Louis Anthony II ("Chicco") and Lindsay Chérie with their Moms. People always ask me how I managed to raise such well-behaved children while working in hip-hop and with the loss of their father at ages 14 and 17. Well, it's because I made it clear to them that I look good in an orange jumpsuit. I would kill them myself before I let the streets take my kids. Good values, lots of love, and a generous sprinkling of discipline = Children To Be Proud Of!! Louis and I wore the backs of their Pampers out when they were still too young to call Child Protective Services! If you don't get kids in line by age 2, you can charge it to the game. All it took was a LOOK to handle them after that.
With my friend and top record promoter Arlinda Garrett at a BRE performance featuring Prince in Atlanta in 1996. From L to R: Me, Arlinda, Louis, and Darryl Board, my Street Team leader.
"Secrets" (1977)
I designed the album cover and dressed the guys.
"7" (1981)
I did the cover concept, acted a production assistant, wrote the liner notes, and co-wrote 3 tunes on the album ("Bad Lady," "California 1" and "Promise You Love"). My name appears on the album cover more times than any of the band members!!
With MC Hammer at one of his gigs in December 1990
On a much-needed break from touring in May 1978. After 6 months of being on the road with Royce Royce, LTD, The Commodores, O'Jays, etc., we finally got away for a couple of days and stayed at the Highlands Inn in Carmel, CA. I look sick because I was - suffering morning sickness with our first child, a son who was stillborn on December 3, 1978. After giving birth to our healthy daughter in fall 1979, a return trip to the same resort inspired the lyrics to "California 1".
Louis and I with Lindsay shortly after her birth in October 1979. It appeared is several industry magazines of the time.
My mentor and first boss in the record industry, producer Josephine Bridges, outside Stax Records in Memphis, TN talking to Isaac Hayes. I met Louis there the following year. (1973)
William "Poogie" Hart and Wilbert Hart of The Delfonics on 125th Street in Harlem. We were on our way to a soundcheck at the legendary Apollo Theater. I was one of their three personal photographers while studying Theater Arts at Howard University. They brought the house down that night when they sang "Didn't I (Blow Your Mind). The limo that we left in was mobbed in the small street where the backstage entrance is. Girls were on the hood, on the trunk, and on the roof. What they didn't know what that the guys were still inside of the venue. I, along with the other two photographers, had been put in the limo as "decoys" right before the song ended. It was like being chased by the monsters in "Night Of The Living Dead". It sounds like fun - it wasn't. We never let them do that to us again. (May 1972)
The Delfonics (Randy Cain, "Poogie", and Wilbert Hart) at the Howard Theater in Washington, DC in December 1969. This is one of the first of hundreds of photos taken of the group over the next three years. I gave many of the pics to them when I ran into the band many years later.
The incomparable Al Green performing "Let's Stay Together" at Constitution Hall in Washington, DC in 1972, Two years later, his girlfriend poured a pot of hot grits on him causing second-degree burns on his stomach, back, and arm. She then walked in the next room and committed suicide with Green's gun. The incidient shook him so deeply that he became a Christian and an ordained paster. I was living in Memphis at the time that this happened and it affected everyone, musician or not, because Al's personal charisma and phenomenal talent was unparalleled.
Linda Lou Bolden McCall
Age 13 weeks
Age 11 months
Age 6
Age 17
Age 23
Watercolor portrait from a B&W photo. Artist: Mwasaa Sherrard, an metro Atlanta area artist
Age 53
About Me
Music Industry Consultant & Songwriter
"Bad Lady"
Recorded & Produced by Con Funk Shun
Writers: Linda Lou McCall, Danny A. Thomas, Felton Pilate
Top 20 R&B Single Billboard Magazine
__________________
My home office. The plaques on the upper left are my and Louis' Con Funk Shun gold albums. On the back wall is my platinum plaque for the "Bulworth" soundtrack and a Bad Boy Entertainment multi-award plaque for Puffy, Notorious B.I.G., Craig Mack, 112, and Faith Evans. I also have a 10 million selling plaque from Hammer and my son Chicco has his own "Bulworth" plaque which he got at age 14. By 2000, I was due awards for Mase, Black-Eyed Peas, Eve, Mya, and the debut album for Eminem, which was not an easy feat. However, I didn't want any more of those damn things. I had spent hundreds of dollars just moving our CFS plaques from state to state. I have enough of those things and you can't do a damn thing with them when you get broke! I need my name on a check, not a plaque!
Linda Lou McCall is a songwriter and music industry consultant specializing in entertainment marketing, street promotion, and creative development. She has notably worked with many artists over three decades, from veterans like The Delfonics and Con Funk Shun to contemporary superstars like MC Hammer and Eminem. While with Con Funk Shun, she designed album covers, created album concepts, served as the production assistant on just about all of their LPs for Mercury Records, did art direction and wrote liner notes. She went on to be the only female executive for rap megastar MC Hammer from 1990 to 1992.
In 1992, Linda Lou formed her own company, The Entertainment Qartel, Inc, (EQartel), specializing in music business administration and entertainment marketing and promotions. She relocated from Los Angeles 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, Mariah Carey, Faith Evans, 112, and Gerald Levert. 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, Black Eyed Peas, and the platinum-selling "Bulworth" soundtrack.
Linda Lou was the wife of Con Funk Shun co-founder/drummer, Louis A. McCall, and the mother of their two children. 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 presentation of the case, the judge declared a mistrial just hours after the jury began deliberation. Linda Lou asked that the defendant not be retried until the prosecution could build a more solid case.
Linda Lou scaled down her work scheduled a few years ago due to severe medical problems from systemic lupus. She still takes on select consulting projects through her new company harperMcCALL Omnimedia Group and heads up 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, particularly for the elderly. She has been successful in getting scam money refunds for not only US citizens but for people in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark, Canada, Taiwan and, even, Fiji. In additions, she been a voting member of The Recording Academy ("The Grammy Awards") for 30 years. The songs that she wrote for Con Funk Shun continue to be in demand. In fact, one of them was used by rapper Lil Wayne on his top-selling album, "Tha Carter III", released on June 8, 2008.
An avid gardener, Linda Lou's yard is abloom each year with roses, phlox, lilies, and lavender. Always a "gypsy", she is now preparing to move to Phoenix some time next year.
In People magazine's "Most Beautiful People" issue (May 7, 2007), I was chosen to appear in the Dove Pro Age advertisement as one of "The 50 Most Beautiful Women Over 50". (www.people.com/doveproage). My kids entered my photo along with an essay. It was a great honor for me since I have not missed an issue of the magazine since May 1977! Thank you to Lindsay and Louis II, the best children that any mother could have.
Photographs may NOT be used without prior written authorization. Illegal copying, reproduction, and/or publishing of these photographs will be subject to legal action, pursuant to the US Copyright Act
