Tonight’s premier of PoweR Girls will feature publicist Lizzie Grubman and staff and some brief glimpses of celebrities including a hip hop star or two. As previously noted, Grubman’s known for backing an SUV into some folks which led to this mugshot. Apparently she’s now being sued for allegedly stiffing the woman who ran things while she was in jail which led to promises of partnership and involvement with the show that was to become PoweR Girls.

Prepress for tonight’s premier is uniformly negative with a high level of disgust as evidenced by the headlines:
Lizzie and the Losers
MTV’s ‘PoweR Girls’ Aren’t Super or Heroes
‘PoweR Girls’ delivers bad PR

As fascinating as I find such horror, I’m writing about Grubman because she claims to be responsible for hip hop’s crossover into the mainstream. Besides being a silly remark, it ignores the accomplishments of so many publicists with a deep commitment to hip hop, including Phyllis Pollack, the publicist for acts like NWA, a little band out of Southern California who hit #1 on the Billboard Album charts back in the day. Pollack’s writing appears in such diverse venues as NWA album liner notes and CounterPunch.

Though Pollack declined to comment on Grubman’s obviously absurd claims, she did send me a statement about her views on the role of a publicist that she originally sent to a young person who wanted to find out more about what Phyllis does, stating:
“I’m often told that I should look into becoming a publicist because through my articles, I always find the perfect way to make an artist look good.”

Phyllis replied:
“Being a good publicist is really not just “making your artist look good,” but to be HONEST when doing so. I do not believe in hype or hyperbole. I think it is always best to always be real with people, and be honest. The most important thing on a press release or an article is not just the artist’s name, but yours, as the publicist or writer. Your integrity always has to come first. You have to believe in the artist, but you always have to also believe in yourself.”

Actually, she said a lot more than that but I’m saving the rest for possible use when I interview Phyllis for a new feature series, Talking Hip Hop Business. She’ll be one of the first to be featured with insights into the work of a hip hop publicist. I doubt Lizzie Grubman will make the cut but I look forward to interviewing Phyllis Pollack.