Boston remembers architect of its '70s and '80s music scene

When Tony Rose was a kid in Roxbury, he slept with a transistor radio under his pillow.

“The sound of the music really got to him,” said Yvonne Rose, his wife.

The experience would set the stage for the rest of his life. Eventually Rose would help build Boston’s music scene of the ‘70s and ‘80s that launched groups like Prince Charles and the City Beat Band, New Edition and New Kids on the Block. That scene is part of the foundation for hip hop in the city and beyond. To honor this legacy, the city of Boston is proclaiming May 26 “Tony Rose Day” and naming an intersection after him.

Rose died last year at age 74.

“He left behind a flood of people who remember working with him, who remember what he did to help them launch their career,” Yvonne Rose said from their home in Arizona. “Every time I go back to Boston, I hear more and more about the people he worked with and helped that I wasn't even aware of.”

Born Conant Rose, he grew up in a public housing development on Whittier Street in Roxbury. From a young age he supported his family by delivering newspapers in the neighborhood. He loved books and music. He eventually joined the Air Force and served in Vietnam. He briefly lived and worked in Los Angeles before returning to Boston.

In 1979 he founded Solid Platinum Records and Productions. He also worked with Atlantic Records and a company now known as Sony Music.

Yvonne Rose said part of Rose’s legacy is the mentorship he provided to others around him.

“He always had time to listen,” Yvonne said. “He always had time to teach, and he took a lot of people under his wing and gave them guidance.”

Much of his work was on the back end of the music business. He had deep knowledge of production, strategy, product distribution and artist management. According to his wife, he was the first African American artist from Boston to get a licensing deal with a major international music company when he signed Prince Charles and the City Beat Band with Virgin Records.

‘ I didn't realize that I needed an entrepreneurship mentor, and it took me many, many years, even post our relationship, to put it all into perspective,” Prince Charles Alexander said.

Alexander, who worked with Rose for years, said Rose knew a lot about building a brand as a musician, and getting music out to the masses.

“It’s not easy stuff because it's networking, it's personality, it's going to meetings. There's a whole lot of stuff behind the notes that the musicians play,” Alexander said. “Tony was maybe one of my first introductions to what that looks like when you're not a musician.”

Rose collaborated with well known producers, including the legendary local Maurice Starr.

It was around this time when he met his wife Yvonne, a model and fashion designer. She threw what she called a “rent party” in December 1979. She says he showed up and she made him pay to get in. The rest was history.

“He followed me around the house all night, it was something,” she said with a laugh. “It was just electric. And we just became a thing shortly after, and we became the dynamic duo.”

The two immediately began working together, launching the local Celebrity Awards and a book publishing business focused on Black authors called Amber Communications Group Inc. It’s considered the nation’s largest African-American publisher of self-help books and music biographies, and helped pave the way for the self-publishing industry. Through the work, Rose earned a 2013 NAACP Image Award for Excellence in Literature.

Yvonne continues to run the business today, after Tony’s death. She describes him as “bigger than life” and the “love of my life.” That’s why she wanted to find a way to honor him in the city he loved and worked to support.

“Once I started the mission, I was compelled to complete it, because that's the way Tony and I worked through the years,” she said.

In the months following his death last May, Yvonne worked to get Tony his due. The result is a ceremony on May 26 at the intersection of Cabot and Whittier Streets, to name it “Conant ‘Tony’ Rose Square.” Private ceremonies will be held later that day.

Dart Adams is a local historian, writer and activist. He says Tony’s contributions are known in Boston, but not as widely recognized outside the city. He hopes that changes.

“It’s great to hear that Tony's going to be recognized, but the sad part is how many more people should have known who he was before he passed away,” Adams said.