The Breakfast Club - Charlamagne Tha God : Part - The Breakfast Club's Influence, Corporate Status,100 Million Joe Rogan Audio/Video Component , Dame Dash Interview, Life-Changing Wife, Black Women's Blessings, Black Effect, and More.

Episode Date: June 19, 2023

Lenard Larry McKelvey  known professionally as Charlamagne tha God or simply Charlamagne, is an American radio host and television personality. He is a co-host of the nationally syndicated radio show The Breakfast Club with DJ Envy, whom he was inducted into the Radio Hall of Famewith in 2020 for their work on the show. He also hosts the late-night talk show Hell of A Week with Charlamagne tha God on Comedy Central. Prior to his work on The Breakfast Club, he worked as a radio personality for several radio stations and also spent time as second mic on The Wendy Williams Experience with Wendy Williams on VH1. He is the founder of the Black Effect Podcast Network,[1] and was featured on Guy Code, Guy Court and Girl Code. He was also a VJ for The Week in Jams with DJ Envy and Sofi Green. In 2015, McKelvey began hosting the MTV2 show Uncommon Sense. In the shock jock tradition, one of McKelvey's personal mantras is "bite my tongue for no one";[2] he was called "hip-hop's Howard Stern" by Rolling Stone magazine.[3] In the first part of this captivating two-part interview, Loon sits down with the iconic Charlamagne tha God on Up There Podcast. Join them as they dive deep into a wide range of topics, providing insights and thought-provoking discussions. The conversation begins with Charlamagne reflecting on how The Breakfast Club, a popular radio show, has played a pivotal role in shaping the podcasting landscape. They discuss the influence and impact of their podcast conversations, exploring how they have shifted the culture. Charlamagne addresses the corporate status of media, questioning the implications of corporate ownership and control over content. They also touch upon the confusion that may have arisen from Dame Dash's interview and its effect on the market. The discussion takes a personal turn as Charlamagne opens up about the transformative power of his wife in his life. He shares how her presence has brought blessings and positive changes. They also celebrate the importance and influence of loving black women in their respective journeys. Exploring the Black Effect, a platform dedicated to amplifying black voices, Charlamagne and Loon delve into the significance of this initiative and its impact on the media landscape. They reflect on the "old Charlamagne" and discuss the concept of going beyond low-hanging fruit in conversations. Addressing a common critique, Charlamagne responds to those who call him "PC the God," revealing his perspective and clarifying his approach to sensitive topics. They also explore the profound impact of speaking on politics, revealing how it extends beyond speaking on rappers and has even affected Charlamagne's ability to obtain home insurance. The conversation expands to discuss hip hop's position within the media, highlighting the challenges and opportunities faced by artists and the industry as a whole. Charlamagne shares his experience meeting Minister Farrakhan and the profound impact it had on him, including the wisdom imparted by the Minister. Delving into the business side of podcasting, they explore the factors that warrant monetary value in the podcasting industry. They touch upon Joe Rogan's groundbreaking $100 million deal in the audio space and the evolving landscape of podcasting as a business. Join this engaging conversation between Charlamagne tha God and Loon as they navigate through the intricacies of media, personal growth, societal impact, and the ever-changing landscape of podcasting. For an enhanced podcast experience and exclusive benefits, become a patron of the Up There Podcast on Patreon at Patreon link. Gain access to bonus content, merchandise, and more. Support the show and enjoy the full Up There experience on Patreon.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey y'all, Niminy here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Executive produced by Questlove, The Story Pirates, and John Glickman, Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop. Flash, slam, another one gone. Bash, bam, another one gone. The crack of the bat and another one gone. The tip of the cap, there's another one gone. Each episode is about a different inspiring figure from history. Like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it. And it began with me. Did you know, did you know? I wouldn't give up my seat. Nine months before Rosa, it was called a gold mine. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records.

Because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017, was assassinated. Crooks everywhere unearthed the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's up? This is Ramses Jha. And I go by the name QWAR. And we'd like you to join us each week for our show Civic Cipher. That's right. We discuss social issues, especially those that affect black and brown people, but in a way that informs and empowers all people. We discuss everything from prejudice to politics to police violence.

And we try to give you the tools to create positive change in your home, workplace and social circle. We're going to learn how to become better allies to each other. So join us each Saturday for Civic Cipher on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Thanksgiving Day 1999, five-year-old Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was found off the coast of Florida. And the question was, should the boy go back to his father in Cuba? Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home, and he wanted to take his son with him. Or stay with his relatives in Miami?

Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. expert Vivian too, aka your rich BFF to break it down. Looking at the numbers is one of the most honest reflections of what your financial picture actually is. The numbers won't lie to you. Listen to this week's episode of Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 2016, I'm experiencing the most success I've ever had in my life, but I'm realizing I'm becoming exactly what I hated. You know, I'm about to ruin my family the way I saw my pops ruin his family.

I was getting caught up in the caricature of Charlemagne. That ain't who Leonard is. What moment was it, though, when you were at the height that made you say, all right, I might need to see what's going on? Phone call from my wife. I'm out in L.A. doing some shit I ain't got no business doing. I remember her just saying to me, what are you doing? I'm like, oh, I'm just in the hotel or whatever.

She was like, no, what are you doing? Wow. She feeling it. And not even about that moment. She said, what are you doing with your life? You're about to fuck around and lose your family. You're about to fuck around and lose everything. And they'd be like, yo, PC to God.

Let me tell y'all something. Calling out rappers, that brings you some smoke. You're definitely going around and lose everything. And they'd be like, yo, PC to God. Let me tell y'all something. Calling out rappers, that brings you some smoke. You definitely going to hit a ceiling. Calling out politicians is a way different ballgame, yo. I ain't talking about no entertainment shit. I'm talking about real life. I tell you a story. It's like, yo, I remember one time my lawyer got on the phone with one of them and said,

what is going on? I got the opportunity to be part of the press junkie. I'm just sitting there like, I don't know what all these people talking about. I don't know if I'm ever going to get a chance to talk to the minister ever again. I got questions about life. Man. I was the first person, boom, I hit him with two questions about life. Man.

And he gave these really thought-provoking answers and he goes, don't ask me any more questions. I'm going to talk to you later. People always ask me, what's the key to success? I always say God, black women, and therapy. You got to have a queen on your side. What Mef say, nothing makes a man feel better than a woman. Man.

Queen with a crown, I'd be down for whatever. welcome to what's up that podcast another episode of the fast growing podcast in the world the vibration is high today we got somebody who i studied a long time man i call this dude the gold of the market he's been able to put points up a lot of y'all been able to get to the game and get in the arena and get to the bench but this dude here been putting points up and now we see him putting more assists up than everybody today we got charlamagne the god how's it going my loan what's up my brother man lovely lovely it is a privilege and an honor uh to be on the it's up there podcast i've been watching this up there podcast for a minute. I love the free jewelry you give out to the marketplace at all times. Appreciate it, brother.

This is definitely a show I look forward to having the conversation on. Man, I appreciate it, man. And you've amplified me. You've helped me. You've been a shoulder I can lean on. And I want the youngsters to know, like, we lighting away with these conversations. These conversations mean so much to me and so much to the market. And that's why I'm proud that sometimes, like last night you just hit me like bro you got me inspired to

have these kind of conversations that means so much to me because that's what i really do it for i'm like bro put that 23 back on put that 20 don't you know see you don't they think you got the 45 on put that 23 back on you know loon be hitting saying? And Loon be hitting me, and Loon be like, you know, man, there's so much misinformation out here. There's so much people out here giving bad game. Yes. You know? And I was like, damn.

To be honest with you, I don't be paying no attention. Right. But then when I do pay attention, I do tap in. I'm like, oh, Loon, right. Yes. Because everybody out here just saying anything, and these people that don't know any better that's on the come up they eating it up yes like i don't have no problem giving game to the people that surround me or you

know if you listen to breakfast club or brilliant it is you might get some jewels here and there but i never thought about like just sitting down and like just really explaining the the business side of things because that's that's what we need like and even when i told y'all yesterday on on uh brilliant idiots when i was just telling shows like bro this is literally all some of these guys got yeah you see what i mean like they are literally at home crafting their destiny based off these conversations and so if we allow a lot of the lives to live in the marketplace we're effectively setting our counterparts up for failure because they're gonna chase something that's not really there right and um i think it's important that we had a conversation i want to dive

right in we coming in hot man um yesterday we spoke about billboard we spoke about them releasing a um a press release saying that no rap or hip-hop song was it platinum no rap no rap album or hip-hop song has hit number one in 2023 that's the first time that's happened in 30 years wow and and we kind of touched on it on idiots but i want to build on it a little more um it's so crazy because without us even reading it we both were spot on you was like yo the afro beat thing is the low vibration in the rap music it's just starting to turn people off. Yeah. And I'm saying, yo, I think the algorithm with the tick tock has stopped allowing for those stars to be overnight stars. They're sending you back in the kitchen. Right. And let's let's build on that a little bit more.

Chasing algorithm. We. Yeah. I mean, I love this conversation because it applies to just more than music, man. It applies to that next generation of media personality. I feel like everybody is chasing an algorithm instead of attempting to be the algorithm. Right. And the way that you be the algorithm is by focusing on intent over content. You know, that's something that my guy, Amp Harris, always says. He said people forgot about intent and they just focus on content. That's something that my guy, Amp Harris always says. He said people forgot about intent and they just focus on content. For me coming up in South Carolina, all I ever wanted to do was put the best content out there.

I just wanted to be a great radio personality. That's all I wanted to do. I was learning from the people that were in position at the time. So as I was finding my own way of doing things, finding my own style, you know, you could hear elements of, you know, the Howard Sterns or the Wendy Williams or the Angie Martinez, like these people

that I was paying attention to just by listening to online at the time. But I wasn't me yet, you know what I mean? But even with that, I was still trying to produce great content because they were the bar for me. Yes. I listened to their interviews and I'm like, I want to do that. And if you're going to copy anyone, copy the bar. Copy the bar.

And that's what confuses me because without us speaking, they don't have the bar to copy. They now copy what's available well i think i agree with i agree with that but i think they are copying the bar but they're not really digging into what the bar may be doing they see things on the surface i got caught up into that like when they out here these publications calling me the hip-hop howard stern i didn't even stop to think well what part of howard do they like you know uh that they see in me exactly you know i mean for me it was just like okay i'm gonna do double down i'm gonna do the i'm gonna do the perverted shit i'm gonna have porn stars in here i'm gonna be sniffing chairs

i'm gonna be doing all of that that wild crazy shit that frat boy humor right that low vibrational frat boy humor that goes back to what i'm talking about when we talk about these algorithms i was chasing an algorithm instead of being an algorithm and i think the problem with uh hip-hop right now is that everybody's chasing the algorithm everybody wants to go viral but nobody's thinking about building something that actually has value exactly and i think we get it confused i've always told everybody that listens to me they notice but I always say our job when we when we are putting out clips or when we're using YouTube or any of these social media platforms that we have no control over we use those as a billboard like you say or as a commercial like I say so in business your whole objective is to be able to scale to scale you need to be able to forecast to forecast

you need concrete information there's no way to have concrete information from something like a youtube or tiktok or facebook sometimes they criticize you for corporate hustling instead of i don't know what they call it something else which I will get into it. I believe the corporate hustle allows you to forecast and scale a business. I think these youngsters have been confused. They really believe that strategic partnership is not as valuable as it truly is in the market. That's a fact, Loon, and they're abandoning traditional institutions. For example, YouTube, TikTok, social media. You need all of that as an artist.

But guess what else you need? You need radio. Exactly. You know what I mean? And I get it. You know, I even at times thought to myself, like, damn, is radio as important as it used to be? You know, because I feel like, you know, this is what I say in radio when I'm in my corporate meetings. I always say, look, radio will never lead in anything ever again, right?

Because when it comes to personality, people go to podcasts. When it comes to music, people go to streaming services. When it comes to live events, people go to festivals, right? Or these experiences, like Mary J. Blige does her festival. The Roots does their picnic. When it comes to news, social media is always going to break news, right? But radio can be the greatest compliment, the greatest amplifier for all of those things. So when you look at these artists not charting number one on Billboard, yeah, they may have the TikTok thing going viral.

They may have all the social media followers. But that song is only going to go as far as the algorithm allows it to. And those fans online are so fickle, they might be on a song today and then be on to something else the next day. But what does radio do? Radio will take that song and beat it in your head. They will beat it in your head every day on the hour.

So now you're not just getting listened to by fickle fans online, you're actually becoming a habit to people. People waking up in the morning or driving in the afternoon they constantly hearing this record they it programs you to actually like and that's why it's this record and that's why it's called programming so what happens with that now you need the artist to start making the rounds so that's why labels have to do their job right because labels are so busy chasing the algorithm

they just trying to break a song instead of trying to build an artist. You sit down, you take that artist and you sit them down and you get them media training. You get them ready to go make these rounds through radio. Not only that, these shows that radio be doing, like these concerts, you make sure that they're on these shows. Now, you might have to do that for free. But what does it matter? Because all that's going to do is make everything else go up exactly them numbers that you're getting paid on that festival

stage those gonna go up it's gonna make your streams go up you know i mean so it's just like you should do it all exactly you don't you don't abandon anything don't abandon social media and the internet but don't abandon radio and those traditional outlets to build the star exactly because in my opinion the infrastructure is so important. And with radio and with certain entities, they have the infrastructure, which means like with podcasting, and I hope to some of the youngsters that look up to me, help them understand what strategic partnerships look like, because y'all so far gone, they don't even get it.

They don't even understand what the fuck is like Charlamagne and Breakfast Club and iHeart. I don't understand how that connects. But some of these other guys that do pods that kind of stand up on a mountain and beat their chest. It's like, well, damn, that seems a little bit more like what I'm doing, right? Because they can't relate. So I need them to understand how important it is to connect the right dots. And we also yesterday spoke about chasing that equity play, right? To try to put yourself in a position to say, hey, I'm not going to sign unless they give me equity in the company, or I'm not going to make the deal

unless they give me some sort of percentage in something that's probably unreasonable for the market at that time. What do you say to people who build the business that way? I think that the only way to get a business to scale is through strategic partnerships. You know, you will hit a ceiling. You definitely going to hit a ceiling. You know, that's why I laugh at a lot of people when they have these ownership conversations. But your platform is is social media like if you if you on youtube you know as much as you think you own your content youtube really owns your content because what youtube can do is demonetize you whenever they want they can strike your videos

whenever they want they can suppress you whenever they want they can take your whole page down in any time whenever they want so i don't understand how people really. In particular, they do that to y'all because people that's on the radio, they feel as though they can have those conversations with radio personalities about ownership and they operate on YouTube. It makes no sense. Yeah, it's a very strange thing. And then I say to myself, all right, you operate on YouTube. At some point, because I've seen this happen in other markets.

The reason why I don't operate on YouTube is because I lost a YouTube channel. So I know what it's like to have built that up and they snatch it. And you say, oh, that's income is just lost in the blink of an eye. But I think a lot of people, what I see them doing in that in that space is trying to build something that's not sustainable. Yeah, because all of those people that's in that space, you might feel like you're competing with me, competing with Breakfast Club in that space, but that's just one lane that we're in. Breakfast Club is a show that we wake up every day,

we come on 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., we got 8 million monthly listeners. That's just the radio. We take the content from here and meet people where they are. Remember back in the day, they would say, if you build it, they will come. It's like, no, nowadays you got to build it and meet people where they are. So we put our content on YouTube. We put our content on social media.

We put our content out as a daily podcast. Our podcast gets 15 to 20 million downloads a month anybody that really does the research like you loon yes you can go look it up and you can see even though it's a cheat code because we're not really a podcast breakfast club is the number one urban black podcast period and like like top 20 in the world all john you know what i mean like so so it's like all of those different lanes you are in so so you can't get gassed up if your YouTube page you know this year has more than Breakfast Club well you can't get gassed up if your podcast this week is rated

high in Breakfast Club because we're in all of those different lanes and the only thing I ever try to tell folks that's on YouTube is like we talked about earlier treat youtube like a digital billboard treat youtube like a distribution platform for your content but make sure this content is meeting people where they are in all of these different facets right so and that's how you have true value when you're everywhere and you have value when you only have value on one of these social media platforms or even all of them because they can change, you have to have catalog and really valuable assets in regards to content. And be a habit, right?

Yes. That's the thing I don't know if I've yet to see. No, there's a few podcasts I definitely believe are habits for people. I got habits when it comes to podcasts. There's certain podcasts I'm going to always check for. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's what radio has been for years. Like, think about how long your parents listened to Tom Joyner.

We. Think about Doug Banks and all of them back in the day. Think about how long Howard Stern was on terrestrial radio, now even satellite radio. And he showed his true value because he made people go from terrestrial radio to satellite radio. so it's the same thing with breath club we've been on for 13 years my god like you know i mean 13 years like this isn't some flash in the plant pan this is fly by night thing so one of the reasons i'm even here

to have these conversations because i want to show the next generation how to have that type of longevity and and create real value real value forget going viral let's create real value man that's a that's it that's a shirt right that's literally a shirt now here's what i always tell my people too is we use social media we use um youtube all these things to identify our customers at some point we have to identify the difference between a viewer and a customer because everyone is there that's looking ain't there to spend money or consume right some of these people are literally there just because of the mess or something that's happening people love train wrecks yes we love car crashes yes you know and it's a lot of mess out here and you speaking

to the the guy who used to call himself the professional slang spitter heavy hitter shit talker no none of y'all know mess like i know mess you know i mean i done been in a lot of mess you know and the mess brings attention but the mess don't bring the money yes that's what people don't realize for as much attention i tell folks this all the time when i was you know the the shock jock charlemagne yeah it brought a lot of attention. You know what I mean? But it didn't necessarily translate in the dollars. Exactly.

In ratings, right? Exactly. But what people don't realize is even through that, there was something I always told people. Righteousness and ratchetness. You got to have the perfect balance. Yes, yes. So you might see a messy ass interview one day but then you're gonna see dick gregory yes yes you know i'm saying you might see you know somebody from loving hip-hop or a porn

star in here but then you're gonna see farrakhan up here as well and that was all purposely done because i always understood you got to put the medicine inside the candy and that let's get there because to me i truly believe that breakfast club was influential in what podcasting is for the urban market like even just from the interview style the perspectives the questions the line of questioning the way you upload it like it's you you guys made it friendly for us to have those kind of conversations then of course we got vlad was out there a couple of people was out there doing it but breakfast club in particular was the first time that a lot of youngsters saw a farrakhan come to such a big platform and you welcome a dr umar you welcome a dick gregory at the same time juggling with those

other people and in my opinion that created that value that i continue to talk about breakfast club warrants a certain amount of real market share, not the fake market share. Real market share. And I'm getting tired of people operating in this fake space and leveraging that, bro. That's starting to, like, because me, I'm looking at it and saying, yo, that's not real.

Yo, yo, y'all think that's real? What he's doing is not, that's, what is that? And when you ask those questions like me and shoch yesterday with with act it's like i'm trying to identify what he sees like what what do you see there right and he just tells me he's funny and he gives me a joke about maybe i am gay and i say damn when i got home last night that really hit me like nah that wasn't it right but entertainment has its place it does you know entertainment has its place there's two things i would say to that i would say from the

business perspective you know that was a conscious decision for us to record our interviews and upload them the way that we did because prior to that you know i was doing that on my various journey through radio was that your idea who understood to do that all of us did at one point because it was uh when i was on 100.3 to beat in philly i was recording all my interviews but they were whether they were audio or video because you gotta think i was going viral back in south carolina you know what i'm saying when i had buffy the body in the studio crazy and that was just audio when t-pain you know when i told t-pain he couldn't sing live on the radio that was just audio yes but back in the day we had allhiphop.com we had sohh.com

all hip-hop uh ill seed in the rumor report that's the kind of stuff he would post like i remember bun b bun b came to uh came to my show back in south carolina he gave us pimp siri lee state all of those three moments i named went crazy viral to the point vlad was putting out these beef mixtapes and he put he put the buffy the body one on one of his beef mixtapes. So back then, that's what we considered national exposure, considered viral. Envy. I used to see Envy's interviews

when he used to be on Shade 45. He would record interviews every now and then and put them up. Angelina, when she was on Lip Service, she would record her interviews and put them up.

So when we all came together as a collective, I'm like, because we didn't have no marketing budget. High Heart Inc. wasn't doing billboards and all of that for us we was the we was the little niggas that could like not the little engine we was we were the little niggas that could we were just if this if this didn't work worked it that's right if this three don't work we don't know what we're

gonna end up doing with this station so we all came together the first thing we ever did we did a viral we did a sketch together and the sketch was about whose show is it and envy was like this is my show of course and he was running down his resume i'm like no this is my show of course i'm running down my resume and she's like no this is my show of course i'm running she's running down her resume and then it end with us just arguing and fighting and trying to decide what we're gonna sit and i remember we put that out and man that shit did like 600,000 700,000 views in a couple of days and we was like oh okay so go back who was doing that type of thing then nobody nobody that's what i'm saying this was 2010. that helped shape the market like i'm telling you like the way that these

conversations and then vlad come in with his click clippy type of thing that presented a whole thing but you guys just conversation wise i feel as though it laid a real foundation as what it should sound like when it's a classic interview and let me go back to um the corporate hustling thing because i think when i want to say one thing about that um i never thought about it but because before that, it would always be one person and one person. Now you got three people having a conversation with one person. Yes. You can get so much out

because I might ask something that Envy don't ask. Envy might ask something that you don't ask. So when you got three people together having a conversation with one person, you're able to get a much fuller interview. And that's something I never even thought about because even the people that I named, they one man bands that's what i'm saying one man band yeah so the one woman yeah so the podcast market literally i believe that almost

everybody doing podcasts right now came up off breakfast club not they you know as far as that saw that those interviews with jay and farrakhan, they literally drew something from that. At least I know I did. You know, so most people. But back to that corporate hustling thing and speaking about the Breakfast Club interviews, what I think happened is because a lot of people in the market and we'll get to some of them in a second. But some of those guys are lean on the fact that you're corporate hustling aside with our heart. I think that that Dame Dash interview, I think that sent it. Although the message was pure and it was a good message, I think it sent a level of confusion through the market.

I agree. I think that it kind of put people in a position not to understand that you can do this one hand wash the other both wash the face you know and i think some people who say your name with the corporate tag attached to it i think they lean on those kind of moments in which uh dame dash came in and said certain things and certain things might have happened what do you what do you think about that Dame Dash interview and what that may have done to the market of misinformation I love the Dame Dash conversation I think the essence of what he said is is true you know you do want ownership like you know you should have ownership in something um I don't believe in necessarily belittling the employees you know because we

all got to start somewhere and if you're a boss who you got to have people that work right yeah i like the same work with you instead of for you it's a collaborative effort so if you got people that work with you if they feel like you know you have that mentality like you're looking down on them or you think that they you know less than they may not want to ride for you as hard but i think uh we gotta we gotta take a step back when we have these conversations about ownership because you know um jay-z i pointed this interview that jay-z did with kevin hart on heart for heart because i think he broke it down so simply um some people are so happy having ownership of 100 of nothing nothing. So would you rather have 100% ownership of a company that makes, you know, let's just say $100,000 a year?

So that's your $100,000. Or would you rather have, you know, 10%, 20%, 30%, 50, 51% ownership of a company that's making multimillion dollars a year? That's what I'm saying. You do the math. Right. Like, that equity can still go to my kids a year. That's what I'm saying. You do the math. Right. That equity can still go to my kids. Yes. You know what I'm saying?

And at the end of the day, it's all about the capital. So there's plenty of things that I have equity in. Everything ain't 51% equity. Black Effect is 51% equity with iHeart. Right. But some things are 10%. Some things are 20%. When I do a TV show, it might be 15%.

Right. But all I need is the capital exactly when you get that capital that real capital now I can go out here and execute yes some things yes and straight out of my pocket yes you know by the way which which I do all the time like you know there's plenty of investments that I use my capital right to launch right right right you know and I do that because of the money I make through strategic partnerships. That's what I'm saying. It allows you to do so.

And I also want to be clear to the youngsters that my partnership with Charlamagne, they didn't try to own my shit. Never. They didn't try to play me or do no sucker shit. They fuck with me and say, Loon, we really enjoy your content. We want to amplify, be partners with you. This is what we can do.

We know you're going to do what you do. And here we are. My face card is always clean when it comes to business because I'm going to always treat people the way that I want to be treated. I'm not going to ever try to own the It's Up There IP. That's not why. It's Up There was already an existing entity.

The only thing I want to do is be able to bring this machine with Loon, plug Loon up to this machine machine and let's see how big this situation that's what i'm saying can get yeah bro and that's love because i'm telling the youngsters don't know that and when they say corporate hustling they don't know that you're reaching reaching in like that because there's a lot of people in the market that's successful today that went through you to get established but they won't say it so the youngsters still don't have the identity factor to know how did he get to that 10 how did he get there what happened how did he build that i know he says what he makes but why

and how and they forget the part well he he hooked up with charlemagne for a minute they ran some numbers up got the machine behind it and then it placed him established in the market and that's the part that a lot of young podcasters are forgetting you must get established in the market gotta get established before you can warrant any money I've always been intentional about using my platforms to empower other people you know my homeboy man DJ Frosty DJ Frosty.com he'll tell you I got on with Wendy, I thought I had to bring the whole South Carolina with me. That was my whole mindset. Like, yo, South Carolina, we trying to break somebody in this hip-hop game. So I'm going to use this platform to try to put everybody in position.

Frosty will always also tell you, when I got on Breakfast Club, I said, Frost, I'm going to do something that I never, ever did before. And I'm going to tell you something that I never, ever said before. I said, I'm going to do something that I never, ever did before, and I'm going to tell you something that I never, ever said before. I said, I'm going to be all about me. I said, the reason I'm going to be all about me is because I can't properly help anybody or assist anybody until I get in position. My man, Frosty, will tell you that right now. That's been my partner for over 20 years. Frosty will tell you that right now.

That's what I said. That was my mindset. Because a lot of times we don't realize we can get farther alone. Yes. You know, when you're trying to bring everybody in, which you know how it is when you try to get into a party with 20, 30 people. You know what I mean? Yes. But I've gotten into plenty of parties by myself.

You see how I roll. That's right. I understand it, right? My whole thing is like, bro, I'm really on a mission. I don't need all my homeboys with me. None of that because they're gonna they're gonna blur my vision that's right i need to be clear-minded i need to be focused that's right i don't need to be talking when i need to be studying you know i need to really be on this

because i know for a fact people are listening i know this for 100 fact and it's changing things i know people are saying yo i sat my son down to listen to that what you said about that you know and i'm like yo they lit so i'm taking that shit serious knowing that this is all they got because i can't touch everybody that's right i cannot go to every hood into every city and have a seminar every i can't do that but what i can do is be intentional with our conversations absolutely and i think if we live there man we we can we can we can go far I want to talk too about um your confidence what's responsible for your confidence Moncks Corner South Carolina you know uh growing up in a place where nobody bit their tongue yeah where regardless of what was in people's pockets regardless of what people's

financial situation was everybody walked in the room like they were somebody yes and nobody treated anybody you know differently because of what they had you know like that whole mentality i got why i treat the custodian like the ceo yes you know i get that from growing up in a small country town because you don't know who's who and i remember my dad me and my dad riding around my dad pointed at this dude one day my dad said you see that man right there it was this white dude he's just regular looking white dude he said that's the richest man in most corner and I was like for real because you know my idea of wealth is flashy jewelry the designer clothes and everything else the The fly car. I'm like, him? He was like, yeah. He was like, you know, black people, we like to wear our money.

You know what I mean? We like to show. We like to act. We like to show like we like to look like we have money instead of just actually having it. And I was like, damn. So my mentality was, especially growing up the way I grew up, I sold a little bit of drugs. I was a quarter spoon guy. You know, seven grams. Right, right, right. You're supposed to make a hundred dollars off every gram but you know that don't ever happen you're gonna spend 250 and make about 500 yes you know i mean

yes but i never was the richest person right and but all my people around me was really big big big big big dope boys so only thing i could do was be the funny guy you know what i'm saying the only thing i could do was be the guy that read everything you know that's the only thing i could do so my confidence was always okay i know i'm around people that may be finding more financially well off than me but i'm me yes like what god gave me is in me and it ain't on me but how did you how did you because I'm even going through that now where it's like, yo, bro,

I know what's up with me. I know what it is. I know who I am. But still, sometimes this shit is getting big where it's like, I, I,

what, whoa. Well, I'm going to add something else on too. Knowledge yourself, right? Growing up, my dad giving,

first book he gave me was Autobiography of Malcolm X, reading that. And that leading me into reading Message was the autobiography of Malcolm X, reading that. And then that leading me into reading Message to the Black Man by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And then, you know, reading From Niggas to Gods by Akil. Like all of these books just, you know, really instilled in me that black men are special. Black people are special. The black man is God.

Like that was really my mindset. And so that's another thing that um gave me confidence but to what you just said i've never felt like i'm bigger than nobody yeah you know i've never felt that way ever in my life i've never i've never had a struggle with being humble and in the times my ego did get the best of me i was fully aware that my ego was getting the best and that. And that's so important. And those are the moments that I couldn't sleep at night. Like everybody talk about, oh, you know, Charlamagne, all he talks about is mental health and therapy. I started going to therapy in 2016, you know,

because of exactly what you're talking about. I started going to therapy at the height of success. Wow, it makes sense too. Because I've always dealt with like anxiety, panic attacks. I've always dealt with like anxiety panic attacks i've always dealt with like bouts of depression didn't even know what they were you know growing up in the hood you just think you pussy yes you know i mean so if i'm like i'm around this environment where people got guns and it's violence and people are hustling of course i'm gonna be naturally

paranoid if you think that you gotta go and have to run from the cops in the next five minutes of course you're gonna be naturally paranoid but as i got older i started realizing like yo this ain't just normal you know paranoia so 2016 i'm experiencing the most success i've ever had in my life you know i got more money than i've ever had in my life but i'm realizing i'm becoming exactly what i hated meaning that i was about the root i had been married for like two years then even though me and my my wife we've been together 25 years but we had got married in 2014 and i was still out here in these streets right you know i'm still out here running around with a bunch of other chicks right in la laid up with a whole bunch of other stuff i'm still living that life and i'm realizing like yo i'm about to ruin my family the way i saw my pops yeah ruin his family and that's something

my pops would always tell me he regretted as he got older he would always say that to me the thing i really messed up on was not doing right by by your mom so i was getting caught up in the caricature of charlamagne yes that ain't who lenard is right what moment was it though when you were at the height that made you say all right i might need to see about my like see what's going on well because you went on a spell for a minute where you was doing shit like the the moment that made me really check myself was a was a phone call from my wife when i'm i'm out in la doing some shit i ain't got no business doing yeah and i remember her calling me and i remember her just saying to me what are you doing i'm like i'm just

in the hotel whatever yeah she was like no what are you doing wow like she feel it she and not even about that moment yeah she said what are you doing with your life you about to fuck around and lose your family you about to fuck around and lose everything you know me because of where you at mentally and that was like a wake-up call, like, oh, shit. And then I remember the moment I decided to start going to therapy was I was on vacation. I was on vacation with all my friends and family, and I love going to this place called Anguilla.

And I realized, I was getting my hair cut, and I realized I was feeling something that I hadn't felt in years, Loon. And it was true peace. Like, true peace. Like, true peace. Like, not a care in the world, not a worry in the world. That's what we strive for. No anxiety. I was in the moment.

Like, I was literally in the moment. Like, just I wasn't focused on what's going to happen tomorrow. I wasn't focused on what happened yesterday. I was just in the moment. And I said to myself, like, yeah, I got to feel like this all the time. What's going to make me feel like this all the time? And, you know, the answer for me was to start going to therapy man that's that's so deep it's so layered because when i hear you say that the first thing pops in my mind is where would you be without your

wife because this is how i know also that you are not one of those clout chasy or egotistical in regards to financial guys is because you never wore your wealth then on top of that at that moment you being charlemagne the height of your career you could have said man i reached out to jay-z and talked to jay man and had a long conversation with jay and that made me go see about my it could have been anything in the entertainment business any ceo anybody anybody almost in this business. It was family. My wife, man. My wife built me 25 years.

The first time I ever filled out an application at a radio station, she drove me because my license was suspended. Man. It's 1998. Wow. You know, Charleston, South Carolina. To be doing this with her, man. It's nobody better. She's my best friend.

She's my business partner. You know what I mean? Like, she's the person that I know has always believed in me. Like, she was writing papers about me in college. Like, about, you know, she was interviewing me for, like, because she was a communications major. So she was interviewing me in college. I go back and I read these things, and I'm like, damn.

And she always said, like, you predicted everything that you was going to be doing. Like, you know, I told her I'm going to be in New York doing radio. This is 2001. Wow. I only have been doing radio three years. Why would I believe that I was going to be in New York doing radio? Yeah. Look to my guy, Randy Roper, too.

Randy, he's from South Carolina. He used to write for Ozone Magazine. He'll tell you. Randy probably got some old tapes and old interviews where I'm predicting all of this. Wow, you need that. Same thing with Black. Whether you're starting or scaling your company's security program, demonstrating top-notch security practices and establishing trust is more important than ever. Vanta automates compliance for ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR, and more, saving you time and money while helping you build customer trust. Plus, you can streamline security reviews by automating questionnaires and demonstrating

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Consider this. Start your own country. I planted the flag. I just kind of looked out of like, this is mine. I own this. It's surprisingly easy. There's 55 gallons of water, 500 pounds of concrete. Everybody's doing it.

I am King Ernest Emmanuel. I am the Queen of Ladonia. I'm Jackson I, King of Kaperburg. I am the Supreme Leader of the Grand Republic of Mentonia. Be part of a great colonial tradition. The Waikana tried my country. My forefathers did that themselves. What could go wrong?

No country willingly gives up their territory. I was making a rocket with a black powder, you know, with explosive warhead. Oh my God. What is that? Bullets. Bullets. We need help!

We still have the off-road portion to go. Listen to Escape from Zakistan. And we're losing daylight fast. That's Escape from Z-A-Q-istan on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, y'all? This is Questlove, and I'm here to tell you about a new podcast I've been working on with the Story Pirates and John Glickman called Historical Records. It's a family-friendly podcast. Yeah, you heard that right. A podcast for all ages. One you can listen to and enjoy with your kids starting on September 27th.

I'm going to toss it over to the host of Historical Records, Nimany, to tell you all about it. Make sure you check it out. Hey, y'all. Nimany here. I'm the host of a brand-new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop. Flash, slam, another one gone Bash, bam, another one gone brings history to life through hip-hop.

Each episode is about a different inspiring figure from history, like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records. Because in order to make history,

you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the i to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's up? This is Ramses Jha. And I go by the name Q Ward. And we'd like you to join us each week for our show Civic Cipher. That's right. We're going to discuss social issues, especially those that affect black and brown people, but in a way that informs and empowers all people to hopefully create better allies. Think of it as a black show for non-black people. We discuss everything from prejudice to politics to police violence, and we try to give you the tools to create positive change in your home, workplace, and social circle. Exactly. Whether you're black, Asian, white, Latinx, indigenous, LGBTQIA+, you name it.

If you stand with us, then we stand with you. Let's discuss the stories and conduct the interviews that will help us create a more empathetic, accountable, and equitable America. You are all our brothers and sisters, and we're inviting you to join us for Civic Cipher each and every Saturday with myself, Ramses Jha, Q Ward, and some of the greatest minds in America. Listen to Civic Cipher every Saturday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba.

He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian Gonzalez. Elian.

Elian. Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzales wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami.

Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Vlad, Vlad, when I got fired from Philly at 100.3 to beat,

the day I got fired, I went to go see Vlad, and I did an interview, and Vlad, I told him, I'm going to be back in position, and it's going to be bigger than it ever was. He'll tell you, like, no, no, he said he was going to do all that. So, yeah, man, people always ask me, what's the key to success? I always say God, black women, and therapy. You've got to have a queen on your side.

You've got to pour into your queen and do right by her. Like, yo, remember when Sealy pointed that finger? And Sealy said, ain't no good going to come to you and tell you do right by me. Yo, my brothers, I promise you, man, if you do right by the woman that you love and the woman that loves you, you will see blessings like you've never seen before in your life. Like, over the last seven years, since I committed to myself more, I'm not going to say committed to my wife. I committed to myself.

I did the work on myself. And I said, yo, I'm going to be a changed man. I'm going to, you know, evolve intentionally. I'm going to do right by my wife and my family intentionally.

Last seven years, I've elevated in every way and i said this before on the pivot but it's true physically mentally spiritually emotionally financially can't nobody tell me that i'm not in the position i'm in right now because i intentionally committed to doing the work on myself and doing right by the people that truly love me oh that's so deep that's so deep and i think it's a lesson in that but they need to hear us identify that because again like you said we just deal with it even with me like i don't know what it is what it is right because

i think you know coming from where i come from um and you speak about your girl, I was in a long-term relationship, and because of everything that's going on, it started to affect things. And for some reason, I could no longer be available in the same way, and it started to affect my relationship. And so I can identify the difference without that queen next to me. I can literally feel the difference right without that queen next to me i can literally feel the difference bro i can feel like not complete i don't even operate with the same confidence right because i i don't have that swap because we we would swap those ideas or i'd be like yo tomorrow i gotta go see charlie and them you know i'm gonna kill this you know and i don't have anyone else to

i don't pull into anyone i'm too afraid to pour into people because I've been disappointed so much, right? When you pour into somebody, you become vulnerable because you put your emotions in a cup and you pour it on them. Man, what Mef say, nothing makes a man feel better than a woman. Man. Queen with a crown, I'd be down for whatever. Damn. You know, like there's a few things that's forever. My lady, we can make war, make babies. Back back when i was nothing you made a brother feel like he was

something you talk about confidence that's another thing yes i don't care what's going on this is i got a beautiful black woman that loved me that when i come in with my head down she gonna say king man when i come in with no haircut and that hairline sitting in the middle of my i got the robocop with the mask off going on and that's just sitting right there in the middle she still got love for me man rub a nigga back and put a nigga to bed bring her like bro i'm just saying black men have to identify that love is not don't follow these rappers with this rap talk about sleeping with all these women it's too much energy you know i always say energy is deeper than intercourse so you don't

want to just allow all that energy around man you people the only reason i know i was out there doing that was i was trying to feed my ego and like i the ego was like a cup with with no bottom in it so you can pour water into that cup and that water just gonna fall right through you know what i'm saying you gotta feed your soul yes being committed to committed to one woman, you know, being a great father, being a great husband that actually feeds, you know, your soul. And I, you know, the culture, the culture is fucked up, right? The culture for years was all, it was all about misogyny. You know, we all played a role in it. You know, it was all about patriarchy. It was all over sexualized. We all played a yeah and passing that down yeah that's right we all we all played a role in you know how our women got treated you know in society so it's just like yo if i spent

however many years of my life doing that i'm gonna definitely show y'all the other way because you've been intentional with it i promise you the other way is way more fruitful man i mean y'all it's funny to me when i hear people say um damn bro like yo you you you can't even you know talk about how another girl looks yeah i could you know i mean but i'm not about to be sitting on a podcast or on the radio lusted over another woman you know how many years i embarrass my wife doing shit like that come on bro. Fuck your perception of Charlamagne. Yes. Lenard goes home.

To this woman right here. That's right. If she feel any kind of way about it. Come on, man. Any kind of way. Come on, man. Your brothers be having more loyalty to the men around them than they do to women. The woman that you go home to at night, sleep in the bed with, right?

Like, this supposed to be your best friend you're not gonna give her that same respect you're not gonna show her the same integrity that you would do your homeboy why because you think your homeboy will bust your head right you really a coward you're a coward because for me i go much further for my woman because i know how far she'll go for me come on man you see what i'm saying these dudes if you really been in the streets man you know this whole thing is built on a falsehood man this shit is not now there's some real things happening but the people that's communicating about them 90 of the time are not those people in those positions that's right and that's just how this works that's right and when we talk yeah because you know to your point because we can we can put that uh with street shit right people that

talk about street shit that ain't never been in the street. Or people that talk about relationships that don't have no relationships. Exactly. Like, one of my favorite things to do, Loom, because of you, I'm starting to pay attention a lot more, I love going on YouTube and listening to people talk about me and things that are going on in my life or going on with my people. Right. And they don't know what the fuck they talking about.

That shit is so funny to me because they speak about it with the utmost confidence. Like I literally hear people talking about how I am at home with my wife. How the fuck you know how I am at home with my wife? Y'all niggas are going far with this shit. You know what I'm saying? What are you talking about?

It's funny though. It's like, how do you know how I am at home with my wife? That's weird. That's unbelievably strange. Like, where you get that from? But it's funny to me. And I listen, and it just lets me know, like, oh, you don't have a wife. Exactly.

Oh, you don't have a family. Yes. But you don't understand how having kids can change a person. Right. Or you ain't a man. Or you ain't the king of the castle. Or you ain't to hear you, you ain't the king of the castle, or you ain't the head, not the head, you the tail.

That's right. A lot of times I can't talk to you little niggas because you ain't head of household. I need to talk to head of household, and a lot of times it's your nigga's woman. So when I go to talking about how you need to uplift your woman and stand for your home and pour into your children, y'all don't get that because that's your woman job for y'all. That's right.

Y'all pass that to the woman that's right you know I'm saying but as men we got to start to uplift and say now I'm pouring into the children that's right I'm pouring into the house the same way she is that ain't just your job that's our job especially if you come from not having that that's like I love my dad to death but my dad was not able to be there for me in the way that he even wanted to because he had his own issue he was dealing with substance abuse issues he he tried to kill himself back in the day he was on 10 to 12 different medications he went to therapy right two and three times a week if i would have known that when i was a kid i would have known what i was dealing with you know but these are

things he didn't tell me till i was a full-blown adult he didn't tell me he didn't tell me anything i just said until i was 40 years old wow after he read my second book shook one so after you peeped it after after i talked about what i was going through and i had a cousin who committed suicide that same that week it was the week of thanksgiving i was home he called me on the phone and told me all of those things i remember calling my mom like mom you know you know dad was going through all of this she said i thought he was just playing crazy to get a check wow because that's what they did in south carolina i know yeah they still doing that now like and that's what i'm saying in the black community because we so financially impoverished how do we know when she playing for the check or really need to really going through something

absolutely but then think about all the stuff we normalize we know like violence is normal to us watching somebody get shot watching somebody get their head busted. You know what I mean? Going up in a store. Yes. Holding it up at gunpoint. Whatever it is. All of these things are normal.

Robbing somebody for their pack. Like all of this stuff is normal. Why is this shit normal to us? That's what I'm saying. And like now it's still normal for me. And I'm trying to tell myself, no, you got, I got it. That's why I'm glad I got, I'm getting new friends that's on different levels. Right.

So I can start to have different conversations, even though I'm good, I'm straight, but I'm saying I get shit without people telling me, you know, like yesterday when we, when I did breakfast club and you over there, I'm peeping technique.

I'm, I'm watching certain things and I'm saying, Oh, I, Oh, okay. What's this? What's that?

And so I understand that I got to work on myself. You know what I'm saying? And so many what's this what's that and so i understand that i gotta work on myself you know i'm saying and so many people come and say loon like shout out to ted she hit me like man you like puck man like yeah she like so man you got a gift man you anointed man your voice what you how you speak and i'm just like in my brain yo i to get well versed on so many more things. It's a lot of more work to do. And she's like, Lone, you good, you know, but I always feel like I got to work. And we always have work to do. Absolutely. But some people see us in our current form and we have to battle with our growth.

Some people saw you in your current form back then doing all of that. And sometimes they say they miss the old charlemagne what do you say to people who don't understand that you are charlemagne there's no more old charlemagne that's dead that's my past that's what i've done but i think and i'll give you my opinion you can answer i think charlemagne is available and i'll look in the camera i think charlemagne is available to feed the coach and had these conversations he just got to have a runway to have a conversation right somebody got to ask the questions you got to be able to bounce these kind of topics with with people in an interesting way and i think some people think you've checked out of that side of the game

and i believe they think you used to be there with the Farrakhan type talk, with the, you know, some of that kind of shit where you used to dive in. What do you say to people who take that position? I care about all of that stuff more than ever. You know what I mean? But I'll tell people, too, if you want old Charlemagne, then you got to go on YouTube to find old Charlemagne. Because Charlemagne is going to always constantly grow and always, you know, constantly evolve. But I like this version of me much better because, truthfully, I couldn't be that version anymore if I tried. Those days are gone. Like, it was a moment in time.

It's like when you constantly keep telling 50 Cent to make Get Rich or Die trying. Or you tell Jay-Z to make Reasonable Doubt. I cannot do that anymore. But I can give you 4-4- four four yes you know because i'm at a different point in my life yes right and even when people say things like you know i love i love when i'm online and they'd be like yo pc to god let me tell y'all something man you know criticizing rappers calling out rappers you know for their albums being whack or whatever that brings you some smoke like y'all seen me in the street getting punched in the back of the head are you yeah you was out here with

these niggas you were calling that's right it wasn't that call out and i'm in the no i'm in the basement no i'm out there so but y'all see y'all heard about these different altercations and dust-ups that have happened with rappers let me tell you something calling out politicians is a way way way different ball game y'. Y'all have no idea. Lil' One, people have no idea the things that have been halted because of things that I've said about elected officials or people at corporations. I ain't talking about no entertainment shit.

Right. I'm talking about real life shit. I'm talking about shit like home insurance. Wow. Yeah. Wow. I'm talking about shit like, I'm talking about real life i'm talking about shit like home insurance wow yeah i'm talking about shit like i'm talking about things that for getting in the way of real life real life real life and you know because you know i i tell you a story it's like yo i remember one time things were getting i'm not gonna say when it was over but things were getting like i couldn't get home insurance on the property i'm like why the hell can't i get home insurance i'm having home insurance all these years all of a sudden i can't get home insurance on a property. I'm like, why the hell can't I get home insurance? I've been having home insurance all these years.

Why all of a sudden I can't get home insurance? Got turned down by like 10, 11 different home insurance companies. My lawyer got on the phone and one of them said, what is going on? Like, what's happening that, you know, he can't get home insurance? And the person was like, it was because of these comments that he made about X, Y, and Z. Like straight up said it. My lawyer was like, well, can you put that he made about X, Y, and Z. Wow. Like, straight up said it. That's deep. My lawyer was like, well, can you put that on paper?

Yes, please. And, of course, they couldn't. Yes, because that's going to get you here at a counter. So then I got the home insurance. And there was some BS home insurance at first. Now, I got some better home insurance. That's deep. But folks don't realize, like, the battles we fighting now, the wars we fighting now.

You conquered all that. Way, way bigger than yeah and but but even with the rap shit yo bro i hung the 23 up in that court i did that like i literally made the most money and i know you don't like to talk money but we talking money today because there's too many people i'm doing okay lou now i'm doing okay god talking money my mom always said it's okay my mom always told me be happy to just be making a living. Yeah, but we're not doing that no more. Not today.

Not today. We're not letting them get away with that talk no more today. We talking money today. And I know because I get paid with you. So I know it's some money available. So we talking money today. But even in the situation like what you're just talking about, the game has taught us to feed our ego, right? The game has put us in a position to do that.

Now, what I do think is, oh, that's what I was going to say. With those conversations, people need to understand that the new Charlemagne isn't lackluster. Even when I hear you cop to the new Charlemagne, it's confusion in that term. Because new Charlemagne would indicate to some people on the other side that maybe it lost something. Right? I don't know why, but I think they feel like, you know, when you say, when you even cop to it, right? When you're just like yo i'm the new charlemagne i don't even i don't even know if it's new charlemagne that's what i'm saying that's

what i'm saying yeah i'm just i'm just lenard at the end of the day i think what you're seeing now is more so lenard as opposed to charlemagne charlemagne is just the name that people still call me and i still answer to it but you know like in my mind i'm i'm i'm on daddy mode all the time yes you know i mean i'm in daddy mode all the time you know i mean i'm in husband mode all the time i mean i'm in business mode like like like all the time yes and i and i think the youngsters need to know that the conversations are still potent that the information is still potent right that you ain't lost your legs like you can get in the mix and talk about it i'm better that's what i'm saying the reason I know I'm better is because the

audience grew as we all evolve yes when when I started doing work on myself when envy you know started transitioning and doing it clean like everything evolved the audience the audience grew like you talking about farrakhan and dick gregory and you know all of these different voices that we were bringing on but then like think about the political conversations we started to have and that goes back to something my mother told me when i was young read things that don't pertain to you every day so being that i used to read things that don't pertain to me i started watching things that don't pertain to me and i'm well versed that That's right.

I always had my hand in a little bit of everything. I was always watching CNN and watching ESPN. Yes. You know, I was always reading the source, but also reading the watchtower, you know, because my mom was a Jehovah Witness. So it's like we started on the political. We started getting in our political bag on Breakfast Club because of my man Bakari Sellers. South Carolina.

I've known Bakari since Iari Sellers. South Carolina. I've known Bakari since I was doing radio in South Carolina. Using, you know, the clubs back then. Drinking, having a good time, right? So when he ran for Lieutenant Governor in South Carolina, he came to Breakfast Club because Bakari is of an age where he understands culture.

And he was like, I'm going to meet people where they are. I'm going to the Breakfast Club, right? And that interview did a lot for Bakari as far as that campaign. He didn't win. But what happened was Bakari started talking about how well it did for him. So then we just started opening the floodgates. The Angela Ryes of the world started coming up here. And then because of the relationships with Bakari and people like that,

I remember Angela Rye had Andrew Gillum come up here later, and then Hillary Clinton, and because Bernie Sanders, well, Hillary had a bunch of black women working around her. Salute to Karen Civil. And they were telling her, yo, she need to be doing stuff like Breakfast Club. Bernie Sanders had a lot of black people around him. It was Nina Turner and Tezlyn Figaro and Simone Sanders at the time. They were all around Bernie.

At least Tez and Simone was telling him, you need to go do Breakfast Club. Killer Mike was rocking with him. So it started making sense. That's right. And for me, just being a person who has always wanted to ask politicians certain questions, I looked forward to that. That's what I'm saying.

Now, those interviews may not do 5 million on YouTube like a six nine or do or whatever numbers they were doing soldier boy and all of them but yo we talking about real world and then not even that from a business perspective it stretches my market share that's what i'm saying it gives you more market share in the real world yes and here here here's also what i find interesting about that is not only does it give you market share, it's almost like you guys are some of the only people that can serve this same fan base like a hamburger and a salad. You know, it's like everybody's fan base won't even, it'll do nothing if they go that route because they built it. That was always my mentality because I saw a long time ago how hip

hop and hip hop personalities put themselves in a box you gotta think i'm i'll be 45 in a couple of weeks right so i've hip hop's 50 years old i've been kind of around hip hop since the inception like i saw the the rise of it in a real way from my cousin ty letting me hear you know paid in full by eric b and rakim wow in 88 when i was 10 years old to where we are now you know uh with the culture but i saw where hip-hop was was was hitting that glass ceiling i saw when those rappers that i grew up on and i loved couldn't escape that box they were in they still wanted to rap about the street shit and they still wanted to rap about the guns and. And they still wanted to rap about the guns. And they still wanted to,

you know, talk about the drugs. We know they not selling no more. They weren't telling us about where they were in their lives. Now, man, that's why I love what Jay-Z is. That's why I love what Nas is at.

Nas got a song called brunch on Sundays. That's what I'm saying. And that's what we on. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Like, so, so when,

when back then I knew, yo, we can't stay in a box we got to constantly bring people on this platform that may not necessarily pertain to the platform who says the spirit who says bishop td jakes can't be on here what i'm telling you no he can for y'all everybody can't have that conversation for an hour and a half with someone without it being about rap, without it being about beef. This is the point I was making the shows is the value comes when I can build a catalog that maintains market share. If I just focus on the beef, literally anyone can talk about that. You can literally, in my opinion, put anyone in that space. But with y'all, again, your audience would receive both these meals and eat it up.

Now, they may not eat all the salad, right? They may go 25 minutes in, but that 25 minutes may spark the change. Now he's an Umar fan. Now he goes down this rabbit hole looking at what the hell Dick Gregory been talking. Oh, here's another one. Oh, here's another one oh here's another one this is i have i have discovered some of the things that have changed my perspective based on that kind of stuff right y'all might do dick gregory and i may say damn i

know dick gregory but i didn't know he talked like that that's right and by the way i've been doing this the first time i ever interviewed the honorable minister, Louis Farrakhan was 2005. It was the 10 year anniversary of the million man March. And I used to do youth ministry at Muhammad Moss, number 38 in Columbia, South Carolina. And he came, you know, to announce that they were doing the 10 year,

uh, they were doing the 10 year anniversary of the million man March called the million man movement. I think it was a million man movement of the million March movement. I don't remember, but I'm, I got the opportunity to, to be part of the press junkie. And I'm in there with my little tape recorder,

I still got the interview somewhere, but I'm in there with my little tape recorder and I'm just sitting there like, I don't know what all these people talking about, I don't know if I'm ever gonna get a chance to talk to the minister ever again, I got questions about life. So I hit him with two, I was the first person, boom, I hit him with two questions about life. So I hit him with two questions. I was the first person. Boom.

I hit him with two questions about life. And he gave these really thought-provoking answers and he goes, don't ask me any more questions. He said, I'm going to talk to you

later. Yeah. Just off the line of questions. And by the way, I'm like, damn, he just told me shut the fuck up. He ain't trying to eat.

Nah. But man, after that press junket was over, one of the brothers came back and got me. They took me. Is your country falling apart? Feeling tired? Depressed? A little bit revolutionary? Consider this.

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on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, y'all? This is Questlove, and I'm here to tell you about a new podcast I've been working on with the Story Pirates and John Glickman called Historical Records. It's a family-friendly podcast. Yeah, you heard that

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but in a way that informs and empowers all people to hopefully create better allies. Think of it as a black show for non-black people. We discuss everything from prejudice to politics to police violence, and we try to give you the tools to create positive change in your home, workplace, and social circle. Exactly. Whether you're black, Asian, white, Latinx, indigenous, LGBTQIA+, you name it. If you stand with us, then we stand with you. Let's discuss the stories and conduct the interviews that will help us create a more empathetic, accountable, and equitable America. You are all our brothers and sisters, and we're inviting you to help us create a more empathetic, accountable, and equitable America.

You are all our brothers and sisters, and we're inviting you to join us for Civic Cipher each and every Saturday with myself, Ramses Jha, Q Ward, and some of the greatest minds in America. Listen to Civic Cipher every Saturday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I am one of the hosts of Crooks Everywhere, a podcast that unhearts the plot to murder a one-woman Wikileaks. Daphne exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. And she paid the ultimate price. Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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To the minister's suite, and we sat down. He said, Rick, he said, I want you to record this too. And I got that recorded as well. And I had a couple more questions for him. And, you know, I remember him putting his hand on my knee and just saying man you are more than what you appear to be the other people and you know you are here to help the next generation I'm paraphrasing but just to help the next generation yeah you know grow and get and get to where they need to be and he was like you know

I want I want to pour all my wisdom into you. He said this in 05. Wow. You can ask Brother – I got it on tape. I'm about to say ask Brother Don Muhammad, shoot the Brother Don Muhammad, but I got it on tape, you know. And, yeah, that's where my mind was always at. I got in trouble for that in Columbia, South Carolina.

I got in trouble. Why? Because I played it on the air. Oh, yeah. And I remember my program director at the time, he said, I wouldn't have played that Farrakhan interview if I was you. Mind you, he wasn't on there saying nothing salacious about nobody. He wasn't talking about no community.

He was just talking about life and hip-hop and how to bridge the gap between hip-hop and spirituality. But I guess you know some of the powers that be had complained down there. Man, that's crazy. I just did a CIA guy. I don't know if he spinned me or not, but I asked him about Farrakhan. He said's crazy don't you i just did a cia guy and i i don't know if he's spinning me or not but i asked him about farrakhan he said i don't know who that is you think he's spinning me he said he didn't know farrakhan he was in there for eight years he was in there when the boston bombing happened he's only been a cia for eight years he was in

there for eight years he's not in there no more but he was a ex-operative for eight years i mean listen venice is 90 years old but i'm saying the cia didn't don't they have they had an interest in in farrakhan i don't know if they still do they i mean back in the day i think uh if i if my reading serves me correctly the honorable elijah muhammad was the most surveillance person i was trying to get into with him i'm like why would you because that's the fbi though i don't know if that's what i'm saying that's what i was because i was looking at some stuff and i asked me he was like i don't know what it is i know about the million man march but i don't know farrakhan i just found that strange that intelligence doesn't know who

farrakhan is oh maybe he gotta play dumb yeah that's what i thought that's what i thought it was i swear to god i'm like this dude's spinning me let's get into podcasting a little bit what would you say warrants uh money for a podcast um viewership you know viewership listenership yeah you know it's all about the audio yeah i keep trying to have that conversation with people because if you're on youtube and you're just on youtube you're not a podcast you're a a video show yes you know what i mean but if you're a a podcast it's all about the audio people care about what's the numbers on that rss feed yes you know that's where the money is like i mean i'm in the audio business like that's why you know people and i

don't knock you like i said youtube is a billboard, but I'm in the audio business. Like everything I do with Black Effect Podcast, we do audio. You know, Loon, we don't touch your video. Yeah, at all. That's y'all thing. When Drink Champs was with Black Effect, we didn't touch the Drink Champs video, you know?

When Earn Your Leisure was with Black Effect, we didn't touch Earn Your Leisure video. All the smoke, we don't touch all the smoke video. They put us in that, but we don't touch all the smoke video. Like we care about the audio. Because don't touch all the smoke video. They put us in that. We don't touch all the smoke video. Like we care about the audio. Yes. Because the audio is where the ad revenue is. I do radio.

I do breakfast club every morning. That's the audio business. And that's where you pulling from. That's right. And that's what I need the youngsters to understand. When he talks about this, pay attention, write some shit down if you need to.

But this dude has made a lot of money in the audio game and podcast. And they have been able to confuse us to think that video is podcast. It's a component of the podcast, but literally podcasting lives in the audio form. I've been doing Brilliant Idiots for 10 years, and I love when people say things like, oh, Brilliant Idiots fell off, blah, blah, blah,

this and that, but I'm like, damn, we do 300 000 listens every episode and i don't know and i've watched it i've been i remember when i was here and i went and looked i'm like fell out how yeah and you can you can go look on soundcloud soundcloud has some of the numbers like if you go to soundcloud you'll see like 200 000 but then spotify is a whole other thing and wherever else you can listen to podcasts. And I'm like, damn, these, you know, the checks don't look like we fell out,

you know what I mean? Because we're in the audio space, but what you said is true, people get confused about the visual, right? I even, like I see people say things like, man, why brilliant it is YouTube don't have a lot of subscribers? I'm like, bro, do you realize this is our second YouTube page?

Right. Like our first YouTube page, we had well over a million followers. Andrew. Turned to Deflagrant. No, Andrew turned it into the Andrew Schultz page. Oh, Andrew Schultz. That's what it was. Yep, yep, yep.

Because Andrew was. He was kind of ahead of that curve. Yeah. Right? When he was saying like, and then you would, this is again, this is what I'm saying about some of the assists that people may not even really add value to your name with schultz i literally saw you hand him a platform like hand him a situation where it's like yo you my guy i really rock with you whatever you need from me go get your money and you and that that i'll take it to this you guys had built

up brilliant idiots when he had first started flagrant and he took flagrant and put it on brilliant idiots to let on the rss yeah on the rss feed and so that should even speak to how important that rss feed is oh we did that with every podcast we launched on loudspeaker that's what i'm saying the ride podcast when we launched her it was on rss feed tax stone we launched tax stone it was on our rss feed any tk kirkland whoever it was that we were doing their podcast at the time we put it on brilliant idiots rss feed because we had a booming rss feed i mean of course the reed does but right reed you know yeah they kidding but they're not letting nobody get on their rss unless it's like people yeah unless it's like the Friend Zone or something like that.

Yeah, it's they people. They killing it. Yeah, it's all about audio. So what about the Patreon versus audio model? I don't mind the Patreon model because it's just like a subscription-based model versus an open-air market model. But it needs to be added value. Yeah, I think you should be doing something else on Patreon. You should give the people something else.

Like, I'm not going to, you know, put a podcast out for everybody to listen to and then put that same podcast behind the wall just because of some curse words in it. You know what I mean? Charge them more. Like, if I'm going to do Patreon, I'm going to give them some whole other content.

Like, I wouldn't even want to give people, you know, what I'm doing on the regular podcast. Like, let me go take them behind the scenes. Let me give them something else. And these are blueprints for the youngsters. They listening. You know what I'm saying? I think one of the best blueprints to follow,

I think one of the best blueprints to follow is Flagrant. Yeah. And the reason I think Flagrant is one of the best blueprints to follow is because Andrew puts Flagrant out as a podcast, you know, so you can listen to it for free. But when they were doing, like, more edgier content, you can go listen to it on the Patreon. And they put out the video on YouTube.

Once again, meet people where they are. You create this one piece of content and go wherever the people are. The thing that frustrates me sometimes is because I'm watching people trying to grow these podcasts on YouTube. I hate that. You're hustling backwards. It's not even a podcast. It's a video show. Yes, and then look how big Breakfast Club is,

and you know what it's like to be flagged or have shit. Bro, they literally can stop what's going on. 100%. And you cannot scale a business that on and you cannot scale a business that way you cannot scale a business that way what i would want to see people do is if you are going to start your podcast video wise you know every 10-15 minutes you should be saying hey make sure you go check us out on the audio make sure you go listen to our audio yes you know and you know what i think i got this trick from uh uh andate and I'm going to put this out for the youngsters.

This is a very slick trick that he does. Talk to me. They take a long interview and they do an ad. Right. And it's literally this fast. My name is my name is Andrew Tate. I represent a company called such and such. I'm there to talk to you free, available to speak to you on such and such back and it instantly go back oh i'll be seeing you do that yeah but but that's what that's what i'm saying so i get i get that i got that from them now mine is too long what i noticed he's doing is understanding that the the viewer's span is very short so it comes in literally for five seconds and bounces back out. It is. It's almost like it's not interrupting what's happening.

And you're going to reach more people with audio. You know why? Because people spend more time in their cars. You know, people spend more time commuting in trains or on buses. When people working out, they throw, you know, a podcast on or an audible book. I got to actually sit down and look. Yes. You know what I mean?

Now, even if even if you debate the fact that you reach more people on YouTube, because some people try to have that debate, I just think the business lives in audio, though. I think the business lives in audio, and I still think you reach more people audio-wise. What about with podcasting? You think with podcasting? With podcasting, absolutely, man.

You look at Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan was doing 10 million downloads a month. No, I'm lying. 11 a week. Before he went to Spotify, Joe Rogan was doing 100 million downloads a month of people listening to his podcast. Now, there would be those times where you definitely would go to Elon Musk. Absolutely, absolutely. But I know for a fact I've listened and still do listen to more Joe Rogan

than I've actually watched YouTube videos. Right, right. I don't know if the same is for Breakfast Club. I would only assume that, though, because when it comes to Breakfast Club, we do 8 million monthly listeners. We do 15 to 20 million downloads a month on the podcast. Right, right. I can only assume people are listening to us

more and don't get me wrong we on bet in the morning and we're still on youtube and in social media so i'm i'm fully aware right people are watching right as well but i don't think it's anything like um being in people's ears man i think and i also think you can literally handle that like different customers i think you can handle the the video watcher a certain way and audio guys certain way i think what's handle the the video watcher a certain way and audio guys certain way i think what's happening is people have getting are getting lazy and trying to handle both of them the same way i don't think that they know there's a difference you know i mean i think that these brothers and these sisters are really starting these podcasts on youtube

because they think that's where they're supposed to be starting a podcast. Some of them don't even got audio. Some of them don't got audio. Maybe because we haven't done a good enough job. Like, Drink Champs isn't a massive podcast just because of the video. Exactly. It's a massive podcast because of the audio. Yes.

And we can speak about that. When he was over on Budden and speaking about whatever deal he got, that was an audio deal he was talking about. That was an audio deal. That wasn't a video deal. And so, again, podcasters have to pay attention to what's happening. It was an audio deal with Black Effect. I think he had a video deal with Revolt, maybe. But when he was speaking, he said, I got $10 million or something.

I don't know if those numbers are correct, but I know he said, I got a certain number, and that was just for my audio. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what we pay. We would pay just for audio. That's what I'm saying. And it's the same thing with anybody. I don't care if it's a Joe Rogan, an 85 South Show, or whoever. It's two different businesses.

Your audio is one business. And those Fortune 500 companies, they're going to spend more money advertising on those platforms with big audio numbers than they are going to spend on video. Now, maybe one day it might change or it might just be equal. People might spend just as much on video as they do audio.

Or you might be able to combine them and do bundles together. Some companies are doing that now, but it's not the Fortune 500 companies. It's the little ones. I'm not going to knock nobody, but you can go look on on the brands that they're these people are advertising and you can tell who's getting the big fortune 500 joints as opposed to yes yes yes yes yes and that's that's

so important yes yes you know what i mean that's so important to identify because what does your podcast warrant do you think more money is spent on ads for podcasts in the video space or ads for podcasts in the audio space audio that's a fact so again this is something else they need to know because who is really getting ads for video like you can warrant an ad for audio podcast way before you can get an ad for video podcast in regards to numbers i'm gonna see what's that link i sent you the other day uh okay this this was an article that variety put podcast u.s ad revenue projected to hit 2.3 billion in 2023 up 25 percent and then that's with youtube going down and also youtube going this is these numbers i'm talking about are audio numbers that's what i'm saying how much they're spending on audio so they

pay attention and again that's what youtube going down and also youtube just did another trick again always watch industry when youtube does something like this it means something's coming. So what YouTube just done is lowered the standards for monetization. So now they even make it easier for you to make money because what they're going to end up doing is lowering how much you're being paid. So I think YouTube in the next eight months year is going to see another dip in what they're being paid. They've already seen drastic dips in like making 150 000 a month now you make 80 000 a month now it's down to 50k a month stays about right there for six months now you're at 28k goes back up to 32k you can't scale a business what's this line hold on there's another article because this is what me and uh me and

lone be doing we be sharing information we'll be sharing articles. I'm going to read this other article I sent you because I don't want to misquote nothing. Yes, sir. Hold on. All right. This was a Time Magazine article that talked about how a lot of people, a lot of YouTube creators are walking away. All right. That comes from a split of advertising revenue earned by creators' videos as well as other

options such as direct gifting and paid descriptions. YouTube takes about 30% of any income from its creators for the vast majority of creators their cut doesn't add up to much if they're hoping to make a living at it a major 2016 academic study suggests 96.5 percent of youtubers don't make enough money from ad revenue alone to break the u.s poverty line in 2008 just 2.8 percent of youtube channels in the sample linked to an external fundraising platform so what they're basically saying is people are using their youtube channels to fund fundraising and all that to fund what was the other thing the fundraise into uh the fundraise um doing other things like uh direct gifting

like giving people things giveaways giveaways and paid subscriptions you know i mean so you're not making just money off ad revenue alone do you know did you hear what i said yo 96.5 percent of youtubers don't make enough money from ad revenue alone to break the u.s poverty line and think about that and what what for me to go to um one of these companies and get an ad for my podcast for video the numbers have to damn near be astonishing they're not they because they don't understand value they don't understand really what they're looking at. So they're just looking at 100,000, 200,000 views. Okay, we'll give you a little something to speak on it. But audio, you can not only warrant a check for ad for less,

you will also, that ad also converts better because the listener has a different relationship than the viewer in my opinion again the viewer to me is not the customer that's right you see what i'm saying and that's that's what i that's that's how i feel about it now um i also say this with youtube i think half of it is people are addicted to clout chasing and i don't think cloud chasing is on is is um just catered to one level like you got to be broke to cloud chase i think you can be rich in cloud chase i think you can be successful in cloud chase you cannot understand the business and not even knowing

you cloud chase i was i was looking for uh the actual number of how much more an audio ad is worth than a video ad i'll find it soon yeah i want to stay in the conversation yeah but and so it's like when i look at the clout chase i'm saying damn it it feels like that we're more attracted to video because we'd rather be seen than heard it's a drug like just sit here and act like fame is not a drug it absolutely is and it don't matter if you got a hundred thousand people listening or one thousand or one hundred right that hundred people can gas you the fuck up that that hundred people will be in your social media comments telling you that you the shit you're the biggest thing in the world those hundred comments will go on your youtube and tell you how much they love you and how much

better you are than this person and that person you can't get nine people at the Roots picnic. Man, listen, Act is good at what he does, Lou. I mean, we're going to always probably agree to disagree on that, but the brother's entertaining, man. It means nothing to me. It's crackheads on the corner entertaining. We're running business. That's true, but I think

what Act has done as far as turning, screaming, I don't want to say he turned into a business, but he's learned how to get money from it. You know what I'm saying? He's been able to take what he has built online and been able to, like, damn, turn it into licensing deals. Like, he damn near got a licensing deal with Rumble.

He's doing great in regards to that, but I'm looking at it like this. Yo, if I got the big kitchen, like, let's cook me a five-course meal. I don't want to go in the big kitchen and cook the noodles. He might learn those other courses, though. But what's taking so long when you've had this audience for 10 years? Look what you've done. Listen, I've gauged the market. Look what you've done.

He's running alongside you, Budden, Schultz, Vlad. Like, he's running alongside you guys. He's number twolad like he's running alongside you guys he's number two on the list dude yeah i'm gonna be honest with you i don't feel like i'm running beside but that's what i'm saying i'm saying in the in the percent he's not right i'm saying perception wise when they say i'm talking about the list look at the list he got you joe act they got him in these conversations and i'm saying okay what is can I can I want to say something about that list real quick since you brought it up here's the thing like you know you got like uh let's say uh I think it was the Hollywood Reporter the Hollywood Reporter they had the top 35 most powerful people

in New York uh last year I'm on that list of course right and they did a a profile piece on me in there thank thank you to the Hollywood Reporter then like mediaite mediaite had the top and by the way when you go look at the Hollywood Reporter list you can pull it up yourself and look and see who's on that matter let's do that let's do that we got time yeah we got time I'm here I'm out this this this depart I've been waiting on this oh look I got it right here look the Hollywood Reporter 35 most powerful people in New York media 2022. Charlem was Charlamagne Tha God. But no, read some of the names before that, though. Let me see.

Is this it, Nate? Oh, yeah, yeah. That's the CBS morning news team. So that's Gayle King. I know Gayle for sure. She's powerhouse. Now, who's after that? Samantha Bee.

Samantha Bee. You got... Who is these people you got the cast of The View yeah right you got well you come up on mine

after that but you got R.E. Burkoff Stephen Colbert well listen R.E. Burkoff is the CEO of Liontree Liontree is a boutique

investment bank of choice for media and telecommunications sector yes you got Nathan Gale King then you got me right with Charlemagne Tha God but who else you got uh nate nate and gail king uh then you got me right but charlamagne the god but who else you got people like uh agnes chu david remnick and anna

on this list you got stephen colbert and john batiste you got rashida jones who's the uh you know president of nbc msnbc you know what i mean like you got people like that that's power okay now there's another list. Media-ite. You can look that one up. We're going to make sure to put both of these on screen. We dealing with facts and our feelings. Look up media-ite top 100 news personalities.

News. Yeah. Personalities. News media 2022. Yeah. What is it? Media-ite's most influential in news media 2022. most what is it is it uh media it's most influential in news media 2022 it's 100 people all you gonna see on this list is the sean hannity's of the world the bill

o'reilly's the henderson coop was don lemons why my black ass number two chris christie why my black ass number 23 on this list that's what i'm'm trying to tell you. This is news. I'm not a news personality. I'm a hip-hop media personality, but they got me on this list. So now the complex list, they got me number three. Here's the reason I don't care about none of those rankings, Lone. As long as I'm on a little bit of all of those lists, I must be doing something right. Right.

And plus, that's not what I do it for. Right. It's an honor when anybody recognizes you and they salute what it is you're doing. I think it's a disappointment because they add to the confusion. Explain. You see, because power, when we identify to, again, some people, all they have is the information and the driplets that's left out there. So when they are coming up with their template as to what power looks like and you have someone at number two who who hasn't really built anything. And you got the number three guy on media. It's top influential in news.

And also on what was the other one? The Hollywood Reporter top. What is it? Most powerful people in New York media. Twenty twenty two. Help me understand that. I get what you're saying because look but here's the thing like when you look at the hollywood reporter right and that's why when i did the vlad tv interview i was i was asking well what defines power because when you go look at the things they break down right they say i'm the host of the breakfast club and and the god's honest truth that's my talk show we can get into that too we will we will but um it just basically breaks down a lot of different things that i do

breakfast club brilliant idiots tv show multiple best-selling books a comics imprint which which which you know that's another one scripted development and and i even do a crazy part i even do a video series for the hollywood reporter so it's like when people have these conversations about you know what is power i just be asking, well, define it for me in hip hop. Because the other thing I like about these lists is executives on this list is people that actually call shots, is people that can actually get you a check, is people that can put you in position. That's the point. When you have someone who is supposed to be a credible publication confusing our culture in that way because podcasting is an undeveloped market that's right it's developing and so everyone is looking for marching orders these young guys are developing in the dog now joe what joe did and we're going

to get into him with patreon that's a model that's a model you have to literally it's a hard model to to craft under if you don't have that fan base right you can't start a podcast say i don't want any audio ads i'm gonna go all patreon and then it's gonna take you a while to build that up but hey he done whatever he's done but for you to have made what you've made in audio to be the person that's been influential with all these chicks and and these these these Andrew Schultz and these, you know, text stones and all these other parts and different people that came through you. I think it adds to the confusion of the youngsters saying, oh, well, damn, they got they got to. I don't I don't mind that, though.

Yeah, you don't. Because you again, it's not you. It ain't you. It's the people on the other side. I get what you're saying. Who's taking that and saying, well, hey, we're going to do what Ackett doing. Like instead of saying, no, we're going to do what Charlotte. See how Charlotte doing that breakfast club thing?

I think you should look at everybody on that list. How many people was on Complex? 25? Was it 25? Yeah, yeah, 25. Is your country falling apart? tired depressed a little bit revolutionary consider this start your own country i planted the flag i just kind of looked out of like this is mine i own this it's surprisingly easy there's 55 gallons of water 500 pounds of concrete everybody's doing it i am king ernest

emmanuel i am the Queen of Ladonia. I'm Jackson I, King of Kaperburg. I am the Supreme Leader of the Grand Republic of Mentonia. Be part of a great colonial tradition. The Waikana tried my country. My forefathers did that themselves. What could go wrong? No country willingly gives up their territory.

I was making a rocket with a black powder, you know, with explosive warhead. Oh my God. What is that? Bullets. Bullets. We need help! We still have the off-road portion to go.

Listen to Escape from Zakistan. And we're losing daylight fast. That's Escape from Z-A-Q-istan on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, y'all? This is Questlove, and I'm here to tell you about a new podcast I've been working on with the Story Pirates and John Glickman called Historical Records. It's a family-friendly podcast. Yeah, you heard that right. A podcast for all ages. One you can listen to and enjoy with your kids starting on September 27th.

I'm going to toss it over to the host of Historical Records, Nimany, to tell you all about it. Make sure you check it out. Hey y'all, Nimany here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop. Each episode is about a different inspiring figure from history, like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing.

Check it. And it began with me. Did you know, did you know? I wouldn't give up my seat. Nine months before Rosa, it was called a moment. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records. Because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017, was murdered. There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate. My name is Manuel Delia. I am one of the hosts of Crooks Everywhere, a podcast that unhurts the plot to murder a one-woman Wikileaks. Daphne exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. And she paid the ultimate price.

Listen to Crooks everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's up? This is Ramses Jha. And I go by the name Q Ward. And we'd like you to join us each week for our show Civic Cipher. That's right. We're going to discuss social issues, especially those that affect black and brown people, but in a way that informs and empowers all people to hopefully create better allies. Think of it as a black show for non-black people. We discuss everything from prejudice to politics to police violence, and we try to give you the tools to create positive change in your

home, workplace, and social circle. Exactly. Whether you're black, Asian, white, Latinx, indigenous, LGBTQIA+, you name it. If you stand with us, then we stand with you. Let's discuss the stories and conduct the interviews that will help us create a more empathetic, accountable and equitable America. You are all our brothers and sisters and we're inviting you to join us for Civic Cipher each and every Saturday with myself Ramses Jha, Q Ward

and some of the greatest minds in America. Listen to Civic Cipher every Saturday on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. On Thanksgiving Day 1999 a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh.

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I didn't have any issue with the Complex. I just felt like they left a lot of people off. I felt like you should have been on there. I felt like Boulay Kev should have been on there. I felt like DJ Head and Chuck Dizzle, what they doing with Homegrown Radio, they should have been on there. There's just a lot of people I feel like they missed.

Yes. But I think you should be studying everybody that's on that list. You should be looking at everybody on that list and looking at what all of those people do. The other thing I wouldn't have done on that list, you can't put none of the people that's already home on that list. Right. You know, that's one of my favorite Jay-Z records. I'm already home.

Some of these people are literally in the Hall of Fame already. Angie Martinez in the Hall of Fame already. Sway in the Hall of Fame already. Big Boy in the Hall of Fame already. Hell, I'm in the Radio Hall of Fame. Yeah, yeah. Angie Lee in the Radio Hall of Fame already. Angie Martinez in the Hall of Fame already. Sway in the Hall of Fame already. Big Boy in the Hall of Fame already. Hell, I'm in the Radio Hall of Fame. Angie Lee in the Radio Hall of Fame. Some people you can't, you know, Envy should have been on that list, but those are, we the OGs.

Like, I'd rather see a list of everybody that's new in the space. I'd rather see a right list. I don't give a damn. Like, just get it right. If more than anything, because, again, that's what I'm always about. But the the only way to get it right you got to actually base it on something that's what i'm saying that's what that was the other thing i did the list was like it was just it was based on seemed like noise great point like it was like great point like even the way they were describing people and they misuse power so you said power and based it on noise yeah because if it's power

rankings this list goes different if it's true power if we're really talking power this list doesn't go like that and we've we've given them enough because i don't think the list warrants that much from from us right i listen i appreciate being on all the lists anybody that wants to salute me yeah i don't care i'm 23 on media i don't i don't even know i was top seven on um most powerful people in media in New York. That's not what I do it for. But I enjoy the conversation. Because I'm the person that likes to debate stuff like that.

I'll sit here with you and tell you Steph Curry, number two greatest player of all time. You know what I mean? Whether you agree or not, that's just my opinion. So I don't have no problem being in those conversations. But I do want to say I do like what act has built and i think that there's what has he built this is what i can't never get an answer for i think he's built a name that ain't shit no no i tell you why it is because so many celebrities are broke that is true but he's not because not yet

because because he's been able to take that name and go get a check from spotify and i can give him grace and by the way the spotify deal was slick yeah that was a that was a hijack i'll tell you why the spotify deal was slick because he didn't have no podcast he didn't have no history no podcast resume at all it's not like this is what he's listen this is what he's been able to do this is is what I'm saying. He's the greatest trick ever in hip-hop media. He's been able to finesse bags out of nothing. Because in my opinion, it's noise. I ain't going to say nothing.

Nothing could come off like it's nothing happening. So there's something happening, but it's noise, not value. And I can tell you, when I call, I don't be asking about no beat. Tell me about that deal you just signed, young man's what i'm saying i want i want i want to know what happened tell me about the rumble situation like i need to know those plays because yo all right so what's up with spotify you know let's get back to the building the name because i really want to see what people are getting from this young brother what has he done i really don't understand and tell me if i'm not receiving it

right and be like luna i literally laid it out you're just not receiving what i'm saying for me when i was uh because i've been knowing that for like 13 years now right i mean i knew act when he was going to i think rutgers yes like you know his one his first interview ever ever was you was with me and that's just because i i've always just paid attention man and i'm never going to deny people like that's just not my thing right you know i mean i've always been that type person like you reach out to me you tell me i'm a young dude i go to ruckus i you know i look up to what you're doing i would love that opportunity to interview you why not right like why what does it hurt me right and that's so real that's so gangster if nobody never told you that's some real shit right that's some real shit it don't hurt me to grant him that so it's like i've always been paying attention to to what

he's done giving him game you know along the way and for me all of these guys that we see now i used to see them on act youtube before they had tattoos on their face yeah and that's before they dreads was long you know what i mean he was early and i think there's something to be said about that there's something to be said about yo i was there first willing to do it doing it but and i like the disruption he caused what i think has happened and we'll get to that but what i think has happened is along the way he's picked up liquor or something and i think effectively crashes his business when he get on when he get drunk i think he calls out people unnecessarily i think he ruins relationships and then he tries to clean it up when he's not drunk like he i was just on twitch man it really didn't but that

effectively in my opinion is fucking the business up and i'm saying he had access to this big kitchen with the best grills and the flat stove tops and he chose to use the microwave well it's not over that's fact you know somebody and so and so that's why these conversations are like important exactly because somebody could look at me in 2013 and 2014 and think i'm i'm yes yes yes but you were always in position and he is he's somewhat in position i think spotify may pull out on him right because i don't see the value with the part i think the part is lackluster for what they've probably paid him right in my opinion i don't see it but he got the bag already that's what i'm saying that he got the bag and he

still is able to utilize you know social media and youtube he'll he'll be cool for the time being but what i would challenge him or anybody else to do is you got to build that thing outside of social media. That's what I'm saying. You got to build that thing outside of YouTube. You got to build that thing outside of screaming all of the time. You should build that thing and just use those platforms to push that thing that you've built. And I'm saying you haven't utilized the formula of the people they comparing you to. And he's investing his money in the right things.

I mean, at least from what I can see. Like, I know he got his own studio, his own building and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's a good. I'm not saying he's stupid. I'm not saying he doesn't know what to do with his money. I'm saying that. Where's the longevity?

Exactly. I get it. And I'm saying, in my opinion, what what he's doing i can plug anyone from my neighborhood in that place not how he's talking because i also believe he does know how to talk again this isn't hate this is literally saying bro the value that you have isn't what you are warranted in the culture and i think that a lot of that is kept and i'm saying that because i believe he he come up and understands the internet in some weird way right and and i'll get to that at some other point but i i don't see i i don't

know man i don't i don't see the value i see the value i do okay and and like i said we don't know where it's going to go you know even when he bit into the six nine thing to me that you mean been into it so to me he changed his business model when he when he grabbed hold of 6ix9ine and said i'm gonna be with you like i'm gonna be your guy effectively alienated a lot of the other people who would have came and sat down on this platform i think 6ix9ine had a lot of people confused though just like trump had a lot of people confused remember that never had me confused not you but that's that whole era right like if you think about you go back to that time like everybody was loud and boisterous you go back and listen to old brand niggas i was telling everybody all this shit gonna crash and burn the trump's gonna crash and burn the 69 is

gonna crash and burn i was saying that go back and listen i was saying all of this shit gonna crash and burn because that type of shit is not sustainable yes you know what i'm saying see i'm looking at but but just peep it out so academics when he starts his platform with spotify this is how i think he's thinking all right i got this deal with spotify i got one of the most humongous hip-hop platforms i'm gonna funnel my relationship from social media over to my exclusive contract and build my catalog and re-up and get a big bag. This is what I'm thinking. It's an underground railroad he's about to run. Like we say, you use these other platforms.

Hey, I'm funneling y'all to over here where I'm adding the real value, where I'm really creating the value at, not posting you here. I'm funneling y'all. Is he behind a paywall? Yes, that's what I'm saying. That could be the disconnect too, right? Because a lot of times i've seen a lot of great podcasts get behind a paywall and they lose their audience because you know especially that fickle internet audience they're not going to pay for what they used to get getting for well it's not pay it's not a paywall but it's

an exclusive deal where they have to listen to it on spotify so they don't have to pay okay okay right and that's what i'm saying so it wasn't a situation where they had to pay it's just be available over here where we are right and i think he could have easily done it had he not locked in with six nine in that way i think all the rappers would have came with him they would have said yo act but just post me bro still getting mad interviews though with who i seen him do the pnb rock one you know the little dirk he just did dirk did that in my opinion you know because of the young boy thing dirk is a calculated individual i think dirk thought that out and said all right i'm gonna go ahead and crash this relationship out with you

and young boy right i'm gonna go ahead and do this interview and put you put that relation because think about the fickleness of that like i've rolled with Youngboy for all this time. He's been one of my best guys. And then I flip on him and go get with his guy. And then I go interview Dirk. And then I get Dirk out of there and go interview his op. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, yo, what the fuck is this? Yeah, that shit just gave me a headache.

That's what I'm saying, bro. But I will say, I'm going to get you in active talk. But more importantly, man, I just think there's room for, I think there's a lot of room for growth there. Yeah. You know? Because to your point, he does have an audience. He has one of the biggest.

He should have, if not, he can't do what you do because of the radio thing. Probably can't do what Joe did because Joe has a little audience that will kind of follow him here and there a little bit. But Ack, what have you done? Oh, he got a name. Yo, I know niggas. All these niggas got names. Yeah, but I think he's done a lot as far as introducing people to a lot of new artists.

At least me. That's what I look at. He's introduced me to a lot of new artists. How many years ago? That's what I'm saying. Like 13 years ago. But I'm saying he's done it consistently because that's who I follow

to get a whole ass of shit. Last artist he get. Last artist. I don't know who the last person he introduced to. Whoever might be on his paper. This is what I'll say. I will say that,

you know, I just think hip hop as a whole has a glass ceiling. Yes. And we don't realize it until you hit your head on it. Yes. You know what I'm saying?

So, yes, I want to see everybody. But I watched y'all not come in like that. I come in saying, nope, CIA guy, you come in. Nope, hey, you come over here. I got football, basketball.

You should talk to whoever your interests call you to talk to. Yes. The reason I sit down with Judy Blume because my whole life I've been reading Judy Blume books.

My mom had me reading Judy Blume books when I was in second and third grade. The reason I can sit down with the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, because my dad was making me sit down and watch Minister Farrakhan when I was a jit. You know what I mean?

The reason I can sit down and have a conversation with Bishop T.D. Jakes or Sarah J. Roberts, any of these people, because I watch them. And I've watched them for years. You know what I mean? Like this ain't, I'm not doing things just because I just want to have diversity. No, these are people that my interests actually lean to right you know what I mean I mean and long as you do that I

think you could be a fake 100% I don't I don't like anybody because I've been in that space while I was a character I don't like people that I have a conversation with and you know we going back and forth and I'm like there's no way you can possibly believe this shit. And then when the conversation's over, they telling me shit like, you know, I just got to do that. You know what I mean? I got to do that because, you know, there's a whole other side.

You can't play both sides of the internet. That's literally what people be doing. They playing both sides of the internet. They trying to cover all bases. They want the internet that agrees with them to agree with them. To like it and these people to like it. But when you do that, nobody spends nothing. Nobody spends nothing. Again, you don't want viewers.

You want customers. You want customers. They have to separate this. And our culture has, because of the clout chasing thing, and also I need you guys to understand out there, all podcasters, young niggas, people on the come up, that you have to do some mental hygiene and not feed your ego. You have to put yourself in a position to understand that ego is stolen.

Confidence is earned. You know how many conversations I have with people about content, and they sit around trying to figure out ways to go viral, and I'm just sitting there like that is not where your mind should be at. Even when somebody tells me things like, you know, I'm doing this there like that is not where your mind should be at even when somebody tells me things like you know I want to get I'm doing this so we can get coverage no man create good content that's it nothing more nothing less everything else was I promise you everything else is sell or sell you're already on the block that's why we build all these blocks exactly

is a block exactly a block the company me and Kevin Hart got with Audible, SPH, that's a block. All we want on these blocks is the best possible product. We already got the block. Yes, sir. We're going to get you the attention and everything else you need. Just give me the content, man. Yes, sir. And I think with me, I think it gives people light because I ain't did no clout chase.

I ain't did no calling out of rappers, no exposing of this or that. I've literally just had conversations about information and if i do say something to somebody it's like i don't think that made sense man because if you could you might could have went this way done it like this and it would have been worth that like it's like i look at things like that and i believe truly because there's a crop of young podcasters behind me that say we let you know what loon is saying because nobody's talking about this kind of thing and that's when i started paying attention like you used to tag me and everything and your name looks so unique like what the fuck is a foggo yeah yeah what does

a foggo mean fly get flown over oh okay okay okay i'm like what does that mean i just used to always see you tag me yeah and then when I started listening, you were giving commentary on things that were going on in the podcast space, in the podcast world. But I just be liking the gems you drop about life as well. You know what I mean? And that's what made me be like, oh, man, that brother there got something to say. And I let you, I have no problem letting you know that. Yeah, man, you let a nigga know.

We talk all the time. Damn near every day we talk. You know, and it was information. And you know what I'm saying? I nigga know we talk all the damn day every day we talk you know and it was information and you know i'm saying i love that bro because i need that like where i come from i come out the darkness so i'm telling you i i tell you even go back going back a little bit and we're gonna get back into the business but going back a little bit into the uh um confidence thing have you ever dealt with imposter syndrome? Hell yeah. I didn't get to a place of work until December of 2019. Wow. But that's only because, you know,

well, number one, you can't be an imposter. You can't get imposter syndrome when you're being an imposter. So when I was playing a character of myself, I didn't get it. But when I came back down to reality, you know what I mean, and started looking around at everything that I was doing and everything i was building it did start to feel like man this ain't this ain't me and a lot of times too man like when you getting if you're getting attacked like you know

like people are literally trying to take you out like on some real like like you be like damn is this yeah you know gonna be how i go out until you re-establish that no until you hear god say right you you're divinely protected yes yes yes what are you talking about you like you've been through worse you're gonna be fine like relax like you're gonna be you're gonna be fine and so december 2019 and i remember bishop td jakes told me that because i remember having a conversation with him about it during an interview that's why I'm bringing him up because it was during an interview and we got on worthiness. And I remember him saying to me, you know, most people who've been like abused as kids. Right. Because I always talk about, you know, the older woman to touch on.

Right. He said most people who've been abused as kids, you know, it's hard for them to get to a place of worthy. They never feel, you know, worthy. And for me, that situation hit really hard because I remember when I stopped letting that lady do that, she would call me ugly and tell me I got a big nose and all kind of shit. Now she trying to cut a nigga down. That's right. So for me, it became like people pleasing. And there's been points. I was going to ask you about that.

There's been points in my life where I'm like, you know what? I'm going to do what this person wants me to do not to disappoint not to disappoint i hate that you know because i got that urge as a counselor like i catch myself now even in interviews even though i don't agree with everything but the idea like i i so my understanding a lot of times dictates my action, right? So if I'm in an interview and it's that silence, I may, you know, like when you're talking, I may nod, and you may not even got through it yet, but I'm trying to give you what I think I need. You know, it's like I don't want you to think you're here alone, or I know what it's like on that island where you talk and, like,

nobody's into it right you gotta survive through that but it's almost like that that's why i see my people pleaser at but i'll i'll be non like this and then somebody say something like nah that that's not right but but i was not and i'm trying to understand that about myself what the fuck is that and why am i not like i'm i don't get it bro no i'm with you on that too i be thinking why the fuck am i not and then i think the nodding because i do that too i think the nodding is just the acknowledgement that i'm actually listening okay because when i'm listening i get quiet yeah so i i might just stare at you yeah but i want you to

know i'm engaged i'm engaged i'm engaged i'm not nodding because i agree with you right and that's what i'm saying and but it'll come off sometime that especially on camera i'm noticing right and now i got to be cognizant of like we're on camera certain things and so i can't be nodding at something you know sitting next to some of these white people and they saying some shit and i'm nodding in the clip cut and they didn't get to get my response and it looks like i'm agreeing right and i don't know i don't know if that's people pleaser but i've been reading up on imposter syndrome because i've been trying to identify what's going on with me because as i come from man you you fresh out the street that's what it is you was you you you can still smell the block on you yeah you know i mean like now you're in front of these microphones you're probably a

person that's used to not showing their face too much staying out the way and now you still staying out the way but you in the way yes people know your name yeah you walking down the street somebody call your name now you like yes yeah but they ain't calling you because they are right they ain't calling you because they're pulling the show bro i enjoy the show god it's it's me up because i'm like like i even saw a couple of comments yesterday like saying yo Lone should've did two or three days so he can get in his bag

and I'm like yo y'all gotta understand I'm a technique guy more than anything so my first time doing something is gonna be more so less like

paying attention yeah what's going on here you know like unless it's a space you familiar with right like you Breakfast Club

I mean brilliant it is you smoked it smoked yeah that's what I'm saying but this is so important and it's BET and it. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. But this is so important, and it's BET, and it's on your face card. And I'm saying, let's just make sure that we in rotation. I did the Breakfast Club thing because I want people to see you. Right.

And I want people that know you to be like, oh, shit. Yeah, yeah. Like, Loon. Yeah. And they did it. Yeah, that's what they doing still. They like, yo, Breakfast Club because, bro, it's been a short amount of time. yeah yeah and they did it yeah that's what they're doing still they like yo breakfast club because bro it's been a short amount of time like it ain't i've been going like two years strong i mean i

started part and long time ago and stopped but i've been going like two years strong every week clips every day this and that and it's like for certain people that's a fast movement right in part and it's like yo man you wish charlemagne you over here you did yeah like he is the he's fucking gone and i need the youngsters to know consistency networking but most important valuable content in intent over intent over content yes like you should you should have intent you should have intentional content like don't just do shit to do it don't just make noise you know i mean don't just set yourself on motherfucking fire and think that you're gonna get attention that's what that's the conversations i've been having on brilliant idiots the past few weeks

because that's what i'm trying to tell people like i feel like it's a bunch of people doing the same thing yes and it's and it's and it's old it's shit it's old shit that i used to do right so i can recognize it they revamping shit and i telling y'all, that shit has a short shelf life. Yes. There's a ceiling to that shit. You going to bump your motherfucking head. You know what I'm saying? With you, with us, like people like me, I've studied like you have all my life, like all different sides.

Like I would sit up and watch CNN and don't give a damn. It's just about technique. How they, okay, how they transitioning in and out of conversations. And what's that word mean that's right look that word what the fuck and i'm gonna tell you something else speaking about all of that and you know uh you know seeing things that don't pertain to you and everything the one thing i used to always tell act all the time and i'm sure act has said this i used to always say find your own voice don't be a second rate version of nobody don't imitate me don't imitate this part like don't do nothing find your own but when you find your own voice. Don't be a second-rate version of nobody. Don't imitate me.

Don't imitate this person. Like, don't do nothing. Find your own voice. When you find your own voice, you're going to be out of here. Do you think he's done that now? Absolutely. And that's why I think his shit has gone up, you know?

Because I remember when he was, you could go back and listen, and you can listen, and you'll be like, oh, okay, he trying to sound like this person. He trying to sound like that person. He absolutely found his own voice. and that's what i'm trying to tell everybody now find your own voice i'm watching these people number one you hustling backwards because you're launching your podcast on youtube but then number two you're doing what everybody

else is doing right like sitting there talking about the same and listen maybe that's our fault maybe that's my fault exactly because exactly i let fault. Exactly. Because I let him escape. But I'm telling you, why would you want to be the version of me I'm telling you you're going to bump your head at instead of being the version of me I'm telling you that you can fly? Do you think that they say, man, Charlotte just don't want me to get big like he got big? Is it some of that? Hey, y'all. Niminy here.

I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Executive produced by Questlove, The Story Pirates, and John Glickman, Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop.

Flash, slam, another one gone. Bash, bam, another one gone. The crack of the bat and another one gone. The tip of the cap, there's another one gone. Each episode is about a different inspiring figure from history. Like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it. And it began with me. Did you know, did you know? I wouldn't give up my seat. Nine months before Rosa, it was called a moment.

Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records. Because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, five-year-old Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was found off the coast of Florida. And the question was,

should the boy go back to his father in Cuba? Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or stay with his relatives in Miami? Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who, on October 16th, 2017, was assassinated. Crooks Everywhere unearths the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's up? This is Ramses Jha. And I go by the name Q. Ward. And we'd like you to join us each week for our show, Civic Cipher. That's right. We discuss social issues, especially those that affect black and brown people, but in a way that informs and empowers all people. We discuss everything from prejudice to politics to police violence, and we try to give you the tools to create positive change in your home, workplace, and social circle. We're going to learn how to become better allies to each other. So join us each Saturday for Civic Cipher on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pertenti. And I'm Jamee Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. If you're early in your career, you probably have a lot of money questions. So we're talking to finance expert Vivian Tu, aka Your Rich BFF, to break it down. Looking at the numbers is one of the most honest reflections of what your financial picture actually is. The numbers won't lie to you. Listen to this week's episode of

Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.