Linda Lou McCall

Linda Lou's career spans almost 4 decades, starting as a photography and publicist, and now as a songwriter & music industry consultant specializing in entertainment marketing, street promotion, and artist development. She has worked with veterans like The Delfonics and Con Funk Shun to contemporary artists like MC Hammer and Eminem. While with Con Funk Shun, she designed album covers, created album concepts, served as the production assistant on their albums, and co-wrote songs for the band like "California 1", "Bad Lady", "Honey Wild", "Promise You Love", and "I Think I Found The Answer". She went on to be a VP with rap megastar MC Hammer from 1990 to 1992. In 1992, Linda Lou formed The Entertainment Qartel, Inc, (EQartel), specializing in music business administration, entertainment marketing and street promotion. She relocated from North Hollywood to Atlanta in 1994 and quickly built up a solid client base with artists like OutKast, Goodie Mob, Notorious B.I.G., Puff Daddy, T.L.C., Jay-Z, Will Smith, Three-6 Mafia, Tupac, Faith Evans, and 112. As a member of the first Interscope Records Street Team, her Atlanta-based Rhyme Scene Unit Street Marketing Task Force was instrumental in the success of the debut albums of Eminem, Mya, and the Black Eyed Peas. Linda Lou was the wife of Con Funk Shun co-founder & drummer, Louis A. McCall, whom she met while they both worked at Stax Records in the mid 1970's. Louis was killed in a home invasion robbery in 1997. Linda Lou spent the next decade fighting to keep Louis' case from going cold, even persuading the Governor of Georgia to reopen the case in 2003. Her hard work finally paid off - on January 18, 2007, a Dekalb County, GA grand jury indicted a suspect on a felony murder charge. The case went to trial on July 21, 2008. However, due to problems with the state's case, the judge declared a mistrial just hours after the jury began deliberation. Linda Lou asked that the defendant not be retried so that she and her children could get on with their lives. Linda Lou excepts select consulting projects through her company Exxtra Foxx Music, LLC, the music publishing company that she's owned since 1981. In her spare time, Linda Lou volunteers as a consumer protection activist and lupus awareness advocate. She been a voting member of The Recording Academy ("The Grammy Awards") since 1977. The songs that she wrote for Con Funk Shun continue to be in demand. "Honey Wild", recorded by Con Funk Shun in 1980, was recently sampled for "Kush" by rapper Lil Wayne on his top-selling album, "Tha Carter III", released in June 2008. Along with partner Ruben L. Harper and her son Louis A. McCall II, she heads up a team of producer/songwriters. She has recently expanded the services of Exxtra Foxx Music to include consulting in song publishing and sample clearances. One of Linda Lou's photographs taken of the legendary R&B trio The Delfonics is included in the Smithsonian Institute's exhibition "Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment" at the National Museum of African-American History & Culture, currently in Washington, DC through August 2011, and touring the country until 2012.