WEBVTT - Started From The Bottom: Charlamagne Tha God - How He Turned Anxiety and Failure into Success 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:14.600 Pushkin. For me growing up, it was oh, oh, oh, 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:17.840 it's the time join the morning show because you know, 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:21.000 my mom was a school teacher, so we was up early, early, 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:23.040 so I was listening to the time join them. And 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:25.360 then you know, Z ninety three played such a big 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:28.320 role in my life because you know, their original morning 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:32.280 show that I remember was The Breakfast Club, Baby Jay 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:36.160 and Tessa Tessa Spencer. My guest today is someone I've 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:39.400 wanted to interview for a long time because of what 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:43.199 he's meant over the last decade to the culture, black culture, 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:47.559 hip hop culture, internet culture, youth culture, all the cultures, 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:50.519 you name it. But if I'm being completely honest, the 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:52.320 real reason I wanted to sit down and talk to 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:54.440 Charlotte Magine the God is to see if some of 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:58.000 his confidence can run off on me. Most of my career, 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:01.640 I've been terrified to bring my self to work out 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:04.000 of fear of rejection or fear that I wouldn't be enough. 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:06.280 I don't know. I'm working through it with my therapist. 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:09.800 But what I admire about Charlemagne is that he seems 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:13.720 to not care at all about being rejected by his peers, 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:19.160 his co workers, his audience, anyone, and that confidence has 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:22.640 led to some of the most impactful and sometimes controversial 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:26.080 interviews over the last decade. As co host of one 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:28.520 of the most popular radio shows of all time, The 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:32.160 Breakfast Club, Charlemagne made time to sit down with me 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:34.760 in New York City to discuss all of this, plus 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:38.640 his upbringing, parenting, and the criticisms that have come with 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:42.640 his success and more. This has started from the bottom, 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:50.680 hard earned success stories from people like us. First time 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:53.320 I ever saw you was it was you on the 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:56.600 Wendy Williams radio show going toe to toe with Andrew 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:59.880 Dice Club. Yeah. Yeah, that was like two seven. Yeah. 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:02.720 It was one of the most amazing things ever. And 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:06.880 even though you kind of got uh, I don't know, 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:08.800 I feel like Andrew kind of put it on you 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:11.040 that day. It was the way they edited it too, 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:14.040 But it was like, yeah, I had some I had 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:15.720 some good ones, but they didn't put all of them, 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:17.720 and they put the one about me calling them a 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:19.960 fat fanzie. But that's right. Looking back, you actually did 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:21.359 a lot better than I remember. At the time, I 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:23.680 was a dang like Andrew still got it. I remember 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:25.359 been like, oh man, but then I kind of put 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:26.880 you on my radar, and then I remember when the 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:28.560 Breakfast Club came, I was like, oh, makes sense, like 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:31.360 this guy clearly clearly had it. But yeah, I want 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:34.079 to run through your radio trajectory. But first I thought 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:37.120 it'd be good to start with growing up in Monk's Corner, 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:41.400 South Carolina. Um, it's interesting, right, because you know, I've 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:44.120 been thinking about that a lot more lately, only because, 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:46.280 like you know, when I'm in therapy, I'm doing like 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:49.880 a lot of um in a child work, you know, 0:02:50.040 --> 0:02:53.320 because I feel like a lot of the issues that 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:56.079 you deal with as an adult, most of them directly 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:58.960 connected something that happened in your childhood. And so I've 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:03.639 been thinking about, like what was that upbringing, like growing 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:06.720 up in Monst Corner, South Carolina, and the word I've 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:11.440 come to realize that it is associated with that that upbringing. 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:16.240 It's simple. You know, Monst Corner when I was young 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:19.040 created a sense of ease in my life that I 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:22.400 feel like really helped me growing up because I didn't 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:25.360 move too fast and I didn't move too slow. That 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:29.800 still is a big, big part of me. So when like, 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:33.120 you know, that anxiety that I've been feeling my whole life, 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:36.080 sets and I feel like, Okay, I might be moving 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:38.400 too fast, but then I don't want to move too slow. 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:41.000 But then it's just a certain ease, like like baby 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:44.520 Bears part just just it's a just right level of 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:47.200 ease that growing up in Monst Corner gave me that 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:50.680 I tend to tap into whenever, like things get really hectic. 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:54.360 You mentioned some of the anxiety that you have. When 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:57.040 did that start? Really, Yeah, as long as I know. 0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:59.920 I mean, the first panic attack I remember having was 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:03.000 first grade, my mom dropping me off, Like I can 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:06.760 feel it right now, my mom dropping me off first grade, 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:09.920 first day of first grade, and like I just cried uncontrollably, 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:17.920 like like I just felt like abandoned, lost and just 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:23.760 scared like that that that same, you know, unexplainable feeling 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:27.960 of fear and panic and worry. And I think my 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:29.920 mom even says that I might have cried for like 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:32.560 the first week. I don't remember the first week. I 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:36.200 remember that one particular day, but it's like, yeah, that's 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:38.839 the first time I remember ever having like a panic attack, 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:41.479 and I had him throughout my life, like I've been 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:44.599 going to the emergency room thinking that I'm having a 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:46.880 heart attack. You know, thinking that I'm dying, you know, 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:48.640 and then you get there and the doctor's like, oh, 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:50.279 did you have an energy drink today? And you're like, 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:52.280 I did drink a red Bull earlier, and it's like, oh, 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:54.719 that's probably why your heart is doing that. That's the 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:57.279 worst feeling, you know. So it wasn't until twenty ten 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:00.920 that a doctor actually said to me, sounds like you 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:04.640 have anxiety. He was literally was like, it sounds like 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:07.919 you had a panic attack the things that you're describing. 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:09.520 And he was like, has this happened to you before? 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:12.479 And I'm like all the time, And you know, he 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:14.839 asked me what I stretched out about anything, and I'm like, 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:16.680 hell yeah, Because at the time, I had just been 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:18.760 fired for the fourth time from radio, and I'm back 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:21.000 living at home with my mom at like thirty one, 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:23.440 thirty two years old. My daughter's like one or two. 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:26.120 My wife is back living at home with her parents, 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:27.760 you know what I mean, in mom's corner. So it's 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:30.880 like I was super stressed out collecting unemployment checks every week. 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:32.600 So in my mind, all I had to do was 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:35.000 get back in position and get me another job and 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:38.600 all of that would go away. And that wasn't the case. 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:41.240 You know. I ended up getting the breakfast club gig 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:44.040 and having the most success I've ever had in my life, 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:46.120 and it felt like all of those issues I had 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:51.200 historically dealt with were magnified times a hundred now. Yeah, 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:53.320 you know, And so that's when I decided to like 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:55.520 finally go get some help and like go to therapy. 0:05:55.920 --> 0:05:57.480 What do you think do you see that? Do you 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:04.240 see that same anxiety in your kids? Yeah, I haven't. 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:06.080 I haven't seen it show up as bad as mine 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:10.200 was when I was at age. And I think the 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:13.640 beauty of life now is not only do I have 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:16.840 the language, I have the experience. So it's just like that, 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:19.120 and I wish that, you know, somebody had put me 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:21.040 in therapy when I was thirteen fourteen now me, I 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:24.720 definitely needed it because I was getting sexually abused at 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:27.280 eight years old. I didn't realize that at the time. 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:29.800 I didn't realize that was molestia until I was twenty 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:31.359 something years old. You know, at the time, I just 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:34.800 thought I was eight year old kid. The neighborhood. Yeah, yeah, 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:36.760 we we would all were a bunch of young men. 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:39.880 We all be around having conversations about older women that 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:42.080 we were messing with, you know, in the neighborhood, Like 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:45.000 we all thought we were lying, but clearly we always 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:47.360 like telling the truth in different ways. Right, So, Um, 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:52.560 when I was fourteen, I definitely needed to unpack some 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:53.800 of that. Do you think you would have had it 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:55.400 at that age? Do you think the trajectory would have 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:56.800 been the same, Like you think you would have been 0:06:56.880 --> 0:06:59.880 ended up in the streets the way you did? Probably not? 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:02.200 And the reason probably not, just because you know, even 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:05.880 with the screetch, Right, it's like a lot of that is, Um, 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:09.479 you trauma bond with people, yeah, because it's all a 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:13.760 bunch of individuals that are missing something, and like we 0:07:13.840 --> 0:07:18.000 all want camaraderie, we all want family, we all want 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:22.480 a crew. And it's just sometimes men, we trauma bond 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:25.800 over bullshit, you know. So we trauma bond sometimes over crime, 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:29.560 you know, we trauma bond over drugs, We trauma bond 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:33.040 over alcohol, you know. But most of the time it's like, yeah, 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:36.080 we're all trauma bonding to do the wrong thing, Like 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:38.880 you know what I mean, Like let's go rob this 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:42.000 you know individual, or go rob this store or break 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:44.360 into this house, and let's go you know, figure out 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:46.280 a way to get some a pack the hustle. But 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:51.480 it's like what we're all lacking is like together this 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:55.560 like everybody, we're all tribal, and we all long for family, 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:58.120 right And I think that's what that's what a lot 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:00.960 of guys do when they when they click up in 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:03.680 that way. So I think for me, I definitely was 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:07.680 longing for like some type of family structure. Even though 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:09.440 I grew up in a house with an older sister, 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:12.480 two younger brothers, and a younger sister. I was the 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:15.480 second oldest. My oldest sisters like ten twelve years older 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:17.960 than me, and my younger siblings are like ten twelve 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:19.280 years younger than me, So I was kind of I 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:21.960 didn't have on an island, yeah exactly. So I ended 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:25.240 up kicking it with brothers and who are around my age, 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:27.680 and we all ended up doing a bunch of dirt. 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:29.200 And I don't even like to call it pear pressure 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:32.600 because I don't believe there's anything. I don't believe peer 0:08:32.679 --> 0:08:34.840 pressure exists. I believe we all just want to be accepted, 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:37.760 you know what I'm saying. And I think that when 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:42.559 somebody pushes you to do something, you do it because 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:45.800 you don't want to let them down. So it's a 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:49.760 lot of people pleasing that goals and the age, especially 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:51.800 at that age man. And it stays with you though, 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:54.040 That people pleasing stays with you, Like that's something that 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:57.160 I had to unpacking therapy, like stop being a people pleaser, like, 0:08:57.160 --> 0:08:58.760 you know, because sometimes you'll be a people pleased to 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:01.400 your own detriment. Yeah, you know, I can't believe anyone's 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:03.920 ever accused you be the people pleasing man. No, I 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:05.840 think that a lot of that. Man. That's because you 0:09:05.880 --> 0:09:09.640 seem you have strong opinions, not scared of voice even 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:12.040 if it alienates you. Yeah, well, no, you're right, I've 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:15.400 always been that way. Um, But no, there's there's been 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:16.920 plenty of times in my life where I just wanted 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:19.720 to be down. Literally, I just wanted to be down. 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:22.000 I wanted to be accepted. I wanted to be embraced, 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:24.680 And you know, I can think about you know that time, 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:26.880 at that moment, like I just wanted to be embraced 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:30.000 by you know, my peers. You know. So that's why 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:32.120 I started doing what a lot of my PIDs was doing, 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:33.520 which was a lot of bullshit. You know what I mean, 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:36.640 because I wanted to be accepted some of that early stuff. 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:40.520 A couple of couple of drug cases. U. The last 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:44.199 one was you were around the shooting the first one. 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:47.040 The first one. The first one, I was in the 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:49.640 backseat of a car and my homeboy was in the 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:52.840 front seat. Somebody was driving, and we was in this 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:56.360 neighborhood like like like a two neighborhoods over from where 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:58.640 we are in Mongst Corner, two towns over rather from 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:01.199 where we are in Monst Corner. And we were just having, 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:04.480 you know, some conversations with some young ladies. Then some 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:06.520 guys in the neighborhood didn't like that we would there. 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:09.040 And you know, I'm on my fake tough guys ship, 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:12.040 my fake hardcore shit, so I'm acting like doughboy and 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:14.000 boys in the hood. I got my hand under my 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:16.960 shirt was up up yo, sup, because like the fuck 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:19.160 that means like what's up a problem? You know what 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:21.640 I mean? And they, you know, drove off. Then we 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:23.400 went to like I think it was Burger King McDonald's. 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:25.079 I remember, I think it was Burger King. So he 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:28.280 went to Burger King. As we're leaving, I see the 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:31.240 truck that those guys were in pulling up behind us, 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:33.480 and I say, I say tell him. I dude like, oh, 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:36.720 that some guys from the neighborhood. And so they pulled 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:38.360 up on the side of us. So I'm in the 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:41.520 back seat of the car, dudes talking shit out the window. 0:10:42.520 --> 0:10:44.480 One of my guys pulled out and shot from the 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:47.760 passenging seat, and you know, luckily nobody was in the 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:49.920 fourth seat, so it was the driver passenger, and then 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:52.560 somebody was sitting behind the driver with the bullet hit 0:10:52.600 --> 0:10:55.840 the headrest in the fourth seat behind the passenger seat, 0:10:56.840 --> 0:10:59.280 you know what I mean. Yeah, all praises do to 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:03.480 God because you know, that could have been a situation 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:06.640 where somebody got killed. Now were all in jail for 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:09.840 twenty thirty years, you know what I mean. So so 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:12.720 even now when I think about stuff like that, I'm like, oh, yeah, 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:14.960 you know, because I'm a big back to the future guy. 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:18.160 You know, you watch those those time heist movies. People 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:20.040 go back and little things change here and there and 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:22.920 change the whole trajectory of everything. And so yeah, that 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:25.199 was the first time I ever got arrested. Did it 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:28.400 change your relationship with your parents? It didn't change my 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:30.960 relationship with my parents. That actually made me realize my 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:33.400 dad was right, because my dad was always telling me 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:35.880 if I don't change my lifestyle, I'm gonna end up 0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:39.040 in jail, dad, or broke sitting under the tree, you know. 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:42.400 So when I came home, I really was just looking 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:45.400 for positive things to do. Like, you know, I started 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:49.640 working at a warehouse called Industrial Acoustics Company, and you know, 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:51.480 from that point on, I wanted to keep a job. 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:53.840 But I worked there for like two to three weeks, 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:57.000 got fired from there, you know, to supervisor and never 0:11:57.000 --> 0:12:00.199 forget her name, her name was Gail cop Supervisor was like, like, 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:03.439 you don't fit in here. You're not what we're looking 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:05.840 for now, mind you up. My job was literally like 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:09.080 I was clearing out an area, like a wooded area. 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:11.319 So I'm like, oh god, damn, I'm not fit to 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:14.320 clean out a wooded area, you know. But she was like, 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:16.400 you don't fit in here. So then I started working 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:18.480 out of Flower Garden just because I was looking to do, 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:22.240 you know, something positive. And the flower Garden literally, and 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:24.240 now that I think back on it, it was literally 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:26.599 a bunch of like migrants working there, Like you know 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:28.439 what I mean, It was clearly a bunch of people 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:32.480 who you know, weren't from this country, who were just 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:37.000 looking for work. Now now looking back on it, that's 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:38.679 what it was. It was literally just a bunch of 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:41.560 like Mexicans and you know, who knows what else, like 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:45.400 just working there, right, And so I was there for 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:48.880 like two weeks to His name was Dominique, the same thing. 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:50.520 Me and him got into a shouting match because I 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:53.359 was just like it, shit feels like it was a plantation. 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:56.360 It literally was a flower garden. It was actually called 0:12:56.440 --> 0:13:01.120 the Yeah, it was called just something playing taition flower garden. 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:03.760 But it literally was just we were out there in 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:07.280 the hot sun picking flowers and you know, other types 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:09.760 of shit. So I quit that and then that's when 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:12.800 I started like flirting with the screet you know what 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:15.240 I mean. That's when it was like, man, I gotta 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:16.960 figure out some ways to make money because you know, 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:19.439 I still got to pay my probation officer and shit 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:22.120 like that. And it was just a stupid mentality, right, 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:24.480 because when you're on probation, you got to keep a job. 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:27.800 That's number one, and you got to pay your probation fees. 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:31.000 So I started just saying that I was working with 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:33.680 my dad and I was doing tempt services but also 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:37.240 had got a fifty dollars slab. Fifty dollars slabs when 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:39.400 you're getting fifty dollars worth of rock, and you know, 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:41.480 I think you posted be like I think its supposed 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:43.880 to be one hundred dollars off each gram. So I 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:46.960 think a slab was one gram that you paid fifty 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:49.320 dollars for and you cut it up and you posted 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:51.560 it cuts up into like one hundred dollars worth a rock. 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:56.280 So that was the first time I liked dabbled in like, yeah, hustling. 0:13:56.920 --> 0:13:59.679 So yeah, did I left my Did I feel like, well, 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:02.720 how to my relationship my parents changed? Yeah? I thought 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:05.559 they were right, but I still was young and had 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:07.880 to figure things out for myself, which led me, which 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:10.760 led me back, which led me into actually hustling. You know. 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:13.880 After the break, Charlotte Magne's gonna take us on a 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:17.440 ride through his earliest experiences with radio and how that 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:27.320 helped build his foundation in the business. When did radio 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:29.680 enter your life, like, not only not as a career, 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:32.600 as a listener, Like, what's your earliest experiences with radio? 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:37.840 Like forever forever? And the reason I say forever because 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:40.840 like when I said, small town monks going to South Carolina. 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:43.880 So the radio station was Z ninety three Jams. We 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:46.280 were always around the radio. If it wasn't Z ninety 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:49.280 three Jams, it was another station called wpa L one 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:51.720 hundred point nine, and one hundred point nine was like 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:55.200 more underground with it, so they were playing like underground stuff, 0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:57.520 not the mainscreen stuff. And like you know, there was 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:00.720 always like bone boxes around like my cousin and you know, 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:03.840 my cousin tis to my cousin Tye. He was the 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:08.240 first person let me hear like a real hip hop record. 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:10.400 Like prior to that, my sister had her radio in 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:13.040 her room. So my sister was listening to like Kidn't 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:16.840 Play and Salt and Pepper, you know what I mean, 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:20.840 stuff like that Hammer all the pop stuff, you know 0:15:20.880 --> 0:15:23.760 what I mean. But my cousin let me hear Eric 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:26.880 B and Rock Kemp paid in full. Wow, and that 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:30.280 changed everything. Wow. That was like I don't know what 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:35.400 this thing is called hip hop, but I love it. 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:37.800 It felt like rock Kim was saying stuff like he 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:41.000 was telling stories, like you know what I mean. Yeah, 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:44.560 just just that is what introduced me to radio and 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:48.280 always wanting to be around a radio. It felt like 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:50.720 we might even have been around radio more than TV. 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:53.240 You know, back in the day TV it was certain 0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:56.040 shows we were watching, but we weren't just turning the 0:15:56.120 --> 0:15:58.200 TV on and keeping it on all day. If it 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:04.160 wasn't like Nintendo or you know the radio. Man, we 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:06.720 were outside, yeah, like you know what I mean, running around, 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:10.160 playing around. So it's like, for me, radio has always 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:12.600 been in my life as a listener, like who are 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:14.480 the personalities are? Because like I know, like in LA 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:16.800 and later I came to us, it was like syndicated, 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:18.360 but you know, in LA always felt like it was 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:20.480 like Big Boy was like was huge, you know, and 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:23.960 I felt like our guy. For me growing up, it 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:27.880 was oh, oh oh, it's the time Join Them morning 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:30.040 show because you know, my mom was a school teacher, 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:32.640 so we was up early early, so I was listening 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:35.040 to the time Join Them. And then you know, ZE 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:37.120 ninety three played such a big role in my life 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:41.120 because you know, their original morning show that I remember 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:44.600 was the Breakfast Club Baby Jay and Tessa Tessa Spencer, 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:48.440 and then you know, in the afternoons, it was like, 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:51.560 um a man, y'all need a rude boy. But then 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:54.000 it was like you know the night shows, the Top 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:56.080 nine at nine, you know, you want to call in 0:16:56.160 --> 0:16:59.320 and request the song and hear your voice on the radio, 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:03.000 shout out your school whatever whatever. But yeah, those were 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:06.399 the people like growing up like Sean, people like Sean Dobe, Like, 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:09.840 those are the personalities that I would hear. Reggie c 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:13.040 You'd hear these people and they were just like regular 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:16.920 voices that you would hear all the time. Ken Moore 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:20.080 like I don't even know if Kim was Ki on Z. 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:21.720 I don't know if Ki was one. I just did 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:25.040 the voices I remember. Yeah, you know, growing up like 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:27.480 those voices, those local radio voices. Are you growing up 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:31.680 a famous as anyone in the country. Absolutely? Do you 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:34.159 remember your first time on the radio. I don't remember 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:36.679 the very first time, but it definitely one of the 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:39.840 first times was my man Willy Will. There was a 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:42.440 guy named Willie Will. He was the night jock there 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:46.800 at the ninety three jams in Charleston, South Carolina. Me 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:49.400 and him used to wrap together. I met him at 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:51.879 you know, a couple of recording studios that were in Charleston. 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:54.679 When I got my internship up there. I would always 0:17:54.760 --> 0:17:56.560 just be up there and I'd be sitting in on 0:17:56.600 --> 0:17:59.639 his show, and you know, he would definitely, you know, 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:01.760 call me to the microphone, you know, and I'd be 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:04.800 on the mike talking. So definitely my first time on air, 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:08.600 I'm sure was with Willie will And in some way, 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:10.639 shape or form, because I remember wanted to remember the 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:13.639 program director telling him like, you know, you need to 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:15.960 get a cardboard cut out of Charlemagne and put it 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:19.320 in the studio because your energy goes up, you know 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:22.520 when he's in here, you know, with you. I remember 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:26.000 I remember him saying that to him, and yeah, which 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:28.359 which probably ultimately led to me being on air because 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:30.560 my man Ron White, you know spootha Ron White. Me 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:32.720 and Ron still talked to this day. Round. Was like 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:34.679 he just asked me one day, like, Yo, do you 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:37.320 want to be on the radio? And I'm like, sure, 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:40.320 why not? And so they started putting me on Sundays 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:43.320 eleven am to three pm. When you say sure, like, 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:45.359 was there a part of you that had was that 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:47.639 just you playing the cool or were you really not 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:50.880 even sure you wanted to be on the radio like that? Yeah? 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:52.560 I never had thought about it, you know what I mean. 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:56.000 I just was really happy to be working at Z 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:58.920 ninety three Jams because it was like the most corporate 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:01.399 thing I had ever done. Yeah, you know, it was. 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:03.439 It was the place. It was a place where, like 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:07.040 in South Carolina, people saw you at ninety three, They're like, oh, 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:08.440 he must be he must be doing something, you know 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:09.919 what I mean, Like he must be doing something with 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:12.360 his with his life, you know what I mean. And 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:14.800 for me being like a guy who was in and 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:17.080 out of jail at the time and was getting in 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:19.879 a lot of trouble and graduated from high school in 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:22.520 night school, had gotten kicked out of two high schools. 0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:24.760 Like for me, that was a big deal for me 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:27.240 to be like pulling up in a most corner driving 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:30.800 this station vehicle like the big white band with the 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:32.600 Z ninety three Jams on the logo, you know what 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:34.840 I mean, pulling it down my dr road, you know 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:37.199 what I mean, hoping that some of the girls that 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:39.440 lived on my road saw me, you know what I mean. 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:44.360 Like that was a big deal for me back then. 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:48.720 So yeah, just to be there felt like you did, ye, Yeah, 0:19:48.760 --> 0:19:50.320 I just was just happy to be there. Like so 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:53.960 when he asked me to be on air, like hell, yeah, yeah, 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:57.640 whatever's gonna keep me here yea. And of course when 0:19:57.680 --> 0:20:01.119 you think radio, you think on air personalities. You're not 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:04.800 thinking promotions or programming or anything like that. So hell yeah, 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:06.720 I'd love to be on it. Now I can really 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:10.000 say I work here and now I'm a personality, and 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:13.879 um yeah, I really loved it and appreciate it. How 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:16.439 was that first show that you had? I was scaring 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:18.560 all the church folks because it was what they had 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:20.520 me do. They had me do something called voice track. 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:23.200 And when your voice track is when you record your voice, 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:25.879 and you got to record your voice, and you know, 0:20:25.920 --> 0:20:28.280 it's like it's a time slot from like eleven to three, 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:31.920 so you're talking like three four times an hour, introducing songs, 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:34.600 time temperature and stuff like that. So I didn't know 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:37.439 how to do radio, you know, I really didn't. So 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:40.280 I was just going in there talking like yeah I was. 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:42.040 I was actually screaming. When I go back and listen 0:20:42.080 --> 0:20:43.760 to my old voice tapes, I was screaming. And it's 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:45.520 funny because they all were telling me I was screaming, 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:47.720 like I'm not screaming. I was just old you, I 0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:49.959 don't understand how we talk about I was really yelling 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:53.080 like nine three jams are being hip hop. Go my 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:55.560 go boy. The name is Charlemagney. God. I was yelling, 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:58.600 like screaming at people, and so like, you know, when 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:01.960 I finally started listening to the people who actually do 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:05.359 this for a living, I started to acquire a more 0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:08.399 conversational tone. You know when in the beginning, I was 0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:11.359 just yelling, like yelling, like literally yelling at people on 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:13.359 the radio, and that's what I was doing. And I 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:15.280 did that. I think I might have voice tracked a 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:18.200 few Sundays, and then Ron was like, all right, enough 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:20.479 of that. You're gonna have your voice track on Saturday 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:22.960 nights now seven to ten, and then you're gonna go 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:27.000 live from ten to midnight. And I was everything because 0:21:27.040 --> 0:21:30.480 it's Saturday nights so I can have this high energy. 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:32.680 But then when we go live or I could take 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:35.840 phone calls. Now it's like I'm taking phone calls and 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:38.679 I'm working with people when they're calling then making jokes 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:41.760 blah blah. So it's just like for me, the best 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:43.280 thing that ever happened to me was I didn't know 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:46.800 how to do radio. Nobody taught me how to do radio. 0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:50.639 I wasn't a person who came from, you know, doing 0:21:50.720 --> 0:21:53.760 college radio, or nowadays you can have a podcast or 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:56.040 a YouTube page. I was just fresh off the dirt 0:21:56.119 --> 0:21:59.320 road in Monks Corner, South Carolina, getting on the air 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:02.159 in Austin, South Carolina on the biggest radio station at 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:06.240 the time, Z ninety three, and that rawdness showed. I 0:22:06.359 --> 0:22:10.520 sounded different than everybody else because I didn't have that announcer, 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:13.879 you know, background. So it worked for me. Yeah, you 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:17.760 didn't have the announcer broadcast, yeah or whatever. I was 0:22:17.800 --> 0:22:20.800 just coming at it with your own angles. What was 0:22:20.840 --> 0:22:25.040 your journey after that? After zm SO, I worked as 0:22:25.040 --> 0:22:29.280 an intern in ninety eight, started there in ninety nine 0:22:29.320 --> 0:22:33.159 from the promotions department to um being on there, and 0:22:33.200 --> 0:22:35.880 then a news station came into market, Hot ninety eight nine, 0:22:36.400 --> 0:22:40.840 much smaller station ran by a guy named my Man. 0:22:40.920 --> 0:22:44.080 George Cook was the program director. I was doing part 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:46.200 time at z SO. I had some conversations with Hot 0:22:46.280 --> 0:22:48.359 ninety eight nine. They wanted me to come over there 0:22:48.400 --> 0:22:50.880 and do nights. They wanted me to do Monday through Saturday, 0:22:50.920 --> 0:22:54.280 seven to midnight full time, and I was I think 0:22:54.280 --> 0:22:57.080 the pay was like nineteen grand a year, and at 0:22:57.080 --> 0:22:59.600 the time. That was a lot of money, and it 0:22:59.640 --> 0:23:01.800 was a dollary. So just to be able to say, 0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:05.440 first time on salary that I didn't go to college, 0:23:05.600 --> 0:23:07.960 you know what I mean. I graduated from night school 0:23:08.160 --> 0:23:14.080 and like, so I didn't just oh I got a salary. Now, yeah, 0:23:14.400 --> 0:23:16.440 I'm just happy to be making nineteen grand a year. 0:23:16.480 --> 0:23:20.080 Like that sounded like some shit, And so yeah, I 0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:22.400 started working there every night and it wasn't even about 0:23:22.400 --> 0:23:24.320 to check. It was about the opportunity to be on 0:23:24.400 --> 0:23:27.800 every night. And my man, George Cookman, who's still a 0:23:27.840 --> 0:23:30.960 great mentor to me to this day. He actually George 0:23:31.000 --> 0:23:32.879 is not only the first person to give me a 0:23:32.960 --> 0:23:37.560 full time position on radio. He told me some information 0:23:37.600 --> 0:23:40.359 that just changed my whole life. And the information was, 0:23:41.119 --> 0:23:43.640 I want you to have a morning show at night. 0:23:44.640 --> 0:23:47.639 I want you to treat this night show that you 0:23:47.800 --> 0:23:51.679 have like a morning show at night. Parody songs and 0:23:51.760 --> 0:23:53.919 a lot of sketches and a lot of topics and 0:23:54.040 --> 0:23:56.520 a lot of interaction with listeners via the phone and 0:23:57.000 --> 0:24:01.080 you know, playing new music and all of that benefited 0:24:01.160 --> 0:24:03.919 me so well in the future because that's what I 0:24:04.000 --> 0:24:07.600 ultimately treated every single show like I treated every single 0:24:07.640 --> 0:24:09.520 show like it was a morning show. So no matter where, 0:24:09.520 --> 0:24:12.800 I went from High ninety eighty nine to the big 0:24:12.880 --> 0:24:14.879 DM in Columbia, and then it was Hot one of 0:24:15.000 --> 0:24:17.639 three nine in Columbia, then it was Wendy Williams show, 0:24:17.880 --> 0:24:19.880 then it was my own morning show in Philly. By 0:24:19.880 --> 0:24:22.280 the time I got to my own morning show in Philly, 0:24:22.640 --> 0:24:25.720 I had approached every single one of those situations like 0:24:25.760 --> 0:24:27.679 it was a morning show. So by the time I 0:24:27.720 --> 0:24:30.920 was ready to do my own morning show, I was overprepared. Yeah, 0:24:30.960 --> 0:24:33.840 you know. So it was he planned to seed early 0:24:33.960 --> 0:24:37.840 on that basically stuck with me throughout my whole career 0:24:37.920 --> 0:24:41.000 and ultimately led to me being the morning guy I am. 0:24:41.080 --> 0:24:44.480 Now let me come back. You'll get a chance to 0:24:44.560 --> 0:24:48.240 hear what Charlemagne learned from the legendary radio host Wendy 0:24:48.359 --> 0:24:52.520 Williams and lessons he had to teach himself to achieve success. 0:25:01.000 --> 0:25:04.400 Tell me about meeting Wendy Williams, man Man, I met 0:25:04.440 --> 0:25:08.720 Wendy because I was doing radio in Columbia, South Carolina. 0:25:09.320 --> 0:25:11.680 Columbia had a really dope station called Hot one with 0:25:11.760 --> 0:25:14.639 three nine. So Hot one with three nine started syndicating 0:25:14.840 --> 0:25:19.159 Wendy Williams in the afternoons, and so Wendy and her 0:25:19.240 --> 0:25:22.960 husband would come down for station visits, like they would 0:25:23.000 --> 0:25:25.280 come down to like see the market and stuff like that, 0:25:25.680 --> 0:25:28.439 and so I just would break bread, you know. And 0:25:28.480 --> 0:25:30.160 I remember the first time I even tried to break 0:25:30.160 --> 0:25:32.760 bread with Wendy. Wendy was in the studio trying to 0:25:32.760 --> 0:25:34.879 do her show, which I totally understand, now, you know 0:25:34.880 --> 0:25:36.359 what I mean. But I came in there with mixed 0:25:36.359 --> 0:25:39.440 tapes and parody songs, all of this stuff I wanted 0:25:39.440 --> 0:25:42.760 her to hear and while she was doing her show, yeah, 0:25:42.800 --> 0:25:44.399 I mean, but she was in between breaks, you know 0:25:44.440 --> 0:25:46.919 what I mean. But now, when I under now understanding 0:25:46.960 --> 0:25:50.479 the hecticness of a syndicated show, it wasn't like breaks 0:25:50.520 --> 0:25:52.879 like us. But we break for twenty minutes, thirty minutes 0:25:52.920 --> 0:25:56.560 and got time to bullshit. She's on like on on 0:25:56.560 --> 0:25:58.240 on on, Like it might have only been like three 0:25:58.280 --> 0:26:01.680 minutes in between songs. Wendy goes, look, yo, yo, take 0:26:01.760 --> 0:26:05.480 that mixtape shit out of here. I'm trying to do 0:26:05.560 --> 0:26:08.720 my fucking show. Take that mixtape shit to my husband. 0:26:09.640 --> 0:26:13.040 I didn't feel offended by that. Yeah, I was just like, 0:26:13.080 --> 0:26:14.679 where's your husband? She's like, I think if he's in 0:26:14.680 --> 0:26:17.040 that fucking room somewhere, like in the conference room across 0:26:17.040 --> 0:26:21.160 the hall. Cool. So I went across the room, gave 0:26:21.240 --> 0:26:23.800 him the mixtape, started pitching ship to him, you know, 0:26:24.119 --> 0:26:26.720 pitching shit to him. And then we started talking and 0:26:26.800 --> 0:26:29.439 we you know, kept in contact from there, you know, 0:26:29.480 --> 0:26:31.399 and I used to like give them the heads up 0:26:31.400 --> 0:26:34.680 on things that were going on at the station. So 0:26:34.720 --> 0:26:36.439 he invited me to come up to New York for 0:26:36.480 --> 0:26:37.760 a party. He was like, yeah, want you to come 0:26:37.840 --> 0:26:39.760 up to New York. We're having a party, blah blah. 0:26:39.760 --> 0:26:42.119 And I'm like all right. I went to the party 0:26:42.160 --> 0:26:45.199 just to kick it. And in the party, Wendy was like, 0:26:45.200 --> 0:26:48.160 oh shit, Charlemagne, Yo, wan't you come to my show? 0:26:48.720 --> 0:26:50.080 How long are you in town? Like, oh, just a 0:26:50.080 --> 0:26:53.520 couple of days. Come to my show tomorrow, Like come 0:26:53.600 --> 0:26:56.600 to your show tomorrow. Can't tell me shit like that. 0:26:57.680 --> 0:27:00.560 I'm going I'm going to be like, yo, all right, 0:27:00.720 --> 0:27:03.320 the who do I call? What do I do? And 0:27:03.440 --> 0:27:05.560 so I'm hitting keV like yo, keV. Whendy said, come 0:27:05.600 --> 0:27:07.000 to our show. He was like all right, I bet 0:27:07.119 --> 0:27:08.600 So he just told me that he told me to 0:27:08.640 --> 0:27:10.920 go up there, went up there, sat in the pink 0:27:11.000 --> 0:27:13.359 room to paint the office for a while. Then she 0:27:13.440 --> 0:27:15.679 invited me on the show and I was there for 0:27:15.720 --> 0:27:19.960 like twenty five minutes, and literally that evening they were 0:27:20.040 --> 0:27:23.720 offering me the position as her co host sidekick, and 0:27:23.760 --> 0:27:26.359 they was like, look, we can't pay you, but we 0:27:26.359 --> 0:27:29.359 can give you a place to stay. And I'm just like, 0:27:29.359 --> 0:27:31.239 all right, just let me go back down South and like, 0:27:31.920 --> 0:27:34.159 you know, figure some things out, like just you know, 0:27:34.240 --> 0:27:35.800 let my girl know what I'm about to do and 0:27:35.800 --> 0:27:40.000 everything else. And that's what I did. You knew the opportunity, yo. Man, 0:27:40.080 --> 0:27:42.000 you gotta recognize the opportunity even when it's not a 0:27:42.000 --> 0:27:44.760 paycheck attached to it. So my mindset was never I 0:27:44.880 --> 0:27:46.520 never I never once was like how much I'm gonna 0:27:46.560 --> 0:27:49.080 get paid. It was like, we cannot pay you, but 0:27:49.200 --> 0:27:51.879 we can give you a place to stay. I'm out 0:27:52.960 --> 0:27:56.680 the opportunity to be on Wendy Williams Show Monday through 0:27:56.720 --> 0:28:01.280 Friday in the afternoon, nationally syndicated show. What are some 0:28:01.359 --> 0:28:04.040 lessons you learned on the Wonder william Show? That Wendy's 0:28:04.040 --> 0:28:07.160 a legend no matter how you feel about her, matter 0:28:07.160 --> 0:28:08.879 how you feel about her, bona Fire legend, one of 0:28:08.880 --> 0:28:11.560 the most talented people, one of the most talented media 0:28:11.560 --> 0:28:13.600 personalities of all time. You know, one of the people 0:28:13.720 --> 0:28:16.960 few people who can like literally sit down in front 0:28:16.960 --> 0:28:21.320 of a TV camera and just go. Yeah, person who 0:28:21.359 --> 0:28:22.840 could just sit down in front of a microphone and 0:28:22.920 --> 0:28:26.159 just go. And you realize the reason she's able to 0:28:26.160 --> 0:28:27.920 do that is Number one, she does have just the 0:28:28.000 --> 0:28:30.280 natural gift to gab. But one of the lessons I 0:28:30.400 --> 0:28:33.639 learned that everything is showprep. Like a lot of times, 0:28:33.680 --> 0:28:35.000 you know, back in the day, we would think that 0:28:35.040 --> 0:28:37.280 show prep is like just picking up the latest magazine 0:28:37.400 --> 0:28:40.120 or picking up the latest tabloid and just downloading what's 0:28:40.120 --> 0:28:43.160 in there. Wendy taught me that your whole life is showprep. 0:28:43.200 --> 0:28:46.600 Every single experience that you go through can be brought 0:28:46.640 --> 0:28:49.600 to the radio. You know, every single experience that you 0:28:49.680 --> 0:28:52.440 go through can be bought, you know, the television. I 0:28:52.480 --> 0:28:54.800 would watch her, I'd be out with her during the day, 0:28:55.480 --> 0:28:59.440 watch these things happen to her, and then watch her 0:28:59.440 --> 0:29:01.640 get on the rad and talk about these things like, oh, 0:29:01.680 --> 0:29:04.000 I was there, and of course he's making me part 0:29:04.000 --> 0:29:06.440 of the story because and Charlemagne said this. Charlemagne was 0:29:06.520 --> 0:29:08.400 right there and Charlemagne acted like he didn't see it 0:29:08.400 --> 0:29:10.560 and it isn't that like, and I'm like, god, damn, 0:29:10.600 --> 0:29:12.320 she's incredible, you know what I mean, Like he's just 0:29:12.360 --> 0:29:17.080 an incredible storyteller. So you know, um, she taught me 0:29:17.120 --> 0:29:21.160 how to tell stories via radio, even though I was 0:29:21.200 --> 0:29:22.800 already doing it, but I was doing it more so 0:29:22.960 --> 0:29:27.240 through sketches. But now just to make your life a story, 0:29:27.280 --> 0:29:29.880 to make the things that happened to you throughout the 0:29:30.000 --> 0:29:33.240 day a story. That was like one of the biggest things, 0:29:33.240 --> 0:29:35.240 like everything is show prep. And the other thing was 0:29:35.280 --> 0:29:37.200 like you're either gonna be of the people or of 0:29:37.360 --> 0:29:41.160 the industry, because when you're of the people, you're always 0:29:41.200 --> 0:29:44.600 going to speak like for the people and you're gonna 0:29:44.600 --> 0:29:48.200 speak how the people speak. When you're of the industry, 0:29:48.240 --> 0:29:50.480 like you're gonna try to protect relationships and you're gonna 0:29:50.480 --> 0:29:54.520 try to you know, protect people. You know, so you're 0:29:54.560 --> 0:29:57.960 not gonna have those opinions that you that you probably 0:29:58.000 --> 0:30:02.240 once had that was good advice at the time. I 0:30:02.400 --> 0:30:04.720 think that there's an adjustment to be made in that 0:30:04.880 --> 0:30:08.320 rhetoric because it's gonna come a time where like you're 0:30:08.360 --> 0:30:11.640 going to be industry. Yeah, you get too big. Yeah, 0:30:11.760 --> 0:30:14.080 and everybody around you is gonna be industry too. I've 0:30:14.080 --> 0:30:16.800 been in the game for twenty five years. So not 0:30:16.920 --> 0:30:20.440 only have I grown as a personality and a businessman, 0:30:21.840 --> 0:30:27.320 a media just everything right, people around me have to Now. 0:30:27.640 --> 0:30:30.360 I got people who run record labels. I got people 0:30:30.400 --> 0:30:33.040 who are in rs. I got people who work at 0:30:33.080 --> 0:30:35.960 these social media platforms, you know what I mean. I 0:30:36.000 --> 0:30:39.680 got friends that are artists and big celebrities. We all 0:30:39.720 --> 0:30:42.880 I've been doing it for twenty five years. We all 0:30:42.920 --> 0:30:45.200 came up together. And not only just the people I 0:30:45.240 --> 0:30:49.120 came up with, those next generations of people that now 0:30:49.280 --> 0:30:51.440 I'm in position. But oh, I see this person coming. 0:30:51.560 --> 0:30:54.200 Let me embrace this in the VILDI embrace that individdle school. 0:30:54.320 --> 0:30:57.800 We're all industry, you know what I mean. So your 0:30:57.840 --> 0:31:01.240 authentic self has to change. It's like reasonable doubt was 0:31:01.280 --> 0:31:05.000 authentic for jay Z or for its authentic for jay 0:31:05.080 --> 0:31:07.600 Z today. What you just said hit it on the 0:31:07.640 --> 0:31:12.360 head because people don't pay attention to that. Like you 0:31:12.400 --> 0:31:16.160 saw me when I was one version of myself. If 0:31:16.200 --> 0:31:20.440 I had stayed that version and never grown into anything else, 0:31:20.480 --> 0:31:23.680 it's no way I'm being authentic. Yeah, Muhammad at last said, 0:31:23.720 --> 0:31:25.680 the person who's doing the same thing at fifty that 0:31:25.760 --> 0:31:27.960 he was at twenty wasted thirty years of his fucking 0:31:28.120 --> 0:31:30.920 I ain't I believe that, you know what I mean. 0:31:31.000 --> 0:31:33.560 It's just like you're I'm never going to be that 0:31:33.640 --> 0:31:35.200 version again. But the only thing I could do is 0:31:35.280 --> 0:31:39.560 be the best version of my authentic self, whatever that 0:31:39.600 --> 0:31:43.120 may be, whatever I grow into, you know, And like 0:31:43.200 --> 0:31:45.080 that's why me at forty four, you god damn right, 0:31:45.120 --> 0:31:46.520 I'm not the same way I was at thirty one. 0:31:46.560 --> 0:31:49.800 I better not be. I mean, I'm my true authentic 0:31:49.840 --> 0:31:52.520 self right now. And you know, you realize like the 0:31:52.560 --> 0:31:55.479 power of the platform, and what I mean by that 0:31:55.600 --> 0:31:58.320 is like, man, this is certain things that we got 0:31:58.320 --> 0:32:02.360 to protect people from because we have these platforms, and 0:32:02.440 --> 0:32:06.080 sometimes the wrong information is fewed over the platform, you know, 0:32:06.120 --> 0:32:09.800 and people get hurt because of that. Yeah, you know, 0:32:09.920 --> 0:32:11.760 And I'm not in the business of hurting nobody. I 0:32:11.800 --> 0:32:14.480 don't want to hurt nobody, and I don't want the 0:32:14.520 --> 0:32:17.560 person putting out the information to be hurt. Yeah you know. 0:32:17.720 --> 0:32:21.280 So yeah, well that's interesting because and I don't know 0:32:21.360 --> 0:32:24.160 if this was necessarily this person being hurt by you, 0:32:24.520 --> 0:32:26.920 but after Wendy Williams. You get your own show in 0:32:27.000 --> 0:32:31.800 Philly and you get fired because you bring Beanie siegal on, 0:32:31.840 --> 0:32:34.560 who's a who's a Philly rapper? Yeah, tell me if 0:32:34.560 --> 0:32:35.840 I'm not getting a story right. But you bring on 0:32:35.920 --> 0:32:38.360 Beanie Seagull, who's a Philly rapper at one point was 0:32:38.440 --> 0:32:41.640 signed to Rockefeller Records, came up under Jay jay Z. 0:32:42.400 --> 0:32:45.600 And you do an interview with beans on the show 0:32:46.040 --> 0:32:48.880 and he said something about Jay that makes Jay madd 0:32:48.920 --> 0:32:51.560 and you get get fired that. Yeah, that's the story. 0:32:51.640 --> 0:32:55.680 The story is that I got fired because Beanie Seagull 0:32:55.760 --> 0:32:58.440 got on the air and aired out Jay Z. And 0:32:58.520 --> 0:33:00.920 I'm the one who recorded it and I'll put it 0:33:00.960 --> 0:33:02.800 on air. That's the story. I don't know if that's 0:33:02.840 --> 0:33:06.920 true or not. Jay never has confirmed what Jay has 0:33:07.160 --> 0:33:10.560 Jay never confirmed or denied on air. Behind the scenes, 0:33:10.600 --> 0:33:13.000 he has said to me like that, that really gets 0:33:13.000 --> 0:33:15.280 you fight, like you know what I mean? And that's 0:33:15.320 --> 0:33:18.600 the story, right, I don't. I doubt that's highly the case, 0:33:18.760 --> 0:33:20.040 you know what I mean? When I think back then, 0:33:20.080 --> 0:33:23.680 I think um I had a new program director was hired, 0:33:23.880 --> 0:33:25.720 and I think that new program director just wanted to 0:33:25.720 --> 0:33:28.280 bring in his people and that new program director like 0:33:29.080 --> 0:33:30.640 he don't know. He had his chest out a little bit. 0:33:30.640 --> 0:33:31.960 I remember the first time I met him, he was like, 0:33:31.960 --> 0:33:33.360 oh me, and you're gonna be able to get along. 0:33:33.920 --> 0:33:36.160 So he came in there on some like snapping the 0:33:36.160 --> 0:33:39.160 whip ship, let me get this guy in line type thing, 0:33:39.320 --> 0:33:42.719 and I think that, um, it was a combination of 0:33:42.800 --> 0:33:44.640 just him being new and wanting to bring in his 0:33:44.680 --> 0:33:47.840 own people, but also a combination of people thinking they're 0:33:47.960 --> 0:33:51.760 doing the right thing for jay Z. But jay Z's 0:33:51.800 --> 0:33:54.239 not even thinking about this ship. He's you know what 0:33:54.240 --> 0:33:56.160 I mean. It's one of those things like I know, 0:33:56.200 --> 0:33:57.760 I know Charlotmagne did it, but we got rid of 0:33:57.840 --> 0:33:59.760 Charlomagne and you let Jay know I did it whatever. 0:34:00.240 --> 0:34:01.680 You know, So I don't. I don't know. I do 0:34:01.760 --> 0:34:05.280 feel like maybe a higher up might have might have 0:34:05.560 --> 0:34:08.120 just pulled the trigger on that firing just to get 0:34:08.120 --> 0:34:11.120 in Jay's good graces. But I don't think that was 0:34:11.160 --> 0:34:13.680 a Hey, I'm jay Z, I'm offended by this get 0:34:13.680 --> 0:34:15.600 this guy off the airthing. No, I don't believe that 0:34:15.600 --> 0:34:18.720 at all. Okay, okay, but that does get you fired, 0:34:18.840 --> 0:34:20.160 and that was your own show. I mean, that's like 0:34:20.160 --> 0:34:21.680 your own show in Philly. That's like and if your 0:34:21.719 --> 0:34:25.040 first time happened like your own show, that's like, yeah, um, 0:34:25.080 --> 0:34:27.320 that's that big that I was killing. I was number 0:34:27.880 --> 0:34:29.680 I think two in the market. I was number two 0:34:29.680 --> 0:34:31.319 in the market at the time, and that was in 0:34:31.320 --> 0:34:35.040 a PPM world, So I was I was doing great. 0:34:35.080 --> 0:34:37.200 And it was literally just me and my homegirl, Sasha. 0:34:37.280 --> 0:34:39.640 So I should suit to Sasha Katie, that's the homie, 0:34:39.640 --> 0:34:40.960 you know what I mean. She we used to work 0:34:41.000 --> 0:34:43.560 together when I used to work at Wendy at WBLS, 0:34:43.880 --> 0:34:45.759 and so when I got my own show in Philly, 0:34:46.000 --> 0:34:48.200 just asked, yo, you want to be my producer and 0:34:48.320 --> 0:34:50.960 she was like hell yeah. So we literally would drive 0:34:51.360 --> 0:34:56.160 from New Jersey every morning back and forth the Pennsylvania 0:34:56.320 --> 0:34:58.359 like like an hour and a half away. We would 0:34:58.400 --> 0:35:02.160 drive back and forth every day three I have to 0:35:02.160 --> 0:35:04.239 get up at three in the morning, pick her up 0:35:04.239 --> 0:35:06.359 by like four three thirty four o'clock to be there 0:35:06.400 --> 0:35:10.400 on time. And we did that every single day, wow, 0:35:10.640 --> 0:35:13.680 for like six seven months. The funny part is I 0:35:13.719 --> 0:35:16.120 got fired the day I was supposed to move into 0:35:16.120 --> 0:35:19.000 the townhouse because I was still living in Jersey. So 0:35:19.560 --> 0:35:22.879 me and my wife had got a townhouse, and I'm like, yeah, 0:35:22.880 --> 0:35:24.520 this is gonna be great. Now, I gotta wake up 0:35:24.520 --> 0:35:26.279 sore early, like I won't have to drive, Like I'm 0:35:26.320 --> 0:35:28.600 in my basket. I'm processing all this in my mind. 0:35:28.840 --> 0:35:30.800 We was living in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, on the 0:35:30.840 --> 0:35:34.279 outskirts of Philadelphia. Go and roll my daughter in school here, 0:35:34.320 --> 0:35:37.640 all of that type of ship. And the day I 0:35:37.680 --> 0:35:40.799 got fired, I literally had all my stuff in the 0:35:40.800 --> 0:35:43.040 fucking I had a two thousand and two escalated with 0:35:43.160 --> 0:35:45.440 like one hundred and fifty thousand miles on it, and 0:35:45.480 --> 0:35:48.919 I had all that in the car, ready to move 0:35:48.920 --> 0:35:52.200 into the townhouse. And I got fired on that day, 0:35:52.680 --> 0:35:56.439 literally that day, and went back to South Carolina, back 0:35:56.440 --> 0:35:58.200 in Most Corner for a year. And what was going 0:35:58.239 --> 0:36:02.080 through your head at that point, Oh, yeah, I failed. 0:36:03.200 --> 0:36:05.160 I gotta go back to the Mons corner. After being 0:36:05.840 --> 0:36:09.120 you know, on Wendy Show, after having my own show 0:36:09.160 --> 0:36:12.560 in Philly, after having these viral moments, after being on 0:36:12.680 --> 0:36:15.400 VH one TV with Wendy. Now I got to go 0:36:15.440 --> 0:36:18.560 back to the man's corner and collect unemployment for real, 0:36:18.560 --> 0:36:22.479 because I don't know when I'm gonna get another gig. 0:36:22.520 --> 0:36:25.680 And now I got a daughter. So I literally was 0:36:25.719 --> 0:36:30.400 in South Carolina from November two thousand and nine to 0:36:30.560 --> 0:36:33.520 November two and ten, so I was able to collect 0:36:33.520 --> 0:36:36.359 the year of unemployment. You know what I mean. I'm 0:36:36.400 --> 0:36:39.600 living at home with my mom, depressed this shit, you know, 0:36:39.880 --> 0:36:43.439 anxiety through the roof, just trying to figure out what's 0:36:43.440 --> 0:36:45.759 gonna happen. But you know, I used that opportunity to 0:36:47.160 --> 0:36:50.520 m There was a new station launching in Charleston, South Carolina. 0:36:50.560 --> 0:36:51.960 It was called The Box. I think it was like 0:36:52.040 --> 0:36:54.600 ninety two five The Box or something like that. So 0:36:54.680 --> 0:36:56.640 I was there with them, helping them launch the station, 0:36:57.000 --> 0:37:00.680 helping them write promos and create an imaging for the station. 0:37:00.760 --> 0:37:03.719 I did the voiceovers for the station. Like in my mind, 0:37:03.760 --> 0:37:05.800 I was like, Okay, I'm gonna end up getting a 0:37:05.840 --> 0:37:08.880 shift on ninety two five. I'm gonna make my twenty 0:37:08.880 --> 0:37:11.839 grand a year here in South Carolina, and we're gonna 0:37:11.880 --> 0:37:14.600 live a great life. Yeah that was my mindseting. But 0:37:14.800 --> 0:37:17.840 you know, clearly God had other plans because the Breakfast 0:37:17.920 --> 0:37:23.560 Club came shortly after that. How did that come? When 0:37:23.560 --> 0:37:25.719 I was in Philly, there was a there was a 0:37:25.719 --> 0:37:28.520 time where I had met with my man g Spend. 0:37:29.520 --> 0:37:31.880 Before me and g Spen met in a restaurant or something. 0:37:32.800 --> 0:37:35.279 It was me and at the time my then uh 0:37:35.320 --> 0:37:38.839 my then manager named it was Kevin, Wendy's husband, and 0:37:40.000 --> 0:37:42.040 you know, you don't have the best reputation in the 0:37:42.120 --> 0:37:45.200 business man, and so even though we met, g Spen 0:37:45.280 --> 0:37:49.319 wasn't really feeling it. And then later on that turned 0:37:49.320 --> 0:37:52.359 into a meeting with my man Cadillac Jack and cad 0:37:52.480 --> 0:37:54.120 was with me then and it was the same thing. 0:37:54.200 --> 0:37:56.479 Like literally I found out that after we left the meeting, 0:37:57.000 --> 0:38:01.279 mad people came from like the sales department and was like, 0:38:01.840 --> 0:38:04.839 you cannot Charlotta, Agne's great, but if as long as 0:38:05.000 --> 0:38:07.120 you know Kevin is his manager, you know we can't 0:38:07.200 --> 0:38:09.920 hire him, and YadA, YadA, YadA, the energy will be 0:38:09.960 --> 0:38:12.120 bad and terrible all of this type of stuff. I 0:38:12.160 --> 0:38:14.279 didn't know that, you know. And then you know, me 0:38:14.320 --> 0:38:18.000 and Kevin ended up having a fallen out parting ways. 0:38:19.120 --> 0:38:20.880 And so I was in New York because I had 0:38:20.920 --> 0:38:22.359 moved back to South Carolina, but I was in New 0:38:22.440 --> 0:38:25.279 York for a couple of days, and I remember just 0:38:26.040 --> 0:38:29.160 texting g Spend like, yo, you know where you at 0:38:30.320 --> 0:38:32.640 And he was like I'm in New York where you at, Like, 0:38:32.680 --> 0:38:34.520 I'm in Jersey right now. I was standing in Fort Lee. 0:38:34.560 --> 0:38:36.520 I was at the Double Tree in four League, and 0:38:36.560 --> 0:38:40.000 he was like, yo, man, he was like, yo, come 0:38:40.000 --> 0:38:43.000 to the station. I'm like where He was like, yeah, yeah, 0:38:43.000 --> 0:38:44.600 come to the station. Come to the station right now. 0:38:45.440 --> 0:38:48.759 And so I got in the rental car drove seem 0:38:48.840 --> 0:38:50.680 it took me like three hours to get there because 0:38:50.680 --> 0:38:52.960 it was like four o'clock in the after Yeah. Yeah. 0:38:53.000 --> 0:38:55.160 So we was at the GW Bridge for what seemed 0:38:55.160 --> 0:38:56.919 like an hour and trying to get down the West Side, 0:38:56.960 --> 0:39:00.440 creeping down and Tribeca. But I finally get there and 0:39:00.640 --> 0:39:05.279 g spinn is like, yo, um my, boss, Cadillac. Jack 0:39:05.320 --> 0:39:09.040 has been watching your stuff all day long, watching you 0:39:09.080 --> 0:39:11.080 and Duval with the Hood, State of the Union, and 0:39:11.360 --> 0:39:13.400 listening under like some old interviews when you was on 0:39:13.400 --> 0:39:16.120 the radio in Philly. So I sit down with Cadillac, 0:39:16.120 --> 0:39:18.040 and me and Cadillac just have a great conversation. And 0:39:18.120 --> 0:39:19.799 one of the first things he says to me is like, 0:39:19.880 --> 0:39:25.480 you know, is cass still you're managing I'm like, nah, 0:39:25.680 --> 0:39:30.040 you know. And that's how the relationship started. So like 0:39:30.080 --> 0:39:33.200 a few months later, I got high on probably one 0:39:33.239 --> 0:39:35.359 or five one. I remember Cadillac saying like, how long 0:39:35.400 --> 0:39:37.520 can you wait for this job? And I'm like, for 0:39:37.600 --> 0:39:40.200 this job as long as it takes. And so like 0:39:40.239 --> 0:39:43.560 five six months later, you know, the wheels really started 0:39:43.560 --> 0:39:45.000 to move and where you want him that whole five 0:39:45.040 --> 0:39:49.000 six months like yo, like, oh yes, yeah, you couldn't 0:39:49.000 --> 0:39:51.120 just sit back and no, no, no, definitely stayed in touch, 0:39:51.160 --> 0:39:54.600 would send him new episodes of me and Duvall show, 0:39:55.320 --> 0:39:57.560 you know, just just anything anything that I was doing 0:39:57.600 --> 0:40:00.239 in that space, I would because we was early on 0:40:00.280 --> 0:40:02.360 social media. We was all over my Space and Twitter 0:40:02.400 --> 0:40:05.920 and everything else. So yeah, like I was definitely keeping 0:40:06.600 --> 0:40:08.400 in real touch with him and g span, you know 0:40:08.440 --> 0:40:12.000 what I mean, and sometimes popping up, popping up, you know, 0:40:12.120 --> 0:40:14.480 and be like because I knew kind of like the 0:40:14.520 --> 0:40:16.560 gig might be mine, So I was kind of like 0:40:16.600 --> 0:40:18.400 popping up. And it felt bad because there was like 0:40:18.440 --> 0:40:21.799 people who I was like really cool with that work there, 0:40:22.239 --> 0:40:26.680 and I couldn't say anything, you know about the conversations 0:40:26.760 --> 0:40:29.560 me and Cadillac we're having, you know what I mean, 0:40:30.000 --> 0:40:33.200 And I had to like lie to some of these people, 0:40:33.280 --> 0:40:35.879 and it felt bad, you know what I mean because 0:40:35.920 --> 0:40:39.839 I just couldn't tell the truth because this business still 0:40:39.880 --> 0:40:43.440 to be handled, you know, so, but yeah, that's how 0:40:43.440 --> 0:40:46.600 I got there. It's amazing, man. And then basically from that, 0:40:46.760 --> 0:40:49.120 I mean, from that point, are you still there obviously 0:40:49.760 --> 0:40:53.000 Breakfast Club, Yeah, thirteen years later, man. And what's so 0:40:53.120 --> 0:40:55.800 interesting is that any of them would tell you. Angelie 0:40:55.800 --> 0:40:58.600 will tell you, and Bill tell you. Our radio consultant, 0:40:58.600 --> 0:41:01.720 Dennis Clark g Span Catillac, I was the guy saying 0:41:02.120 --> 0:41:05.320 We're gonna be one of the biggest nationally syndicated shows 0:41:05.360 --> 0:41:08.200 in the country. Like, like, I just I knew it. 0:41:08.239 --> 0:41:12.200 I saw what this show had the potential of being. 0:41:12.239 --> 0:41:15.239 And like from day one, me N V. Angela, we 0:41:15.280 --> 0:41:18.880 always recorded our interviews and put them online. That's how 0:41:18.880 --> 0:41:20.880 I was aware of what Angela was doing. I was 0:41:20.920 --> 0:41:23.120 aware of what you know, Envy was doing. You know, 0:41:23.440 --> 0:41:25.919 people like my homegirl Kendred g deVie Brown, we were 0:41:25.960 --> 0:41:29.200 all utilizing the internet. And so when we got with 0:41:29.200 --> 0:41:31.200 the Breakfast Club, that's all. We didn't have no money 0:41:31.200 --> 0:41:32.880 from marketing. They didn't have no money from marketing, no 0:41:32.920 --> 0:41:35.280 money for promotions. This was kind of like a last 0:41:35.320 --> 0:41:38.439 ditch thing to see if something will work to even 0:41:38.520 --> 0:41:40.920 keep the lights on that power one oh five one. 0:41:41.040 --> 0:41:43.160 And so all we asked for was a cameraman every 0:41:43.239 --> 0:41:46.480 day to come in here and record, you know, these interviews. 0:41:46.480 --> 0:41:48.640 And that's what we did. We started recording these interviews, 0:41:48.840 --> 0:41:52.200 putting them up online, recording these interviews, putting them on websites. 0:41:52.239 --> 0:41:54.520 And then at the time all these blogs and the 0:41:54.560 --> 0:41:58.640 world Stars and all of these different platforms, these websites existed, 0:41:59.320 --> 0:42:02.840 sending our interview was out, they started posting them. Yeah, 0:42:03.000 --> 0:42:08.000 next thing, you know, it took off in a real way, 0:42:08.280 --> 0:42:10.600 and here we are. How do you how do you 0:42:10.760 --> 0:42:12.759 manage that? Like, how do you manage the expectation of 0:42:12.800 --> 0:42:15.160 how do you manage the success? How do you manage 0:42:15.840 --> 0:42:18.399 what is just out of reach at the moment that's 0:42:18.440 --> 0:42:20.480 that's gonna be coming up for you. I manage it 0:42:20.520 --> 0:42:24.120 just by like realizing what my daddy always says, You're 0:42:24.160 --> 0:42:25.400 never as good as it say you are, and you're 0:42:25.440 --> 0:42:26.759 never as bad as it say you are. Like I've 0:42:26.800 --> 0:42:30.319 already had my moments of like ego, I've had my 0:42:30.440 --> 0:42:36.839 moments of like being that narcissistic, arrogant person that you know, 0:42:36.960 --> 0:42:41.000 you can't tell anything too whether people realize that or not. 0:42:41.080 --> 0:42:43.200 I'm sure that they did, because I'm sure I projected it, 0:42:43.280 --> 0:42:45.799 you know what I mean. But I went through that, 0:42:46.320 --> 0:42:49.720 and I went through that at a time where, like God, 0:42:49.840 --> 0:42:51.920 knew I had to get over that in order to 0:42:51.960 --> 0:42:57.200 be where I am now. So I knew that I 0:42:57.239 --> 0:43:00.560 had to start doing some work on myself. I was 0:43:00.560 --> 0:43:04.359 really becoming everything that I said I didn't like. You know, 0:43:04.480 --> 0:43:07.120 I was looking in the mirror and really becoming my father. 0:43:07.280 --> 0:43:10.080 I loved my father, but I hated how my father's 0:43:10.400 --> 0:43:16.520 infidelity ruined his marriage with my mom, you know, and 0:43:16.600 --> 0:43:20.759 ruined our family. Right. So for me, I didn't want 0:43:20.800 --> 0:43:24.279 to do that, and I felt myself going down that 0:43:24.360 --> 0:43:27.080 path in a real way. So it was just like, 0:43:27.280 --> 0:43:30.200 let me check myself before I wrecked myself. You know 0:43:32.160 --> 0:43:34.560 why let you go? Man, last question, if you can 0:43:34.600 --> 0:43:36.920 pick out one thing that's helped you be successful, that's 0:43:36.920 --> 0:43:39.200 sort of been with you through every period of your 0:43:39.320 --> 0:43:43.880 of your career, what do you think that thing would be? Man? 0:43:45.600 --> 0:43:48.400 For me, it would like to really be authentic. And 0:43:48.520 --> 0:43:51.400 what I mean by that is you're not authentic when 0:43:51.440 --> 0:43:54.759 you're being a character to yourself. You're not authentic when 0:43:55.960 --> 0:43:58.760 you see something working for you and you're getting rewarded 0:43:58.760 --> 0:44:01.759 for it, so you start double and trippling down on 0:44:01.920 --> 0:44:07.760 that thing. You're not authentic when you're being a second 0:44:07.840 --> 0:44:10.440 rate version of somebody else instead of a first rate 0:44:10.520 --> 0:44:12.600 version of yourself. And one of the things that hurt 0:44:12.640 --> 0:44:14.200 me to most is when they started calling me to 0:44:14.239 --> 0:44:17.719 hip hop Howard Stern. I love Howard Stern, right, but 0:44:18.200 --> 0:44:20.040 I didn't even start to think why they were calling 0:44:20.040 --> 0:44:23.040 me that. I just took it and ran with it, 0:44:23.360 --> 0:44:28.440 you know, and started giving them like all of the 0:44:28.480 --> 0:44:30.960 examples of Howard that Howard might not even be proud 0:44:31.000 --> 0:44:33.120 of now, you know. For me, it was like a 0:44:33.120 --> 0:44:40.840 lot of the the frat boy, creepy ass, overly sexual humor, 0:44:41.600 --> 0:44:45.560 you know, like the low vibrational energy is what I 0:44:45.680 --> 0:44:48.520 was really doing, the limbo with how low can you Go? 0:44:48.560 --> 0:44:50.879 You know what I mean? Like literally like how low 0:44:50.920 --> 0:44:53.960 can you go? Like literally, And that's the type of 0:44:53.960 --> 0:44:55.920 shit I was doing. So like when you go online 0:44:55.920 --> 0:44:58.120 and you see like videos of me like sniffing chairs 0:44:58.239 --> 0:45:01.319 or like tyeing poem orange stars up and all of that, 0:45:01.400 --> 0:45:06.120 it was literally for the shock. Yeah, And so like 0:45:06.200 --> 0:45:09.040 that stuck with me for like man, maybe maybe a 0:45:09.120 --> 0:45:12.840 year or two I was on that and then just 0:45:12.920 --> 0:45:14.879 started to eat me up, Like, Yo, this ain't making 0:45:14.920 --> 0:45:17.200 me happy. This shit is whacked. And you got your 0:45:17.640 --> 0:45:19.480 you know, your wife. You know I got married in 0:45:19.520 --> 0:45:22.279 twenty fourteen, so you got your wife on your head 0:45:22.320 --> 0:45:23.839 at the time. She's my girl, Like what the fuck 0:45:23.840 --> 0:45:27.440 are you doing? Like, you know, you out here wilding, 0:45:27.719 --> 0:45:29.759 you cheating on you like me and you you're on 0:45:29.840 --> 0:45:32.600 the radio and you're, damn it bragging about word of 0:45:32.600 --> 0:45:35.880 the ball like it was that type of conversation. I'm like, man, 0:45:35.960 --> 0:45:38.280 are you tripping? Like you know you it's just entertainment. 0:45:38.280 --> 0:45:40.680 That was my life. It's just entertainment. But it's not. Yeah, 0:45:40.920 --> 0:45:42.920 it's really not, you know, because you know, but when 0:45:42.920 --> 0:45:45.880 you're influencing mad people, and in this case, I'm hurting 0:45:45.880 --> 0:45:48.960 somebody and hurting the person that's the closest to me, 0:45:49.040 --> 0:45:52.000 and you can start to believe your own bullshit. That's 0:45:52.000 --> 0:45:53.680 the worst. When you get in the character and you 0:45:53.719 --> 0:45:57.839 start believing that you really are this dude. So it's 0:45:57.880 --> 0:46:00.720 like for me, man, that's what made me like really 0:46:00.760 --> 0:46:03.759 start like going to therapy and like doing the work 0:46:03.800 --> 0:46:06.640 because I did not like the version of myself that 0:46:06.800 --> 0:46:10.279 I was becoming. So my advice to anybody would just 0:46:10.680 --> 0:46:16.200 to just be authentic, always leave yourself open to growth, 0:46:16.239 --> 0:46:18.560 and don't be afraid of where that growth takes you. 0:46:18.600 --> 0:46:21.719 I don't give a fuck what people like about you today. 0:46:21.880 --> 0:46:25.239 If you're growing into something else tomorrow, follow that shit, 0:46:26.160 --> 0:46:28.799 you know what I mean, Because if you don't, you know, 0:46:29.239 --> 0:46:32.000 you're really just stunting your growth and you really don't 0:46:32.000 --> 0:46:35.560 know how big you could possibly be. You're putting a 0:46:35.600 --> 0:46:40.440 cap on you, like you're literally putting a limit on 0:46:40.480 --> 0:46:44.200 how far you could possibly grow, how big you could get, 0:46:44.320 --> 0:46:46.719 because you're like, Nope, that's what they like about me, 0:46:46.800 --> 0:46:48.960 So I'm gonna keep it here as opposed to just 0:46:49.080 --> 0:46:51.960 leaving yourself open to see what else is out there 0:46:52.480 --> 0:46:54.799 and how much more you could continue to grow. So 0:46:54.840 --> 0:46:56.880 that's what I tell people. Be authentic, man, and just 0:46:57.480 --> 0:47:00.520 don't be afraid to grow. Yeah. Yeah, man, thanks for 0:47:00.520 --> 0:47:04.440 bringing your authentic self to everything, man. I appreciate thanks. Man, 0:47:04.440 --> 0:47:10.239 appreciate Charlemagne, who the ups and downs are building a 0:47:10.280 --> 0:47:12.680 media career in one of the most cut throat of 0:47:12.760 --> 0:47:16.200 mediums radio, has shown up ready to bring his full 0:47:16.280 --> 0:47:19.520 self to whatever it is he does, and the brilliance 0:47:19.560 --> 0:47:23.480 of that is he's been impossible to ignore. I want 0:47:23.480 --> 0:47:25.440 to thank him for that confidence and for taking the 0:47:25.480 --> 0:47:28.160 time to talk with me. I plan on spending more 0:47:28.200 --> 0:47:30.560 time working on my fear of being rejected just for 0:47:30.640 --> 0:47:34.000 being me. Thanks for listening to start it from the bottom, 0:47:34.200 --> 0:47:38.680 I'm out. Started from the Bottom is produced by David Jah, 0:47:38.840 --> 0:47:43.080 edited by Keishaw Williams, engineered by Beentaliday, Booked by Laura 0:47:43.120 --> 0:47:47.640 Morgan with production help from Lea Rose. The show's executive 0:47:47.640 --> 0:47:50.239 produced by Jacob Goldstein, who's not all up in the 0:47:50.320 --> 0:47:54.719 videos for Pushkin Industries. Our theme music is by Beentaliday 0:47:54.719 --> 0:47:58.040 and David Jah, featuring Anthony Aggs and s Vannah Joe Lack. 0:47:58.520 --> 0:48:00.560 If you like her show, please remember to share, rate 0:48:00.560 --> 0:48:09.360 and reviewers on your podcast staff. I'm just Richmond H.