The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Harry O Speaks On Calculated Communication, Reputation, New Book + More

Episode Date: June 10, 2025

Today on The Breakfast Club, Harry O Speaks On Calculated Communication, Reputation, New Book. Listen For More!YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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allegations in the future. Listen to Betrayal on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John, who's not the father? Well Sam, luckily it's your Not the Father Week on the OK Storytime Podcast so we'll find out soon. This author writes, my father-in-law is trying to steal the family fortune worth millions

from my son even though it was promised to us. He's trying to give it to his irresponsible son, but I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up, they could lose their family and millions of dollars? Yup. Find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Have you ever thought about going voiceover?

I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. I'm also the girl behind voiceover, the movement that exploded in 2024. You might hear that term and think it's about celibacy, but to me, VoiceOver is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's flexible, it's customizable, and it's a personal process. Singleness is not a waiting room.

You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it. No. Listen to VoiceOver on the iHeartRadio app, It's not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it. Listen to VoiceOver on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Wake that ass up. In the morning. The Breakfast Club. Morning, everybody.

It's DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne the guy. We are The Breakfast Club. Lauren LaRosa is here as well. And we got a special guest in the building We got the good brother Harold Wilkerson Harry oh ladies and gentlemen, what's up, brother? What's going on? What's going on everyone? Thank you for having me LL Lauren What's up? Harry? Oh got a new book called is beyond words, which is out right now Mm-hmm. And if you talk you talk about the art of calculated communication.

Yes. What is that? Great question. So the art of calculated communication, let me just rewind a little bit for the room who may not know or those who don't know in the room that besides an entertainment executive, I'm also a college professor.

And I've been teaching communication courses for maybe 12 to 13 years. I did not know that. If you're gonna go that far, let's go all the way back I had no idea Either you know Harry oh, it was started off as a rapper. Yes. That's how I originally know Harry Oh, he's from high bridges from the Bronx He thought up as a rapper from there and was and was signed to the ink. Yes signed to the ink You was a hype man for gyro for many years

And then you stop rapping and now breaking that. Well, first of all, how did you meet Irv and everybody and go through that whole list of things? Great question. So let me rewind, right? So first I started the entertainment business. I had a deal with Uptown Records first with Andre Harrell and everyone over there.

God bless the dead. My favorite label level. Favorite, favorite, right? Best for R&B music. All right, so I was maybe like in eighth grade, so that came when I was working with Puff for a while. Whoa, oh that bad boy. Yeah, listen, I know my guy's going through a lot,

but I gotta give him a lot of credit for helping me of where I'm at today. Like I have to give him his credit because I probably wouldn't be here without the image of him, right? You can't take away what he did professionally. Professionally and what he did for me in my life personally. He did a lot for me and I'll tell you about it if I have time.

He stuck up for me plenty of times when executives tried to blackball me and things like that. Puff found out about it, step in, like, no, you're not doing that to my guy. So I gotta give him his credit. So from there we transitioned quick. I had to deal with Motown, I had to deal with Murder Inc, right?

How many deals did you have? About four deals. Starting at eighth grade? Starting at eighth grade. I've been doing entertainment for a long time. So now, fast forward, let me just tell you as far as me and Ja, I met Ja on the set of a movie called Turn It Up.

Don't remember Turn It Up. You're not gonna remember me in the movie because they edited me out the movie, you're not gonna remember me in the movie because they edited me out the movie. So you're not gonna remember me, but if you look at the credits, you'll see me in the credits or whatever. So the movie was shot in Canada. So we traveled to Canada, right?

I'm there with my manager. We're trying to get into Canada. My manager at the time, he gets arrested. For some reason he can't get into Canada. You know how that goes. So now I'm just, I'm young, I'm in Canada about to shoot this movie. I'm by myself I'm a little nervous so my trailer is right next to Josh trailer But I would always see John in the violator office because we was working with violator Def Jam

But we never really you know knew each other. We saw each other we passed so I'm in a trailer He knocks on my trailer door So I open up he go. Oh you sign a signed a death jam, you signed a violator? I'm like, nah, my God, my son is, and we doing work over there. He go, man, I hear you here by yourself and your manager got arrested. Listen, anything you need, come to my trailer.

If you need weed, if you need Hennessy, if you need anything. Ja has been trying to get me high since I met him. But yeah, I don't do any of that. So from there, Ja and I had a connection. That was his first album, like right before his first album came out. After his album came out, he like blew up and took off

and my career was going wherever it was going. But anytime we would see each other, it would, like we would stop everything and give each other love. And then I met Chris Gotti, Irv's brother, somewhere in the club and he knew I did music. He said, listen, why don't you come down to the studio? Went into the studio, started recording records with Irv,

records with Ashanti, records with Ja, the next you know a brotherhood form, where although me and Ja came in through entertainment, that's more my brother. Like, that's my guy. And I said before my company, Chase Republic, we serve as like an independent agency for them. We close a lot of different deals,

like I do with you, E, and we talk about, made a lot of money together. But more importantly, that's my brother, that's my guy. So now you get out of music and music never takes off. See, you can look at it that way. You tell me. Well, I had the transition. I always say this, right? Somebody can ask ask you how like how do you view success right so in your eyes you may say

Harry oh as an artist wasn't successful, and that's fine. You can see it that way. I don't view it that way I view it as I came in an entertainment business in eighth grade. I made a life out of it I'm sitting here doing an interview on the breakfast club. I'm not a rapper. I'm not a- I always known you as an executive. Like that's how I always looked at Harry O as an exec. I never even knew anything about no rap crew. Well, like E being a DJ, yeah, it's been plenty of times where

I would have to wait for E outside of the radio station for me to get music played. Like we have that relationship. You and I met later on in life as being an entertainment exec. It's same thing with Lauren. When you and I met, first conversation I had with you was this, listen, Kaposi makes some money with you, right?

And that's how it went. But he just knows a little bit of the backstory. But yeah, so it all depends on how you wanna look at it as far as you're not being successful. But listen, I made a life for it. My daughter, listen, I paid her tuition through entertainment, do you understand? Her private school tuition, which we all know

is very expensive, all through entertainment. So someone asks, hey, you weren't successful. I don't know, I wouldn't say that. I say I did pretty well. You're probably about to ask this, then I'm interested to know, so from the artist's perspective, then you transition into the executive side because of the relationships, and what is that transition?

Because you started at eight, and executive is an adult making real adult decisions. Right. Well, it's two-folds to it, right? As I said, I've been a college professor teaching communication courses. Now with communication, understand the art of connecting with others.

But first connecting with yourself and what we talk about. Once I understood and fully came of who I am, a higher sense of awareness of me, I understood my abilities. I understood how I can build relationships. So I just started to build and form credible relationships with people, building trust, but in a strategic way, not in a manipulative way, just very strategic. And like I can talk a lot about me and Envy because Envy and I made some money together

and our relationship built and I was intentional on how we're building our relationship. So what I did was I just merged the world between entertainment and education and made a life. So what is the art of calculated communication and how has that helped you navigate through all those different worlds? So the art of calculator communication,

and to make it short, because we can talk about this all day, but what I would do is this, right? Say with Lauren, for instance, right? I met Lauren at the Brooklyn Nets event. Now you said, hey, Lauren's on her way here, can you send somebody to get her in? Immediately I'm like, all right, I know who she is,

I absolutely know that we can probably do business with her Lauren was two hours late by the way I wasn't gonna say I was driving Brooklyn is like driving to another planet. Okay, and it was raining They do call it. All right, but what do I always do? I will pull up for y'all later not So yeah, we had an event and in the Barclay Center for the Brooklyn Nets Which are one of my partners and I hired E to do different events. So E, while we're there, he's like, listen, Lauren's on her way. Can you send somebody to get it? You know how difficult it is to get someone inside the Barclays Center when it's closed?

Like it's really closed at this point. But I understand I have to be a little bit strategic. I want to build a relationship with this young lady and possibly do business. So we sent an executive to go outside and figure it out to get her in. Now as she's in, I understand it takes more than one encounter for us to start building some type of relationship.

But we have to have that first encounter. It has to be a genuine encounter. It has to be maybe someone can help build that bridge between you and I. And I use June. June, EMMY's manager, whoever's listening I used June, June, Emmy's manager, whoever's listening, I said, June, do me a favor. Let her know, stamp me, right, let her know.

So June went to you and said, hey, Harry, oh, this is my guy. That's all I needed to start building some type of communication with you. Now, to make it a little bit shorter, in order for Lauren and I to build a relationship, I have to get her to peel back her layers. I have to try to get to know her.

The closer I get to her, the more of a chance I have of doing great business with her. I just can't pick up the phone and say, hey, I have a bunch of deals for you. She doesn't even know who I am yet we have to build trust. So I have to get her to peel back layers. I have to ask her questions. But if she never responds, like say if I say,

hey, as simple as this, Lauren how was your day today? Great so far besides dealing with Charlamagne, but other than that amazing. I'm the best part of her day. Best part of the day. What are your plans tomorrow? We have a flight, we're going to LA for the BET Awards,

me and the team at the Breakfast Club. Wow. Well not them, but the producers and stuff. You have a lot of work at the BET Awards? We do, the latest with Lauren LaRosa is in the radio room for the first time ever, for two days. Pretty cool, congratulations.

I love that. Now check this out, right? So I would have to work a little bit harder now with Lauren because although I actually squashed, and I know we're on air, there's a lot going on. I asked her how was her day, right? And she said how her day was. She didn't say, how was yours too?

Oh shoot. Sorry. So that's what I'm interested in. I was anticipating the next question. I know. I would know it's fine. I'm interested in knowing about her day, but I want to see how much interest she's holding in me to know about me as well. And sooner or later that will come. This is our maybe like our second encounter. But if I can't get you to have that exchange with me, I have to work a lot harder and be more strategic and to get you to communicate with me. And if you never do that, it's like, all right, this

person doesn't have any interest in building with me in this area. I think also too in business, I've never had a business interaction where my first thought is to say, how was your like most people come to you just like, so like, this is what I want this is what I need. So you just kind of sit and listen, and then you try and think through, can I even do that with everything else that's happening? And that's the problem with communication,

where I don't want any communication with anyone to feel transactional. And I'm only using Envy as an example because we made some money to get me into business. Envy and I have a relationship where Envy had called me at five o'clock in the morning, and we're talking about dance at five o'clock in the morning and we're talking about dance. We're not even talking about business. We're talking about dance.

He's like, do you do this with your daughter? You look at these glasses, check this out. How did it get there? It got there through strategic communication and connecting and building. If every time I see E is just, hey, I got A, you got B. Sooner or later, if I don't have A anymore or I'm in a downside, I can't get E

to really pick up my calls because we don't have a connection, if I'm making sense here. Yeah, I'll- You are making sense, but I will say, I hate small talk, right? So when I hear that conversation with you and Lauren, I'm like, okay, what does he want?

That's what I was thinking too. You know what I'm saying? I'd rather you just get to it. And I don't think there's anything wrong with a transactional conversation. Like, you know, if you have something to offer. And I don't think there's anything wrong with transactional conversation. Like, you know, if you have something to offer me and you think that I'm a person that can help you execute something,

bring it to the table. That's intentional conversation. Now here's the thing, that may work in your professional world. It may not work in your personal life though. Because communication, listen, to understand communication will be the key to your professional and your personal life.

That may be okay for your business relationship, but not every personal relationship, not somebody that's just trying to build a genuine friendship with you, don't want it to feel transactional. So that's what you're trying to do. You're trying to build a personal relationship with Lord. Well, for me, my success comes when I'm building

a relationship with a person where we have some type of friendship. Got you, got you, got you person where we have some type of friendship. Got you. Got you. Got you. If we have some type of, some kind of friendship, like we don't have to talk at five o'clock in the morning, but we have some type of connection, some type of friendship is a higher ratio that we can do great business together. I think people, there are some people that would argue against that though, because I mean I think too it's kind of like the background that you have, like knowing the type of like music

and era that you come from, you value that, but a lot of people don't have values today. So it's like, I don't want to be your friend. If we're going to do business, we'll do it. And then we determine what that looks like after. I will say this though, the one thing for people listening, to me, Harry O was like Steve Stout, right? And when I say like Steve Stout.

That might not be a good thing for some people. No. Well, let me tell you what part of Steve Stout. That might not be a good thing for some people. No. Well, let me tell you one more part of Steve Stout I made. He connects businesses to people to talent. So for instance, he had a, one of his clients was East New York, which was a show that was on, out of Channel 9 or whatever it was. And he calls me one day and was like,

E, I have a part for you in this show. I'm like, bro, I'm not acting. I've taken acting lessons a long time. He was like, nah, I really want you to read the script and try it, right? And I'm like, because of our relationship, I was like, no, let me give it a shot. And when I did it, it went well.

They loved me. They wanted to bring me back for more episodes. But what impressed me more was, I know Harry O from a street rapper, like from the Bronx, like gangster rapper. So, but to see him being a guy that's in the middle of East New York and me, we're in the trailer, but he's teaching a class in the middle of me shooting

on his, as a professor. And I'm like, this is amazing because you see how people evolve, you know what I mean? And a lot of people don't evolve. A lot of people still want to be the toughest, hardest rapper at whatever age, and it just doesn't make sense. And I appreciate it that, I'm like, because he revolved.

But that relationship, like you said, was the reason why I trusted you to try East New York. Yeah. Absolutely, and to Lauren's point, listen, yeah, when we're discussing communication, Shaul and everyone, it's all theoretical. Like, what I'm saying may not work with you or resonate with you. It just happens that it resonates with me and it's all theoretical. Like what I'm saying may not work with you or resonate with you, right?

It just happens that it resonates with me and it's been proven to be successful for me. And like I said, I'm glad E mentioned that because he is a testament to what I'm saying as far as how we built this relationship where it's trust. I call him and say, Enby, I'm gonna put you on TV, it's a network, we're doing this cop show.

I want you to act in it, all right, cool. After we discuss whatever the logistics are, he doesn't even have to think anymore because he's like, you know what, I trust Harry O, but we built our relationship to that point and I was intentional about that. Yeah, I get what you're saying, like the established real connection,

I think the established real connection has to be some form of real communication. Yes, absolutely, absolutely. And I think guard too depends on, because there are certain times where if people approach me to do certain things and they say that they've worked with Charlamagne or Envy, I'll call them and say,

hey, do you know this person? Is it, because nowadays too, because I turned to this chapter or page in your book, you talk about the influencer, you talk about media being the beauty and then the beast being society. because of the way that things are distorted or like shown online with people in business you never know what's real and what's fake so it's like you gotta kind of like hold up what you want before you even be like let me allow you to enter what I've

worked on. Right absolutely and for me is building your reputation. I'm not sure if you heard the saying people meet your reputation before reputation before they meet you. Yeah. Right, your reputation, my reputation is in this room before I walked in. That's the only reason I was able to get it. So I know building my reputation, that's a form of knowing how I connect with myself, knowing how I see me and how what I project for others to see. And if my reputation is solid, people will vouch for it. So yes, absolutely. And we represent, excuse me, I mentioned media and manipulation in the book as well,

which is really, really important. If I have some time, can I touch on it? Of course. All right. Because in the book, I mention, I brought up Shine in the book and the shooting that happened X amount of years ago. And this is really important that I don't want it to seem as like I'm poking a hole at Shine

or picking at wounds, anything like that. Now, Shine was arrested for what? Like what did he get arrested for? What did he do time for? So it was assault or something, or man, or shooting a gun. Okay, no. Discharging a legal firearm. That's what somebody else would say, that's all. Okay, gun. Look it up. Discharge in a legal firearm. That's what somebody else would say, that's all.

Yeah, that's what I believe. Discharge in a legal firearm, I think it was. All right, so what happened? Meaning, what led him to do that? And it's not only that Shana had these issues, or that had these issues. A lot of young people in our hip hop culture had these issues.

Now let me connect it to media manipulation and representation. Media, how we describe it, is any way you receive information, any way you receive thoughts, right? So it could be the movies you watch, it could be the music you're listening to. So if you are young and you're not understanding

exactly who you are yet, you're not connecting with yourself, but every time you see you, it's in the wire. It's on these shows, these criminal shows. All the music you're listening to is telling you who you are. You have to be this, you have to be that. All of these images in media creates a distorted image of who you're supposed to be.

Yeah. But that distorted image can cause a real life consequence for you. So when I look at somebody like Sean and others, and I can recall Sean saying, and the reason why I brought it up is because I was there. I was there for this whole thing. I remember Sean saying to someone, I'm not going to mention the person's name, but he said, I need people to see me and respect me the way they respect Jay-Z, right? And it's like, all right, but what you know of Jay-Z is.

Yeah, you don't get that from busting your gun. But something manipulated him to feel that way, right? To do that, so, but it's all about what he's seeing in the media, in the music you're listening to, in the TV show you're watching, all of this is polluting how you feel about you and who you think you have to be. I have to be this. I need you.

No, I'm not Rick Ross, the officer, I'm Rick Ross. I need you to see me like that. But all of that is manipulating you. And if you're not understanding who you are, it's gonna cause a real life consequence for you. And that's what happened with Sean. Camp Shane, one of America's longest running weight loss camps for kids,

promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often unrecognizable when they left. In a society obsessed with being thin, it seemed like a miracle solution. But behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children was a dark underworld of sinister secrets. Kids were being pushed to their physical and emotional limits as the family that owned Shane turned a blind eye.

Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. In this eight-episode series, we're unpacking and investigating stories of mistreatment and re-examining the culture of fatphobia that enabled a flawed system to continue for so long. You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. I'm Andrea Gunning, host of the podcast Betrayal. Police Lieutenant Joel Kern used his badge to fool everyone. Most of all, his wife Caroline.

He texted, I've ruined our lives. You're going to want to divorce me. Caroline's husband was living another life behind the scenes. He betrayed his oath to his family and to his community. She said you left bruises, pulled her hair, that type of thing. No. How far would Joel go to cover up what he'd done? You're unable to keep track of all your lies.

And quite frankly, I question how many other women may bring forward allegations in the future. This season of Betrayal investigates one officer's decades of deception, lies that left those closest to him questioning everything they thought they knew. Listen to Betrayal on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance.

Wait a minute, John. Who's not the father? Well, Sam, luckily it's your Not the Father Week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This author writes, My father-in-law is trying to steal the family fortune worth millions from my son. Even though it was promised to us, now I find out he's trying to give it to his irresponsible son instead, but I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up. So what are they gonna do to get those millions back? That's so unfair.

Well, the author writes that her husband found out the truth from a DNA test they were gifted two years ago. Scandalous. But the kids kept their mom's secret that whole time. Oh my God. And the real kicker, the author wants to reveal this terrible secret, even if that means destroying her husband's family in the process.

So do they get the millions of dollars back or does she keep the family's terrible secret? Well, to hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeart ReadyWAP Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation.

To most people, I'm the girl behind voiceover, the movement that exploded in 2024. Voiceover is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's more than personal. It's political, it's societal, and at times, it's far from what I originally intended it to be. These days, I'm interested in expanding what it means to be voiceover, to make it customizable for anyone who feels the need

to explore their relationship to relationships. I'm talking to a lot of people who will help us think about how we love each other. It's a very, very normal experience to have times where a relationship is prioritizing other parts of that relationship that are being naked together. How we love our family. I've spent a lifetime trying to get my mother to love me,

but the price is too high. And how we love ourselves. Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it. Listen to VoiceOver on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Like when I look at you, right, this is the brown girl grinding, right? It's important that I brought my daughter here today to see what

we see in this box. What we see, this is a beautiful brown sister who bullied her way onto the show, who's making noise, making moves. She's covering the Diddy Trowell and she's killing it. Her outfits are crazy, crazy in a good way. What I mean? Crazy in a good way. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. look at you. I'm like, Harry, you got me. No, no, no, no. I like what he's saying. He couldn't wait to put cocaine in my flowers. Like, please relax.

I'm buying 10 books now. So no, as we're viewing her in media, we're looking at her. This image is important because a brown girl is watching and seeing that. And that reality is something that she can obtain and is something that's authentic outside of that it can cause a disruption if you understand what I'm saying. So now I gotta ask you with Murder Inc. for a long time how was the passing of Irv have affected you because you know

Irv in and out and we've had conversations about it and conversations about his health so how has that affected you? Well, the passing of Irv is still like in disbelief, right? When I'm talking about Irv or we're up in conversation to say, all right, rest in peace, Irv God. Like it's really weird still. Now, the passing of him, I see how it affects me and everyone around. Like I am very, very, very close with Jah.

And Irv and I were really cool, but I'm closer with Jah. It affect me because in this way, no one may not know this outside of his family. Irv is such a family, family man. I have never seen a family as close as his. In my life, I've never seen a family as close as his in my life. I've never seen it. So, and he was like the hero of the family.

And for, and no disrespect to anyone else in the family that's doing great things, but he was like a hero. And so for the hero to pass and see how that affects the family dynamic, it made me, how it affects me, it made me come closer with my family. Like Irv is the type where, listen, it was holidays, his house is packed with the whole family. Not just him and the kids, it's nieces, it's nephews,

it's aunts and uncles, it's like 30 people running around his house and it was just a loving, loving, loving family. A lot of people didn't see that side of him. You see Murder Inc. You see the music or you see the problems with the 50 Cent or whatever, so on and so forth. But the guy was an amazing family man.

And to watch that, and as a father, yeah, it affects me. I wanna be closer with my family the way Irv is with his family. So that's how I would say it affects me. You know what's interesting, when you talk about the art of communication, like I like the way Irv is with his family. So that's how I would say the family. You know what's interesting, when you talk about the art of communication, like I like the way Irv communicated.

It may have rubbed some people the wrong way, but I like it because it's direct. Like when we talked about how it was intentional, he wasn't the small talker. It was, this is what we doing, this how we doing it, this how I think it should go. I like that. No, listen, absolutely.

It's something to be admired there. Everyone has different strategies on how to communicate. Irv being direct may work for them with certain people, but I'm quite sure it didn't work with everyone. So it all depends on what your style is. And I was thinking about something. Yeah, some people don't like small talk and that's fine. Like in the book, I mentioned a term called farming and hunting.

Those are different ways of nurturing a relationship. When we're cutting the small talk out, I'm hunting. I know exactly what I want. I know what you have. We know we can make that work. But every relation doesn't work like that. Sometimes we have to farm. We have to plant seeds.

I don't know where the relationship may go, but I know we can possibly build. So I'm gonna plant seeds, then we just water the seeds, water the seeds, and next thing you know, we're eating off the fruit from the seeds. And it's really important, yes, I'm an entertainment executive, so all we're talking about is how these theories

affect in business. It's in your personal life as well. If a young man is trying to get to know a young lady or vice versa, it's ways you go about that. You have to be intentional, you have to be strategic. Yes, what is your goal by dating this woman? That's transaction, cut the small talk. It doesn't work like that in your personal life, right?

You have to farm. Your daughter is seeing someone, your oldest daughter, they're not engaging in like that. You know what? All right, I'm sorry. She's 23. She's 23. Right, but that young gentleman,

he had to farm the relationship with Madison. He had to farm, it wasn't a transaction or a hunting relationship, it doesn't work like that. He had to farm the relationship with Madison. He had to farm, it wasn't a transaction or a hunting relationship, it doesn't work like that. He had to be intentional. Farm, plant seeds, whatever those seeds are, check up on it, know her birthday, know her dad's birthday, so on and so forth. So farming and hunting are two different ways

of building a relationship. And you talk about the difference between intrapersonal and interpersonal. Yes. So the first form of communication, the most important form is your intrapersonal, I-N-T-R-A. That's the conversation within. How you see yourself, how do you connect with yourself,

what do you think about yourself, how do you evaluate yourself? If you can't evaluate, if you don't possess the ability to self-evaluate, then you're at a disconnect with you. So everything how I feel and think about me, that's my intra will depict my inter my interpersonal relationship. So, you know, Charlamagne, you say something that hurt people, hurt people. You say that a lot, right? It's something internally that's at a disconnect.

So since they're at a disconnect internally, they're at a disconnect externally with others. So when you understand who you are in your intra and you're reaching the highest level of who that person is, you understand who you are, you understand what you can do, and I understand how to connect. I can connect with others better because I connect with myself at a certain level. So intra depicts how your inter will turn out.

You also talk about in your book, hip hop and how it shaped you as a man, both good and bad. How does that speak to your communication? Wow. Alright, so yes, hip hop aided me on a path to self-actualization of being the man who I am today. And I mentioned this in the book, and I'm gonna give the gentleman credit where I heard the term and I'll tell you. Yes, hip hop got me on this path,

but I have to have accountability and understand that also some of that content in the music could have caused a self-destruction, some form of self-destruction, like some of the artists I was mentioning. In the book, I mentioned, are we the heroes or are we the villains? And I heard this term through a Ted Talk

by the guy Lecrae, and we're gonna make a documentary about it. Salute to him. Yeah, salute to him. So I wanna give him his credit. He mentioned hip hop, are we the heroes or are we the villains? Are we? Reason why I mention this, yes, I'm a child of hip hop. I have to credit hip hop for taking

me where I am. But also there's things in the music that's villain-like that can cause you on the wrong destruction, wrong path. We glorify the person that's coming home from jail before we glorify the person that's going away to college. We do a lot of that in this music. So are we the heroes or are we the villains? Now, what's the difference between a hero and a villain? A hero has the same attributes as a villain, but a hero becomes a... a person becomes a villain through trauma. Some type of trauma can make you become a villain. You look at anything in nonfiction or fiction, Batman, his parents got killed and he became this. If you seen the Joker, something happened,

he became a villain for these reasons. What turned hip hop music villain-like? The crack epidemic. The crack epidemic, as far as in my theory in this documentary we're shooting, the crack epidemic shaped and destroyed hip hop music into the way where it turned into more villain like in the music and the content that's in it. So are we the heroes or are we the villains?

I understand that hip hop made me a hero, but I also understand some of it could have made me a villain as well. In my last book, Get On It, Set That Line, Why Small Talk Sucks, I have a whole chapter with basically the same thing. I'm just exploring hip hop's ability to be a positive and self-destructive force.

Like literally, like I think that if you're a certain age, at some point we gotta have some accountability. At some point, I'm glad we feel the same way, because at some point you have to have accountability. I'm never disrespecting my hip hop music mother. It made me who I am. But yes, there are images, it's things that we put up on a pedestal.

If we don't have accountability, we are causing poison if we don't know how to steer that ship in the right direction. But is it also how it's cultivated, right? And the reason I say that is, if I put a gun on the table, and you use a gun, that could be a negative thing. But if I teach somebody how to use the gun

the proper way and the right way and what to use it for, it's a positive thing. Same thing with hip hop, right? Hip hop, all those images we've all seen, all, all seen. But my parents, especially my dad, cultivated me to look at things a certain way. I never sold crack. I never sold drugs. You know, I never used coke or crack or nothing like that, because my dad cultivated to me to like, no, this is what this is for. These are messages from here, but that's not you. Yeah.

Don't make that you. Right. You know what I'm saying? So it's no, it's two different sides's It's all about what your daughter your daughter dances She listens to hip-hop music and I'm sure she might dance to some stuff That's a little salacious, but you tell her this is cool for this, but that's not you Listen and there's a job like you just said your dad your dad was dead Like I'm always say, you know how you take a kid bowling and they got to put the barriers up So the ball can go down. That's what parents are, right? We are the barriers and we need both. We need both. You could have one parent and that ball could still gutter that way, right? We are the barriers to keep the kids

going forward. So your dad was that to let you know like, yeah, this is what the world is but that's not what's good for you. Listen, there were times, yeah, my daughter dances if she dances to hip hop and she's not going to remember this. We're getting in the car and I wouldn't play no hip hop in the car at all, none whatsoever. When she was younger, when she was maybe four, five, six, it's not going to be certain shows on TV, no disrespect to any of the shows, but certain shows, excuse me, certain shows wouldn't be on television because I'm trying to shape her mind to see a certain way. Now, we can listen to certain music, because I see that the barriers are working. I see who this young lady is.

So yeah, we can listen to hip hop, and I'd rather her listen to Drake than over some other artists, but yeah, we have to be those barriers, because in hip hop, we could be the heroes, or we could be the villains. That is a fact. Seductive communication, you leave that chapter blank

in the book. Yeah. Why? It just has to be continued. Right. So when I first wrote the book, I wrote the book in 2020 during the pandemic when I started. Now as a college professor,

there's different chapters in the book, right? So I'm gonna answer your question quickly. We start off with intra-personal communication, the conversation within. So if I'm teaching a class, and it's the first day of the semester, and I say, all right, Sharla, welcome to my class, did you take any communication courses before mine?

And you may say, yeah, I took a leadership and communication class. I'm like, that was your first communication class? Communication should be taught with prerequisites in a certain order, right? So the first order is intra, then I go into inter, then I speak about culture and communication. I speak about media and communication, power and leadership.

I'm taking you on a journey. Seductive communication is sort of like the final level of the book on how you use seduction to communicate. And not seduction in the sense of a sexual form, just knowing how to seduce someone's mind to navigate in a certain way. And the reason why I left it blank, because it has to be a part two to the book now. Come on.

It's got to be a part two to the book. As a professor, right, you know, I look at college courses as sometimes outdated. Yes. Right? And that bothers me a lot, especially with my kids going to college, because a lot of things that they wanna learn or that they're into,

a lot of times these colleges don't necessarily teach, right? My first major was communications. I left communications and went to business, management, and marketing. But for me, what I wanted to learn for communications wasn't helping me with what I wanted to do, right? Communications was a lot of reading, a lot of intro,

a lot of this, a lot of that, but I wanted to be hands on with this stuff like that. So talk about some of the courses that you think should be in college and some of the things that should be taken out of college. Right, that's great, cause I have to- No disrespect, a lot of the algorithms that I learned in college, I don't use,

I've never used, and if I have to, I have a computer that will do it for me. Absolutely. Now, there's two parts I'm gonna get into. Now, some of the courses that are in college, I have to be really careful because I'm still a college professor, and I don't want college to be listening right now.

So, I do believe there should be more entrepreneur courses in college. We're should be more entrepreneur courses in college. We're going to need AI courses in college. We're going to need real estate courses in college. You're going to need these things in colleges. Now, I believe certain colleges are doing it. Yes. Ja'ru's son, shout out to Geordi,

he just graduated from SCAD in Atlanta. That's Savannah. Savannah, yeah, I'm sorry, Savannah. And he was home for his sister's wedding and we were in the kitchen at Joss' house and he was saying how all these different courses that he's taken at SCAD, it was never available to me as a student.

So some of the courses that we're talking about, E, like we've been removed from college for a little bit, some of these colleges are doing that. Like teaching him how to code, he can build games. He can do all the things that I would never even thought of. Art school, I know my daughter's been talking about it. She's like, that's the way she's looking at it. But like even when Jod talks, he's like,

listen, I visited the campus and I'm like, I've never seen a school like this. So yeah, I do think we need those particular courses. Now let me just rewind as far as like a communication course. I mentioned in the book, I credit Eddie Murphy to one of the reasons I'm here today in the movie Boomerang. Like Boomerang is one of my favorite movies.

You see, like he was a marketing executive. He garnered so much attention from women. He was smart. He was everything. I'm watching this and this goes back to my representation. I'm watching this movie. I'm watching this, and this goes back to my representation. I'm watching this movie. I'm like, I wanna do that. I wanna know how to do that.

So I was in college at the time. So I went to my counselor. I said, listen, in this movie, this guy Eddie Murphy played Marcus Graham. He's a marketing executive. How do I get into marketing? She said, well, you need to understand what communication is to understand what marketing is. I said, well, sign me up for all communication courses. X amount of years later, I get into marketing? She said, well, you need to understand what communication is, to understand what marketing is.

I said, well, sign me up for all communication courses. X amount of years later, I'm doing marketing strategies for my own company. So I needed that course. I needed these courses to be able to do what I'm doing now. Gotcha. Gotcha. Well, tell them where they could get this book, brother.

You can get the book on Amazon, all right? If you're listening, you can just type in Harold Wilkerson. If you type in Harry O, nothing's going to come up. If I don't come up, it'll be a bunch of y'all. It's you, it's Homie from Death Row. Right. People always make that mistake too, but that's a different story.

Yeah, but you can get the book on Amazon in a search engine. Just put in It's Beyond Words by Harold Wilkerson and it'll pop up. So can get the book on Amazon in a search engine. Just put in It's Beyond Words by Harold Wilkerson and in the pop-up. So please get the book. And one of the lessons I want you to understand and learn, I'd leave it off. I closed deals with the WNBA and I closed deals with the NBA for going over six to seven seasons now.

And it all started for me attending one basketball game. I attended a game. and it went from the person who handed me my ticket to go sit on the floor and through strategic and intentional communication, I started closing deals with the CEO of the New York Liberty, the CEO of the Brooklyn Nets. Like it went from attending, like how do you attend a game and then fast forward, you close in deals with the owners

and CEOs of WNBAs and MBAs and you hear all that if you pick up the book. All right. Hario, ladies and gentlemen, pick up the book. It's Beyond Words, available now. Yes, sir. Appreciate you, brother. Thank you.

Do I get like the whole thing when they be like, yo, tomorrow I'm gonna be on the breakfast club. And you get the after. Can we close be like, yo tomorrow I'm gonna be on the Breakfast Club We close out the show first, I'm sorry It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning. Wake that ass up in the morning the Breakfast Club Camp Shane one of America's longest runningrunning weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. But there were some dark truths behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children. Nothing about that camp was right.

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