Gina Thompson’s Inspired Return To Music

In the summer of 1996 Gina Thompson burst onto the scene when the Bad Boy remix of her song “The Things That You Do,” which featured Missy Elliott, suddenly put her into heavy rotation on radio stations, and music video channels all over the country, and the world.

It was a lot to take in for the then 19 year old artist who had previously just sung in choirs with her family, and in local talent shows in and around her native New Jersey.

“Everybody just loves you at the moment,” she remembers, “and all this was just so overwhelming.”

Thompson continued, “I was traveling overseas, and people were making me feel like I was Whitney Houston, so it was like whoa, just realizing that this thing is really moving.”

Her debut album, Nobody Does It Better, was released in August of ’96, but there would be no second single.

Just as fast as everything started, it all came to a halt.

Thompson’s career has been marked by history repeating itself, and while this would play a role in prematurely putting the breaks on her music back in the day, it’s also what’s sparked her comeback.

A Family Affair 

Singing has been a part of Thompson’s life from the very beginning, growing up in a musical family, and it would be a family member that would get the ball rolling on her career.

“One day my brother, his name is Chris, he decided he wanted to get me in a studio to just kinda see how I would sound on a track. He took me to a friend’s house, and I recorded Tracie Spencer’s ‘Tender Kisses,’ and I think I did one of Shanice’s songs, as well. After my brother had heard me on the track he was like, ‘Sis, yo, we gotta do something there.’”

Shortly after this, more family members came into play, as Thompson’s brother-in-law, and a cousin of hers introduced her to a then up and coming music producer, and fellow New Jersey native, named Rodney Jerkins, who had just started establishing himself as a name in the industry.

Thompson went to his house, and sang CeCe Winans’ “For Always” for both Rodney, and his father, the Reverend Fred Jerkins. “Right on the spot Rodney wanted to sign me.”

It didn’t take long for her to ink a deal with Jerkins’ production company, and since Thompson didn’t have any representation, she agreed to have Jerkins’ father act as her manager until she could find herself one.

As she quickly found out, the Reverend would turn out to be quite adept at the job.

Immediate Success 

Needing some music to present to record labels, Thompson says, “We recorded a few songs in Rodney’s basement, maybe five of them. His father took the demo that we did in his basement to several record companies.”

In under a month she had multiple offers on the table, and the team ultimately decided to go with Mercury Records.

While she was recording her debut album, Nobody Does It Better, the song “The Things That You Do” felt like a potential lead single. That’s when someone at Mercury had an idea that would put rocket fuel into Thompson’s career.

“My A&R, Bruce Carbone, was like, ‘Let’s try to see if Puffy wants to get up on this track.’”

Puffy said yes, and also that he wanted to put Missy Elliott on it.

The Bad Boy remix of “The Things That You Do” was released as the B-side of the single, but it quickly became the A-side for DJs everywhere.

An immediate hit, Thompson remembers, “The first one to really break that record, from my knowledge, and from what I was told, was Hot 97 in New York.” This blew her away. “I was like yo, if 97 is breakin’ it, and getting good feedback, I think this is gonna be a pretty big record.”

She was right. Not before long, Power 99 in Philadelphia was playing the song, and then the rest of the country, as well as BET, and MTV followed suit.

“My phone was just off the hook within the next couple of weeks.”

In a sign of the times, she laughs when she thinks about how that phone was a land line, and a pager.

In addition to being a hit, the remix of “The Things That You Do” led to a friendship with Missy, and thoughts of other potential collaborations. In fact, at one point Thompson nearly worked with another legendary rapper – The Notorious B.I.G.

“When (Biggie) did come to the video shoot he was like, he would love to work with me,” she says, “I was really hoping that would’ve happened.”


Of course, that was in the summer of 1996, and, tragically, Biggie would be killed in March of 1997.

Mercury In Retrograde 

After the Bad Boy remix of “The Things That You Do” blew up, and Nobody Does It Better was released, most would assume another single would be on the way, but there was no second single.

Mercury Records was having issues, and Thompson was one of a number of artists who would feel the brunt of those issues.

“Many things were happening to several artists, unfortunately, at that time with Mercury,” she remembers, “So, mutually agreed upon, my attorney was able to talk to the label, and get me off the label.”

Describing the end of her time at Mercury as “traumatizing,” Thompson says, “I just had to move forward, and just recollect myself at the end of the day. I could say that was the most challenging part, just recollecting myself after, if you will, that big high, and then BAM, here we go.”

It wouldn’t be long before Thompson found a new home, however, as Missy went to her own label home, Elektra, to try to work something out for her there. After Thompson spoke with Sylvia Rhone, who was the president of the label at the time, a deal was reached. “She agreed to have me come on board as long as Missy would oversee the album, for the most part.”

Missy’s schedule, and her trust in Thompson, led to a working arrangement where, according to Thompson, “She was like just do your thing, and let her hear whatever I come up with, and she would do that from afar.”

In 1999 the album, titled If You Only Knew, was ready, and the single, “Ya Di Ya,” featuring Missy Elliott, was released.

History, however, would repeat itself for Thompson in an unfortunate way at Elektra, which was having the same pains Mercury had been having at the end of her time there.

If You Only Knew was never released, and Thompson was once again without a label home.

“At that point I just was like you know what, I’m just gonna fall back, and regroup. There were so many personal things going on.”

Thompson put music to the side, and began a career saving lives as a nurse.

Then, during the pandemic, her phone rang. It was DJ Cassidy, with an opportunity.

Pass The Mic 

It was March of 2021, and DJ Cassidy had begun a series called Pass The Mic, which featured Cassidy mixing, and throwing to a plethora of hip-hop and R&B faves performing their classics while everyone was at home.


Thompson remembers, “When I got the word that DJ Cassidy wanted me to be on Pass The Mic I was like oh gosh, I hadn’t sang in so long.”

Ultimately, she said yes, and it turned out to be a fantastic decision.

“The moment that I did it, as I was performing it, it was like something just sparked in my soul. I was already onto another profession, (but) I was like, God, I feel like you’re telling me something here, because I didn’t ask for Pass The Mic to come to me, it just came out of nowhere.”

History began repeating itself again, but this time in a very good way, as immediately after her Pass The Mic appearance aired on BET, which had a prime slot following the NAACP Image Awards, Thompson’s phone – no longer a land line, and a pager – began ringing off the hook just like it did when “The Things That You Do” first hit.

“Speaking with Cassidy about it,” she remembers, “He’s like, ‘Listen, if there’s anything I can do to support you, let me know.’ At that moment it kinda felt like wow, and then I started seeing the responses, and I’m like you know what, you do still have fans out there.”

Ready for her comeback, Thompson was also now well schooled in the ways of the industry, and she was going to do things differently this time around.

Lessons Learned 

No longer a naive 19 year old, Thompson looked back on her previous career decisions, and realized where she had to make some changes.

“Being so young, it was so novice for me,” she says of gaining fame as a teenager, “I was very gullible. I hate to admit that, but just looking back, and looking at a lot of things, I was like wow, I wasn’t really prepared. It was like throwing a baby in a pool, and telling it to teach itself how to swim, because I’m not gonna really give you any lessons. You’re gonna drown, or rise above the level where you can breathe.”

Thompson had also paid close attention to the way Missy took the reigns of her own career, and took those lessons to heart. “She handles her business. If she doesn’t like something, she speaks up on it. That’s an area where I have to say I think I failed, because I kinda let people do a lot of things that I really didn’t approve of, but I just kind of went along with it because it’s like you’re signed to this label, sell some records first. So I just kind of shut up, if you will, but I learned a lot with that later in the game, that you got to handle your business, and conduct yourself as one, or people are just gonna walk all over you, and that’s the bottom line.”

With her phone ringing off the hook, and a new business mentality, Thompson was ready include a singing career in her life again.

From Cassingles To NFTs 

After deciding to dive back into music, Thompson was given an unexpected boost by a group named The LFTOVRZ who were in the process of doing a remake of “The Things That You Do.”

Much like a remix jumpstarted her career, history would repeat itself again, as Thompson hopped on the remix to The LFTOVRZ’s version of her song, giving a boost to her comeback. In this case she became her own Puffy, and Missy Elliott.

The LFTOVRZ are signed to a label named Infanity, which has become Thompson’s new label home, as well.

The relationship with Infanity came to be because Thompson’s current manager knew the CEO, Renata Lowenbraun, and a friend of Thompson’s knew the COO, DJ Big Leek.

Infanity is a Web3 company, and Thompson likes the added control this gives an artist, and the fact that artists actually receive something for their work, “versus I have to break my back a gazillion times before I can get two cents off a dollar.”

This also puts her in the world of NFTs, which is quite different from when her original hit was released as a cassingle. Thompson is especially excited about this, as she explains that by purchasing a token, or a collectable, “It enables you to have first dibs on things. It’s like having a personable connection with us,” and this includes, “Access to things that other will not (have access to) for some time, and a number of other perks.”

Next up for Thompson is a new single, titled “Starving,” that will be out in late spring / early summer.

With history continuing to repeat itself for Gina Thompson, it wouldn’t be a surprise if another hit was on the horizon.

 

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