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Home > Music News > Gerard D. Spinks and Roshanda L. Duncan Overcome Homelessness to Sign Recording Distribution Contract with Essence Magazine Co founder Clarence O. Smith
Gerard D. Spinks and Roshanda L. Duncan Overcome Homelessness to Sign Recording Distribution Contract with Essence Magazine Co-founder Clarence O. Smith
6 months ago, founders of Spinks RO Records, Gerard D. Spinks and Roshanda L. Duncan were homeless, living in low-end hotels next to pimps and prostitutes, and struggling to make ends meet. Today, they announced the signing of a major recording distribution contract with Essence Founder Clarence O. Smith.
New York, New York (PRWEB) April 7, 2006 -- Spinks RO Records is a start up record label founded by Gerard D. Spinks and Roshanda L. Duncan. The two owners and founders started the label just 3 months ago and today announce a partnership with Essence co-founder and YOU Entertainment Chairman, Clarence O. Smith.
In 2005, Gerard Spinks and Roshanda Duncan found themselves individually homeless. Gerard Spinks was without a home in Atlanta, GA after economic changes had him living in hotels with pimps and prostitutes as neighbors. Roshanda L. Duncan was robbed of over $175,000 and a victim of mortgage fraud in Atlanta, GA. She found herself in foreclosure and removed from her home(the biggest investment of her life).
In an ironic twist of fate, the pair met each other at a homeless shelter in Atlanta’s midtown area. Both Mr. Spinks and Ms. Duncan never gave up hope, never let despair overtake them, and always kept up a positive attitude despite their hardships. Gerard Spinks says “I met Roshanda over coffee and she was discussing her situation of how she got robbed in a mortgage fraud scam in Atlanta. This young lady had courage and was a fighter despite being scammed out of a large amount of money. It was interesting how she kept up her spirits despite her hard luck. We were in the same boat.”
Gerard Spinks had lost everything. He lost his furniture, his home, his belongings, but never gave up hope. He kept grinding and building his book and record business despite the losses. He would develop business plans, automatic robots, and continue to keep his business together while moving from the homeless shelter in Atlanta over to a low-end hotel on Atlanta’s East Side.
He had already published two books “How To Be Rich, Nigga”, “The Baller’s Guide to MAJOR Figure$, and kept writing his third book “The Poor Mans Guide to the Rich Mans World”. He would move up to New York City when he got an offer to work on a technology contract for his fledgling technology company, Spinks Technologies.
When Gerard D. Spinks moved to New York, he teamed up with Roshanda L. Duncan again when she moved from Atlanta back up to her hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. The two would work countless hours building what is now known as Spinks RO Records. Together, they would work in Baltimore and New York building the company, marketing the company, selling Gerard’s’ books, and putting together Roshanda’s Artists, The Roll Wit Us All-Stars, K-Rucku$$, and Trace.
Gerard says “There were many tears, many long days, many frustrations, but a lot of love between us. Roshanda and I had a common goal and that was to use our God given talents to change our situation. We both kept that goal in mind, kept God in mind, and kept working towards the end result.”
Suddenly, things changed overnight for the pair. One day, while sitting in Union Square in New York, Gerard received a call on his cell phone that would change things. A gentleman named Mr. Duke Jones called to ask Gerard Spinks and Roshanda Duncan to come in to their office on Park Avenue in New York and meet with Mr. Clarence O. Smith, the former co-founder of Essence Magazine and chairman of YOU Entertainment.
Mr. Smith was in the process of growing YOU Global Entertainment and had selected Spinks RO Records as a partner to help YOU Entertainment grow. Gerard Spinks says “This was an actual blessing from God. To think that Roshanda Duncan and I had absolutely nothing but our faith, our courage, our belief, our hopes, and our dreams and this man, this great man saw what we are doing and recognized that it was something good means more than my words can say! We simply want to honor God, honor Mr. Clarence O. Smith, honor the YOU Global Entertainment, and stay true to ourselves, our culture, our music and our artists.”
Spinks RO Records is now pushing their artists, have offices on Park Avenue in Manhattan, offices in Baltimore, Maryland, and an office in Atlanta. They are now working on multiple projects and are busy as ever. The start up label now has major retailer distribution through ADA/Warner Music Group that gives them access to over 7,000 retailers across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Both Gerard Spinks and Roshanda Duncan know adversity and want the world to know that you can overcome anything with the help and belief in God.
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