Today we’d like to introduce you to Ray Lynch.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up in East Harlem, New York. A place very dear to my heart. My mom and father got divorced when I was eight so she raised me and my 3 brothers by herself from there on out.
At that age my first love was basketball but I would soon find out that the Hip-Hop Culture would consume me in a good way.
The spirit of Hip-Hop was everywhere. You would walk down the street and the guys would have big radios on their shoulders blasting music. If you pass by a park, you would see crowds of people gathering around watching a breakdance battle.
You couldn’t escape the culture, I was fascinated to the point where I started writing graffiti myself, spray painting in the building staircases, subway cars and breakdancing on cardboard boxes on 42 St. Grand Central.
I got started with music as early as maybe 11 years old. I fell in love with rap music and R&B. My favorite rap group was EPMD and my favorite singer was Anita Baker.
Back then we had to wait to hear rap music on the radio and record it with a cassette tape. Because the rap shows were limited back then they would come on late at night so I would press record and fall asleep with my finger on the record button.
When I woke up in the morning, I would rewind the tape and listen to all the new music I recorded while asleep.
I couldn’t wait to go outside and play the new music for my friends.
From there I got really engulfed in music. I became a student. I would go to the record store as a young teenager to buy the albums and read the credits to learn about the artist, producers, engineers, labels, etc.
While basketball was still my focus, music was my burning passion and it continued to grow from high school to college. I loved music so much because the words told stories I could relate to and the music did something to my soul.
I went to Bowling Green State University, besides playing basketball and graduating with a degree in Interpersonal communication I also started being more creative. I started making music, started throwing parties, and hosted my own radio show at the university radio station.
Once college was over, I went back home to New York City and did a few internships, one specifically at TVT records ( Yo Gotti, Ja Rule), and saw how the labels worked and I was fascinated. That’s when I knew that music was the industry I wanted to be in.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
This journey hasn’t been smooth at all. I think the biggest challenge for me has been losing family members along the way all while trying to run a business and pursue a dream.
The challenges for me started in 1991 when my brother Aubrey was murdered in front of me in East Harlem. That’s when life got extremely hard for me. This happened two weeks before going to college on a Division 1 basketball scholarship. My world was turned upside down. I still managed to go to school and get my degree but my basketball career suffered.
Fast forward in I lost my Grandmother in 2004, my Aunt Paulette in 2010, uncle Jimmy & my father in 2015, my mother in 2016 and my aunt Camille in 2017. So, despite the daily challenges of life and being an entrepreneur, I was losing core people in my family who were instrumental in my development and part of my motivation. I suffered a lot of loss which made me go deeper into my business and channel a lot of the hurt and pain into my work to try and fill that void.
Losing a lot of people helped me appreciate life and to not take people for granted. Every day I wake up and I’m grateful for the opportunity to see another day.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Tha Connect Mgt. Is a music management company, specializing in artists, producers, and songwriters. I’m known for discovering and cultivating talent. What sets me apart from others is my ability to see talent and potential in people in their rawest form and being able to cultivate and guide them to success, I speak the artist language, I really connect and engage with my clients. I like working with talented people but more importantly, I like to work with “good” people.
I’m most proud of not giving up and staying committed to my vision of becoming a valuable asset in the entertainment Industry.
In addition to being the CEO of Tha Connect Mgt. I’m also the Operations Manager for GK Rush Productions, which focuses on Concert promotions, and Co-Executive producer for After The League productions, a multimedia company.
Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Being an entrepreneur is a huge risk but being in the music industry is like the word risk on steroids. For the most part, I have been pretty disciplined and logical in my approach to life but when I believe in something I’m willing to take risks and be a risk-taker.
In my years of being in the industry, I risked my livelihood and well-being for the dream I believe in. A lot of times you’re spending thousands of dollars on an artist and they can wake up the next day and not want to do music anymore or they just don’t pan out and you don’t see any return on your investment.
I have been up and I’ve been down. I’ve had my car repossessed, electricity cut off, bank account overdrawn. I’ve been through it all in 20+ years in the music industry. Eventually, you tighten up and you learn from your mistakes and move differently.
To some, it may seem like borderline Insanity but when you have a vision and that vision is big, these are the risks you take on the road to fulfilling your dream and financial freedom.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @raylynchmgr1
- Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCD3yiaCbu9Mnv2OF1-7D3UA
- Other: https://linktr.ee/Thaconnectmgt
Image Credits
Vargas Visuals
K Visionary
New Child Pictur
Grand Riviera Princess Photos
