I’ve been in the entertainment business for 20 years, from the media side, seeing it all and being part of it all. Twenty years is less than half the amount of time Angelo Ellerbee has been in the business. He’s taken it ALL in, having worked with your favorite celebrity’s favorite celebrity. He’s done more in four plus decades than most have done in their entire lives, and he’s sharing his story for all to hear it. Our Angelo Ellerbee interview dives into his story as a media veteran, his new motivational book, and so much more.
Angelo Ellerbee is the founder and president of Double XXposure, a marketing agency and publicity firm that has helped propel the careers of many of the biggest names in the industry. As a marketer and publicist, Ellerbee has worked with everyone from Michael Jackson to Mary J. Blige to Dionne Warwick to DMX. And he continues to do the work even now, taking pride in sharing stories and taking careers higher, even all these years later.
Most recently he’s released his fourth book in a series of motivational books, this one titled, “Before I Let You Go.” The book includes a foreword from the previously mentioned Dionne Warwick, who herself is not only a client, but also a Grammy Legend/Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee.
We’ve included the full video interview so you can watch that way. Some key highlights are included below and the full interview is also included as well. Get familiar with Angelo Ellerbee!
“I really wanted to let people know before I let you go, I want you to understand that your one of God’s children, and that you deserve to be great, greater, and the greatest of what you go to do. Really believe in that…” – Angelo Ellerbee
On loving yourself and how feeling loved impacts us
We birth these children, we raise these children, and think that automatically, they’re going to think that we love them. No, they need to hear it. They need to hear about the word love. They need to be inspired. Need to be uplifted. That’s something that my mother did to me each and every single day.
On The City of Newark Naming A Street After Him
When I got that call it said a lot to me, man, it said, all these years that you have poured into your communities and all the things that you have done, somebody is watching you, and it’s not always God, but other people watch you too. And so it’s a good feeling
Believe In Yourselves
I want young people particularly, but I want old people to believe in themselves, to know that they should be inspired, uplifted, rejuvenated, and because, look, if you got to be 65 and now you’re 85 you got a reason why you’re here, right? Enjoy it and do things with it.
What’s Next For Angelo
I always wanted to get in films and producing and directing, and these wonderful people at BET have come to me, and they’re going to do a special on my life, and they’re going to do a documentary, and they’re doing the TV series. But I’ve always wanted to, with all the films that I did with DMX, I always wanted to direct and I always wanted to produce, that’s where my energies are going.
Parlé Mag: In your illustrious career, you’ve done it all, so before we even get into the book, and usually you save this question for last, but reflecting on your career, reflecting on your journey, and being in this present moment, what is something that you just feel like people need to understand about how you even got to where you are here now?
Angelo Ellerbee: I need for people to understand that it’s been a struggle that I did not take the elevator, I did not take the escalator, but I took the steps. I went step by step and reached whatever the apex of my success is or was. I don’t believe in anything that is instant. I believe in really stretching out to understand that there’s a quality of a work ethic that one has to do. I don’t believe in instant coffee. I don’t drink instant coffee. I do believe in brew coffee. I believe that longevity is the key quality of anyone’s success, and anything that you get fast is going to go fast, and I’m learning that at 67 years old. I’m learning the importance of really understanding that it’s not in my time, but it’s in HIS time, and that all the great things that are happening for me now at 67 years old, with the BET specials, and the city of Newark doing a street renaming, and all the great things that I’m doing in this book, I never thought that it would ever translate to my current time, I just never thought of that. But I’m a believer in me, and I’m a believer in other people, and I believe that people deserve to have a chance of life. I believe that God gives us so many chances, and I believe that we need to not devour or take away from people who are going through troubled times.
I talk about the homeless, and I talk about the domestic violence victim, and I talk about the AIDS and HIV victims and man, everybody deserves, and the incarcerated. I think everybody deserves two or three turns of life. And I don’t believe that we need to be judge and jury as individuals, about how someone chooses to live their life. I believe in chances, and I wrote this book, it is a template to my life, and I do use those, uh, highly visible talents that I have been able to work with over the years as examples. But I really wanted to let people know before I let you go, I want you to understand that your one of God’s children, and that you deserve to be great, greater, and the greatest of what you go to do. Really believe in that, and I think that we are one of the most misfortunate cultures that live and exist on this earth. I think that we have been cheated, we’ve been raped, we’ve been robbed. We’ve been pillaged from all of the rights in which we deserve as a people of culture.
I remember at 14 years old, I got into listening and reading about the great Honorable Elijah Muhammad, who I thought was a phenomenal individual, where the people that don’t look like you and I, they wanted us to believe that this man was racist, and he wanted to separate the countries and the people. He was really telling us what they were already doing is taking care of their community, taking care of their culture, and understanding and dividing for these people the necessities of their existence, and I went through him explaining that we needed to have our own farms. We needed to have our own eggs, we need to have our own chicken. We need to have all of the things. We need to have all the automation on that and the cars, and we needed them on cleaners, because if you reflect back on other cultures, that’s what they have, that’s what brought them together. That’s what they are going to always understand. They take care of each other. It’s about a community that loves one another and takes cares for one another, and I think that we’re just so remiss because we’re not loving ourselves. So I find it very difficult for us to love one another, and why it may sound very self centered. I tell people every single day, I love me some Angelo Ellerbee. I am romantically in love with me because I’ve learned man in my 67 years of living my life, if I love me, then I can teach someone else how to love me, and I can teach them how to love someone else, and that’s what it’s about for me. The mentoring thing for me is really really important. I want people of color, Black and Brown people, to understand the importance of mentoring and caring and sharing for your community. I think it’s really important. That’s why I wrote the book. I don’t know how long I’m gonna be here for. I may be here till I’m 95, or I may be here until I’m 67, but the real key thing for me is giving back, because all of what we work for each and every single day you’ve been in this business as long as I’ve been in this business, or maybe a little shorter, but you give so much, into wanting to bring the equity and bring the finances, but you can take nothing with you. What do you take with you when you go? You don’t take nothing with you. You don’t even take the clothes that they put on your back ain’t even yours. So it’s so important that we give back, and with a platform like yours, it’s important that you speak about the importance of giving back and mentoring people.
Do you know the statistics with mental illness. Mental illness is crazy. People are just not there anymore. Mental illness is a serious subject, particularly in our community, and you gotta ask, why are people going through all what they’re going through? Somebody when they was being raised, somebody didn’t say, I love you. Somebody didn’t say, I want you to be great. Somebody didn’t say, You know what? Whatever you do, I’m going to support you. Someone didn’t say, I love you, those are quintessential words that are so important that we seem to lack we believe, because we birth these children, we raise these children, and think that automatically, they’re going to think that we love them. No, they need to hear it. They need to hear about the word love. They need to be inspired. Need to be uplifted. That’s something that my mother did to me each and every single day. She would walk into my room and say to me at six o’clock in the morning, I always wondered why is this woman was coming in my room at six? She says hey my last born, did I tell you today, that I love you? and I said, “No Mama, not at 6 o’clock, but I love you too,” But she did that from when I was like maybe seven years old til I was about 15 or 16 years old. I always wanted to work her towards something better for her. She had an eighth grade education. She was a waitress, and she damn sure had a degree in some kind of humanity, and being human and being kind and being loving and teaching and educating and motivating her children be to be greater than what she was. And I’ve always grown by that. I’ve always learned by that. I’ve always loved her for that she gave me everything. Man, listen, I got no millions of dollars now, but it was a time where I had millions and millions and millions of dollars, and all the money that I made was because of my mother. My mother showed me how to make the money, how to keep the money and how to make a difference in society, and I will always love her for that.
Parlé Mag: I love the intro to the book, where you talk about her and your sisters really loving on you and praising on you, because you talk about mentoring, because you talk about working with youth, and of course, I work with with young people as well, the question I do get often is, if that young person doesn’t have, that person or home who’s building that confidence and telling them those things, what advice do you have to them? How, how does one kind of enrich themselves with that spirit, if someone else isn’t doing it?
Angelo Ellerbee: I really believe it’s about self preservation, and it’s really about finding yourself, within yourself, to love you, there’s so many examples about hatred. There’s so many examples about parents turning against their children. So I think that everybody knows the difference in right and wrong. You know what’s right and you know what’s wrong. And so what you have to do is pour into yourself. I poured into myself many a times, you know, I filed bankruptcy twice when I was on Seventh Avenue. I didn’t have no shame to my game. If white folks can do it, I damn sure can do it as well, right? So I never had a shame to my game. And I just said, this is what I got to do to sustain myself. And so I say to young people, you know, because I understand within our communities that we are raised with single parent homes. I know sometimes, our young mothers are so young that they cannot pour into us, but we see where we’re at, we understand where we at, we know how we’re living. You gotta want to say to yourself, I want better. I want more, and then I want to pour back into my mother, and I want to understand all of what she’s given to me and all of what she didn’t give to herself. I think it’s about really, you know, they always talk about it takes a village to raise a child. It does take a community to raise a child. You know, it really does, man, I think that it starts with you. You know, I think there’s so many times people want to be very accusatory, you know, they want to blame everything on someone… blame it on your damn self, because after you get after a certain point in your life, you have to be convicted, and have conviction, to simply say, I don’t want to live that way. I don’t want to live in that community. But once I get to where I need to be, I want to pour back into that community. You know it really made me smile, yesterday I got a call from the mayor’s office and the councilwoman’s Office of the City of Newark, where I grew up at and they said, Angelo, we’re going to rename a street after you. And I go, What? What? What do you say? And they go, you know, on September 19, we’re going to rename the street after you. When I left the phone, man, I sat back, and I just looked up on the ceiling and said, God, you’re so amazing. Because it was a time, people ripped me off 1000 times. I’m always working, and I know that God allows me to work. But when I got that call yesterday, it said a lot to me, man, it said, Yo, all these years that you have poured into your communities and all the things that you have done, somebody is watching you, and it’s not always God, other people watch you too. And so it’s a good feeling, and that’s why I want to tell people, you know, I get depressed, you know, like every other person gets depressed, but you got to come out of it. And I think depression is good for any soul. I think when you are depressed, you get a chance to think about what you didn’t accomplish, what you want to accomplish and I go for that regularly.
I’m not going to walk off this earth without doing God’s work. I believe with my heart, my mind and my body and my soul, I’ve been through so much in this, in this industry that eats us continuously for 55 years, He’s been blessing me. I ain’t never wanted for nothing, nothing. I live very comfortably, because I think it’s really important that you are there, and particularly with young people today, man, you gotta listen to them, some of them in such hurt and such pain, and you really don’t even know what they’re going through. And when they call me up on the phone and I see them, I ask them, ‘Are you good?’ And then I ask them, why are you good? Why are you good? Are you happy? So many people ain’t happy, right? They just surviving. They ain’t happy! Happiness is completeness.
My mentor was James Mtume, and I loved him dearly, and I loved him immensely. So two weeks ago, I get a phone call from his oldest son, and his oldest daughter was working in my apartment with me, and he goes, Efe’s dead. And I go, I’m gonna tell you what I said, ‘The f*ck are you talking about? And I go, what are you saying to me? What are you telling me?’ He said, can you go and be with my mother? And I race up. I used to talk to Efe and say, Efe, I love you so much. We would argue. She would call me all kinds of names, b*tches, a**es, so that’s the kind of relationship that we had. And I used to ask her, ‘are you alright?’ No, I’m good, I’m good, I’m good, I’m good. I don’t know what happened. I just know that she’s dead. And I think that a lot of times, people do not spend the time asking the questions of our youth, asking the questions of where you’re at in your life. And all these young people, they aspire to be great too. But then after their mothers and fathers raised them, then the streets gotta raise them. And when you get in that street and they start to raise you, it takes everything from the mother and the father, so you have to build a foundation of strength. We’re not doing that, so many young people out here are so discouraged, and they believe that they can’t be great. So I write this book in particular from the aspects that my mother had an eighth grade education. I grew up in the city of Newark. I had four sisters. Two of them went into drugs. I filed bankruptcy. But yet it was the apex of my success that allowed me to work with Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston and Dionne Warwick and all these people. There’s been 6000 artists that I’ve represented over the 55 years of my life. So you can’t use the excuse of where you come from and what you have gone through. You can’t use that as an excuse anymore. You gotta simply say, I gave them this, but that’s not where I want to be. I want to be here, yep. And so for me, you know, that’s what this book is about. It’s about motivating people. It’s about giving people a chance and trying to simply say, I came from the same place you came from. So don’t try to bullsh*t a bullsh*tter, because you came out of jail. Yeah, I have brothers and sisters that came out of jail, and so while you were in there, did you get an education? Did you get a diploma? Did you get a degree, what are you gonna do when you come out? Here’s what you need to look like when you come out. This is what you need to have in terms of a resume. And then, you know, you’re gonna have hard knocks, and people ain’t gonna hire you because you’re a criminal or you’re a felon. But why can’t you create your own? Logically, that’s not what they think about man. They think about White America. They think about being accepted in White America and getting one of those nine to five. Well, no, you could create your own America. You can create your own opportunity. You can become a support system for somebody else. That’s what the key thing is for me.
Parlé Mag: You talk about the bankruptcy, and I think that’s a very important point, simply because, I think for everyone, right, you look at success as this ultimate peak, you’re going all the way up. But no one ever talks about the hard times, the failures, everything that comes with it, right? The entire picture. So just talk to me about how you overcame that.
Angelo Ellerbee: You know what it was, I invested $2.5 million in a movie, and it was called Never Die Alone, and the movie featured DMX. At that time, I was managing DMX, and I thought that this would be a great opportunity for me to grow financially while I knew damn well I did not have heads or tails on DMX in terms of him doing what the hell he was supposed to do, I still invested. I didn’t become accusatory to my accountants or to my lawyers because I did it, and there were times where X just would not do what he was supposed to do to support the film, and it was an independent project. It wasn’t through Joe Silvers, it wasn’t through Warner Brothers. It was independent. Now he acted his ass off in the movie. He was incredible in this movie. The movie was really incredible, but in terms of the commitment that he was making to promote it, the movie didn’t do well. So it was $2.5 million that I invested that I didn’t make back and I had to file bankruptcy. I thought it was a good idea for me to invest at that stage of the game. It was a good idea, I had absolutely no wherewithal as to his commitment to what he was going to do. I can’t sit back and blame nobody. Man, I can’t blame myself. And so you file bankruptcy once, um, and you keep the boat moving. I wasn’t going to stop because I filed bankruptcy. I had 19 employees, sometimes 22 employees. And I always thought, you know, they depend on me. They got to feed their families, they got kids, they got houses, they got apartments, they got to pay their rent. And don’t nobody wants to hear “you ain’t get no check.” I had to get a check. I had to give them a check. And I remember I was in such a dilemma. I was banking with HSBC, I think, at that time. And you know, my steelo and my swagger was always what it was, and I would always make sure that I dressed for whatever and wherever I went. And I went into this bank, and this lady always complimented me on my style. And one of my best friends was a makeup artist. He created the line of Iman Cosmetics. And I said to him, I said, Byron, can you give me a gift bag so I can get these ladies in the bank? He said, Yeah. So when I walked into the bank one day, I said, I got something for you. I got some lipstick. She said, You’re just so sweet. Key thing was, I was trying to get a relationship with the bank manager. I gave her one. I gave that Papa one. The next time I came in, I would bring this one flowers. So now she calls me up. She calls me on the phone. It was about 8:30 in the morning. She said, they’re about to shut your account down, bring yourself around this corner like right now and get this money out this bank. Get it out. And I ran around the corner and I drew all the money out. She said, you can put it in a safe deposit box, but I knew that I had a payroll in two days. She said, ‘this is what you do. Give all of your employees cashier checks. All you gotta do is come to the counter and I will write up the cashier’s checks for you.’ She could have lost her job, first of all, for calling me and making me aware that the IRS is about to shut me down. Four months later, I said to her, “Would you come to work for me? She knew I had no damn money. She said I absolutely will come to work for him. She came to work for me. And I love her to this day. I remember, I just remember, sometimes I couldn’t make payroll. And this is the same lady she would call me. See no, I called her this time, and I said that choice. She said, You know, you ain’t got no money in your account. I said, Yes, your choice. I know I have no money in my account. I said, but I gotta make payroll. She said, When are you gonna make a deposit? I said, I’m gonna make a deposit by Wednesday. She said, bring your little skinny ass around here, write out a check. I wrote out a check, and she cashed the check, which made me make that payroll. Man, I’m trying to tell you something. I’ve been blessed by leaps and bounds. I started my business with no money, none, not a dime, not a penny, nothing. I had people who believed in me, and I had to believe in me, for other people to believe in me, I looked at everything as if I just had to do this. And I think it was really my mom. My mother always said to me, she said, if you can think it, then you can do it. And then I heard Dionne Warwick say the same thing to me, and it was just like, don’t be concerned with the money that you don’t have, and don’t be concerned with the money that you’re trying to get. Just go and do it. I took my mother’s dining room table out of her garage when I was about 17 or 18 years old, and that’s where I started Double XXposure in the basement of my mother’s house. And, you know, we had teen phones back. It wasn’t a call waiting with none of that. You know, you just sat down there and there was this white girl. I love her dearly to this day, Kathy, but I went to work at Christmas records. She was down in my basement running double exposure. It’s always been that when I went to work as a Senior Vice President of Island Black Music, Kathy was still in that basement running Double XXposure when I got into the office at 846 seventh Ave, she was still in that basement running Double XXposure. So it’s always been, man, it’s just I believe in myself. I really do. And I want young people particularly. I want old people to believe in themselves, to know that they should be inspired, uplifted, rejuvenated, and because, look, if you got to be 65 and now you’re 85 you got a reason why you’re here, right? Enjoy it and do things with it.
Parlé Mag: Well, book is officially out. You’re donating the proceeds. Just talk to me about why you want to do that.
Angelo Ellerbee: The thing for me is that the city of Newark has been so gracious and so wonderful to me. When I was 14 years old, 15 years old, they used to be a program called the speedy program, and they have a program like that now in the city of New York and all over, where they allow youth to come in and earn their little weekly wages or hourly wages in the whole of the bit. And I used to go into the New York City Hall, and my job was to clean the bathrooms and watch down the walls. I was 14 and 15 years old, and at that time, there was a gentleman who was the mayor of the city of Newark. His name was Sharpe James, and I’m scrubbing down the walls. And when he came in and they would go, Hey, young man, what are you doing watching down the walls? I was like, sir, this is what my assignments were for the day. He said to me, but I don’t understand why you are washing the walls in the City Hall. He said, Sir, this is what they gave me to do. He says, So tell me, what do you want to do in your life? And I was like, Well, you know, I want to do this. I want to do that. He said, put it down there, and put down that cloth, tell me who your supervisor is. And he called the supervisor, and he said, I don’t want him washing down the walls. I want him to work in my office. And I go and, man, we had such a anything I want to do in the city of Newark, this man supported me. I don’t know where it came from. I don’t know why it was what it was. When I was 17 years old, I was making $57,000 a year, and my mother said, what kind of money are you making? Boy? I said, Ma, I showed her. I showed her the pay stubs. She looked at the stubs and said, ‘really?’ And I was like, ‘Mama, yeah, this is what I make.’ And even my oldest, my brother, who I love so much, worked at the YMCA as a janitor, and my two oldest, my oldest sister, she was just going to school. And when I began to make that money, it made our lives totally different, totally, totally, totally different. And I said to my mother, when I was 16 or 17 years old, Ma, I want to go to Paris, France. And she looked at me, she said, you know, fool? No, I’m not a fool. I said, Mom, I can go over there and work as a model, and I can get $125 an hour. She said, you got one phone call, one collect phone call outside of that, don’t call me. So I went over there, man and the first six months were the hardest six months of my life, because I only had $2,000. That $2,000 had to pay for that hotel room and eating the whole bit. So I took a job at a restaurant on the charm Sally Zay, frying chicken and cutting up collard greens and cabbage. And this guy came into the restaurant and he said to me, he said, You from America? I said, Yeah, from America. He says, So you came all the way over, we get a fried chicken and cut up. So he said, let me see your portfolio. And I love this girl who took my pictures. She went to high school with me because I was still in high school. He said, Oh, this is why you ain’t working. He did a whole new shoot for me, man, I went to work for every pret, a porter, every runway that exists. And I was making like, $3,000 up every two days, and so I would send my mother the money. And when I was sending her the money, she called me. She goes, Are you doing anything illegal over there? Where you getting this money from? I said, Mama, I’m modeling and I’m working. She said, ain’t nobody paying you that kind of damn money. Should I put this money in the bank? Yes, Mama, putting the money in the bank Is illegal money. But from that, when I came home, man, my mother always wanted a house because we always rented. Um, I think when you put your eyes on the prize, you can, you can do anything you want to do. That’s what it’s all about. For me, it’s about making people aware that they could do whatever they want to do. If you believe it, if you think it, you can really do it. That’s what this book is. Before I let you go about it, I want to give you something, and because maybe I didn’t give you something in all of these 67 years, I want to give you something now to say that you’re a great great and the greatest of what you go to do, you gotta believe in yourself.
Parlé Mag: Final Question, It seems weird to say, because I know you are always working on something else, but what’s next for Angelo?
Angelo Ellerbee: I always wanted to get in films and producing and directing, and these wonderful people at BET have come to me, and they’re going to do a special on my life, and they’re going to do a documentary, and they’re doing the TV series. But I’ve always wanted to, with all the films that I did with DMX, I always wanted to direct and I always wanted to produce, that’s where my energies are going. I’m going to continue, because I still have to pay bills. I ain’t stupid. I’m still going to continue Double XXposure, but my outreach is now to do films and TV. That’s what I’m doing. I’m not going to do another book. Never, ever again. If I do, I’m going to do a memoir book, but I’m going to be six feet underneath the ground before that book gets released. My life has been an elevator ride. And I believe in confidentiality. I can’t sit up and talk about people, because that’s what they hired me to be: confidential. I don’t believe in telling nobody’s story. If they ain’t told the story, let them tell the story, sacred, private, very competent and confidential. I’m not telling anybody’s story. I get paid to tell nobody’s story. They would get paid to write their own books. And so therefore, never, ever, ever again. And that’s why I keep telling people, this is it! I ain’t writing any more books, right? See what you know, let’s just see what God brings my way.
Parlé Mag: I love that Angelo. Congratulations on the street naming. That’s amazing! Congratulations on all these accomplishments. I’m glad you’re getting all these flowers while you can smell them. I’m enjoying the book. I’m about to finish that up, and I look forward to talking to you soon hopefully.
Angelo Ellerbee: I appreciate you, and let me say this to you my man, I salute you for your consistency, your persistence and continuing to do what you do. That’s the key thing of life.
A portion of the proceeds from sales for ‘Before I Let Go‘ will benefit the Newark, NJ-based WOW Communitea Center, a non-profit organization that provides outreach and support to LGBTQIA youth and young adults in the Greater NJ area. More information HERE.
For more information on ‘Before I Let Go‘ and to purchase a copy of the book, visit HERE.
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