What can be said about the one and only Charlamagne Tha God?
His growth over the last 15 years from a sidekick for Wendy Williams to where he is now is nothing less than stellar. He wants to become (and already is) a major media mogul and we wanted to spotlight his successes for this issue as we did 5 years ago, except this time, he has a lot more on his plate.
Kevin: First thing I want to ask you about is the new project with Comedy Central. Tell me about it.
Charlamagne: It’s the most fun I’ve had creatively in a long time with something personal. I have fun doing a lot of things like The Black Effect Podcast Network and helping to get these podcasts launched. Even with the book imprint, seeing these people’s vision come through but personally, on a personal note, this is the most fun I’ve had creatively in a long time. Tha God’s Honest Truth, it’s so different from everything else that I’m doing.
If you listen to the Brilliant Idiots podcast, I’m on there with my man, Andrew Schultz. If you listen to The Breakfast Club, I’m on there with Envy and Angela Yee. It’s a collective effort so honestly, some things that they want to talk about, I might not have any interest in. But everything I speak about on Tha God’s Honest Truth are things I actually want to speak on, things I actually want to address. I treat it like a letter to America every week and if I had the opportunity to tell America something every single week, I do it on this platform.
Kevin: Five years ago we did the cover and you said you wanted to do comedy or like a late-night talk show and now it is coming to fruition. Was that like everything else? Was the podcast network something you wanted to do?
Charlamagne: 100 percent! I used to be part-owner of the Loud Speakers Network along with (the late) Reggie Osse and my man, Chis Morrow. Seeing what we were able to build with the Loud Speakers Network, I just knew that was missing. Black podcasters didn’t really have a platform like Barstool Sports or Gimlet It was all these networks popping up but none of them catered to the Black podcast creator. That was always my vision and my goal to build that network for the Black podcast creator. I was going to work with whoever let me do it or whoever saw my vision.
Kevin: There is still room for more. I get more and more people talking about it. I’ve been talked to about doing one.
Charlamagne: That is the beauty of the game. When you build something and you show that it is successful then other people want to do it. I don’t knock anybody for trying to accomplish something new even if they are first because they will open up the door for other people. I love it!
Kevin: Right! How does that model work? You bring people on and then you run advertising on everybody’s network, and then they get paid a percentage or can you reveal that?
Charlamagne: With The Black Effect Podcast Network, what we do is partner with other podcasts that are already in existence or we launch a lot of new podcasts. To your point, there will be podcasts out there that are doing well, but you can come over here and get a much bigger bag. We pay them, and they get a percentage of the ad revenue. It’s a great situation for everybody, I think. Then we have the megaphone on iHeart.
Being able to promote your podcast on all these different radio stations across the country, being able to promote your podcast on the largest podcast platform. iHeart is the biggest podcast platform out here. Let’s talk about some of the existing ones like Earn Your Leisure, 85 South, or All The Smoke; their numbers have grown significantly being with iHeart because of the way iHeart can promote and market them. It makes it easier for us to launch new podcasts like Ebony K. Williams, Jess Hilarious, Tezlyn Figaro, or whoever it is.
Kevin: Some of the radio corporations are trying to bring podcasters in as announcers, and we talked about this 5 years ago. Once again, iHeart seems to be ahead of the curve, understanding that their platform isn’t radio, it’s actually doing podcasts. . What do you think about that?
Charlamagne: Yeah, they are ahead of the curve, but there is still another part of that curve that everyone needs to go a little further down. That is transitioning some of these personalities to radio. Still allow them to do their podcasts but you have to take some of these shows and give them a couple of hours a week on the radio because it will increase the brand equity of the station. The next generation of radio personalities will absolutely come from the podcasts; why? Because radio over the last 12 to 13 years, they took all the personality out of radio.
PPM scared the hell out of radio companies so much so that they turned radio stations into a jukebox. They took away all the personality from radio, turned it into a jukebox and in the last decade you saw the rise of streaming services and radio doesn’t lead in music anymore. Now that you have taken away all the personality, what you see is the rise of podcasts. Radio don’t even lead in personalities no more. Now that we are not in a leadership position, we gotta go with the flow and we gotta take some of these podcast personalities and give them a few hours a week on the radio just for brand equity. Literally, just for brand equity!
Kevin: Do you think the podcasters would be interested?
Charlamagne: That’s a great question. I think some would be interested just for the sport. I know a couple that have hollered at me and said they would like to be on the radio just because they know it would make their overall brand bigger but some of these people are like, ‘What the hell I need to be on the radio for?’ And guess what? They are right! I tell program directors all the time, if you are still arrogant about radio or egotistical about radio and its place in the game right now, how about you do a perceptual for radio personalities in your market versus the podcasters. I bet that will humble you real quick.
Kevin: We talked about this five years ago, once again. A lot of radio people are one-trick ponies so they don’t see past being on the mic. They would rather wait for a job. I’ve written articles about Youtube channels and all kinds of things where we can financially prosper but we would rather have a mic and wait for a $20 an hour job in the next city. I had to get away from as much radio reporting because of that. We are stuck and I don’t know how much longer they can sit.
Charlamagne: Very, very stuck. That’s the point I keep trying to make! Five years from now I could easily see, especially Hip-Hop and R&B stations because we’re gonna be the first to go. I could easily see hip-hop and R&B stations being regulated to just an app; something you stream. Not even existing in the terrestrial form; maybe one or two that maintain but think about it, you have two of the biggest of Hip-Hop and R&B stations in the country and they are like independent mom and pops now. Hot 97 and Power 106 used to be juggernauts of Hip-Hop and R&B and now they are just like mom and pops.
Kevin: They had a grasp on the culture and they lost that. Like you said, they were not really taking advantage of the talent out there. I think a lot of that, unfortunately, with some of the older syndicators that wouldn’t move from the morning shows and wouldn’t make more room for people like you to compete with in different markets. In a way, it worked to your advantage but it worked against a lot of other people who were moving up in single markets.
Charlamagne: Guess what? I’m not going to stand in the way of the next generation either. I’m going to help u
Nyla Symone at Power 105 in New York is not on every day but just the things
She’s watched me grow over the years. Being able to do dope things with your friends and just figuring it out is a beautiful thing. So when you ask me what’s next, Emmy Awards for television, building a platform that is really for us, by us, that we can get a lot of information from. I know that I’m going to have a lot of success in this TV world just like I had in radio. Kevin: Any guests you’ve had on the morning show you would never have on the show again? Charlamagne: No. I don’t see that. You would have to give me some examples. I’m not even that type of person. Kevin: Who do you get the most negative responses from or positive responses from? Give me like three people. Charlamagne: Everybody. There is not one single person that gets an overwhelmingly positive response. Even if they do, give it a minute and later people will hate them. I remember we had Tiffany Haddish on; Tiffany Haddish is a dear friend. I’ve known Tiffany Haddish for a long time. We had her on before Girl’s Trip and everybody was loving her. “I love her story, her story is so amazing, blah, blah, blah, I love Tiffany Haddish.” She blows up and
Kevin: How important are the comments to you? I know we talked about it before and I believe you said you don’t really pay a lot of attention to it. A lot of the time people are just venting through the comments. Do you ever use it for any part of your research? Charlamagne: I think when you realize most people are projecting, you stop letting it phase you. People use social media to project, and people are always going to project on public figures. You’ve seen it with everybody. You see it with Jay Z, Beyonce, Oprah, Obama. Any of these people you think are beloved, they all get it. When you see that, why would I take things personally? I’m not going to sit here and say that when you see some of those comments, them shits don’t sting, but it is what it is. Guess what? Someone can tell me my TV show sucks and then somebody can say it’s the best TV show they have ever seen. Who am I supposed to believe? The only person I gotta believe is me. People have been saying The Breakfast Club sucks for 11 years. They say they hate it and it’s problematic and then others say it’s a great show and we put so many Black voices on, it’s the show for our community. Who am I supposed to listen to Kev? T.D Jakes gave a sermon yesterday and he said, “are you living for people’s validation or God’s confirmation? He was basically saying if you are walking your divine assignment from God, then you don’t have time to listen to the opinions of other people. I feel like I’m on God’s divine assignment so I don’t have time to listen to those opinions of other people. Kevin: Have you brought along a lot of people you have done a lot of your other projects with? I know you just mentioned you brought some of the people along for the TV show. Is that something you try to do intentionally or is everybody ready to move from radio to TV? Charlamagne: Hell yeah, it’s intentional! You come to Tha God’s Honest Truth, we are like a 90 to 95% Black and Brown staff. Every leadership position except head writer is led by a woman. All of the dope interns that I’ve come across at The Breakfast Club that radio didn’t have room, they all at my TV show. All of them, my homegirl Jazz, Jilian, and Nyla is my house DJ every week. My homegirl Camie, who I met 6 to 7 years ago when
Kevin: Five years from now, I want to interview you again, God willing, so you said you want to have an Emmy type show and tell me the other stuff you want to do. Charlamagne: Five years from now; right now, I’m at the beginning stages of my multimedia moguldom. Five years from now you will see a lot of those seeds that were planted three years ago will have bared a lot of fruit. The Black Effect Podcast Network will be a 100 million dollar business. The company I have with Kevin Hart, SVH at Audible, will be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Dope creators will come from both of those platforms. My book imprint, Black Privilege Publishing, put out two books this year, Tamika Mallory, “State of Emergency” and Anita Kopacz, “Shallow Waters.” Those books will spawn TV, films, etc. There will be New York Best Sellers and a lot of stories that get to be told because of the book imprint. Same thing with SVH it will produce a lot of dope IP. I just pray Tha God’s Honest Truth, hopefully, will be like Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show. Look at all the people that came from that show. Trevor Noah, Stephen Colbert, Samantha B, Don Olliver, Steve Carell, all those people came from that show and I just want the same for my show but for Black people. My idols and inspirations are people like Clarence Avant, Jay Z, Petey Greene for radio and Arsenio Hall for TV. The one thing all those four people shared is that they empowered other people. Kevin: The question I always get is how much of the Black Podcast Effect Network do you own? Charlamagne: 51 percent. I’m a 51 percent majority owner. Just know that Dolly has a significant stake in The Black Effect Podcast Network as well. She is not just the President,
