Angelo Ellerbee on Michael Jackson, DMX, Whitney Houston, Artist Development & Double XXposure Media Relations | Nick Egan Times

Angelo has represented some of the most iconic superstars on the planet from a wide array of clientele, including Michael Jackson, Lonel Ritchie, DMX, whom we manage, Mary J. Blige, Melbourne Moore, Whitney Houston, Alicia Keys, Ty Reese. And that's just to name a few. Angelo is the founder and president of Double Exposure, which is a multi, which is a media relations and a full-service public relations marketing and artist development firm. Welcome, Angela, and thanks for coming on the podcast.

I just give people a platform, my platform to my winning results, understanding that it takes many chances for us to get it right. I never was about uh getting on the elevator or getting on the escalator or trying to expediate my career. I took the steps, step by step, step by step, I learned. I worked and I worked for this two-time Grammy Award winner. His name was James Mtume. Uh, Mtume wrote all of the songs for Stephanie Mills and for Roberto Flack and Phyllis Hyman.

Uh, and he he was my mentor. Uh, he taught me all the the who wets, the wins, the where's, and the whys of the music industry. And I'm very thankful for it. And what was really important, he always talked to me about community and about giving back and about mentorships and inspiring the next individual. And so that's why this book is what it is, why it is.

I think that as we are mentors for every sector of human beings, we deserve to give them the kind of encouragement and the advice and the counsel that our mothers, our fathers, and our loved ones gave to us. So that's what the book is about. It's about the next level of life. Incredible.

The same time that it takes for you to win in a race, it's the same time that it takes for you to lose in a race. So why would you not give yourself the opportunity to win in the race? To take the time to understand whatever your chosen field is, that you work on it, that you develop it, that you become comfortable in your and your willingness to be successful, however you go to define success. Um, that's what that book was about.

It was about really teaching them, again, about the who, what's, wins, and where's and whys of reaching and obtaining your goals. And that was the first book that I did that was really directed to the music industry, because I saw so many young people being ripped off, and I seen so many young people who did not have the kinds or the kind of knowledge to really succeed in the music industry. This is not a kind industry. It's kind when you know it, just like anything else.

Um, you know, a math problem, uh Oculus is not good for someone that doesn't get into math, right? Until you learn it and understand it. So that book was really about, you know, the steps of really finding yourself, how to look for a manager, what is the accountability of your taxes, was giving them the mere fundamentals.

And I took it from my 24-week artist development program that I created, and people like Mary J. Belage and Alicia Keys went through because I think it's really important that we begin to educate these young artists about the business, not necessarily in the talent area. They got the talent, but they they become successful in talent, but they don't come successful in finances. So I was I'm really into them understanding what publishing rights is, their royalties, their taxes.

Those are all the real important things for me. And that's what the first book was about. Now, the second book was called Axe Angelo, Dion Warwick Axe Angelo, DMX Axe Angelo, Alicia Keys. And I gave no more than examples of my teachings or the experience that we learned together. And I like doing things together. I don't like to be the teacher and the orchestrator all the time. I like for you to tell me of what you're going through, how we can resolve the problem.

That's another part of mentoring them and teaching them and getting them to trust you. There's a big question mark on trust in the in this performing arts in this music industry. Um, but what's really more important for me about not away from teaching, but inclusive, is getting them to really understand business. And it's not about you bringing that's taking from your bank. That's called recuperable. I used to go with artists and they would bring 30 people for this. Uh uh, the record company.

No, the record company is not paying for anything. You're 30 mils, the cars that you have. So it's all about a process. Everybody thinks that this, and young people who are entering into this industry think that the record company is going up. No, the record company is called recoupables. What you put in is what you get out. My uh third book was called The Sense of Success. And um, I also did a candleline over that book, too. It was called The Scent of Success.

And the book was called The Sense of Success. It was all about motivating them, all about guiding them, about taking them to the next level, getting them to understand what you put in again is what you get out.

I'm just, I think where my goal in my life is, because I had so many great mentors in my life, is to give back and to be very open and very transparent with my clients and with people who just come to me on a one-on-one about this business and how you have to interact and how you have to act in this business. It's really important for me to give my time and my energy. I do masterclasses, I do with whoever and whoever comes to me to ask me a question or want to spend time with me.

It's important that I do that, man. It's important. Now we're talking about before I let you go, which is the fourth book and the last book.

And I'm excited about this book, though.

I don't think a lot of the kids today want to do that. They don't want to listen. Um and I'm not, I'm not, I'm not doubting their abilities to want to listen. I'm just simply a lot of the people that have come my way, young, young individuals, believe that they know it all. And when I was growing up in this industry, I knew nothing. And I was very transparent. I wanted to learn everything. And even if you know, you should listen to someone else's direction.

So you have something to measure and to go by. Um, it's really, really hard for me to not surrender myself to young people and old people alike. Uh I think that it's it's just a humanistic job to share what gifts that have been given to you. I think you got to give it back. What do you what are you taking? You don't take it anywhere. So you might you have to keep giving it out. Now, the portions of the proceeds from this book is going to homeless shelters and young HIV positive victims.

What we're doing, we have established the Angelo L AB Foundation. And what that's going to do, that's going to give four to five people for one year uh housing. They get housing for the whole year. We give them four meals a day, and then we select along with them what schools and what training that they want. And this is going to be my first year in doing it. And that's why I think this book is really important.

It's not the seller the book, uh, even though the money from the book is going to help to push forward the foundation so that these things can exist. It's really important for me that no one is afraid. I don't think that anyone should be afraid of living a life. I think that we all have bad experiences, but we can correct them. I really believe that God has given us so many chances that are so many chances. We should have the rights to give people chances as well.

That's just my the my way of living life, living my life.

And she came and asked me if I would consider to do an album cover for her husband. Well, back then I didn't know who her husband was. He said, M2 May, I said, Oh, yeah, yeah, I know who the hell he was. But I did the album cover and M2 May and I started to work together. But he said, you're gonna have to be my publicist. And I was like, Well, what the hell is a publicist? What is it? He said, he counted out $100. He said, go to the store and buy $100 worth of newspapers and bring it back to me.

And then he started to explain what it's gonna take. We were working on a film. It was the first, it was the first major motion picture that Oprah Winfrey ever did, which was called The Native Sun. And Mtume was doing the soundtrack for the movie. And so he needed a publicist. So I went, I brought all these newspapers. He started to talk to me to tell me what I needed to do. He says, It's gonna be a lot of fun work, a lot of follow-up, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I said, Mtume, I don't know if I want to do this. He says, it's not about what you want to do, it's what you're going to do. You have to learn, you have to have options in life. You have to have options. You can't just think you're gonna do everything, you're gonna do the same thing through the rest of your life. So I would get down because we worked in an M Tume's basement of his house. I would get downstairs in the basement, uh, and I would start to make cold calls.

Cold calls, I mean, they're always nasty to you, they hang up on you, dah, dah, dah, dah. So I called over to the New York Times. And this lady's cough cougher, she kept coughing too. She had told me what her name was, but she kept coughing. It was like she was sick, whatever. And I kept trying to talk to her, and then she says, Well, call me tomorrow. And she hung up. But I got her name, I got the address, and I went out to the drugstore and I bought 40 packages of cough drops.

I put them in a gift box with a bow on it, and I overnighted it to the New York Times. The next day, she called, and I go. She says, Is this Angelo? I said, Yes, ma'am, this is Angelo. I said, That was such a kind of kind gesture. Can you send me more information about your next? She gave him a full page spread in the New York Times. It's about relationships. You have to really, and you have to take the time. Sometimes people are gonna be nasty, sometimes we have to care about that.

You want to make sure you get what you rightfully why you call them from the New York Times and it go from on and on, and it just started to build. And so that was my and that back in those days and times, there really wasn't no computers. I mean, it was if it was, you had to be very filthy rich to have one. Um, you really had to research. You had to pick up, you had to go to the library, you had to read, you had to find out. Uh, it's a little easier now.

Back when I started this some 55 years ago, it was like grassroots. It was, it was, you you had to work at it. And that's what I tell the kids today. Um, don't I don't I tell people that I've never taken the escalator or the elevator. I always took step, I wanted to learn and have an appreciation for each particular manner or each particular situation that I was going through. And I learned. Took a long time, but I got it. And I tried to give it back out.

That's what's really important for me that I give it back out and that I give people a chance. I've had people to come to work for me and they had not a clue. But I gotta remember um that when I went to work for M2May, I didn't have a clue. So it's about giving back and taking time and helping to develop them. And I don't like people working for me over six years. You learned, go and grow. Go do your own thing. Go copy me, go be original. That's that's that's real.

I mean, you can I don't want nobody around me 20 years, 10 years, go and grow. Do things, do different things. So there, that was my beginning. That's how I began in doing publicity.

I found that he was more giving than any person that I've ever met in my whole entire life. He had a heart of gold. So, one of the biggest things that he would always ask me, uh, Angelo, did you pay my tithes? So a tithe is where you you reach out to churches and you give them a percentage of your salary. That was the most important thing for him. He's given millions, he gave out millions and millions of dollars to churches, homeless people.

He, I remember two, five years in a row, we did something for it, was something that had to do with MTV, but we went up to a place where he uh from 14 years old to 18 years old lived. It was like a shelter-like. He must have bought $40,000 worth of toys and gifts and presents, and he did this. He's supposed to do this every single year. And he was like, Angela, it ain't all about you know getting no press on this. I'm just doing this. He had a heart, a heart of gold.

But you have to take the time out to understand the individuals that you're working for. I think that you wind up working for the whole entire family. I wanted to meet his mother, I met his mother, I wanted to meet his father, and they were divorced, they were separated. He had a lot of uh animosity towards his mother. Um, I met his wife, all of his children. Because I don't think that I just, as a publicist, I don't think you just position your artist.

I think you have to really, really study and understand their makeup and where they come from. I don't read bios. So I have to sit back and have relationships with you. And I need to find out about where your mother stands and when your father standed, and what your wife, because now I can go and sell you because, and I don't have to sit back page by page and read a bio. I've had relationships with them.

I've established uh a clear understanding with them, and I can go and sell it, and I can become a friend to them as well. And I think that was the key formula, because that's how it worked for him to make back when I was first beginning. It was his wife, it was him, and then I was a nanny, and then I was a cook. I I never said no about anything because everything was a learning experience. And today it's just like I don't I'm not I'm not gonna take it.

You have to learn and you have to be open and willing to do what you need to do in order to achieve and reach your goal of life. I did it all. I never and and I wasn't working for money. I went through it, I went through an institution. This man for me was an institution, and I felt like I graduated. Gave me my degree in in the music, in the entertainment industry, no cost to me, but my time. And and and X had the heart of gold. People knew that who knew him, and people took advantage of him.

A lot of people took advantage of him. But I think at the end of the day, he loved very well and he gave very well. He was a sincere, sincere artist. He he he was in love with his artistry. Yeah, um, I mean, it was it wasn't easy though. It was not easy. But I was committed. I was committed and I continued. I I think I I stayed with him like five or six years. Yeah. Yeah. X is was special. He missed and very missed. Yeah, rest in peace.

She said, Is Angelo here? I look around to the reception, I look around to her. I said, No, but Mr. Elkby's here. I said, and who are you? She said, I'm Mary. I said, I am Mr. Ellaby, and you're an hour late, and we can't do this today. We're gonna have to do this tomorrow. Next day, she was two hours early. Think how you start is how you finish. And I always gave out tough love. But the next day, she was two hours early.

I and and and and and I took the the hour that she she didn't do the former day. I just added it and I kept her in there for like three and a half hours. We just spent time talking about communities where we grew up at mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers. Because that's what you need is a rapport, a conversation, and you want them to trust you, and you want them to, that's what that's what the period was for me. Then we got into reading books.

I started off with or reading like the Bible. Because a lot of kids, well, first of back then and now, like reading. My thing is that's a quintessential thing that you have to do. Because when you don't, I would always say to them, so who signed your contract? You go, uh, my manager. So you don't know what's in that contract? Um, you don't know how long your contract is for with your record company.

Um, okay, so let's call, let's call your manager and let me ask your manager to send me over a copy of your contract. Let's read it. I would say to them, you finish high school, ba, bah, bah, bah, and they would say, no, not really. Okay. So, what we're gonna do is ask the, I'm gonna ask my lawyer to break this contract down to a third grade level, third grade, second grade, so that you can understand the commitment that you have made to this record label and to this manager.

It's those little fundamental things that become so very, very important that it becomes you have to be relatable. I wanted these kids to be able to read, comprehend, and understand what they have committed themselves to.

You don't want to say there's truth, there's your side of the story, there's their side of the story. I say, yeah, okay. Then it's the lie. Lie fringes on both sides of the story. Gotta begin to, I always say, go back to the scene of the accident. And the scene of the accident for me is always the truth. I, you know, I dealt with the Michael Jackson situation, it was many, many, many years ago. Uh, and that's what I said when I met him. I said, I did call him Mr. Jackson.

Um, so can you tell me why is this happening now? He looked at me. I said, I just need to know why it's happening now. And then I think it has to start with you telling me the truth. I think his manager or his at that time looked at me like I had four heads. Like, uh, you talking to Michael Jackson this way? Yeah, I am, I am, because I want to know what the truth is. And he he asked the people that was in the room to excuse themselves, and it was just me and him.

And the relationship began to develop. And I can come up with a strategy of how I'm going to position this this damage control. Can we tell the truth? And you're you're very, very with the truth, go and operate. Thank you for sharing.