The “Queen of Thug Love Fiction” released her latest novel last month and, as usual, it’s a hit. Wahida Clark is a New York Times best-selling author and an entrepreneur, having sold over 350,000 books from her “Street Fiction” series of novels based in part on her real-life experiences.
After spending 10 and a half years in federal prision, Wahida created the hugely successful “Wahida Clark Presents” Publishing and signed with Cash Money Content, a division of Cash Money Records.
We caught up with Wahida here at GlobalGrind and discussed her amazing life story, her friendship with Martha Stewart and whether or not Rick Ross deserves all the “Officer Ricky” criticism.
Check out our exclusive interview with Wahida Clark below!
GlobalGrind: You’re called the “Queen of Thug Love Fiction” and you’ve said your novels are based on your life. Tell us a little about growing up in Trenton.
Wahida Clark: I was born and raised in Trenton, NJ … Donnelly Homes projects. Then I moved to the west side of Trenton and in junior high started reading Donald Goines books. Regular growing up in the ‘hood. House parties, hanging out, cutting school, smoking weed, doing what teenagers do even though I was an honor role student. But to me having fun was doing what teenagers do.
When I relocated from New Jersey to the state of Georgia, my husband was doing federal time. When you’re in the federal system they move you around a lot, so they moved him from Jersey to Georgia. I took my family and relocated from Jersey to Georgia and I landed this good job selling advertising products. The company was a bad company, I was the top salesperson. The feds kicked the doors down, kicked my office door down as well saying, ‘where’s the girl, where’s the girl!? You got the girl!?’ and they were talking about me because I was the top salesperson. I took my case to trial and I was convicted for money laundering, mail fraud and wire fraud. Ironic right? Caught a case from working. I wouldn’t change a minute or a second because if everything hadn’t happened exactly how it did, I wouldn’t be sitting right here today. I have no regrets.
Rick Ross is a former corrections officer, but raps about a lot of subjects that some people claim he doesn’t know about. How do you feel about that? Do you feel that hurts his credibility?
Well obviously it’s not hurting him. He’s still selling tons of records and still has a huge fanbase. I thought it would hurt him but the boss is still Rick Ross! (laughs)
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For your books, you pull from your own experiences. Do you feel that that’s necessary for artists in other genres like rap?
You don’t have to pull from your experiences. You can just use your imagination with some skills. To rap you need skills, to rhyme you need skills. It works both ways and it all depends.
What artists do you listen to right now aside from Cash Money and Young Money?
You can’t help but listen to them every time you turn on the radio. You have your car radio programmed and you hit a button and it’s Drake. You hit another button you hear Nicki Minaj and you hit another, you hear Lil Wayne. Actually I like old school hip-hop. Of course KRS-One, Camp Lo, A Tribe Called Quest, Poor Righteous Teachers.
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Tell us about your friendship with Martha Stewart. How did that come about?
When all the media was saying Martha Stewart was convicted and going to federal prison, I called home either the day she was coming, or a couple of days before when she knew she was coming to Alderson, West Virginia. I come to find out my agent used to date her niece so they said, ‘Wahida – when Martha comes, tell Martha that Mark said so-and-so.’ And Mark told Martha when she gets to Alderson, look up Wahida. That’s how we connected.
We didn’t hang out on the compound or anything. Alderson is a women’s federal camp and it is huge! I lived up the hill and she lived down the hill. We sort of had the same workout schedule but other than that we would see her on the compound, except for when the prison allowed us to do a one-week business seminar. I did the segment on publishing and writing and she did the segment on business and the trends in general. Then right before she left, I showed her the business plan for a publishing company and she looked it over, gave me some advice and next thing you know Martha was gone. She only did like six months.
Have you considered writing any movie scripts?
Yes, it’s on the agenda. I just haven’t had time to do a script for my movies. But of course all my readers are like, ‘Wahida – you’ve got to put the thug series on film. We’ve got to see our favorite characters.’
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Other projects in the works?
Wahida Clark Presents Publishing has more than ten other writers now. We have 14 books on the market. I’ve started an urban young adult line and that’s moving pretty good. I will be starting Wahida the magazine shortly as well.
What can you tell us about the organizations you’ve created to help others?
Prodigal Sons and Daughters Redirection Services is a non-profit organization set up by ex-offenders and what we do is reach back to other ex-offenders to help them get back into society. Phoenix Academy is the youth division of Prodigal Sons and Daughters. We’re working on getting a vocational school started for the children and charter schools and we’re focused on at-risk youths, the kids who society has washed their hands of. At-risk youths in general. It could be if your parents are incarcerated or the youth can be troubled.
Some of the kids we’ve mentored, their parents haven’t been to prison, but they can’t handle their children. We figure who better to talk to them than those who’ve been down the road that they’re headed down.
Wahida’s latest novel, “Justify My Thug,” is out now so go cop that! And visit www.wclarkpublishing.com.
