.  He became popular and thought he was on his way. He began interning at Sugar Hill Records after his tenacity, waiting in the lobby to meet with Joe Robinson, finally got him a meeting with the music mogul who had ignored him because he thought he wanted to be a rapper like everyone else waiting to shoot their shot. 

But Mark had a vision and a dream to be an engineer and Joe Robinson put him to work. Simultaneously, he kept deejaying because it was his shine.  But a robbery, where all of his equipment was stolen, changed his direction because his parents weren’t supporting him in this DJ thing when they sent him off to college to become something.  Green’s story had already connected him, by chance, to Tony Award winner and singing sensation Melba Moore and, after college, she got him a job at Hush Productions, where Lillo Thomas, Najee,  Freddie Jackson and Melba were a part of the burgeoning roster of stellar performers. He would stay on at the red hot production company that was making stars left and right.  He worked full-time at Hush, where he took on every task–project management, artist development, and road management, where he began to shine so bright that artist after artist wanted him on the road with them. They wanted Mark “Money” Green on their team because even when things got crazy on the road,  he kept the money right and his eyes on the prize. 

Then there’s the fine line between the grind in the streets and the hustle in the industry.  Mark battled with con artists, drug dealers and pimps and people trying to show off their local high profile at the expense of his artists. “I didn’t get too caught up in that because I had to keep one eye on the money!” He stayed focused, even when distractions of every kind showed up on the road–drugs, groupies, out-of-control artists–and he kept many ships afloat when everything should have drowned.  But again, the show must go on. 

Mark’s stellar reputation put him in high demand and working with Melba and soon Freddie Jackson, Dru Hill, Al B Sure, Grandmaster Flash, a young Usher and music pioneer Prince solidified his reputation in the industry. He would join Associated Booking Corp, where his talent for spotting rising stars and his love for hip-hop led to the signing of such game-changing artists as Salt-N-Pepa, Roxanne Shante, Kid & Play, and DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince.  He would go on to become Director of Marketing at EMI/Capitol Records and expanded again, this time into radio, promotions, and into the fields of jazz and rap, earning accolades in promotions and even producing, writing, and publishing successful tracks like “Remember the First Time” for singer Eric Gable and “Midnight Hour” for rapper Lady Spice MC. 

Green moved as the industry moved and found himself in independent marketing and promotions consulting and secured a record deal with Light Year/Warner Brothers for his independent label, with singer/songwriter and R&B legend Teena Marie as his first artist. A year later, working with  Northstar Distribution, Green became General Manager, distributing music for Prince’s independent label, where the purple one signed R&B music siren Chaka Khan and the soul-stirrer and crooner Larry Graham  on the artist’s NPG Records.

Soon, shaping his own destiny, Green launched Celebrity Talent Agency, representing a wide array of artists, where he’s secured talents for tours, festivals and commercials nationally and globally.  Ever-expanding his vision, Green also serves as Associate Director/General Manager of Lehman Performing Arts Center, Chairman of Artist Relations for The Hip-Hop Museum (THHM), and maintains ownership of Celebrity Talent Agency.  

The Show Must Go On! His riveting story of the industry’s ups and downs and his own personal experiences will inspire anybody who believes in themselves to believe that they can live their wildest dreams!

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