Speaker 1: Pushkin. For me growing up, it was oh, oh, oh,
Speaker 1: it's the time join the morning show because you know,
Speaker 1: my mom was a school teacher, so we was up early, early,
Speaker 1: so I was listening to the time join up. And
Speaker 1: then you know, Z ninety three played such a big
Speaker 1: role in my life because you know, their original morning
Speaker 1: show that I remember was The Breakfast Club, Baby Jay
Speaker 1: and Tessa Tessa Spencer. My guest today is someone I've
Speaker 1: wanted to interview for a long time because of what
Speaker 1: he's meant over the last decade to the culture, black culture,
Speaker 1: hip hop culture, internet culture, youth culture, all the cultures,
Speaker 1: you name it. But if I'm being completely honest, the
Speaker 1: real reason I wanted to sit down and talk to
Speaker 1: Charlotte Magne the God is to see if some of
Speaker 1: his confidence can run off on me. Most of my career,
Speaker 1: I've been terrified to bring my full self to work
Speaker 1: out of fear of rejection or fear that I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be enough. I don't know. I'm working through it with
Speaker 1: my therapist. But what I admire about Charlemagne is that
Speaker 1: he seems to not care at all about being rejected
Speaker 1: by his peers, his co workers, his audience, anyone, and
Speaker 1: that confidence has led to some of the most impactful
Speaker 1: and sometimes controversial interviews over the last decade. As co
Speaker 1: host of one of the most popular radio shows of
Speaker 1: all time, The Breakfast Club, Charlemagne made time to sit
Speaker 1: down with me in New York City to discuss all
Speaker 1: of this, plus his upbringing, parenting, and the criticisms that
Speaker 1: have come with his success and more. This has started
Speaker 1: from the bottom, hard earned success stories from people like us.
Speaker 1: First time I ever saw you was it was you
Speaker 1: on the Wendy Williams radio show going toe to toe
Speaker 1: with Andrew Dice Club. Yeah. Yeah, that was like two
Speaker 1: seven Yeah, the most amazing things ever. And even though
Speaker 1: you kind of got uh, I don't know, I feel
Speaker 1: like Andrew kind of put it on you that day.
Speaker 1: It was the way they edited it too, but it
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, I had some I had some good ones,
Speaker 1: but they didn't put all of them, and they put
Speaker 1: the one about me calling them a fat fanzie. But
Speaker 1: that's right. Looking back, you actually did a lot better
Speaker 1: than I remember at the time. I was a dang
Speaker 1: like Andrew, like I still got it. I've remember been like,
Speaker 1: oh man, but then I kind of put you on
Speaker 1: my radar. And then I remember when the Breakfast Club came,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, it makes sense, like this guy
Speaker 1: clearly clearly had it. But yeah, I want to run
Speaker 1: through your radio trajectory. But first I thought it'd be
Speaker 1: good to start with growing up in Monk's Corner, South Carolina. Um,
Speaker 1: it's interesting, right, because you know, I've been thinking about
Speaker 1: that a lot more lately, only because, like you know,
Speaker 1: when I'm in therapy, I'm doing like a lot of
Speaker 1: um in a child work, you know, because I feel
Speaker 1: like a lot of the issues that you deal with
Speaker 1: as an adult, most of them directly connected something that
Speaker 1: happened in your childhood. And so I've been thinking about,
Speaker 1: like what was that upbringing, like growing up in Monsts Corner,
Speaker 1: South Carolina, and the word I've come to realize that
Speaker 1: it is associated with that that upbringing. It's simple. You know,
Speaker 1: Monst Corner when I was young created a sense of
Speaker 1: ease in my life that I feel like really helped
Speaker 1: me growing up because I didn't move too fast and
Speaker 1: I didn't move too slow. That still is a big,
Speaker 1: big part of me. So when like, you know, that
Speaker 1: anxiety that I've been feeling my whole life, sets in.
Speaker 1: I feel like, Okay, I might be moving too fast,
Speaker 1: but then I don't want to move too slow. But
Speaker 1: then it's just a certain ease, like like baby Bears
Speaker 1: part just just it's a just right level of ease
Speaker 1: that growing up in Monst Corner gave me that I
Speaker 1: tend to tap into whenever, like things get really hectic.
Speaker 1: You mentioned some of the anxiety that you have. When
Speaker 1: did that start? Really, Yeah, as long as I know.
Speaker 1: I mean, the first panic attack I remember having was
Speaker 1: first grade, my mom dropping me off, Like I can
Speaker 1: feel it right now, my mom dropping me off first grade,
Speaker 1: first day of first grade, and like I just cried uncontrollably,
Speaker 1: like like I just felt like abandoned, lost and just
Speaker 1: scared like that that that same, you know, unexplainable feeling
Speaker 1: of fear and panic and worry. And I think my
Speaker 1: mom even says that I might have cried for like
Speaker 1: the first week. I don't remember the first week. I
Speaker 1: remember that one particular day, but it's like, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: the first time I remember ever having like a panic attack,
Speaker 1: and I had him throughout my life, like I've been
Speaker 1: going to the emergency room thinking that I'm having a
Speaker 1: heart attack. You know, thinking that I'm dying, you know,
Speaker 1: and then you get there and the doctor's like, oh,
Speaker 1: did you have an energy drink today? And you're like,
Speaker 1: I did drink a red Bull earlier. And it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's probably why your heart is doing that. That's the
Speaker 1: worst feeling, you know. So it wasn't to tell twenty
Speaker 1: ten that a doctor actually said to me, it sounds
Speaker 1: like you you have anxiety. He was literally was like,
Speaker 1: it sounds like you had a panic attack the things
Speaker 1: that you're describing. And he was like, has this happened
Speaker 1: to you before? And I'm like all the time, And
Speaker 1: you know, he asked me what I stretched out about anything,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, hell yeah, because at the time, I
Speaker 1: had just been fired for the fourth time from radio,
Speaker 1: and I'm back living at home with my mom at
Speaker 1: like thirty one, thirty two years old. My daughter's like
Speaker 1: one or two. My wife is back living at home
Speaker 1: with her parents, you know what I mean. In Monk's corner.
Speaker 1: So it's like I was super stressed out collecting unemployment
Speaker 1: checks every week. So in my mind, all I had
Speaker 1: to do was get back in position and get me
Speaker 1: another job, and all of that would go away, and
Speaker 1: that wasn't the case. You know. I ended up getting
Speaker 1: the Breakfast Club gig and having the most success I've
Speaker 1: ever had in my life. And it felt like all
Speaker 1: of those issues I had historically dealt with were magnified
Speaker 1: times a hundred now. Yeah, you know, And so that's
Speaker 1: what I decided to, like finally go get some help
Speaker 1: and like go to therapy. What do you think do
Speaker 1: you see that? Do you see that same anxiety in
Speaker 1: your kids? Yeah, I haven't. I haven't seen it show
Speaker 1: up as bad as mine was when I was at age.
Speaker 1: And I think the beauty of life now is not
Speaker 1: only do I have the language, I have the experience.
Speaker 1: So it's just like that, and I wish that, you know,
Speaker 1: somebody had put me in therapy when I was thirteen
Speaker 1: fourteen now me, I definitely needed it because I was
Speaker 1: getting sexually abused at eight years old. I didn't realize
Speaker 1: that at the time. I didn't realize that was molestaid
Speaker 1: until I was twenty something years old. You know. At
Speaker 1: the time, I just thought I was eight year old
Speaker 1: kids the neighborhood. Yeah, yeah, we we would all a
Speaker 1: bunch of young men, We all be around having conversations
Speaker 1: about older women that we were messing with, you know,
Speaker 1: in the neighborhood, Like we all thought we were lying,
Speaker 1: but clearly we allays like telling the truth in different ways. Right, So, Um,
Speaker 1: when I was fourteen, I definitely needed to unpack some
Speaker 1: of that. Do you think you would have had it
Speaker 1: at that age? Do you think the trajectory would have
Speaker 1: been the same, Like you think you would have been
Speaker 1: ended up in the streets the way you did? Probably not?
Speaker 1: And the reason probably not, just because you know, even
Speaker 1: with the screech, Right, it's like a lot of that is, Um,
Speaker 1: you trauma bond with people, yeah, because it's all a
Speaker 1: bunch of individuals that are missing something, and like we
Speaker 1: all want camaraderie, we all want family, we all want
Speaker 1: a crew. And it's just sometimes men, we trauma bond
Speaker 1: over bullshit, you know. So we trauma bond sometimes over crime,
Speaker 1: you know, we trauma bond over drugs, We trauma bond
Speaker 1: over alcohol, you know. But most of the time it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're all trauma bonding to do the wrong thing, Like
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like let's go rob this
Speaker 1: you know, individual, or go rob this store, break into
Speaker 1: this house, and let's go, you know, figure out a
Speaker 1: way to get some a pack the hustle. But it's
Speaker 1: like what we're all lacking is like together this like everybody,
Speaker 1: we're all tribal, and we all long for family, right
Speaker 1: And I think that's what that's what a lot of
Speaker 1: guys do when they when they click up in that way.
Speaker 1: So I think for me, I definitely was longing for
Speaker 1: like some type of family structure, even though I grew
Speaker 1: up in a house with the oldest sister, two younger brothers,
Speaker 1: and a younger sister. I was the second oldest. My
Speaker 1: oldest sisters like ten twelve years older than me, and
Speaker 1: my younger siblings are like ten twelve years younger than me,
Speaker 1: So I was kind of I didn't have on an island, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: So I ended up kicking it with brothers and who
Speaker 1: are around my age, and we all ended up doing
Speaker 1: a bunch of dirt. And I don't even like to
Speaker 1: call it pear pressure, because I don't believe there's anything.
Speaker 1: I don't believe peer pressure exists. I believe we all
Speaker 1: just want to be accepted, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And I think that when somebody pushes you to do something,
Speaker 1: you do it because you don't want to let them down.
Speaker 1: So it's a lot of people pleasing that goals and age,
Speaker 1: especially at that age man. And it stays with you though,
Speaker 1: That people pleasing stays with you. Like, that's something that
Speaker 1: I had to unpacking therapy, like stop being a people pleaser, like,
Speaker 1: you know, because sometimes you'll be a people pleased to
Speaker 1: your own detriment. Yeah, you know, I believe anyone's ever
Speaker 1: accused you being the people pleaser. Man, No, I think
Speaker 1: that a lot of that. Man. That's because you seem
Speaker 1: you have strong opinions, not scared of voice even if
Speaker 1: it alienates you. Yeah, well, no, you're right, I've always
Speaker 1: been that way. But no, there's there's been plenty of
Speaker 1: times in my life where I just wanted to be down. Literally,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to be down. I wanted to be accepted.
Speaker 1: I wanted to be embraced, And you know, I can
Speaker 1: think about you know, that time, at that moment, like
Speaker 1: I just wanted to be embraced by you know, my peers.
Speaker 1: You know. So that's why I started doing what a
Speaker 1: lot of my PIDs was doing, which was a lot
Speaker 1: of bullshit. You know, I mean, because I wanted to
Speaker 1: be accepted some of that early stuff. A couple couple
Speaker 1: of drug cases. U. The last one was you were
Speaker 1: around the shooting. The first one was the first one.
Speaker 1: The first one, I was in the backseat of a
Speaker 1: car and my homeboy was in the front seat. Somebody
Speaker 1: was driving, and we was in this neighborhood like like
Speaker 1: like a two neighborhoods over from where we are in
Speaker 1: Monst Corner, two towns over rather from where we are
Speaker 1: in Monst Corner. And we were just having, you know,
Speaker 1: some conversations with some young ladies. Then some guys in
Speaker 1: the neighborhood didn't like that we would there. And you know,
Speaker 1: I'm on my fake tough guys ship, my fake hardcore shit,
Speaker 1: so I'm acting like doughboy and boys in the hood.
Speaker 1: I got my hand under my shirt was up up yo, sup,
Speaker 1: because like the fuck that means like what's up a problem?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? And they, you know, drove off.
Speaker 1: Then we went to like I think it was Burger
Speaker 1: King McDonald's. I don't remember. I think it was Burger King.
Speaker 1: So he went to Burger King. As we're leaving, I
Speaker 1: see the truck that those guys were in pulling up
Speaker 1: behind us, and I say, I'd say tell him. I dude, like, oh,
Speaker 1: that some guys from the neighborhood. And so they pulled
Speaker 1: up on the side of us. So I'm in the
Speaker 1: back seat of the car, dudes talking shit out the window.
Speaker 1: One of my guys pulled out and shot from the
Speaker 1: passenger seat, and you know, luckily nobody was in the
Speaker 1: fourth seat, so it was the driver passenger and somebody
Speaker 1: was sitting behind the driver with the bullet hit the
Speaker 1: headrest in the fourth seat behind the passenger seat, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Yeah, all praises do the God
Speaker 1: because you know, that could have been a situation where
Speaker 1: somebody got killed. Now were all in jail for twenty
Speaker 1: thirty years, you know what I mean. So so even
Speaker 1: now when I think about stuff like that, I'm like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, because I'm a big back to the future guy.
Speaker 1: You know, you watch those those time heist movies. People
Speaker 1: go back and little things change here and there and
Speaker 1: change the whole trajectory of everything. And so yeah, that
Speaker 1: was the first time I ever got arrested. Did it
Speaker 1: change your relationship with your parents? It didn't change my
Speaker 1: relationship with my parents. That actually made me realize my
Speaker 1: dad was right, because my dad was always telling me
Speaker 1: if I don't change my lifestyle, I'm gonna end up
Speaker 1: in jail, dad, or broke sitting under the tree, you know.
Speaker 1: So when I came home, I really was just looking
Speaker 1: for positive things to do. Like, you know, I started
Speaker 1: working at a warehouse called Industrial Acoustics Company, and you know,
Speaker 1: from that point on, I wanted to keep a job.
Speaker 1: But I worked there for like two to three weeks.
Speaker 1: Got fired from there, you know, to supervisor and I
Speaker 1: never forget her name. Her name was Gail cop Supervisor
Speaker 1: was like, you don't fit in here. You're not what
Speaker 1: we're looking for now, mind you up. My job was
Speaker 1: literally like I was clearing out an area, like a
Speaker 1: wooded area. So I'm like, oh god, damn, I'm not
Speaker 1: fit to clean out a wooded area, you know. But
Speaker 1: she was like, you don't fit in here. So then
Speaker 1: I started working out a flower garden just because I
Speaker 1: was looking to do, you know, something positive. And the
Speaker 1: flower garden literally, and now that I think back on it,
Speaker 1: it was literally a bunch of like migrants working there,
Speaker 1: Like you know what I mean, It was clearly a
Speaker 1: bunch of people who you know, weren't from this country,
Speaker 1: who were just looking for work. Now now looking back
Speaker 1: on it, that's what it was. It was literally just
Speaker 1: a bunch of like Mexicans and you know, who knows
Speaker 1: what else, like just working there, right, And so I
Speaker 1: was there for like two weeks never his name was Dominique,
Speaker 1: the same thing, and him got into a shouting match
Speaker 1: because I was just like it, shit feels like a
Speaker 1: It was a plantation. It literally was a flower garden.
Speaker 1: It was actually called the yeah, it was called it
Speaker 1: something plantation, flower garden. But it literally was just we
Speaker 1: were out there in the hot sun picking flowers and
Speaker 1: you know, other types of shit. So I quit that
Speaker 1: and then that's when I started like flirting with the street,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. That's when it was like, man,
Speaker 1: I figured out some ways to make money because you know,
Speaker 1: I still got to pay my probation officer and shit
Speaker 1: like that. And it was just a stupid mentality, right,
Speaker 1: because when you're on probation, you got to keep a job.
Speaker 1: That's number one, and you gotta pay your probation fees.
Speaker 1: So I started just saying that I was working with
Speaker 1: my dad and I was doing tempt services but also
Speaker 1: had got a fifty dollars slab. Fifty dollars slabs when
Speaker 1: you're getting fifty dollars worth of rock, and you know,
Speaker 1: I think you posted big, Like I think it supposed
Speaker 1: to be one hundred dollars off each gram. So I
Speaker 1: think a slab was one gram that you paid fifty
Speaker 1: dollars for and you cut it up and you posted
Speaker 1: it cuts up into like one hundred dollars worth a rock.
Speaker 1: So that was the first time I like dabbled in, like, yeah, hustling.
Speaker 1: So yeah, did I left my Did I feel like, well,
Speaker 1: how did my relationship with my parents changed? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: thought they were right, but I still was young and
Speaker 1: had to figure things out for myself, which led me,
Speaker 1: which led me back, which led me into actually hustling.
Speaker 1: You know. After the break, Charlotte Magne's gonna take us
Speaker 1: on a ride through his earliest experiences with radio and
Speaker 1: how that helped build his foundation in the business. When
Speaker 1: did radio enter your life, like, not only not as
Speaker 1: a career, as a listener, Like, what's your earliest experiences
Speaker 1: with radio? Like forever, forever? And the reason I say
Speaker 1: forever because like when I said, small town, Monst Corner,
Speaker 1: South Carolina. So the radio station was Z ninety three Jams.
Speaker 1: We were always around the radio. If it wasn't Z
Speaker 1: ninety three Jams, it was another station called wpa L
Speaker 1: one hundred point nine, and one hundred point nine was
Speaker 1: like more underground with it, so they were playing like
Speaker 1: underground stuff, not the mainscreen stuff. And like you know,
Speaker 1: there was always like bone boxes around, like my cousin,
Speaker 1: you know, my cousin Tye Sluth. My cousin Tye. He
Speaker 1: was the first person let me hear like a real
Speaker 1: hip hop record. Like prior to that, my sister had
Speaker 1: her radio in her room. So my sister was listening
Speaker 1: to like Kiddn't Play and Salt and Pepper, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, stuff like that Hammer all the pop stuff,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. But my cousin let me
Speaker 1: hear Eric B and Rock Kemp paid in full. Wow,
Speaker 1: and that changed everything. Wow. That was like I don't
Speaker 1: know what this thing is called hip hop, but I
Speaker 1: love it. It felt like rock Kim was saying stuff
Speaker 1: like he was telling stories, like you know what I mean. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just just that is what introduced me to radio and
Speaker 1: always wanting to be around a radio. It felt like
Speaker 1: we might even have been around radio more than TV.
Speaker 1: You know, back in the day TV it was certain
Speaker 1: shows we were watching, but we weren't just turning the
Speaker 1: TV on and keeping it on all day. If it
Speaker 1: wasn't like Nintendo, are you the radio man? We were outside, yeah,
Speaker 1: like you know what I mean, running around, playing around.
Speaker 1: So it's like, for me, radio has always been in
Speaker 1: my life as a listener, like who are the personalities are?
Speaker 1: Because like I know, like in LA and later I
Speaker 1: came to us, it was like syndicated, but you know,
Speaker 1: in LA always felt like it was like Big Boy
Speaker 1: was like was huge, you know, and I felt like
Speaker 1: our guy. For me growing up, it was oh, oh, oh,
Speaker 1: it's the time Join Them morning show because you know,
Speaker 1: my mom was a school teacher, so we was up
Speaker 1: early early, so I was listening to the Time Join Them.
Speaker 1: And then you know, ZE ninety three played such a
Speaker 1: big role in my life because you know, their original
Speaker 1: morning show that I remember was the Breakfast Club Baby
Speaker 1: Jay and Tessa Tessa Spencer, and then you know, in
Speaker 1: the afternoons it was like, um my man, y'all need
Speaker 1: a rude boy. But then it was like you know
Speaker 1: the night shows, the Top nine at nine, you know,
Speaker 1: you want to call in and request the song and
Speaker 1: hear your voice on the radio, shout out your school whatever, whatever.
Speaker 1: But yeah, those were the people like growing up, like
Speaker 1: people like Sean Dobe, like, those are the personalities that
Speaker 1: I would hear, Reggie c You'd hear these people, and
Speaker 1: they were just like regular voices that you would hear
Speaker 1: all the time. Ken Moore like, I don't even know
Speaker 1: if Kim was Ki on Z. I don't know if
Speaker 1: Ki was on Deep. I just did the voices I remember. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, growing up like those voices, those local radio voices.
Speaker 1: Are you growing up? Absolutely miss anyone in the country absolutely.
Speaker 1: Do you remember your first time on the radio. I
Speaker 1: don't remember the very first time, but it definitely one
Speaker 1: of the first times was my man Willy Will. There
Speaker 1: was a guy named Willie Will. He was the night
Speaker 1: jock there at the ninety three jams in Charleston, South Carolina.
Speaker 1: Me and him used to wrap together. I met him
Speaker 1: at you know, a couple of recording studios that were
Speaker 1: in Charleston. When I got my internship up there. I
Speaker 1: would always just be up there and I'd be sitting
Speaker 1: in on his show and you know, he would definitely
Speaker 1: you know, call me to the microphone, you know, and
Speaker 1: I'd be on the mike talking. So definitely my first
Speaker 1: time on air, I'm sure was with Willie will And
Speaker 1: in some way, shape or form, because I remember wanted
Speaker 1: to remember the program director telling him like, you know,
Speaker 1: you need to get a cardboard cut out of Charlemagne
Speaker 1: and put it in the studio because your energy goes up,
Speaker 1: you know, when he's in here, you know, with you.
Speaker 1: I remember I remember him saying that to him, and um, yeah,
Speaker 1: which which probably ultimately led to me being on air
Speaker 1: because my man Ron White, you know Suothron White. Me
Speaker 1: and Ron still talked to this day. Round was like
Speaker 1: you just asked me one day, like, Yo, do you
Speaker 1: want to be on the radio? And I'm like, sure,
Speaker 1: why not? And so they started putting me on Sundays
Speaker 1: eleven am to three pm. When you say sure, like,
Speaker 1: was there a part of you that had was that
Speaker 1: just you playing the cool or were you really not
Speaker 1: even sure you wanted to be on the radio like that? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I never had thought about it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I just was really happy to be working at Z
Speaker 1: ninety three Jams because it was like the most corporate
Speaker 1: thing I had ever done. Yeah, you know it was.
Speaker 1: It was the place. It was a place where, like
Speaker 1: in South Carolina, people saw you at the ninety three
Speaker 1: They're like, oh, he must be he must be doing something,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like he must be doing
Speaker 1: something with his with his life, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And for me being like a guy who was in
Speaker 1: and out of jail at the time and was getting
Speaker 1: in a lot of trouble and graduated from high school
Speaker 1: in night school, had gotten kicked out of two high schools,
Speaker 1: Like for me, that was a big deal for me
Speaker 1: to be like pulling up in a most corner driving
Speaker 1: this station vehicle like the big white band with the
Speaker 1: Z ninety three Jams on the logo, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, pulling it down my dim road, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, hoping that some of the girls that
Speaker 1: lived on my road saw me, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Like that was a big deal for me back then.
Speaker 1: So yeah, just to be there felt like you did. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just was just happy to be there. Like so
Speaker 1: when he asked me to be on air, like hell, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: whatever's gonna keep me here, yea. And of course when
Speaker 1: you think radio, you think on air personality. You're not
Speaker 1: thinking promotions or programming or anything like that. So hell yeah,
Speaker 1: I'd love to be on it. Now I can really
Speaker 1: say I work here and now I'm a personality, And yeah,
Speaker 1: I really loved it and appreciate it. How was that
Speaker 1: first show that you had? I was scaring all the
Speaker 1: church folks because it was what they had me do.
Speaker 1: They had me do something called voice track. And when
Speaker 1: your voice track is when you record your voice and
Speaker 1: you gotta record your voice, and you know, it's like
Speaker 1: it's a time slot from like eleven to three, so
Speaker 1: you're talking like three four times an hour, introducing songs,
Speaker 1: time temperature and stuff like that. So I didn't know
Speaker 1: how to do radio, you know, I really didn't. So
Speaker 1: I was just going in there talking like yeah I was.
Speaker 1: I was actually screaming. When I go back and listening
Speaker 1: to my old voice tapes, I was screaming. And it's
Speaker 1: funny because they all were telling me I was screaming,
Speaker 1: like I'm not screaming. I was just old. I don't
Speaker 1: understand how we talk about I was really yelling like
Speaker 1: ninety three jams are being hip hop. My go by
Speaker 1: the name is Charlemagne and gods that I was yelling,
Speaker 1: like screaming at people and so like, you know, when
Speaker 1: I finally started listening to the people who actually do
Speaker 1: this for a living, I started to acquire a more
Speaker 1: conversational tone. You know when in the beginning, I was
Speaker 1: just yelling, like yelling, like literally yelling at people on
Speaker 1: the radio, and that's what I was doing. And I
Speaker 1: did that. I think I might have voice tracked a
Speaker 1: few Sundays, and then Ron was like, all right, enough
Speaker 1: of that. You're gonna have your voice track on Saturday
Speaker 1: nights now seven to ten, and then you're gonna go
Speaker 1: live from ten to midnight. And I was everything because
Speaker 1: it's Saturday nights so I can have this high energy.
Speaker 1: But then when we go live, or I could take
Speaker 1: phone calls. Now it's like I'm taking phone calls and
Speaker 1: I'm working with people when they're calling then making jokes
Speaker 1: bla blash. So it's just like for me, the best
Speaker 1: thing that ever happened to me was I didn't know
Speaker 1: how to do radio. Nobody taught me how to do radio.
Speaker 1: I wasn't a person who came from you know, doing
Speaker 1: college radio or nowadays you can have a podcast or
Speaker 1: a YouTube page. I was just fresh off the dirt
Speaker 1: road in Monst Corner, South Carolina, getting on the air
Speaker 1: in Charleston, South Carolina on the biggest radio station at
Speaker 1: the time, Z ninety three, and that rawdness showed. I
Speaker 1: sounded different than everybody else because I didn't have that announcer,
Speaker 1: you know, background, So it worked for me. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: didn't have the announcer broadcast, Yeah, petty or whatever. Was
Speaker 1: just coming at it with your own angles. What was
Speaker 1: your journey after that? After z SO, I worked as
Speaker 1: an intern in ninety eight, started there in ninety nine
Speaker 1: from the promotions department to um being on there, and
Speaker 1: then a news station came in the market, Hot ninety
Speaker 1: eight nine, much smaller station ran by a guy named
Speaker 1: my Man. George Cook was the program director. I was
Speaker 1: doing part time as z SO. I had some conversations
Speaker 1: with Hot ninety eight nine. They wanted me to come
Speaker 1: over there and do nights. They wanted me to do
Speaker 1: Monday through Saturday, seven to midnight full time, and I
Speaker 1: was I think the pay was like nineteen grand a year,
Speaker 1: and at the time that was a lot of money,
Speaker 1: and it was a salary just to be able to say,
Speaker 1: first time on salary. I didn't go to college, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. I graduated from night school and like,
Speaker 1: so I didn't just oh I got a salary now
Speaker 1: A yeah, I'm just happy to be making nineteen grand
Speaker 1: a year like that sounded like some shit, And so yeah,
Speaker 1: I started working there every night and it wasn't even
Speaker 1: about to check. It was about the opportunity to be
Speaker 1: on every night. And my man, George Cookman, who's still
Speaker 1: a great mentor to me to this day. He actually
Speaker 1: George is not only the first person to give me
Speaker 1: a full time position on radio, he told me some
Speaker 1: information that just changed my whole life. And the information was,
Speaker 1: I want you to have a morning show at night.
Speaker 1: I want you to treat this night show that you
Speaker 1: have like a morning show at night. Parody songs and
Speaker 1: a lot of sketches and a lot of topics and
Speaker 1: a lot of interaction with listeners via the phone and
Speaker 1: you know, playing new music and all of that been
Speaker 1: a fitting me so well in the future, because that's
Speaker 1: what I ultimately treated every single show like. I treated
Speaker 1: every single show like it was a morning show. So
Speaker 1: no matter where I went from High ninety eighty nine
Speaker 1: to the big DM in Columbia. Then it was Hot
Speaker 1: one of three nine in Columbia, then it was Wendy
Speaker 1: Williams show, and it was my own morning show in Philly.
Speaker 1: By the time I got to my own morning show
Speaker 1: in Philly, I had approached every single one of those
Speaker 1: situations like it was a morning show. So by the
Speaker 1: time I was ready to do my own morning show,
Speaker 1: I was overprepared. Yeah, you know, So it was he
Speaker 1: planned to seed early on that basically stuck with me
Speaker 1: throughout my whole career and ultimately led to me being
Speaker 1: the morning guy I am. Now let me come back.
Speaker 1: You'll get a chance to hear what Charlemagne learned from
Speaker 1: the legendary radio host Wendy Williams and lessons he had
Speaker 1: to teach himself to achieve success. Tell me about meeting
Speaker 1: Wendy Williams, man Man, I met Wendy because I was
Speaker 1: doing radio in Columbia, South Carolina, Columbia had a really
Speaker 1: dope station called Hot one with three nine. So Hot
Speaker 1: one with three nine started syndicating Wendy Williams in the
Speaker 1: afternoons and so Wendy and her husband would come down
Speaker 1: for station visits, like they would come down to like
Speaker 1: see the market and stuff like that, and so I
Speaker 1: just would break bread, you know. And I remember the
Speaker 1: first time I even tried to break bread with Wendy.
Speaker 1: Wendy was in the studio trying to do her show,
Speaker 1: which I totally understand, now, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But I came in there with mixtapes and parody songs,
Speaker 1: all of this stuff I wanted her to hear and
Speaker 1: while she was doing her show, Yeah, I mean, but
Speaker 1: she was in between breaks, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But now when I under now understanding the hecticness of
Speaker 1: a syndicated show, it wasn't like breaks like us, but
Speaker 1: we break for twenty minutes, thirty minutes and got time
Speaker 1: the bullshit she's on like on on on on, Like
Speaker 1: it might have only been like three minutes. In between songs.
Speaker 1: Wendy goes, little yo, Yo, take that mixtape shit out
Speaker 1: of here. I'm trying to do my fucking show. Take
Speaker 1: that mixtape shit to my husband. I didn't feel offended
Speaker 1: by that. Yeah, I was just like, where's your husband?
Speaker 1: She's like, I think if he's in that room somewhere
Speaker 1: like in the conference room across the hall. Cool. So
Speaker 1: I went across the room, gave him the mixtape, started
Speaker 1: pitching ship to him, you know, pitching ship to him.
Speaker 1: And then we started talking and we you know, kept
Speaker 1: in contact from there, you know, and I used to
Speaker 1: like give them the heads up on things that were
Speaker 1: going on at the station. So he invited me to
Speaker 1: come up to New York for a party. He was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: want you to come up to New York. We're having
Speaker 1: a party. Blah zah blah. And I'm like, all right.
Speaker 1: I went to the party just to kick it. And
Speaker 1: in the party, Wendy was like, oh shit, Charlemagne, Yo,
Speaker 1: won't you come to my show? How long are you
Speaker 1: in town? I like, oh, just for a couple of days.
Speaker 1: Come to my show tomorrow, Like, come to your show tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Can't tell me shit like that. I'm going I'm going
Speaker 1: to be like, yo, all right, who do I call?
Speaker 1: What do I do? And so I'm hitting CAV like Yo, Cav,
Speaker 1: Wendy said, come to our show. He's like, all right,
Speaker 1: I bet. So he just told me that. He told
Speaker 1: me to go up there, went up there, sat in
Speaker 1: the pink room to paint the office for a while.
Speaker 1: Then she invited me on the show and I was
Speaker 1: there for like twenty five minutes, and literally that evening
Speaker 1: they were offering me the position as her co host sidekick.
Speaker 1: And they was like, look, we can't pay you, but
Speaker 1: we can give you a place to stay. And I'm
Speaker 1: just like, all right, just let me go back down
Speaker 1: South and like, you know, figure some things out, like
Speaker 1: just you know, lett my girl, know what I'm about
Speaker 1: to do and everything else. And that's what I did.
Speaker 1: You knew the opportunity, yo. Man, you gotta recognize the
Speaker 1: opportunity even when it's not a paycheck attached to it.
Speaker 1: So my mindset was never I never I never wanted
Speaker 1: like how much I'm gonna get paid. It was like,
Speaker 1: we cannot pay you, but we can give you a
Speaker 1: place to stay. I'm out the opportunity to be on
Speaker 1: Wendy Williams Show Monday through Friday in the afternoon, nationally
Speaker 1: syndicated show What are some lessons you learned on the
Speaker 1: Wonder william Show? That Wendy's a legend no matter how
Speaker 1: you feel about her, No matter how you feel about her,
Speaker 1: bona farre legend. One of the most talented people, one
Speaker 1: of the most talented media personalities of all time. You know,
Speaker 1: one of the people few people who can like literally
Speaker 1: sit down in front of a TV camera and just go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: person who could just sit down in front of a
Speaker 1: microphone and just go. And you realize the reason she's
Speaker 1: able to do that is number one, she had does
Speaker 1: have just the natural gift to gab. But one of
Speaker 1: the lessons I learned that everything is showprep. Like a
Speaker 1: lot of times, you know, back in the day, we
Speaker 1: would think that show prep is like just picking up
Speaker 1: the latest magazine or picking up the latest tabloid and
Speaker 1: just downloading what's in there. Wendy taught me that your
Speaker 1: whole life is showprep. Every single experience that you go
Speaker 1: through can be brought to the radio. You know, every
Speaker 1: single experience that you go through can be bought, you know,
Speaker 1: the television. I would watch her, I'd be out with
Speaker 1: her during the day, watch these things happen to her,
Speaker 1: and then watch her get on the radio and talk
Speaker 1: about these things like, oh, I was there, and of
Speaker 1: course he's making me part of the story because and
Speaker 1: Charlemagne said this. Charlemagne was right there and Charlotmagne acted
Speaker 1: like he didn't see it and it isn't that Like
Speaker 1: I'm like, god, damn, she's incredible, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like he's just an incredible storyteller. So you know, um,
Speaker 1: she taught me how to tell stories via radio, even
Speaker 1: though I was already doing it, but I was doing
Speaker 1: it more so through sketches. But now just to make
Speaker 1: your life a story, to make the things that happened
Speaker 1: to you throughout the day a story. That was like
Speaker 1: one of the biggest things, like everything is show prep.
Speaker 1: And the other thing was like you're either gonna be
Speaker 1: of the people or of the industry, because when you're
Speaker 1: of the people, you're always going to speak like for
Speaker 1: the people and you're gonna speak how the people speak.
Speaker 1: When you're of the industry, like you're gonna try to
Speaker 1: protect relationships and you're gonna try to you know, protect people.
Speaker 1: You know, so you're not gonna have those opinions that
Speaker 1: you that you probably once had that was good advice
Speaker 1: at the time. I think that there's an adjustment to
Speaker 1: be made in that rhetoric because it's gonna come a
Speaker 1: time where like you're going to be industry. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: get too big. Yeah, and everybody around you was gonna
Speaker 1: be industry too. I've been in the game for twenty
Speaker 1: five years. So not only have I grown as a
Speaker 1: personality and a businessman, a media just everything right, people
Speaker 1: around me have to Now. I got people who run
Speaker 1: record labels. I got people who are in rs. I
Speaker 1: got people who work at these social media platforms, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. I got friends that are artists
Speaker 1: in big celebrities. We all I've been doing it for
Speaker 1: twenty five years. We all came up together. And not
Speaker 1: only just the people I came up with, those next
Speaker 1: generations of people that now I'm in position. But oh
Speaker 1: I see this person coming. Let me embrace this in
Speaker 1: the VILDI and brace that in the Viddle school. We're
Speaker 1: all industry, you know what I mean. So your authentic
Speaker 1: self has to change. It's like reason doubt was authentic
Speaker 1: for jay z or for its authentic for jay Zay.
Speaker 1: But what you just said hit it on the head
Speaker 1: because people don't pay attention to that. Like you saw
Speaker 1: me when I was one version of myself. If I
Speaker 1: had stayed that version and never grown into anything else,
Speaker 1: it's no way I'm being authentic. Yeah, Muhammad Alis said,
Speaker 1: the person who's doing the same thing at fifty that
Speaker 1: he was at twenty wasted thirty years as his fucking Like,
Speaker 1: ain't I believe that, you know what I mean. It's
Speaker 1: just like you're I'm never going to be that version again.
Speaker 1: But the only thing I could do is be the
Speaker 1: best version of my authentic self, whatever that may be,
Speaker 1: whatever I grow into, you know, And like that's why
Speaker 1: me at forty four, you got damn right, I'm not
Speaker 1: the same way I was at thirty one. I better
Speaker 1: not be. I mean, I'm my true authentic self right now.
Speaker 1: And you know, you realize like the power of the platform,
Speaker 1: and what I mean by that is like, man, there's
Speaker 1: just certain things that we got to protect people from
Speaker 1: because we have these platforms, and sometimes the wrong information
Speaker 1: is viewed over the platform, you know, and people get
Speaker 1: hurt because of that. Yeah, you know, And I'm not
Speaker 1: in the business of hurting nobody. I don't want to
Speaker 1: hurt nobody, and I don't want the person putting out
Speaker 1: the information to be hurt. Yeah you know. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: well that's interesting because and I don't know if this
Speaker 1: was necessarily this person being hurt by you, but after
Speaker 1: Wendy Williams. You get your own show in Philly and
Speaker 1: you get fired because you bring Beanie Seagull on, who's
Speaker 1: a who's a Philly rapper. Yeah. If I tell me
Speaker 1: if I'm not getting a story right, If you bring
Speaker 1: on Beanie Seagull, who's a Philly rapper at one point
Speaker 1: was signed to Rockefeller Records, came up under Jay jay
Speaker 1: Z and you do an interview with beans on the
Speaker 1: show and he says something about Jay that makes Jay mad,
Speaker 1: and you get get fired that Yeah, that's the story.
Speaker 1: The story is that I got fired because Beanie Segul
Speaker 1: got on the air and aired out Jay Z. And
Speaker 1: I'm the one who recorded it. I'll put it on air.
Speaker 1: That's the story. I don't know if that's true or not.
Speaker 1: Jay never has confirmed what Jay has Jay never confirmed
Speaker 1: or denied on air. Behind the scenes, he has said
Speaker 1: to me like that, did that really gets you fight? Like?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? And that's the story, right,
Speaker 1: I don't. I doubt that's highly the case, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. When I think back then, I think
Speaker 1: um I had a new program director was hired, and
Speaker 1: I think that new program director just wanted to bring
Speaker 1: in his people, and that new program director like he
Speaker 1: don't know, he had his chest out a little bit.
Speaker 1: I remember the first time I met him, he was like,
Speaker 1: oh me, and you're gonna be able to get along.
Speaker 1: So he came in there on some like snapping the
Speaker 1: whip ship, let me get this guy in line type thing,
Speaker 1: and I think that, um, it was a combination of
Speaker 1: just him being new and wanting to bring in his
Speaker 1: own people, but also a combination of people thinking they're
Speaker 1: doing the right thing for jay Z. But jay Z's
Speaker 1: not even thinking about this. He's you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It's one of those things like I know, I know
Speaker 1: Charlotmagne did it, but we got rid of Charlomagne and
Speaker 1: you let Jay know I did it whatever whatever you know.
Speaker 1: So I don't know. I do feel like maybe a
Speaker 1: higher up might have might have just pulled the trigger
Speaker 1: on that firing just to get in Jay's good graces.
Speaker 1: But I don't think that was a hey, i'm jay Z,
Speaker 1: I'm offended, body, just get this guy off the airthing. No.
Speaker 1: I don't believe that at all. Okay, okay, but that
Speaker 1: does get you fired, and that was your own show.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's like your own show in Philly. That's
Speaker 1: like and if your first time happened like your own show,
Speaker 1: that's like, yeah, um, that's that big that I was killing.
Speaker 1: I was number I think two in the market. I
Speaker 1: was number two in the market at the time, and
Speaker 1: that was in a PPM world, So I was I
Speaker 1: was doing great and it was literally just me and
Speaker 1: my homegirl, Sa. I should suo to Sasha Katie. That's
Speaker 1: the homie, you know what I mean. She we used
Speaker 1: to work together when I used to work at Wendy
Speaker 1: at WBLS, and so when I got my own show
Speaker 1: in Philly, just asked, yo, you want to be my
Speaker 1: producer and she was like hell yeah. So we literally
Speaker 1: would drive from New Jersey every morning back and forth
Speaker 1: the Pennsylvania like like an hour and a half away.
Speaker 1: We would drive back and forth every day three I
Speaker 1: have to get up at three in the morning, pick
Speaker 1: her up by like four three thirty four o'clock to
Speaker 1: be there on time. And we did that every single day, wow,
Speaker 1: for like six seven months. The funny part is I
Speaker 1: got fired to day I was supposed to move into
Speaker 1: the townhouse because I was still living in New Jersey,
Speaker 1: so me and my wife had got a townhouse, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, this is gonna be great. Now I
Speaker 1: gotta wake up sore early, like I don't have to drive,
Speaker 1: like I'm in my basket. I'm processing all this in
Speaker 1: my mind. Were living in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, on
Speaker 1: the outskirts of Philadelphia, going roll my daughter in school here,
Speaker 1: all of that type of ship. And the day I
Speaker 1: got fired, I literally had all my stuff in the
Speaker 1: fucking I had a two thousand two escalated with like
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty thousand miles on it, and I
Speaker 1: had all that in the car, ready to move into
Speaker 1: the townhouse. And I got fired on that day, literally
Speaker 1: that day, and went back to South Carolina, back in
Speaker 1: Most Corner for a year. And what was going through
Speaker 1: your head at that point? Failure? I failed. I gotta
Speaker 1: go back to Mons Corner, after being you know, on
Speaker 1: Wendy Show, after having my own show in Philly, after
Speaker 1: having these viral moments, after being on VH one TV
Speaker 1: with Wendy. Now I got to go back to the
Speaker 1: Month's Corner and collect unemployment for real, because I don't
Speaker 1: know when I'm gonna get another gig. And now I
Speaker 1: got a daughter. So I literally was in South Carolina
Speaker 1: from November two thousand and nine to November two and ten,
Speaker 1: so I was able to collect a year of unemployment.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean. I'm living at home with
Speaker 1: my mom, depressed, this shit, you know, anxiety through the roof,
Speaker 1: just trying to figure out what's gonna happen. But you know,
Speaker 1: I used that opportunity to m There was a new
Speaker 1: station launching in Charleston, South Carolina. It was called The Box.
Speaker 1: I think it was like ninety two five The Box
Speaker 1: or something like that. So I was there with them,
Speaker 1: helping them launch the station, helping them write promos and
Speaker 1: creating imaging for the station, did the voiceovers for the station.
Speaker 1: Like in my mind, I was like, Okay, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: end up getting a shift on ninety two five. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna make my twenty grand a year here in South Carolina,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna live a great life. Yeah that was
Speaker 1: my mindseting. But you know, clearly God had other plans
Speaker 1: because the Breakfast Club came shortly after that. How did
Speaker 1: that come? Um? When I was in Philly, there was
Speaker 1: a there was a time where I had met with
Speaker 1: my man g Spen um before I me and g
Speaker 1: Spen met in a restaurant or something. It was me
Speaker 1: and at the time my then uh my then manager
Speaker 1: named it was Kevin Wendy's husband, and you know, you
Speaker 1: don't have the best reputation in the business man, and
Speaker 1: so even though we met, g Spen wasn't really feeling it.
Speaker 1: And then later on that turned into a meeting with
Speaker 1: my man Cadillac Jack and cad was with me then
Speaker 1: and it was the same thing. Like literally I found
Speaker 1: out that after we left the meeting, mad people came
Speaker 1: from like the sales department was like, you cannot Charlotta
Speaker 1: Magne's great, but if as long as you know Kevin
Speaker 1: is his manager, you know we can't hire him, and YadA, YadA, YadA,
Speaker 1: the energy will be bad and terrible all of this
Speaker 1: type of stuff. I didn't know that, you know. And
Speaker 1: then you know, me and Kevin ended up having a
Speaker 1: fallen out parting ways. And so I was in New
Speaker 1: York because I had moved back to South Carolina, but
Speaker 1: I was in New York for a couple of days
Speaker 1: and I remember just texting g Spend like, yo, you
Speaker 1: know where you at And he was like I'm in
Speaker 1: New York where you at. I'm like, I'm in Jersey
Speaker 1: right now. I was standing in Fort Lee. I was
Speaker 1: at the Double Tree in four League, and he was like, yo, man,
Speaker 1: he was like, yo, come to the station. I'm like word.
Speaker 1: He was like, yeah, yeah, come to the station. Come
Speaker 1: to the station right now. And so I got in
Speaker 1: the rental car drove seem it took me like three
Speaker 1: hours to get there because it was like four o'clock
Speaker 1: in the aftern So we was at the GW Bridge
Speaker 1: for what seemed like an hour and trying to get
Speaker 1: down to the West Side, creeping down and Tribeca. But
Speaker 1: I finally get there and Spend is like, yo, U
Speaker 1: my boss, Cadillac Jack has been watching your stuff all
Speaker 1: day long, watching you and Duval with the Hood, State
Speaker 1: of the Union and listen under like some old interviews
Speaker 1: when you was on the radio in Philly. So I
Speaker 1: sit down with Cadillac, and me and Cadillac just have
Speaker 1: a great conversation. And one of the first things he
Speaker 1: says to me is like, you know, is keV still
Speaker 1: you're managing I'm like, nah, you know. And that's how
Speaker 1: the relationship started. So like a few months later, I
Speaker 1: got high on probably one or five one. I remember
Speaker 1: Cadillac saying like, how long can you wait for this job?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, for this job as long as it takes.
Speaker 1: And so like five six months later, you know, the
Speaker 1: wheels really started to move where you want him that
Speaker 1: whole five six months, like yo, like, oh yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: you couldn't just sit back and no, no, no, definitely
Speaker 1: stayed in touch, would send him new episodes and me
Speaker 1: and duvall show, you know, just just anything anything that
Speaker 1: I was doing in that space, I would because we
Speaker 1: was early on social media. He was all over my
Speaker 1: space and Twitter and everything else. So yeah, like I
Speaker 1: was definitely keeping in real touch with him and g Span,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, and sometimes popping up, popping up,
Speaker 1: you know, and be like because I knew kind of
Speaker 1: like the gig might be mine, so I was kind
Speaker 1: of like popping up. And it felt bad because there
Speaker 1: was like people who I was like really cool with
Speaker 1: that work there, and I couldn't say anything, you know
Speaker 1: about the conversations me and Cadillac we're having, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, And I had to like lie to
Speaker 1: some of these people, and it felt bad, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean because I just couldn't tell the truth
Speaker 1: because this business still to be handled, you know. So
Speaker 1: but yeah, that's how I got there. That's amazing, man.
Speaker 1: And then and then basically from that, I mean, from
Speaker 1: that point, are you still there obviously Breakfast Club, Yeah,
Speaker 1: thirteen years later, man. And what's so interesting is that
Speaker 1: any of them would tell you. Angelie will tell you,
Speaker 1: NB will tell you. Our radio consultant, Dennis Clark, g
Speaker 1: Span Cadillac, the guy saying We're gonna be one of
Speaker 1: the biggest nationally syndicated shows in the country. Like, like,
Speaker 1: I just I knew it. I saw what this show
Speaker 1: had the potential of being. And like from day one
Speaker 1: me in v Angela, we always recorded our interviews and
Speaker 1: put them online. That's how I was aware of what
Speaker 1: Angela was doing. I was aware of what you know,
Speaker 1: Envy was doing. You know, people like my homegirl Kendred
Speaker 1: g deVie Brown, we were all utilizing the Internet. And
Speaker 1: so when we got with the Breklast Club, that's all
Speaker 1: we didn't have no money from marketing. They don't have
Speaker 1: no money for marketing, no money for promotions. This was
Speaker 1: kind of like a last ditch thing to see if
Speaker 1: something will work to even keep the lights on that
Speaker 1: power one oh five one. And so all we asked
Speaker 1: for was a cameraman every day to come in here
Speaker 1: and record, you know, these interviews. And that's what we did.
Speaker 1: We started recording these interviews, putting them up online, recording
Speaker 1: these interviews, putting them on websites. And then at the
Speaker 1: time all these blogs and the world Stars and all
Speaker 1: of these different platforms, these websites existed sending our interviews out,
Speaker 1: they started posting them. Yeah, next thing, you know, it
Speaker 1: took off in a real way, and here we are.
Speaker 1: How do you how do you manage that? Like, how
Speaker 1: do you manage the expectation of how do you manage
Speaker 1: the success? How do you manage what is just out
Speaker 1: of reach at the moment that's that's gonna be coming
Speaker 1: up for you. I manage it just by like realizing
Speaker 1: what my daddy always says, you never as good as
Speaker 1: they say you are, and you never as bad as
Speaker 1: they say you are. Like I've already had my moments
Speaker 1: of like ego. I've had my moments of like being
Speaker 1: that narcissistic, arrogant person that you know, you can't tell
Speaker 1: anything too whether people realize that or not. I'm sure
Speaker 1: that they did, because I'm sure I projected it, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. But I went through that, and
Speaker 1: I went through that at a time where, like God,
Speaker 1: knew I had to get over that in order to
Speaker 1: be where I am now. So I knew that I
Speaker 1: had to start doing some work on myself. I was
Speaker 1: really coming everything that I said I didn't like. You know,
Speaker 1: I was looking in the mirror and really becoming my father.
Speaker 1: I love my father, but I hated how my father's
Speaker 1: infidelity ruined his marriage with my mom, you know, and
Speaker 1: ruined our family. Right. So for me, I didn't want
Speaker 1: to do that, and I felt myself going down that
Speaker 1: path in a real way. So it was just like,
Speaker 1: let me check myself before I wrecked myself. You know why?
Speaker 1: Let you go? Man? Last question, if you can pick
Speaker 1: out one thing that's helped you be successful, that's sort
Speaker 1: of been with you through every period of your of
Speaker 1: your career, what do I think that thing would be? Man?
Speaker 1: For me, it would like to really be authentic. And
Speaker 1: what I mean by that is you're not authentic when
Speaker 1: you're being a character to yourself. You're not authentic when
Speaker 1: you see something working for you and you're getting rewarded
Speaker 1: for it, so you start doubling and trippling down on
Speaker 1: that thing. You're not authentic when you're being a second
Speaker 1: rate version of somebody else instead of a first rate
Speaker 1: version of yourself. And one of the things that hurt
Speaker 1: me the most is when they started calling me to
Speaker 1: hip hop Howard Stern. I love Howard Stern, right, but
Speaker 1: I didn't even stop to think why they were calling
Speaker 1: me that. I just took it and ran with it,
Speaker 1: you know, and started giving them like all of the
Speaker 1: examples of Howard that Howard might not even be proud
Speaker 1: of now, you know. For me, it was like a
Speaker 1: lot of the the frat boy, creepy ass, overly sexual humor,
Speaker 1: you know, like the low vibrational energy is what I
Speaker 1: was really doing, the limbo with how low can you go?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Like literally like how low
Speaker 1: can you go? Like literally, And that's the type of
Speaker 1: shit I was doing. So like when you go online
Speaker 1: and you see like videos of me like sniffing chairs
Speaker 1: or like tying porn stars up and all of that,
Speaker 1: it was literally for the shock. Yeah, And so like
Speaker 1: that stuck with me for like, man, maybe maybe a
Speaker 1: year or two I was on that and then just
Speaker 1: started to eat me up, Like, Yo, this ain't making
Speaker 1: me happy. This shit is whacked. And you got your
Speaker 1: you know, your wife. You know I got married in
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, so you got your wife on your head
Speaker 1: at the time. She's my girl, Like what the fuck
Speaker 1: are you doing? Like, you know, you out here wilding,
Speaker 1: you cheating on me, and you you're on the radio
Speaker 1: and you're damning bragging about word of the ball like
Speaker 1: it was that type of conversation. I'm like, man, are
Speaker 1: you tripping? Like you know you it's just entertainment. That
Speaker 1: was my life. It's just entertainment. But it's not. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's really not, you know, because you know, but when
Speaker 1: you're influencing mad people, and in this case, I'm hurting
Speaker 1: somebody and hurting the person that's the closest to me,
Speaker 1: and you can start to believe your own bullshit. That's
Speaker 1: the worst when you get into character and you start
Speaker 1: believing that you really are this dude. So it's like
Speaker 1: for me, man, that's what made me like really start
Speaker 1: like going to therapy and like doing the work because
Speaker 1: I did not like the version of myself that I
Speaker 1: was becoming. So my advice to anybody would just to
Speaker 1: just be authentic, always leave yourself open to growth, and
Speaker 1: don't be afraid of where that growth takes you. I
Speaker 1: don't give a fuck what people like about you today.
Speaker 1: If you're growing into something else tomorrow, follow that shit,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Because if you don't, you know,
Speaker 1: you're really just stunting your growth and you really don't
Speaker 1: know how big you could possibly be. You're putting a
Speaker 1: cap on you, like, you're literally putting a limit on
Speaker 1: how far you could possibly grow, how big you could get,
Speaker 1: because you're like, Nope, that's what they like about me,
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna keep it here as opposed to just
Speaker 1: leaving yourself open to see what else is out there
Speaker 1: and how much more you could continue to grow. So
Speaker 1: that's what I tell people. Be authentic, man, and just
Speaker 1: don't be afraid to grow. Yeah yeah, man, thanks for
Speaker 1: bringing you authentic self to everything, man. I appreciate thanks. Man,
Speaker 1: appreciate Charlemagne, who the ups and downs are building a
Speaker 1: media career in one of the most cutthroat of mediums radio,
Speaker 1: has shown up ready to bring his full self to
Speaker 1: whatever it is he does, and the brilliance of that
Speaker 1: is he's been impossible to ignore. I want to thank
Speaker 1: him for that confidence and for taking the time to
Speaker 1: talk with me. I plan on spending more time working
Speaker 1: on my fear of being rejected just for being me.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. To Start It from the Bottom, I'm out.
Speaker 1: He started from the Bottom is produced by David Jah,
Speaker 1: edited by Keishaw Williams, Engineered by Bentaliday, Booked by Laura
Speaker 1: Morgan with production help from Lea Rose. The show's executive
Speaker 1: produced by Jacob Bolstein, who's not all up in the
Speaker 1: videos for Pushkin Industries. Our theme music is by Ben
Speaker 1: Taliday and David Jaw, featuring Anthony Yaggas and Savanna Joe Lack.
Speaker 1: Listen to Start It from the Bottom. Wherever you at
Speaker 1: your podcast and if you want ad free episodes available
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Speaker 1: Pushkin dot fm or the Apple show page for more information.
Speaker 1: If you like our show, please remember to share, rate,
Speaker 1: and review us on your podcast app. I'm justin Richmond.