Raymone Bain, publicist to the stars and founder of Raymone K. Bain Companies, LLC, recently sat down with Alignment Strategies’ CEO Dr. Vanessa Weaver to discuss her experience working with some of the biggest names in sports, politics and entertainment. She shares stories about her work with Michael Jackson, Bernie Mac, Babyface, Jimmy Carter and more. She also reveals the discrimination she has faced during her career and offers advice for those facing similar challenges. The following is an edited excerpt of their conversation.
Dr. Vanessa Weaver: You were one of the first women to provide PR support for many of the boxing individuals we know. And now you really provide incredible communications, public relations and PR support to people in the District of Columbia such as DC’s former First Lady, Cora Masters Barry, who was married to the late Marion Barry. Tell us a little bit about how you got started.
Bain: I began working with then Governor [Jimmy] Carter when I was a student at Spelman and it was like my first day there, and my political science instructor, Dr. Lorris Moreland said, “You need to work with my friend.” And I said, “Well, who is your friend?” She’s like, “Governor Jimmy Carter.” I said, “Well, work with him how?” And she said, “He’s running for president.” And I said, “President of what?” And she said, “Of the United States of America.” I’m like, “So Jimmy Carter, the former governor of Georgia is running for president of the United States of America?” She said, “Yes.” I go, like, “Oh, okay.” And so–
Weaver: Why not?
Bain: He called a friend of hers who was in the campaign, and I went in as an intern and ended up traveling into 32 states with Jimmy Carter. At the time I was leaving Spelman in my senior year to go to law school. I had been accepted at several law schools and everyone in the campaign was like, “You mean to tell us you helped get Jimmy Carter elected and you’re not moving to Washington?” And I thought about it, and I said, “Well, I never thought about moving to Washington. I’m happy he won.” But you know, my mom in the background saying, “Oh no, you’re not moving nowhere. You’re going straight to law school.”
I ended up having to make a bargain with my mom ’cause at that time mothers dictated, mothers, fathers, family dictated what you were going to do. She didn’t care that Jimmy Carter won the election. It’s like, okay now, I sent my money as your admission, to pay your admissions to law school. Now, which one you’re going to and then, you know, so much talk about everything else. Let’s just get back on track. So I had to like bargain with my mom. Okay, I’m going to move to Washington with Jimmy Carter, but I promise you I’m going to law school.
Weaver: And you did do that.
Bain: I worked at the White House during the day and went to Georgetown during the evenings.
Weaver: What struck me about just even sharing that part of your life is how important relationships have been in terms of introducing you to opportunities and making sure that you have certain exposure. Relationships seem to be pivotal to that.
Bain: I’ve been really blessed. Most of the clients, you name them: Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, Muhammad Ali, Steve Harvey, Babyface, Boyz II Men, they’re all men and very powerful men and they entrusted me with their business. I have to give kudos to them.
Right now, I’m a member of Higher Heights and Black Women Lead and When We’re Black Women 2020 and I take my hat off to all of the women groups who have lobbied together to make sure that they can effectuate positive change for women. When you and I were out here, many others, we didn’t have that kind of support base and that’s why I’m so honored to be a part of those women organizations who helped effectuate change in this past election. And we have now an African-American woman who’s the first Vice President of the United States and hopefully we’ll have so many more, so many more African-American and women of color senators. When I was in law school, my priority was being a criminal attorney because I thought that African Americans were facing a lot of injustices in the criminal justice system.
Even way back then, I remember my mom and I going to the baseball games, and I would sit next to white fans. They would turn their backs to us. And one kid, this was years ago, my arm touched his just briefly and he had to wipe it off and cried and was sitting there whining and telling his mom and dad I had touched him. But yet when Hank Aaron came out on the field, oh, they stood up and they clapped and applauded. They didn’t look at me in the same vein as Hank Aaron. I was Black. He wasn’t because he was playing ball. It’s very interesting how he himself had to face discrimination, but yet when I was sitting in the stands I faced it, but they embraced him.
Weaver: It’s the celebrity piece of it.
Bain: Yes, and it’s convoluted and it’s because of things like that that I chose the path. When I was tapped by the Kings of Comedy, I was so honored, Bernie Mac, the late Bernie Mac, Cedric the Entertainer, D.L Hughley, Steve Harvey, those men brought joy to people around the world, and they filled the Phillips Arena in Atlanta that holds 70-some-thousand three nights in a row. I mean, just exceptional individuals came to me and I’m very honored about that. Now, on the other hand, you asked what were some of the challenges.
Weaver: Yes.
Bain: Clearly in boxing there were challenges. My first encounter with my first client in the whole wide world was Hector “Macho” Camacho. It was in September. He had fought Rafael Solis for the super featherweight championship of the world. Years ago, if you remember HBO, Larry Merchant used to have boxing week and it was so amazing. I looked at him and he had on these leopard trunks and his cape, and he was twirling in the ring, and I looked and I said to them, “I’m going to represent him.”
In January, a friend of mine in New York called and said, “Raymone, listen, can you come up to New York? I have a friend whose mother is so concerned because her son is boxing and he hadn’t gotten paid by Don King.” And I said, “Well, who is the boxer?” She said, “Hector ‘Macho’ Camacho and he hasn’t been paid for the fight with Rafael Solis.” I couldn’t believe it. That was the same fight I was watching and said to my friends, “I’m going to represent him.”
Well, I then, Marion Barry has been a mentor like a father or brother. I don’t know how to describe it, but I mentioned to him that I was going up to New York to face Don King. He says, “Well, you’ve got to meet my best friend in the whole wide world, Cora Masters. She’s the chairman of the Boxing Commission.” He took me over to Cora’s house. She put me on the phone with Rock Newman and Butch Lewis and they told me play by play what was going to happen in that meeting. Everything they said, they’re going to curse, they’re going to fight, they’re going to act the fool, they’re going to just try to intimidate you, and they did.
I got a pitcher of cold water thrown on me. They fought. They threw chairs. I had to duck. Somebody hit somebody else in the nose; it started bleeding. Blood just splattered all over the place. The papers were thrown in the air, chairs thrown, me and Hector having to duck. Now, here it is a fighter having to duck, scared to death and they had told me what my ace card was, and I let them go through all of that and I said, “You know what? This has been so entertaining. I want the judge to see this. I want the judge to see the yelling, the screaming, the cursing, the fighting. I want the judge to get bloody. I want somebody to throw a pitcher of ice-cold water in the judge’s face. I’m done here.”
And Don King stands up and says, “Hold it! Hold it! I’m an honorable man. I’m an honorable man.” Because they had told me if one more person files a lawsuit against him, he was going to be suspended for years and would not be able to promote anymore. And that was the inside information that Cora Barry and others had given me. So he calls his accountant in, writes the check, tears it out of the checkbook, gives it to me. Hector and I get the heck out of there. We get to the hotel, have security take us to our rooms because one of Don King’s people said we’d never leave New York alive. And that was my first interaction in boxing and when word got out as to how successful I was in getting Hector his money, then everybody else came. And that’s how that happened.
Weaver: So, as you think about that part of your life, what were some of the lessons you learned as I think one of the few, if not the only Black woman that was representing boxing giants like Muhammad Ali and other people?
Bain: You got the managers, you got the trainers, you got the agents, you got the lawyers and they’re primarily white. So as a Black woman, everybody is not like Joe Biden, and everybody is not like Bill Clinton. Everybody is not like some of these people whom we see and we know and they do the right thing.
There are some people here as we have seen this last year and a half who don’t think Black people deserve a seat at the table. They don’t care who you are and what you do and how successful. And I’ve had to encounter that. I’ve been slandered, defamed, demeaned, diminished, hacked, cyber attacked. There’ve been articles written that were completely and unequivocally false in order to hurt me, in order to keep me from excelling in business. I’ve had government agencies called under false pretenses. All of that because of the level of success that I reached in sports and entertainment.
Weaver: When you have a complex web of adversaries that are after you, what advice would you recommend?
Bain: So we have to deal with the fact that we’re going to be discriminated against. Everybody is not going to love us and we’re going to have to fight to get a seat at the table and we got to have to use whatever means necessary to have that seat at the table. Black musicians are not supposed to be able to garner and become billionaires. I am so happy to see that we have at least 10 to 15 African-American men and women that are certified billionaires and I’m happy to see that. So that means that despite what we have to go through, despite the issues, despite being beat down, we just have to keep on doing what it is we do. Be good at what you do, be honest at what you do, lawyer up, strategize, rely on your network of professionals and your friends and make sure that what you say and how you say it, you’re telling the truth, you have credibility. Keep your moral compass, don’t compromise your principles.
