Marie Driven to showcase Caribbean culture

Marie “Driven” Theodore is working to ensure that more of the Caribbean’s music and cultural products are being seen and heard as more of the world is exposed to it.

The Haitian/American entrepreneur and publicist is doing so through her companies, Marie Driven PR and PlayBook MG. She is the co-founder and managing partner of Playbook MG along with partner, Jean Jones.

Playbook MG started in 2012 and Marie Driven PR in 2009.

She has worked with Jamaican acts like Spice, Mr Vegas, Jr Reid, Serani, Lexxus, Yellowman, Demarco, Future Fambo and Marion Hall and now hopes to work with soca artistes. During her years in fashion, she worked with people like US Rapper Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.

She is currently working with soca star Patrice Roberts and wants to make her “an example of what soca artistes can be.”

Driven has been working with Roberts for about five months now in the US market: managing her image, branding, creating brand exposure and deals.

While Driven would love to work with artistes like Nailah Blackman and Nessa Preppy, she ideally prefers to work with someone, “that is bubbling in their space but does not have representation and needs Playbook to offset them.

“That is what I am looking for,” she said.

One of the first soca artistes she worked with was Melissa “Melly Rose” St Rose and got her on Black Entertainment Television (BET).

She also has plans to connect with artistes in other Caribbean islands as well as partnering with the islands themselves to host “major conferences that would bring eyeballs to the islands and bring money.”

“It is about creating something to have people feed into it and people pour into it.”One of her goals is to create resources to help soca artistes reach their full potential. That means contacting bodies like the tourist boards across the region and pairing them with other people and organisations that can help assist and propel them.

“I want to bring these artistes to the forefront by helping them with better distribution channels, helping them with label deals and bringing these people that don’t know they exist.”

She was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up in a strict Haitian household.

Initially, Driven began her career in the fashion industry as a salesperson and “learning how to manoeuvre that world led me to work with other entities/people.”

It was not easy to introduce new styles and brands of fashion to particular markets and doing so taught her that she could get into any industry using her sales skills.

Her concept was to sell people’s brands to others.

“A lot of people did not understand the Caribbean brand. You see these artistes and it is what it is. You don’t even know the face. You just hear the voice.”

She too was this at one point. She would hear a song, love it but did not know the singer/s.

In 2010, Driven’s “passion hit” while wanting to know more about Jamaican dancehall artiste Lexxus.

“A young DJ friend came to me and asked, ‘Have you ever heard of Lexxus?’ And I said, ‘What are you talking about?’

“Then she started singing his songs and I said, ‘Oh my God that is one of my favourite artistes.’”

Her friend then asked her if she wanted to work with him and that was how she began.

Doing this, also led her to work with US celebrity publicist and manager Lizzie Grubman.

She met Grubman through a friend who worked with her.

The friend brought her over to Grubman’s company and she was looking for someone to do Puerto Rican American R&B singer Tony Sunshine’s PR.

Driven’s friend recommended her.

She met with Grubman who told her she wanted to see how she handled Tony Sunshine before she did anything.

Grubman saw that Driven was able reintroduce Tony Sunshine to communities.

Seeing this, Grubman wanted to hire her but Driven told her, “You can’t hire me full-time because I have my own company.”

However, she agreed to work as a consultant.

After her experience with Grubman she made headway representing rappers Remy Ma and Papoose before shifting to world music and fostering relationships with Marion Hall (aka Lady Saw), Sting Jamaica and Mr Vegas.

“In time, Driven began taking on a broader spectrum of clientele, from athletes Jr Reid and Walter Thurmond III to Peter Gunz, a rapper and TV personality, as well as designer labels like streetwear brand Sprayground, filmmakers and their respective production companies, celebrity doctors, political candidates (NY based), and other high profile professionals,” a media release said.

Over the years, Driven has seen the Caribbean’s brand grow and evolve as more artistes have been active on social media. Getting them on the right platform has also helped, she added.

She targeted Caribbean media professionals to help amplify the artistes and their products even more.

She would tap into these media professionals and educate them on how to introduce the region’s artistes to the world.

Driven said believes the Caribbean culture’s nascent uniqueness gives it an edge, globally and there are “more of us that do different things.”

She also believes there is no competition in the Caribbean space as “each artiste is unique in their own way.”

That was why – during the pandemic – she took the opportunity to build her Caribbean contacts.

Some years ago, Driven was invited to Barbados to look at new and up and coming artistes. She was then invited to Barbados CropOver in 2016 by Fantasy Barbados.

She was amazed as she had never been to Barbados and saw “all of these different artistes.”

This was one of the drivers for her interest in Caribbean music and its talent.

As she works more with Trinidad and Tobago’s artistes, she also wants to take some time to further understand the dynamics of TT’s music industry.

Through the planned conferences, Driven hopes to have music executives visit the region and also provide a platform for up and coming artistes where, on the last day of the conference, she would have each artiste perform so the executives can see what they have to offer.

“Creating something where one of them leaves with some kind of contract, whether it is a digital service provider (DSP) deal or single deal,” she said.