Speaker 1: You're listening to Math and Magic production. I heart radio.
Speaker 1: The best thing that ever happened to me was I
Speaker 1: did not have any radio skills, Like nobody taught me
Speaker 1: the traditional way to do radio. So I would just
Speaker 1: be talking. I go back and listen. Now it's not
Speaker 1: the terrible I was yelling and I was screaming, and
Speaker 1: I'm answering the phones, and we just was kicking it
Speaker 1: like how we would kick it, you know, in the hood.
Speaker 1: And it became very popular in a very short amount
Speaker 1: of time. One day in there doing overnights, I said
Speaker 1: to myself, I love this. I've never felt passionate about
Speaker 1: anything before that. I just knew this is what I
Speaker 1: want to do for the rest of my life. I'm
Speaker 1: Bob Pippin. Welcome to this episode of Math and Magic
Speaker 1: Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing, where we explore about
Speaker 1: the analytics of marketing and business and the magic, the creative,
Speaker 1: the stuff that gets consumers excited and builds the bonds
Speaker 1: with brands, businesses, in our case today, personalities. On this episode,
Speaker 1: we're going to explore how one person can have an
Speaker 1: impact on culture and society. Welcome Charlemagne, the god best
Speaker 1: known as the co host of the syndicated radio morning
Speaker 1: show The Breakfast Club. He's also on TV, he's in podcasting,
Speaker 1: he's on social and he's a best selling author. Charlemagne
Speaker 1: was born Leonard Larry McKelvey in Charleston, South Carolina. His
Speaker 1: mom was an English teacher and his dad was a
Speaker 1: businessman with a wide range of businesses. Charlemagne appears to
Speaker 1: have picked up much from both. He got into a
Speaker 1: reasonable amount of trouble as a young man and then
Speaker 1: decided he was gonna get it together. That led him
Speaker 1: through a number of jobs before he discovered his true
Speaker 1: calling radio, and it's been in a amazing rides since then. Charlemagne, welcome,
Speaker 1: How are you BP? I'm doing well? Okay, So before
Speaker 1: we jump into your life, your ideas and your lessons,
Speaker 1: let's do you in sixty seconds. Here you go. Do
Speaker 1: you prefer New York or l a New York Instagram
Speaker 1: or Twitter Instagram, Beach or mountains Beach? Cowboys or Panthers
Speaker 1: Cowboys All Day? Magic Johnson or Michael Jordan's. Oh I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say, Maggie Johnson, Cats are Dogs, Cats Prince or
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson, Drake or Kanye. Oh old Kanye
Speaker 1: and new Kanye. You know what I'm gonna say. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say Kanye. Okay, it's about to get harder. Smartest person,
Speaker 1: you know. I know a lot of smart people. I'm
Speaker 1: smart enough to note that I'm not the smartest person
Speaker 1: I know. Okay, we'll leave it at that. Childhood hero
Speaker 1: Malcolm X. First job I worked at a factory called
Speaker 1: Industrial Acoustics Company. Favorite city, Charleston, South Carolina. Secret talent.
Speaker 1: I don't even think I have any talents. I don't
Speaker 1: know what my thinking on. Favorite TV show probably Martin.
Speaker 1: Favorite comic book character, Olvery, Favorite book, The Four Agreements
Speaker 1: by Don Miguel Ruis. Favorite food jamaking, food like ox tails,
Speaker 1: stuff like that, Salfish Bay Slfish for breakfast. Yes, there
Speaker 1: you go. What did you want to be when you're
Speaker 1: growing up alive? Okay, here we go. Let's start with
Speaker 1: the obvious. How did you get the name Charlemagne the God?
Speaker 1: Grown up in monkst going to South Carolina. I was
Speaker 1: doing a lot of things I had no business doing.
Speaker 1: One of them was selling drugs. When I used to
Speaker 1: be on the block hustling, and I would always say
Speaker 1: my name was Charles or Charlie. I was reading in
Speaker 1: the history book one day in night school and I
Speaker 1: saw that Charlemagne was French for Charles the Great, and
Speaker 1: I literally just thought it sounded cool. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start calling myself Charlomagne, and so that's what
Speaker 1: I did. I just started calling myself Charlomagne before the radio.
Speaker 1: Oh wait, before radio. This is like, where did the
Speaker 1: god come in? It's an offshoot of Islam called the
Speaker 1: Five Percent Teachings of Islam, and they teach that the
Speaker 1: black man is God and God is a Greek word
Speaker 1: derived from the Aramic. It's gumas the ball, which means
Speaker 1: whydom screenping beauty, And so I was just like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's dope, no. And plus, every wrapper back then was
Speaker 1: calling himself the god, whether it was Jay Z calling
Speaker 1: himself Jehovah to God. Everybody in Wu Tang was a
Speaker 1: god rock him allowed was the guy like all of
Speaker 1: him us to call himselves God. So I was just
Speaker 1: started calling myself Chalomage the God, which technically makes no
Speaker 1: sense because Charlomagne is child is the Great, so it
Speaker 1: would be like Charles the Great the God. Well, let's
Speaker 1: work really well for it definitely looks good on the
Speaker 1: Marquis right. You're wildly successful on the radio as the
Speaker 1: co host of the Breakfast Club with DJ MB and
Speaker 1: angela Ye. It's heard on stations all over the country,
Speaker 1: has heard on the I Heart radio app nationally, It's
Speaker 1: seen on Revolt TV. You do other podcasts, you're on TV.
Speaker 1: You have millions of Instagram followers, Twitter followers, and of
Speaker 1: course you have the Donkey of the Day feature that
Speaker 1: everyone looks forward to. You've written books, all best sellers,
Speaker 1: and you even wrote a special Marvel comic book. You've
Speaker 1: been called the Howard Stern of hip hop or Today's
Speaker 1: Johnny Carson er Jay Leno. Hard to imagine much more influence.
Speaker 1: Let's tag into how you out here from Monks Corner,
Speaker 1: South Carolina. Can you paint the picture of where you
Speaker 1: grew up in those times? I grew up in a
Speaker 1: small country town. When I was growing up, it was
Speaker 1: a dirt road cornfield surrounding everybody's house on that dirt road.
Speaker 1: My father used to always say, if you're driving down
Speaker 1: the highway and you see something dead on the side
Speaker 1: of the road, you get out and put your hand
Speaker 1: on it. If it's cold, you leave it there, it's warm,
Speaker 1: you bring it home for dinner. That's literally what kind
Speaker 1: of town it was. There was nothing. They're growing up,
Speaker 1: you know. I remember when Signic first came, no the
Speaker 1: town like, oh, it's gonna got a Signic now, Like
Speaker 1: so we felt like a big city. You know. When
Speaker 1: we got a super Walmart d would open twenty four hours,
Speaker 1: we felt like we was in the big city. That's
Speaker 1: actually what we used to do for fun. There's nothing
Speaker 1: to do on the weekend, and it's after midnight, and
Speaker 1: you just tired of sitting around house, you literally just
Speaker 1: go walk around Walmart. So, from what I've read, your
Speaker 1: mom was a teacher, your dad was bigger than life
Speaker 1: personality with a huge presence in your town. What did
Speaker 1: you get from each of those? I learned a lot
Speaker 1: of what to do in my life from my mom.
Speaker 1: I learned a lot of what not to do in
Speaker 1: my life from my that. You know, my dad was
Speaker 1: a good father. I realized he was just doing the
Speaker 1: best he could because he was dealing with his own
Speaker 1: issues with mental health and you know, substance abuse. I
Speaker 1: remember going to visit my father in rehab so I
Speaker 1: just know that he was doing the best that he could.
Speaker 1: I really don't hold a lot of things against him,
Speaker 1: because I do think he's a great man, you know.
Speaker 1: I just think that it's a lot of things he
Speaker 1: didn't teach me, and he would discipline me for not
Speaker 1: knowing things that he should have taught me to begin with.
Speaker 1: I remember one time following him as he was driving
Speaker 1: and he ran the stop shine. So I ran the
Speaker 1: stop sign. He pulled over, so I pulled over. He
Speaker 1: got out the car, told me rod went down, He
Speaker 1: slapped in the face, told me to wake up. You
Speaker 1: don't see yourself right that stop sign. I'm like, I'm
Speaker 1: following you. You ran the stop sign. So it was
Speaker 1: that that kind of relationship. But you know, my mother,
Speaker 1: being an English teacher, she kept the book in my face.
Speaker 1: She always encouraged me to read, and she would always
Speaker 1: tell me to read things that don't pertain to me.
Speaker 1: So I would be the guy that would be reading
Speaker 1: like Judy Bloom and Beverly Clearly, and you know, I'd
Speaker 1: be reading about Bigfoot and uf Folds And it was
Speaker 1: just that one little piece of read things that don't
Speaker 1: pertain to you that helped me transcend a lot of
Speaker 1: my circumstances and made me realize that the dirt road
Speaker 1: I lived on I was much bigger than that. You
Speaker 1: had a lot of problems in school, you graduated from
Speaker 1: night school. You had some run ins with the law.
Speaker 1: You tried a number of jobs, first working at a
Speaker 1: clothing store, telemarketing agency, flower garden, your sister hired you
Speaker 1: had I guess fired you at Taco Bell for two
Speaker 1: weeks for not taking it seriously. Then you discovered radio.
Speaker 1: Before we get to that, though, why the bad times.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you had some explanations then, But looking back now,
Speaker 1: what do you think it was about? What lessons did
Speaker 1: you take from that? It was really just about wanting
Speaker 1: to fit in. When you're not getting what you need
Speaker 1: at home, you will get it from the street. And
Speaker 1: it's not like the love was real in the street.
Speaker 1: You know. It just made me feel good to be accepted.
Speaker 1: If my father wasn't dealing with the things he was
Speaker 1: dealing with, and he probably would have embraced me a
Speaker 1: little bit more and gave me that confidence I needed,
Speaker 1: and you know, that courage I needed and just empowered me.
Speaker 1: I probably would not have gone to the screetch the
Speaker 1: way that I did. What did you take away in
Speaker 1: terms of your life now from that experience? Nothing? There
Speaker 1: was nothing beneficial about being in that situation. You have
Speaker 1: a bunch of skills that you really don't need. I
Speaker 1: don't need to know how to sell drugs like I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't need to know how to carry a firearms.
Speaker 1: I was carrying it illegally back then. Anyway, Like, none
Speaker 1: of what I went through then serves me in my
Speaker 1: adult life other than to have those experiences. So when
Speaker 1: I'm talking to young men that grew up in these areas,
Speaker 1: I can relate to them in a different way, and
Speaker 1: they can look at me and they can say, oh, well,
Speaker 1: you know, he went through a lot of the same
Speaker 1: things that I went through. When I started to see
Speaker 1: a lot of my friends going to jail, and like
Speaker 1: guys around me actually getting prisons in this is and
Speaker 1: people around me actually getting killed, and cousins that I
Speaker 1: used to look up to they really were the cousins
Speaker 1: that were doing everything that I was doing previously, and
Speaker 1: they ended up broke under the tree, scrung out on
Speaker 1: drugs or alcohol or whatever it was. That was a
Speaker 1: wake up call for me at a very young age
Speaker 1: to say, I don't want to end up like that.
Speaker 1: So more important than why did radio click with you?
Speaker 1: I was really just looking for something positive to do.
Speaker 1: I started working a lot of odd jobs. I worked
Speaker 1: at the clothing store called Demo and the Mall. I
Speaker 1: worked at Taco Bell. I worked at this factory called
Speaker 1: Industrial Acoustics. I worked at a telemarketing place where I
Speaker 1: used to be the guy that would call your house
Speaker 1: and try to sell you twelve CDs for a penny.
Speaker 1: Did you ever do that? Yeah? I was one of
Speaker 1: the best because I knew music. That was a gift
Speaker 1: that I had. I knew music, so I knew what
Speaker 1: was good. My mother would tell me three things that
Speaker 1: don't pertain to me. I would always listen to things
Speaker 1: that don't pertain to me. So I knew everything from
Speaker 1: Johnny Cash to Fleetwood mag to the New jay Z
Speaker 1: Like I knew all of it. And so I would
Speaker 1: just know how to sell these things to these people.
Speaker 1: And I used to want to rap. And I was
Speaker 1: in this recording studio and I met a guy. His
Speaker 1: name was Willie will He was a radio personality at
Speaker 1: a local station at Chalton called three Jamps, and I
Speaker 1: just asked him, I said, you, how did you getting
Speaker 1: the radio And he was like, I went down there
Speaker 1: and I got an internship. And I'm like, it's that easy,
Speaker 1: Like I don't have to be in school or anything,
Speaker 1: and he was like, nah, and mind even n Charleston,
Speaker 1: South Carolina, so things are a lot different now. So
Speaker 1: that's what I did. I went down there the next
Speaker 1: day and I filled out the internship application and they
Speaker 1: hired me as an intern in the promotions department. And
Speaker 1: that's how I got my foot in the door. But
Speaker 1: I guess this is one of the ways that you
Speaker 1: could say the screets help me because being at the
Speaker 1: radio station at the time, some of these guys wanted weat.
Speaker 1: I knew to get wheat, so I would have to
Speaker 1: weed for them, and they would always want me around,
Speaker 1: like they would always request me, yo, I want Charlemagne
Speaker 1: to drive me to this remote or yo, Charlemagne when
Speaker 1: you had come to the studio. So I would just
Speaker 1: be in the studio being a fly on the wall,
Speaker 1: just sitting there watching everybody do their job. And then
Speaker 1: sometimes they would call me in and asked me my
Speaker 1: opinion on things, and I would just talk and the
Speaker 1: music director one day, his name was wrong White. Ron
Speaker 1: White was like, yo, you ever thought about being on
Speaker 1: the radio, And I was like no, but I am
Speaker 1: now like yeah, I'll show I'll try it. And so
Speaker 1: they made me voice track one Sunday morning from eleven
Speaker 1: am to two pm. And I did that for a
Speaker 1: few weeks, and then they immediately cut that out because
Speaker 1: there was Sunday morning in Charleston, South Carolina, and I
Speaker 1: was a bit too much for that Bible belt. So
Speaker 1: they started putting me on Saturdays seven pm to midnight,
Speaker 1: and I voiced tracked from seven to ten, and from
Speaker 1: ten to twelve I would go live. And I think
Speaker 1: the best thing that ever happened to me was I
Speaker 1: did not have any radio skills. Nobody taught me the
Speaker 1: traditional way to do radio. So I would just be talking.
Speaker 1: I go back at list now, it's not the terrible.
Speaker 1: I was yelling and I was screaming, and I'm answering
Speaker 1: the phones and we just was kicking it like how
Speaker 1: we would kick it, you know, in the hood. And
Speaker 1: it became very popular in a very short amount of time.
Speaker 1: One day in there doing overnights, I said to myself,
Speaker 1: I love this. I've never felt passionate about anything before that.
Speaker 1: I just knew this is what I want to do
Speaker 1: for the rest of my life. And then, you know,
Speaker 1: just like anything else in my life, once I fell
Speaker 1: in love with it, I just started studying it. The
Speaker 1: Howard Sterns and the Frankie Crockers and the Pete Greens,
Speaker 1: and then you know, you started getting into the new
Speaker 1: guys like the Tom join Us in the dug Banks.
Speaker 1: They were syndicated and all market, so I was already
Speaker 1: listening to them, and then you started learned about the
Speaker 1: Wendy Williams is and Andie Martinez and all these different people.
Speaker 1: And I remember saying to myself, if I really commit
Speaker 1: myself to this, I want to be like them. I
Speaker 1: want to just be in a local market saying time
Speaker 1: and temperature and introducing the next song, like I want
Speaker 1: to be one of those people. What did you take
Speaker 1: away from them you were listening to them, what did
Speaker 1: they sound like to you? Everybody I just named was authentic.
Speaker 1: They were really on the radio being themselves. They sounded
Speaker 1: like regular people having a conversation with you on the radio,
Speaker 1: talking about regular everyday topics. That everybody was talking about
Speaker 1: like when my mom would ride to work in the
Speaker 1: morning and she has been any three jams on and
Speaker 1: it was, oh, if the time join them arning show,
Speaker 1: like they was in there just talking about regular things
Speaker 1: that were going on in the world. And I just
Speaker 1: thought that was the coolest thing to have that kind
Speaker 1: of voice. When my mom woke up in the morning,
Speaker 1: before there was iPods and satellite radio and podcast and
Speaker 1: everything else, there was Tom joining in the morning and
Speaker 1: now when she was listening to And I always wanted
Speaker 1: to have that impact on people. I wanted to be
Speaker 1: that companion to people. So when you envisioned yourself being
Speaker 1: one of those people, have you turned into that or
Speaker 1: turned into something else? I've had identity crisis, is right, because,
Speaker 1: like I said, I didn't know how to do radio,
Speaker 1: so I was literally just in there being who I
Speaker 1: thought was myself. But at the time, you gotta think
Speaker 1: it's I'm like twenty years old. You know, I didn't
Speaker 1: know myself at twenty You do what I mean, So
Speaker 1: you grow and then at a certain point when you
Speaker 1: are having some success, you think, I gotta give people
Speaker 1: more of this, So then you become a characterature of yourself.
Speaker 1: I think at this point in my life. Right now,
Speaker 1: I am comfortable with just being me, and I think
Speaker 1: I've been giving people just me for the past three years.
Speaker 1: I'm not giving people what I think they wanted here
Speaker 1: and not giving people what I think they like about me,
Speaker 1: just genuinely being me. My name is Leonard McKelvey. I'm
Speaker 1: a father, I'm a husband. I started going to therapy
Speaker 1: a few years ago. I took listeners on that journey
Speaker 1: with me. I've talked about every portion of my life
Speaker 1: along the way, the good, the bad, and ugly. You know,
Speaker 1: some of it comes back to bite you. But I
Speaker 1: wouldn't trade it for the world because I think they
Speaker 1: really know me. So let's go to that journey. You
Speaker 1: go to Charleston, South Carolina, to Columbia, South Carolina. Then
Speaker 1: you made this big job to work with Wendy Williams
Speaker 1: in New York. How did you make that big job?
Speaker 1: People don't go from that size market to New York City.
Speaker 1: The company I worked for in Columbius, Ath Carolina, was
Speaker 1: called in the City Broadcasting in the City owned w
Speaker 1: b LS here in New York. So they started syndicating
Speaker 1: Wendy Williams on Hot one or three nine in Columbia,
Speaker 1: South Carolina, and I used to do nights with a
Speaker 1: guy named Big Sexy. His name is Bill Black. He
Speaker 1: worked for I Heard Now. Then I did nights with
Speaker 1: a young lady named Venom. Whendydom used to come into
Speaker 1: the market. Windy and her husband Kevin, and I remember
Speaker 1: the first time Wendy was broadcasting from the studio. I'm
Speaker 1: thinking to myself, Oh, this is my but tell me
Speaker 1: the I'm gonna introduce myself to her because it's somebody
Speaker 1: I've been studying for years. I used to do mixtapes
Speaker 1: at the time, and I used to do parody songs,
Speaker 1: and I wanted her to hear this one parody song
Speaker 1: because I thought she would really enjoy it. So going
Speaker 1: there and Wendy said to me verbe him, Yo, I'm
Speaker 1: trying to do my f and show get the f
Speaker 1: out of here and take that mixtape to my husband.
Speaker 1: I didn't get discouraged. I said, well, where's your husband.
Speaker 1: She said, he's right over there, across the hall. So
Speaker 1: I went across the hall, scrug up a conversation with him,
Speaker 1: gave him the mixtapes. He enjoyed them. So from that
Speaker 1: point on, we had a relationship. That's when the Internet
Speaker 1: started happening. So I started having viral moments, and so
Speaker 1: when these things would make its way up to New York,
Speaker 1: she knew me. She started shouting out some of the
Speaker 1: things I was doing. I did this interview with a
Speaker 1: young video vixen at the time. Her name was Buffy
Speaker 1: the Body, and I just remember asking her like, Yo,
Speaker 1: you don't want to be Buffy the Brain. What happens
Speaker 1: when you get older and you know, everything starts to sag, like,
Speaker 1: you know, you don't want to be able to rely
Speaker 1: on your intellect. And she got really upset about that.
Speaker 1: But Wendy loved it, and Wendy was talking about it
Speaker 1: on the air. They invited me to come to a
Speaker 1: party in New York, and when I went to the party,
Speaker 1: Wendy asked me to come on her show. She literally like, Yo,
Speaker 1: come on my show tomorrow, and I was like word.
Speaker 1: So next day I was calling her husband all day
Speaker 1: and her husband was like, yes, go up there now.
Speaker 1: I went up there for like twenty five minutes, and
Speaker 1: that night at dinner, he was telling me like, Yo,
Speaker 1: you know, she's looking for a co host. She's tried
Speaker 1: out a bunch of comedians. You don't want a comedian.
Speaker 1: She really wants somebody from radio. She really just liked
Speaker 1: what you do. And he was like, look, we can't
Speaker 1: pay you, but we can give you a place to stay.
Speaker 1: I'm only making six dollars an hour in Columbia, South Carolina.
Speaker 1: I'm like, cool, Why not? I was out and I
Speaker 1: moved to New York, actually New Jersey, but I used
Speaker 1: to commute to New York everyday just to do Wendy
Speaker 1: Show from two to six and would fly back to
Speaker 1: South Carolina to do my show on Saturday. Kept your Saturday.
Speaker 1: I kept my Saturday show for about six seven months,
Speaker 1: and then my operations manage at the time said I
Speaker 1: couldn't have my cake and eat it too. So I
Speaker 1: used to do it also just to make some money
Speaker 1: because I didn't have any money. I had like if that,
Speaker 1: so I packed a little cotton suitcase. The way I
Speaker 1: would make money is by flying back in South Carolina
Speaker 1: and hosting parties on Saturday night, do my radio show,
Speaker 1: go host the Paul, and then flybacks Sunday afternoon. So
Speaker 1: you left Wendy, you went to Philly, then you went
Speaker 1: back to Monk's corner. And then in two thousand and
Speaker 1: ten it really came together for you because with Wendy,
Speaker 1: as you say, you weren't making the money. You joined
Speaker 1: dj MB and angela Ye, and you created the now
Speaker 1: legendary Breakfast Club on Power one oh five point one
Speaker 1: in New York and on like a hundred radio stations
Speaker 1: around the country as well as nationally on the Heart
Speaker 1: radio app. This is a story about perseverance, and you
Speaker 1: took a hell of a lot of chances. What lesson
Speaker 1: do you take from that journey? When I got hired
Speaker 1: at the Breakfast Club, I had just got fired for
Speaker 1: the fourth time from a hundred points three to beat
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia. The last thing of you I did was
Speaker 1: with a rapid named Beanie Siegel. He used to be
Speaker 1: signed to jay Z. He called into the show because
Speaker 1: he was from Philly and he had a lot of
Speaker 1: not so nice things to say about jay Z. That
Speaker 1: was on a Friday, that went superviral that weekend, so
Speaker 1: much though that jay Z even had to comment on it.
Speaker 1: And then that Monday, I got fired, so the blogs
Speaker 1: said jay Z got Charlottagne five. Publicity of Bathboblicity like
Speaker 1: that made everything even bigger. Yeah, it looked good online,
Speaker 1: but in real life, I'm back home living with my
Speaker 1: mom at thirty one years old and my one year
Speaker 1: old daughter, and I honestly thought in my mind that
Speaker 1: South Carolina was it for me. Like I was like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm back living at home. There was
Speaker 1: a new station opening up in the market called Box,
Speaker 1: and I remember being on air with my man d
Speaker 1: Nice and it just felt so small, like it just
Speaker 1: did not feel right. It wasn't an ego thing, it
Speaker 1: wasn't a pride thing. In my mind already accepted I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be living back in Charlton. We're gonna raise our
Speaker 1: family here. But it just did not feel right, Like God,
Speaker 1: the universe just kept telling me no. One day the
Speaker 1: summer of two thousand and ten, I drove up to
Speaker 1: New York. I happened to just randomly text g Spen
Speaker 1: He's been used to work for my Heart, and I said, Yo,
Speaker 1: I'm in the city, and he was like, Yo, come
Speaker 1: to the station right now. Can you make it here?
Speaker 1: I said yes, And when I get there, he goes, Yo,
Speaker 1: my program director, that Catolic Jack. At the time, He's like,
Speaker 1: he's been watching your online videos. All day because I
Speaker 1: ed to do these web videos with my man Little Duval,
Speaker 1: and so we just sat down and we had a
Speaker 1: conversation and kind of like Jack said to me, he
Speaker 1: was like, Yo, how long could you wait for a
Speaker 1: job like this? I said, what do you mean a
Speaker 1: job like this? I just supposed I wanted to hire
Speaker 1: you at Power. How long could you wait for a
Speaker 1: job like this? I said, for this job, I'll wait
Speaker 1: until his time to go, Like when you tell me
Speaker 1: to be here, I'll be here. A few months later,
Speaker 1: he was offering me a position on the morning show.
Speaker 1: Pretty amazing, It is pretty have any idea the ride
Speaker 1: that was ahead of you. When I used to work
Speaker 1: for Wendy, I remember saying to myself, if I do
Speaker 1: what I'm supposed to do it here on Wendy Show,
Speaker 1: one day I can host that morning show. When we
Speaker 1: first started doing the Breakfast Club, one thing you realized
Speaker 1: about I Heart. I Heart has some really good people,
Speaker 1: you know, like Dennis Clark. After two days we did
Speaker 1: two shows, like literally two demo shows on like a
Speaker 1: Saturday and Sunday. Then this Clark goes, this could be
Speaker 1: really something special, Like this could be something that could
Speaker 1: rival Elvis Durant, it could be Elvis duran morning show level.
Speaker 1: He said that after two and for people who don't
Speaker 1: love Dennis Clark, he is the extraordinary talent coach we
Speaker 1: have here at our heart, unbelievably works with our talent.
Speaker 1: He's got a gift. Guys like Dennis have a gift.
Speaker 1: And the reason I say that is because we live
Speaker 1: in this world where people think if you're not part
Speaker 1: of a certain culture, you can't speak to that coachure.
Speaker 1: Then this Clark is a white man from I don't
Speaker 1: know where. He don't look like he's in the hip hop,
Speaker 1: but he just gets how to do good radio and
Speaker 1: he understands people. He was like, Okay, Envy, your this Angela,
Speaker 1: you're this Charlemagne, You're this. After two days and he
Speaker 1: has not been wrong since. I would listen to that
Speaker 1: man for the rest of my life. Let's give some
Speaker 1: advice here. What advice would you give to people who
Speaker 1: find themselves stuck in that struggle to the top. When
Speaker 1: you feel stuck, make sure that you're doing everything in
Speaker 1: your power to not be stuck. A lot of times
Speaker 1: we like to blame everything that's around us, you know,
Speaker 1: we like to blame other people. We like to blame
Speaker 1: certain circumstances, But are you truly doing everything that you
Speaker 1: need to be doing and not be in that position?
Speaker 1: Because God will not bless mediocrity, God will bless excellence.
Speaker 1: Excellence can be. If I clean these windows, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: make sure he's are the best looking windows in the
Speaker 1: whole building. You know, if if I'm watching the car,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make sure that car is spotless. Like are
Speaker 1: you always doing your best? Putting your best foot forward?
Speaker 1: And if you can honestly say yeah, then truthfully it's
Speaker 1: just a matter of time. Just hold on a second,
Speaker 1: because we've got so much more to talk about. We'll
Speaker 1: be back after a quick break. Welcome back the Math
Speaker 1: and Magic. We're here with Charlemagne the Gods. Let's jump
Speaker 1: to you today. I'm wanna get your views on some
Speaker 1: things hip hop culture. When did you know it had
Speaker 1: taken over the main stream? Actually a long time ago,
Speaker 1: and I'm talking about in like the late nineties, when
Speaker 1: you saw all of these white kids at Woutang concerts
Speaker 1: and you saw all these white kids loving Death Row records,
Speaker 1: Dr Drean, Snoop Dogg. When you started seeing hip hop
Speaker 1: all over MTV, and you started to see other artists
Speaker 1: from other genres of music start to want to do
Speaker 1: hip hop. It's like rap became the language, and so
Speaker 1: that's when I knew that it had taken over. I
Speaker 1: think it took a while for mainstream America to accept that,
Speaker 1: you know, what hip hop is pop culture. This is
Speaker 1: a podcast for marketers and entrepreneurs. What do they get
Speaker 1: wrong about hip hop? What is it and what is
Speaker 1: it not? I think they getting wrong that they think
Speaker 1: hip hop is just still some novelty. They think it's niche,
Speaker 1: they think it's just the black thing. It's clearly embraced globally,
Speaker 1: but I think a lot of times people look at
Speaker 1: hip hop and they still think it's dangerous. They still
Speaker 1: think it's violent. They have rightful reasons to think that
Speaker 1: in some cases. But I mean, the hip hop that's
Speaker 1: been out for the past fifteen years does not reflect
Speaker 1: what was going on in the nineties, is not reflect
Speaker 1: what's going on in their early two thousands. Like now
Speaker 1: you've got Kendrick Lamar, dreg J Cole Wile, a big
Speaker 1: Sean Rahapsody, chance to rap it. These are some of
Speaker 1: the nicest people you can ever mean you're life like,
Speaker 1: And they're teaching the whole new generation the minute it's
Speaker 1: okay to beva rble. You know, it's okay to not
Speaker 1: be from the street. It's okay to not glorify the
Speaker 1: drug culture that I celebrate the game culture. You've reached
Speaker 1: the point talking about your journey. The people now want
Speaker 1: to know what you think, not necessarily interviewing other people.
Speaker 1: And many would say, you're a pundit or a philosopher.
Speaker 1: Are you reflecting the hip hop culture, or it's this
Speaker 1: just you, it's this your life, your thoughts. Well, that's
Speaker 1: the other misconception about hip hop. The other misconception about
Speaker 1: hip hop is that hip hop is not all those things.
Speaker 1: I grew up listening to Chuck D from Public Enemy,
Speaker 1: and I grew up listening to Wu Tang Clan and
Speaker 1: you know, Goody Mob and Outcasts. All of those people
Speaker 1: were philosophers. They were encouraging me to read certain books
Speaker 1: because they would wrap about these books in their music.
Speaker 1: You know, they did have high levels of spirituality because
Speaker 1: they did believe in a higher power. I started studying
Speaker 1: a lot of different things because these rappers would mention
Speaker 1: these things in the music, like they would always be
Speaker 1: talking about politics. They would always be talking about religion.
Speaker 1: They were the pundits that had microphones, and they were
Speaker 1: talking about things that were going on in society. So like,
Speaker 1: that's always been a hip hop thing. Hip Hop has
Speaker 1: always been broad and always been able to talk about
Speaker 1: all those different things. Like I said, my mother would
Speaker 1: always tell me to read things that didn't pertain to you.
Speaker 1: So I literally was just a sponge. I would be
Speaker 1: into everything. After all the dudes you paid and the
Speaker 1: struggle you endured to get here, how do you deal
Speaker 1: with all the success? It must be heady stuff, going
Speaker 1: from the life you were talking about Mark's Corner to
Speaker 1: not New York but the world. Now? How do you
Speaker 1: cope with that? I learned my lesson a long time ago. Man.
Speaker 1: The first time I ever got fired was from High
Speaker 1: ninety eight nine in Chalton, South Carolina. But I really
Speaker 1: held myself accountable because I know that I was not
Speaker 1: using the microphone the way that I shouldn't have used
Speaker 1: the microphone. Back then, I didn't understand the power that
Speaker 1: comes with that microphone, you know. Michael Mex said, the
Speaker 1: person who controls the media, control of the minds of
Speaker 1: the masses. I know, back then, I was not putting
Speaker 1: the right things in people's minds and people's heads. And
Speaker 1: so now when it comes to the success, it's not
Speaker 1: about me. It's about who could I empower the day?
Speaker 1: Who can I help to day. I like opening and
Speaker 1: sharing my platform with people more so than anything. I
Speaker 1: wrote two books, one called Black Privilege, another one called
Speaker 1: ship Win. You know. Black Privilege was just, you know,
Speaker 1: eight lessons that I learned in my life. So once again,
Speaker 1: even though I'm talking about myself, I'm sharing my life
Speaker 1: experiences to help somebody else. Ship Point was about a
Speaker 1: journal I was keeping while I was going to therapy
Speaker 1: that too, helped other people. You know, I was just
Speaker 1: telling my stories. So I think that's what helps me
Speaker 1: not to get big headed, uh, not to have an ego.
Speaker 1: Success to me isn't about what I'm accomplishing. Success to
Speaker 1: me is like what am I doing to help other people?
Speaker 1: That's when you truly start to feel successful. You're one
Speaker 1: of the few people who has to gravitage to talk to.
Speaker 1: The big stars disappear when you interview them. What are
Speaker 1: you trying to get from them? And how do you
Speaker 1: do it? I'm just always coming from the perspective of curiosity.
Speaker 1: I think that's what every radio personality, every media personality,
Speaker 1: should never lose. Don't lose that curiosity when you start
Speaker 1: to think that you're an expert and people are really
Speaker 1: coming to you because you're the authority on all things
Speaker 1: hip hop or the authority on all things politics. That's
Speaker 1: when you get corny, when you're to know it all.
Speaker 1: To me, it's like you really know nothing. I don't
Speaker 1: like people like that. I like people that when I'm
Speaker 1: watching them, I can tell they're learning and I'm learning
Speaker 1: with them in that moment. Let's talk about something new, podcasting.
Speaker 1: Why do you think it suddenly broke out and it's
Speaker 1: been around for a while and then just suddenly it
Speaker 1: took off. It's the same reason people love radio. I
Speaker 1: think one problem that radio I hope we can fix
Speaker 1: going into the new decade. We haven't done a great
Speaker 1: job of grooming personalities. It should be more than one Charlomagne.
Speaker 1: It should be more than one Bobby Bones. There should
Speaker 1: be more than one Elvis Duran. You know, I don't
Speaker 1: think that we've done a good job of letting people
Speaker 1: express their personalities. You know, I think radio got a
Speaker 1: little bit too to Vanilla. I think podcast allow you
Speaker 1: to be a personality because you're really taking these kids
Speaker 1: off the street the same way I was when back
Speaker 1: was off the street. Nobody told me how to do radio.
Speaker 1: I just started talking. And that's what these kids are
Speaker 1: doing with their podcast. They just talking, and they're telling
Speaker 1: their life experiences and they're talking about things from their
Speaker 1: p O V. And I think some people will just
Speaker 1: find it refreshing and they just find it entertaining, like
Speaker 1: when we talk about being those companions on those long
Speaker 1: car rides. Man, you know, if it's not the morning
Speaker 1: show and you're listening to the radio in the mid days,
Speaker 1: are in the afternoons, are at night, you don't really
Speaker 1: feel like you got a companion. You feel like somebody's
Speaker 1: talking at you. You turn on the podcasts, you feel
Speaker 1: like it's some people which you laugh and joke and
Speaker 1: having a conversation. Podcast is creating more friends for people
Speaker 1: to ride with. Let's talk about social Social influencers are
Speaker 1: all the rage with marketers. You have something none of
Speaker 1: them have. You have a huge, engaged and regular audience
Speaker 1: on the radio every day, plus the millions of followers
Speaker 1: on social too, so we you and the Breakfast Club
Speaker 1: put a post up socially, how does that fit with
Speaker 1: your radio show? Before? I feel like we had these steaks,
Speaker 1: but we were eating them with forks. But I feel
Speaker 1: like with social media now we've got the knives because
Speaker 1: we're cutting it up and that's how we're feeding the masses.
Speaker 1: And like, the conversation never stops, I mean literally never stop.
Speaker 1: I know, I know, I look at your posts, yes,
Speaker 1: which is not good for your mental health, by the way,
Speaker 1: because like nobody should be that connected all the time.
Speaker 1: And literally it can be interviews from years ago that
Speaker 1: people will start talking about now. It's like they're discovering
Speaker 1: all of this new stuff all of the time. So
Speaker 1: it's like the Breakfast Club. The conversation never stops. It's
Speaker 1: always a constant conversation about some type of content that
Speaker 1: I created. So you gotta feel good about that. But
Speaker 1: it's literally a conversation that never stops. And if you
Speaker 1: think you're these people's friends when you're on the radio
Speaker 1: for four hours a day, no, you're these people's friend
Speaker 1: twenty four hours a day, and they have questions and
Speaker 1: they demand answers. How dare you not reply? To me,
Speaker 1: you know that's how they view it. How dare you
Speaker 1: not reply to me? If I post something on your
Speaker 1: page and I found myself engaging with him, I actually
Speaker 1: think it's fun. You get to see the reaction. That's
Speaker 1: actually one of the things that's new to radio that
Speaker 1: we didn't have back in the day. To actually see
Speaker 1: how people react to your interviews, whether they're trending on
Speaker 1: social media, or people learn new information, or even when
Speaker 1: it's not a celebrity, as somebody from a business and
Speaker 1: you bring them on, like we had my guy on
Speaker 1: another Day's name is Kareem. He's in the social equity
Speaker 1: and the YouTube and if you might have got like
Speaker 1: seventy thousand views something like that, but he's like, yo,
Speaker 1: we're getting tens of thousands of emails, people hitting us
Speaker 1: up inquiring about our social equity. So to watch these
Speaker 1: companies like that get those booths, or the entrepreneur who's
Speaker 1: selling T shirts, whatever it is is, to watch these
Speaker 1: people be able to establish themselves just from an interview
Speaker 1: is very powerful. How do you help advertisers get returned
Speaker 1: on the investment in your show? What do you think
Speaker 1: the value of being in the radio is for an advertiser.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it's everything, especially when you're dealing
Speaker 1: with the show that has the listenership that the breakfast
Speaker 1: Club does and has the social me the engagement that
Speaker 1: the breakfast Club does. Because our people trust us. That's
Speaker 1: one reason I won't just put my name on anything.
Speaker 1: You know, if I'm not actually using it, then I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna really talk about it. Sometimes I mess up
Speaker 1: because I'm using products and I might just shot it out.
Speaker 1: Next thing, you know, they reaching out to me and
Speaker 1: sending me product because they've gotten these spikes and sales
Speaker 1: are like these spikes and mentions on social media, people
Speaker 1: are starting to check them out. I just think radio,
Speaker 1: especially now at radio, with social media and then YouTube
Speaker 1: all works this one. I don't think we could ever
Speaker 1: put a price on it. We've built this multi platform
Speaker 1: company now because it's hard to tell where one ends
Speaker 1: the other begins. You've spent a lot of time on
Speaker 1: TV as well as radio. How do you contrast the
Speaker 1: audio experience of radio with the TV experience. Audio is
Speaker 1: more intimate. When you're sitting there having a conversation with somebody,
Speaker 1: you can get more comfortable. I think when they come
Speaker 1: on television. They know that this segment is only gonna
Speaker 1: be six seven minutes. When you think about the compelling
Speaker 1: interviews that you saw on TV back in the day,
Speaker 1: the compelling interviews, it was the Larry King's the Open
Speaker 1: Wind for You, the diansaur Is, the Barbara Walters. Why
Speaker 1: were they interviews so compelling because they actually took time,
Speaker 1: They actually sat down and had long form conversations with
Speaker 1: these people. It's the intimacy of it. You know. That's
Speaker 1: one reason I used to love or seen your Hall
Speaker 1: back in the day. You know, Senior Hall used to
Speaker 1: have these which seemed like long conversations with them. They
Speaker 1: would be, you know, fifteen twenty minutes, which is long
Speaker 1: on television, but that's all we had back then. There
Speaker 1: was no podcast. What's the longest interview you've done on
Speaker 1: the radio? Longest interview I've ever done on the radio
Speaker 1: was an hour in forty seven minutes, and that was
Speaker 1: with Dick Gregory. God blessed the rest in peace. I
Speaker 1: think that was actually his last interview. And I remember
Speaker 1: just I never had met Dick Gregory, always been a
Speaker 1: fan of Dick Gregory, and you know, we just sat there.
Speaker 1: I remember Angelie and envy being so restless, and Dick
Speaker 1: had like all of these papers that he was showing us.
Speaker 1: It was almost like he knew he wasn't gonna be
Speaker 1: around much longer, so he wanted all of this information
Speaker 1: to be out there. And it's it's literally like an
Speaker 1: hour forty seven minute of view. And I'm so happy
Speaker 1: that we did that. You've embraced a number of important
Speaker 1: social causes. Somebody creating awareness, some by providing insights, some
Speaker 1: outlets promotions, somebody raising money, somebody donating your own money.
Speaker 1: All had huge impact. How do you choose your issues
Speaker 1: and causes? I know what it feels like to not
Speaker 1: have I grew up in a single wide trailing Monks
Speaker 1: when the South canline. I didn't even realize how Poul
Speaker 1: we were. And it's so funny because my mom said
Speaker 1: the same thing. I didn't realize how poul we were,
Speaker 1: and she talks about that when she was growing up.
Speaker 1: I just feel like, when you have a lot, sometimes
Speaker 1: it's very easy just to say here, But I mean,
Speaker 1: I just try to do things that are of personal
Speaker 1: interest to me. Anything that has to do with mental health,
Speaker 1: the research of it, the treatment of it. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be all into that. My mother went to an HBCU,
Speaker 1: historically Black college university, So I'm gonna always be big
Speaker 1: in the HBCUs. Anything that can empower people economically, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give money to those type of foundations. So it's
Speaker 1: just things that I have personal interest in. Your book,
Speaker 1: Shook One, Can you talk a little bit about your
Speaker 1: journey my whole life, I've had like these really bad
Speaker 1: panic attacks, and you know, I never knew what those
Speaker 1: panic attacks were. You know, I just honestly thought that
Speaker 1: the environment I grew up in warranted me to have
Speaker 1: that shortness of breakfast like I'm having a heart attack,
Speaker 1: and those sweaty palms and things like that. So I
Speaker 1: never thought anything of it until two thousand and ten,
Speaker 1: when I was back living at home with my mom,
Speaker 1: driving me down and feeling like I was about to die,
Speaker 1: Like Yo, this is it. And so I went to
Speaker 1: the hospital. The doctor was like, YO, your heart is fine.
Speaker 1: You got an athletes heart. And he was like, yo,
Speaker 1: you have anxiety. You know, like anxiety, And he's like
Speaker 1: it sounds like you got a panic attack, Like a
Speaker 1: panic attack you scresched out about anything. I'm like, hell, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm scressed about all kind of stuff. I'm living at home.
Speaker 1: My mom just got five for the four time. And
Speaker 1: so in my mind when he said that to me, Okay,
Speaker 1: all I gotta do get another job, like another job,
Speaker 1: all that to go out the window. Everything would be
Speaker 1: cool for or five years later, end up getting the
Speaker 1: breakfast club, had a lot of success, but still having
Speaker 1: those panic attacks, still falling into depression for whatever reason.
Speaker 1: And um, I studied successful people, and a lot of
Speaker 1: people that I know that's successful, we're talking to me
Speaker 1: about therapy, and it's like, Yo, maybe you should try therapy.
Speaker 1: And so I just stopped flirting with the idea around
Speaker 1: two thousand and seventeen and I just started going it's
Speaker 1: done one just for my life. It's literally like organizing
Speaker 1: a junkie closet. Like you know, you're going to closet
Speaker 1: and you might have clothes and sneakers and everything everywhere.
Speaker 1: So you just start like folding up the stuff that
Speaker 1: you want to keep and putting it in a nice place,
Speaker 1: and the things that you don't want you pack up,
Speaker 1: you ship off, and now you got room to bring
Speaker 1: in new things. That's just what therapy has done for me.
Speaker 1: It's just like, really help me to get a handle
Speaker 1: on my anxiety if you could. What advice would you
Speaker 1: have for your sixteen year old self? I would tell
Speaker 1: my sixteen year self don't change a thing. Really, I
Speaker 1: believe in the space time continuum. I've watched a lot
Speaker 1: of Back to the Future, and I know Avengers in
Speaker 1: game changed our thoughts on time travel, but I still
Speaker 1: feel like if you go back in time and you
Speaker 1: change anything you went through, you may not end up
Speaker 1: where you are. The only thing I would tell him
Speaker 1: is that it's gonna be a lot harder then you
Speaker 1: realize it's gonna be. But I promise you everything will
Speaker 1: be all right. Just don't get discouraged and stay. Of course,
Speaker 1: I don't think I would tell my sixteen yourself I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be successful, though, because I feel like my sixteen
Speaker 1: yourself will just sitting around and wait to be successful.
Speaker 1: So what advice do you have for those people who
Speaker 1: want to be the next year? That's where you fail.
Speaker 1: You failed by trying to be the next anything. You
Speaker 1: should truly just be yourself. And it's great to be inspired,
Speaker 1: Like I was inspired by a lot of radio personalities,
Speaker 1: but I would have failed tremendously trying to be any
Speaker 1: of them. The beauty of life is that we are
Speaker 1: all blessed to be our own individual, unique personality. That's
Speaker 1: why our DNA is different than everybody else. If you
Speaker 1: really tap into who you are and your experiences and
Speaker 1: what you've been through, you can deliver a story that
Speaker 1: people can relate to. But nobody else has been through.
Speaker 1: So I would never tell you don't want to be
Speaker 1: like me because you can't be like me because you
Speaker 1: haven't gone through what I've gone through. You're not from
Speaker 1: where I'm from, You're not me. Be yourself genuinely, be yourself,
Speaker 1: your true authentic self, and I think that you will
Speaker 1: be a okay and you'll be a personality that people
Speaker 1: want to listen to. You like a lot of guests
Speaker 1: on the show, are not a college graduate. By the way,
Speaker 1: I'm not either. Any regrets that you didn't go to college. No,
Speaker 1: it's difficult having that conversation with kids telling them you
Speaker 1: didn't go to college because once again, you're not me.
Speaker 1: Lebron James didn't go to college, but you're not Lebron
Speaker 1: James like you gotta you gotta find I was lucky
Speaker 1: enough and blessed enough to find my gifts in life early.
Speaker 1: And you know, being that we live in a society,
Speaker 1: were living in America where you can capitalize off your gifts,
Speaker 1: I was able to do that. Everybody's not gonna be
Speaker 1: that lucky. So are that blessed? I don't like the
Speaker 1: world be that blessed. So I would tell you go
Speaker 1: to school and till you figure it out. Can't hurt,
Speaker 1: right until you figure out what it is that you
Speaker 1: want to do. It doesn't hurt to go to college.
Speaker 1: I'm the exception, not the rule. So on the continuum
Speaker 1: of work life balance on one end and work life
Speaker 1: integration on the other, where do you fall? Honestly, if
Speaker 1: I'm being honest, I think I focus more on my
Speaker 1: personal nowadays than anything else because I feel like if
Speaker 1: I'm not the best me mentally, if I'm not the
Speaker 1: best me emotionally, spiritually, physically, I can't be the best professionally.
Speaker 1: So those who wrap up, we always do a shout
Speaker 1: out to two different kinds of people from math, magic, entrepreneurs,
Speaker 1: and marketers. Those that came at it from an analytical perspective,
Speaker 1: the math folks and those that came at marketing from
Speaker 1: the magic side, the showman. Who's the best of the
Speaker 1: math people you can think of or do you admire.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about like different executives that I met on
Speaker 1: my radio journey, George Cooke, Cadillac, Jack Dennis Clark, g Spen,
Speaker 1: because it is a science to this thing that we
Speaker 1: do call radio. And I've seen them take these one
Speaker 1: plus ones and make them too. That's not easy as
Speaker 1: people think it is. So magician, who's the most creative?
Speaker 1: I like guys like jay Z. The reason I like
Speaker 1: guys like jay Z is because he's from a place
Speaker 1: where people like him are not supposed to come from.
Speaker 1: He didn't have any of the training that a lot
Speaker 1: of entrepreneurs and CEOs have. He just had a CEO's mind,
Speaker 1: and like he said, that marketing plan was him and
Speaker 1: he was an entrepreneur. He's the type of person that
Speaker 1: would be successful and whatever field he chose to be in,
Speaker 1: he just has something that you can't you can't buy.
Speaker 1: And jay Z has just been a person who's dictated
Speaker 1: culture for the past thirty years, and not just for himself,
Speaker 1: Like look at all the people that he's put on.
Speaker 1: Whether this to Rihanna's the j Cole's, the Kanye's, like
Speaker 1: all of these people who have influenced coaching in so
Speaker 1: many different ways stemmed from him and what he built.
Speaker 1: And so when I look at what I want to
Speaker 1: do as far as radio and media, I want people
Speaker 1: to look at me in that same way, because, like
Speaker 1: I said, it's not about me, It's about what are
Speaker 1: you doing to make this culture that you love move forward?
Speaker 1: And I genuinely love forward and I want to keep
Speaker 1: moving this culture of radio forward. Charlemagne, you have he
Speaker 1: trimmed mendous influence on culture and the lives of others.
Speaker 1: Thank you for doing it with so much thought and
Speaker 1: so much intention. Thanks for being Thank you, appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Here are a few things I've picked up in my
Speaker 1: conversation with Charlemagne. To God one, read and listen to
Speaker 1: things that don't pertain to you. This invaluable advice from
Speaker 1: Charlemagne's mom enabled him to see a world outside the
Speaker 1: one he grew up in and helped him connect with
Speaker 1: a wide audience later in his career, too. Never stopped creating.
Speaker 1: Even after Charlemagne got fired from several radio jobs and
Speaker 1: was living in his mom's house. It was a few
Speaker 1: videos he made with friends that ultimately got him his
Speaker 1: big break. Three come from the perspective of curiosity, not expertise.
Speaker 1: When Charlemagne interviews someone, the best conversations happened when they
Speaker 1: learn from each other in the moment. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: I'm Bob Pittman. That's it for today's episode. Thanks so
Speaker 1: much for listening to Math and Magic, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. This show is hosted by Bob Pittman.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Sue Schillinger for booking and wrangling our
Speaker 1: wonderful talent, which is no small feat Nikki Etre for
Speaker 1: pulling research, Bill Plax and Michael Azar for their recording help,
Speaker 1: our editor Ryan Murdoch, and of course Gayle Raoul, Eric Angel,
Speaker 1: Noel Mango and everyone who helped bring this show to
Speaker 1: your ears. Until next time,