EJ Jamele

“it takes a village to achieve greatness” may sound cliche but it’s nothing short of true and I love organizing that village.

Q. Thanks for interviewing with us today. Tell everyone who you are and what you do.

A. My name is EJ Jamele, and I am a talent & brand manager and producer. I am the Founder of crowdMGMT; an elite talent & brand management and production company established in 2010 in NYC.

Q. Let’s talk about your company “crowdMGMT” and how it got started.

A. My vision for crowdMGMT first materialized during my time working in the talent agency environment in New York City. It was then that I recognized a gap in the market for thoroughly representing, identifying, and growing burgeoning artists and their respective businesses. I found myself wanting to be more involved in the overall talent scouting, development, and business strategy processes as opposed to limiting myself only to the exploitation of developed talent. I set out to assist hardworking and deserving artists, provide more hands-on business and brand development services, product development and to create career longevity for artists in their fight to stand out in a crowd.

I landed my first client, Zeke Thomas, by accident when we were both sharing frustrations about our career struggles. He needed more hands-on management and I needed someone to believe that my business mind and creative approach was worthy. We quickly thereafter found success in launching him his own record label imprint, record deal, Times Square Billboard campaign for Life Beat, and a series of concerts and other high-profile branded DJ gigs, TV appearances, and tours. As word spread of these achievements, clients just kept calling me. I created crowdMGMT in 2010 and I found myself in the business of protecting and nurturing artists while simultaneously applying my business skills and acumen to help them grow their futures and bottom line. With a team of experts around me, we continue to grow stronger and strategically expand the crowdMGMT family with intention.

My vision for crowdMGMT was to build an elite brand & talent management and production firm. A strategic community of multifaceted artists who work together and encourage one another, believing that collaboration is the key to success, and we are still doing it today!

Photo credit: Carla Ten Eyck

Q. Who or what motivated you to be into beauty and lifestyle?

A. This is a great question. My first love is and will always be music. My entire life I have daydreamed, hoped and prayed to work with music artists especially to create music videos. In college I became my full authentic self through music as a dancer surrounded by confident and talented teammates on my hip hop dance team, Flava Unit at the University of Rhode Island. I largely credit my confidence to chase my dreams to those teammates.

After college I moved to New York City and in a short time, I was heavily pursuing an independent music and DJ artist manager track. I had laser focus on proving that I could help artists achieve major fame and success. After a series of professional and personal heartbreaks over the years derailed me a bit, I felt that my dream was

fading away. It was then that a door opened wide for me. It was during that slower period where the legendary fashion stylist and image architect Misa Hylton hired me to co-manage her.

That period in my career gave me the "ah-ha moment" I needed in order to keep going. I realized I was not meant to be in a box and that I could “do both,” so I continued working in music, but I also pivoted to include beauty & lifestyle artist & brand management services. From there the similarities to my previous experiences in music and my newfound passion for working with artists like makeup artists, hair stylists, fashion stylists, photographers & filmmakers and actors all seemed to come to a head.

It was the energy of those collaborations that really got me excited to be a part of the bigger picture. The saying, “it takes a village to achieve greatness” may sound cliche but it’s nothing short of true and I love organizing that village.

Q. Can you tell us some people you have worked with in this industry and the experiences you’ve had with them?

A. This is so difficult because our resume at crowdMGMT is so long at this point. I feel blessed to say that and to have been able to work with so many incredible folks. The artists I manage are constantly impressing me and inspiring me to want to be the best I can be; to be deserving to be on their team. I find myself still daydreaming about projects, ideas and strategies I want to build with them every single day. The crowdMGMT family of artists is all listed on our artist page at crowdMGMT.com so please check them out.

Then there’s the iconic brands like L’Oreal, Pepsi, Nike and so many others that have been clients over the years which I equally fan out over as I do for long-time clients like Ciara. Our diverse clientele includes some of the most sought-after niche artists in the lifestyle and beauty industries. Among their numerous accolades are Emmy, Hollywood Beauty, GLAAD, HRC, Humanitarian, SAAG awards and so many more.

As a producer, my work has been distributed on numerous platforms including: Good Morning America, VH1, MTV, BET, Billboard Magazine, V Magazine, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Revry TV, Complex Media, Health Magazine and many more. At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, I executive produced Amplify Voices, a revolutionary TV show panel series on Revry right from my home office - that was an experience I never thought I would have. Revry is the world’s first and largest LGBTQ+ virtual cable network, FYI so check them out.

In summary, I have worked with too many people and brands to list them all here, but I am grown and better because of each of those experiences and I am so thankful for where I am now and where my team is headed.

Q. Where do you see yourself in the next three years?

A. My team and I continue to quickly grow our production resume of original content, which I absolutely love. In 3 years, I believe we will be one of the most sought-after full-service production companies for beauty & lifestyle content. I say that because we receive an abnormally high percentage of repeat business and the passion and kindness my team and clients exude is infectious, so the growth is evident as we continue to see our content creation services and client’s book further and further out into the coming years.

Photo credit: Josh S. Rose

I see myself personally at the helm of music videos, TV production and consultation and beauty brand development alongside my incredibly talented and overly qualified clients. We are very much in this together and in addition to all I have said, I am honored to work with and for a group of folks that have inspiring stories. Being surrounded by these folks can only lead to one thing: success.

Q. How do you define your purpose in life?

A. I have two life purposes; one personal and one professional. Personally, my purpose is to create beautiful environments for my family and friends to be loved and comfortable to be their full selves and make as many fun memories as possible together. If you ask anyone that knows me, including my clients, I am the one that still has sleepovers with all my friends and siblings just so we can get quality time.

Professionally, my purpose is to share any privilege I have been blessed with and provide support, collaboration opportunities, encouragement, and guidance to my clients as we work together to achieve and surpass their dreams to stand out in a crowd. Life is short and I try not to ever waste a moment or blessing if I can help it.

Q. Can you tell us some of your biggest accomplishments and challenges you’ve had so far in your career?

A. I always find it difficult to discuss successes without feeling like I am bragging. Mostly, because my inner child still can’t believe that I do what I do for a living. However, I will sum it up short and sweet. When I started crowdMGMT, I often and for years (yes, years) could not pay my monthly bills, nor even explain to my parents what I was doing to justify my struggle. Now, don’t get me wrong, I still have a long, long way to go and I am not what I would call “financially rich.”

However, I am running a multimillion-dollar operation that I started and I have taken my family on an annual vacation to my favorite place on earth, St. Martin for the last few years and counting. I tell myself that sometimes to motivate myself and shake off doubts, fears and of course the haters.

Challenges are too plentiful to list but I will share a story if you care to hear it. I started my company by accident as a rebellion to the agency structures I came from in the music and talent booking industry. Despite their impressive success and financial power, I didn’t see where I fit in there so when I started to represent artists on my own, I was terrified. I was worried that I wouldn’t have the relationships to make things happen as fast and furiously as I intended, and boy was I right.

I quickly learned that my pitches and requests needed to be 10x better than that of a big-house management or agency team. After enough no’s I had to start being more bold and showing up at offices. I remember one time I showed up and told, then President of Tommy Boy Records, Rosie Lopez that I had a meeting with her when I didn’t just to get her ear.

I am sure glad I did because that meeting resulted in two single deals, a label imprint deal and a couple appearances on Lala Anthony’s Full Court Life on Vh1 for her and myself which ultimately opened so many doors creating the momentum in my career and trust in my word that I needed. The lesson is that you have to be willing to do what others will not for your clients at any level in order for you all to grow.

Q. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?

A. I have to pick two, one old and one new. My old choice would be my favorite place, St Martin, because every time I am there, I feel inspired and a strong sense of home. A new place I’d LOVE to go is Greece because I am an islandloving soul and with the ancient history and beauty there I know I would be in complete awe.

Q. Are you working on any new projects or events?

A. Oh yes, we are working on a large beauty brand launch across multiple clients and we are also in the process of creating several TV projects which we will announce soon. I recently executive produced a few music videos for Angelica Ross coming out soon and K. Michelle's new music SCOOCH which is out now. You can follow our company Instagram @crowdMGMT for those and many more announcements throughout this year.

Q. Where can the readers follow you?

A. All my information is below, and I would love to hear from and collaborate with folks. Thank you for your interest in my journey. Cheers!

EJ Jamele, CEO of crowdMGMT Elite Talent Manager, Producer & Brand Architect Bio: crowdMGMT.com/ej IG: instagram.com/EJ_Jamele.