Damien Matthias "E Love"

゙Damien “ELove” Matthias is a Multi-Platinum Award-Winning Writer, Producer, and Director selling more than 35,000,000 records. ELove is best known for co-producing and performing with LL Cool J, one of Def Jams Records’ first artists. He was also instrumental in launching the careers of Tupac Shakur and John Forte of the Fugees. On the marketing side, ELove was an integral part of fledgling Def Jam Records’ hugely successful pre-internet marketing team using creative “Street Teams” trained to inundate the airways, college campuses and distribute fliers, post signs on bus stops, walls, set up high school and college tours, radio talk shows, coordinate media – cutting-edge gorilla marketing for that time. In addition, ELove made sure the artists showed up to radio and record store appearances. As a result, Def Jam Records (now owned by Universal Music Group) became one of the most successful independent labels of all time, including its subsidiary label, “Cash Money/Young Money” with current artists, Lil Wayne, Drake, and Nicki Minaj. During his time with LL Cool J, ELove appeared on Soul Train, the BET Awards, Arsenio Hall, MTV Awards, and Grammy Awards, among others. He produced many music videos including the award-winning “I’m Goin’ back to Cali” for LL Cool J which he co-produced with Rick Rubin, co-founder of Def Jam Records. In 1989, ELove was given last rites by a priest in the hospital after being shot 6 times by armed assailants in front of a club in Southside Queens, New York. He recalls feeling a faint soft sign of the cross on his forehead as he lay barely conscious strapped to a hospital bed, tubes everywhere, and nearly flat line vitals. After three years of multiple surgeries and rehabilitation, ELove miraculously beat all odds, his life transformed. Taking a break from the music scene to achieve other goals, ELove was accepted into the American Conservatory Theatre (ACT) in San Francisco to pursue film and video production. It was there he directed and co-produced Levi’s Youth Aids National Commercial artist Wyclef of the Fugees and national commercials for BCBG and Gateway Computers. He then moved to Los Angeles and established his own production company which incorporated film, music, and sports management targeted toward the worldwide MTV/BET audience. Under this umbrella, he produced numerous low-budget films and music videos on the hip hop scene. With a pulse on the urban market, he is frequently hired as a consultant to bra