The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Richelieu Dennis On Essence Fest 2025 Backlash, Leveraging Your Failures, Essence 2026 + More

Episode Date: June 12, 2026

Today on The Breakfast Club, Richelieu Dennis On Essence Fest 2025 Backlash, Leveraging Your Failures, Essence 2026. Listen For More!YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Every day I wake up. You're all finished or y'all done? Morning, everybody is DJ Envi. Just hilarious. Shalameen the guy. We are the breakfast club. Lawn LaRose is here as well. We got a special guest in the building.

He's back. Ladies and gentlemen, Rich Dennis. Welcome back. Good morning. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for having me back. Good. Owner of Essence and, of course, owner of the Essence Festival

that is going down 4th of July weekend in New Orleans. How's that me? Join us. Come join us. Rich Lou Walker. He said, it's the first time I've walked in this room and had to apologize for anything. Yeah, haven't had to apologize. At least not yet.

It's early in the day. Now, for people that don't know, just tell them about this year's lineup, some of the people that will be performing and some of the cool things you have like Michelle Obama, which is amazing. Talk about some of the stuff you have going on. Yeah, yeah. So this year we really went back.

So we took a lot of the feedback from last year and I was here. And one of the things that I realized is that we were moving very fast to try to evolve into the future. And we weren't letting people know where we were headed and what we were doing. So we've taken the time this year to say, okay, we're going to slow down, let people know where we're going so everybody can get on board. So the first thing we did was announced our first ever culture curator council. and led by Tiana Taylor and some just incredible, incredible women like Nina, who leads the food festival. Nicole Hannah-Jones is leading the book festival on the nonfiction side and Mara Brock Akele on the fiction side. So Nye Lathan is leading the film festival.

So I've been very thoughtful about making sure that all the people, that are driving culture can see themselves represented in the people that are actually putting the festival together. So that was the first one. I think that's been a big, that's been a big, big win, right? Lineup, we said we're going to get lineup out early. Our strategy here has always been for the 30 something years is to drop the lineup as we go along. And there's two reasons for that. One is become a very practical reason. It's because we compete against Live Nation. So Live Nation has the resources and the infrastructure that they suck up all the talent out of the market very quickly.

First thing, so we're competing against that as an independent media business, right? And we're fighting everybody at this point, but there's that, right? But then the other reason that that is is because we're not looking to just be a place where you come to a concert. We don't want to be a concert, right? We want to be a cultural hub, which means we have to curate it around things that are actually driving the broader culture

and not just the music culture, right? So this year you have Cardi B, Lado, Kalani, and that's all on Friday night. They're really driving youth culture. Yes, sir. But then the greatest part of Friday night is Michelle Obama opens up the festival on Friday evening

with her podcast on the Essence Festival concert stage in the Superdome. Oh, wow. So 40,000 people there to see our Forever First Lady. Yeah. And she's partnering with Kiki Palmer on it.

Oh, that's dope. So it's collaboration. Which is going to be crazy. Two of the best podcasts out right now. Two of the best podcasters out there having a conversation around where this is all headed. And we're launching the podcast.

podcast festival within that. So we get to do that and headline our podcast festival with Michelle Obama and Kiki Palmer. You don't get any better than that. You can't get any more grateful than to have those two women in a conversation on the essence concert main stage in the Superdome. And we have been doing podcasts. And so, and thank you for inviting me and, and, and, uh, entertain. me and supporting me while I came to your podcast festival. Yeah, the Black Effect Podcast Festival. Because for me, it was, it was mind-blowing, right? Because we've been doing podcasts at Festival for probably six, seven years.

But it was never focused and organized, right? It was a podcast row and different podcasts would show up and they would do that. And so now having an opportunity to say, okay, well, what if we were really thoughtful about building a black creator economy, right? So this isn't about a podcast vessel. This is about building a black-owned, black-run, black-established infrastructure to grow the creator industry in America, not just that we have to run to all these different entities to do that. And so, so that's really the impetus of saying, okay, why don't we put infrastructure under this thing? So why don't we do a creator podcast festival alongside the film festival, right?

So the film festival, this year we'll have, not we'll have, has already almost 650 films submitted, which makes us one of the largest film festivals in the country, right? Last year, out of the film festival came two Emmys. Wow. That's huge. Out of the book festival, we gave five. book contracts in partnership with Penguin, right? So, so five, five authors got signed last year, books coming out. That's what we, when we talk about building infrastructure and we talk about

building now the creator infrastructure, it's not just saying, hey, come see these podcasts, but it's taking these podcasts, taking these creators, platforming them, and then giving them opportunities beyond what they typically would do in, in podcasting, right? So it's, it's an exciting time. I think, I think, we're delivering on the promise and this time we're sharing it early so that people understand what we're trying to do and where and where we're headed with it so it's going to be exciting and then we got some big news so I don't know when you're ready to start talking about that yeah we did the only reason I'm going now that's today so yeah we parted it up if you don't know rich is a huge car collector like out of this world and not just old new like he's he's such a

fixation and nobody ever knows that and the only reason I knew that we went on a ride one day and he pulled up and I'm like oh wow so we're bringing the car show to Essus Music Festival. That's so dope. In the convention center. So to be absolutely positively free, we're going to curate just some of the dopest cars from different areas from the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, to 90s to 2000s.

And we're also bringing a lot of New Orleans talent. So what they're into, because everywhere you go, they do different things to cars. And New Orleans is totally different. So we have a bunch of currency and a bunch of New Orleans artists that's going to be giving me their cars. And what we're doing, too, is focusing on some of the artists that's performing. Like, Cardi B is giving me her Ferrari truck, which we have particularly. from New York and bringing out to more for her car show.

So it's going to be a lot of fun. I'm excited. That's such a great attraction to add to the festival. You know, it's exciting. And one of the, I don't know if it's the best kept secrets, but one of the great, I think, contributions that essence has made to our society and our community continues to make is it's become a place

where people meet, right? Where people start relationships, whether they're networking to build something together, whether they're falling in love and on their first date together or meeting there. So it's a very family-friendly environment. And so we continue to think about how do we include the whole set of our communities, not just one group, right? And so for this year we're saying, okay, what is it that we're going to do so

that the men that come to festival with their wives, with their girlfriends, with their daughters, with their grand, like, however they're coming, that they are also not just an afterthought, but that they're feeling really, really included. So we started a couple of years ago. We relaunched we opened it, opened it up as the Swade Lounge. So in the Swade Lounge, we're going to be doing a car show in the convention center. And as you said, I'm really excited. about the way you've curated it because you've put New Orleans at the center of it, the New Orleans car culture, and there's other things for people to see, but the New Orleans car culture is at the center. As he said, having celebrities that are in the shows and there

for the weekend with their cars, because when you're a car guy or a car girl, there's nothing better than the memories that you make with the car. Right? It's people get these cars. They put them in garages. They never drives them. They never see them. But when you're working on the car and you're tuning the car and you're tweaking the car and you're changing this and you're building a bond in a relationship with the car. You want to share that bond in relationship and I think all too often it becomes harder and harder for us to do in a community in a community environment. This we're now able to do. And as you said, you know, everything in the convention center, gender admissions is free. There's VIP packages if you want to get to the front of the line and you

wanted to do but you can walk in and see anything and meet anybody at any time it's free and that's very important to us because that's where you come and you get the knowledge right that's where you get the information that's where you get the access that's where you see um you know and you're you're hosting the the main stage out here yes we're working on it right now yes let's knock it out yeah yeah well if you say it's knocked out then it's the main thing is Ricardia and colani and lotto and no that's the concert The main stage in the convention center. So that's what we call the essence stage.

So that's where all the big conversations are. Yeah. That's where all the big, big conversations happen. And so I'm excited to have you. I'm excited to be on board. This is my second Essence festival, the first time I've ever participated. So I'm excited.

Oh, really? Yes. That's how I just went as, it was years ago. I just went as a person who's enjoying the festival. So now you get to be a part of all of that energy and all that excitement. I know. Yes. What are you, what are you looking, to share with people?

I think I'm looking to share with people that like community matters. And I don't mean community like you know how people go to network. I mean like when you meet people for real, for real that like pour into you. Like the only reason why where I even started having a conversation with your team

is because some of your team listens to the podcast. And when they listen, we actually talk. Like we have a conversation about some of the things that I cover on my podcast. And from that they were like, we want to invest in like you growing. We think that the stage would make sense for you. the podcast is amazing and I was like

and that came from natural conversation I think Essence Festival is a place where you can you know you meet those type of people where they really want to invest and grow and I think people should come there with the open mind just to do that and have a good time yeah yeah no and that's that's important so now maybe we can have you do a few years of hosting that because listen lock it in no we will

because for me it's it's the longevity of it and it's the long term thinking of it right and like I said earlier sometimes we get too far into the future and we forget to bring people along. But that's why I think it's fire, though, because a lot of corporations don't care. Like, it's like, who's hot right now and then they just move on? Like, your team is very much invested in a real way. And that's why I think Essence Festival and Essence as a magazine is important.

Like, you know, that's why we went all the other stuff come your way. Yeah. I think we should make sure we balance out that conversation. That's how we kicked off our relationship, me and your team is because of the way I I covered all the other stuff. I don't have been. And that's the thing, right? it's the it's the objectivity right of challenge right so you you hit a wall you you run into a problem

you you have issues it's the objective thinking around how you solve that that gets you to the other side of it right as opposed to the closed thinking all right this is this is wrong so therefore I'm going to kill it or this is wrong so I'm therefore therefore never going to do it but it's stepping back and saying hey what do we what do we do differently how do we and then you come to realize a lot of this stuff you don't really need to do differently. It's just that you execute it important, right? So then you focus on the proper execution and then and then you get it back. But we've, we've always been focused on, on, on long term and what is it going to look like 50 years from now versus what it looks like today. I saw the, um, the essence festival steering

committee that you guys developed with the mayor Helena Moreno, which is a response to a lot of like the issues that people had last year and like all those things. Can you, talk about like what that committee will do for people that are experiencing essence festival and why you guys got together with the mayor to create it yeah so there's i think people when they hear staring committee i think it's you know what you read in the press isn't always what it is um so we've always had a host committee and um and that host committee continues right now we adding in the steering piece so that we have a closer working relationship between the things that the city is interested in and the things that we're interested in so that we're able to execute collectively

as opposed to independently, right? And so that's the real purpose of that steering committee, right? So if you think about it, so we just had a press conference last Friday, right, where the mayor spoke. So this gives the mayor in the city an opportunity to express their vision for where the city is headed, what the city is doing, because you've got to remember, we're bringing hundreds of thousands of people to the city, right? So the city's ability to weigh in and say, hey, these five things are super important to us. And we're able to say, hey, these five things are super important to us. Here's how we solve it. And we've got a great, we've got a great framework now to make sure that that that continues in that way, as opposed to a host committee

that works on just the hosting issues. And then we're working just on the execution Can an event become so successful that its size actually starts to work against the experience that made people love it in the first? Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, I think that's what we ran up against last year, right? Is people, look, that people go to these experiences because they crave human interaction and intimacy. Right. When you're as big as Essence Festival has gotten, it's easy to lose that, right?

and it doesn't show up. That's not the intent, but just from mere, it's a great question. From the mere size of it, it becomes harder and harder to keep that intimacy. So if you step back at it like we did and say, okay, well, what are the things that keep that, right? It is understanding who you're serving and then figuring out how to super serve them, right? So using the car show as an example, there's hundreds of thousands of men that show up. right and what's programmed for them what's curated for them is has not necessarily been intentional so now let's be very intentional about that i guarantee you those men will come there and

feel like hey this was intimate this was a feeling i was in a large environment of my people i felt safe there but i could also narrow in and focus in on the things that i care about right i think it's the same thing for for for women it's like hey i'm you know having mara brocka keel and Nicole Hannah-Jones, who are people that most women in our community grow up absolutely adoring and admiring. To now be able to connect directly with them, to learn from them on,

okay, how was I successful in writing all these scripts and creating all these number one, these bestsellers? Or how have I been able to change the consciousness of our community and impact the consciousness of our community? There's a group of women that want that. Right. Then there's a group of women and men who come and they just want to go see a great show at night and go experience the restaurants during the day.

Let's make sure that they get that. But when you get so big, you can lose sight of that. And then the other thing that really happens is the execution becomes challenged, right? So going back to bases and saying, okay, let's focus on the execution. When I show up here, I'm supposed to start at 8 o'clock. Let's start at 8 o'clock because I've got a full day. schedule and I've got to be back in my room by four o'clock because I got to get ready to go see Cardi B at eight o'clock, right? And so that window that we have with her in the convention center

should be flawless, right? She should be able to move around easily. She should be able to, if she bought a VIP pass, she should be able to get to where she's going. She should be able to get her seat. She should be like so we're really, really focused on those things. And I think over the years as it grew that those things kind of got away from us. Right. So we're going back now to say, okay, let's do that. And I think this now opens up the next tier of growth for us, because we're fixing the infrastructure to now handle the scale, right? And in you guys' individual businesses and all the things that you do, is you know that as you start to scale, it feels different, right? Like when you cook a pot of stew for two people, it's a very different cooking

experience than when you're cooking it for 200 people, right? And so we've got to learn that. And the thing is, there's nothing of this size and caliber in the black community. So the other thing is making sure that we continue to train up our people so that they can grow along with us as we scale. So big, big emphasis on training up people on what we call the pipeline program in hiring black businesses and then giving them. So we're going to create, last year we created 2,500 jobs over the course of that weekend. about that number right this year we're going to get close to probably 2800 right so if you think about

that number and you're saying hey i want to use this platform to develop these people to develop these small businesses to have them to have them grow alongside us you're going to have some challenges because they're not getting those same opportunities repeatedly right we may be the only one or two that they get in new or or maybe three that they get the whole year when there's 20 your 30 opportunities that are out there. So we've got to, our community has been patient with us. We've got to be patient with our partners. And we're going to collectively build the infrastructure and the expertise to be able to continue to scale. So what's different this year and how you guys are working with those smaller contractors and production companies on that? Because last time

you were here, you were talking about how that was kind of like an issue for you guys. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it was, it was an issue in that some of the folks that we had last year may have experiences doing other things but they hadn't had experiences doing essence and essence is a whole nother you know it's a whole other vibe it's a whole nother beast so we've now been able to to continue with those partners so the one thing is you're not going to get you know I always say you know in the black community you get one shot in other communities you get two three five ten times to fail right so I'm not gonna be the guy who if somebody failed me one time

I'm going to be like, see you later, you know, and then move on to the next. I'm going to be the one that say, let's talk about where we went wrong. Let's put in the things that we're going to fix it, and let's give us another shot. So why I'm confident about this year is because we spent the year working with people where we thought that there were challenges or where we knew that there were issues, putting things in place to fix that. And so now they have a year of experience under them to be able to say, okay, if this happens, here's what happened.

If this happens, here's what happened. And then the other thing is we upgraded the team, right? So we went out and found people that have done things at this scale or larger and brought them in to help us make sure that we get it, we get it right. So we're doing the things that it takes to build a business to have a solid foundation that can not just scale, but that can have longevity and do it profitably, right? Because if we're not doing it profitably, essence won't be here and that all of that is for not. So what do you do when people, like they did it,

you last year when people think taking corporate money it kind of threatens to trust that people have placed in a brand like essence yeah the who you took dollars from if you don't get those dollars you can't you can't do the show great you can't you can't do the convention center for free but and i think that had an effect that maybe some people were were looking to to have or or or didn't or was an unintended consequence but then we lost sponsors right so Because of the noise. Because of the noise, right? So then we lost sponsors.

So then I look back and I say, well, you know, if I've got 25 to 2800 jobs that I've got a fund, right? I've got, you know, we will have, you know, 300 black businesses in and around the convention center as vendors, as partners, right? That's a sizable impact to our community. Happy Pride Month, Toronto. Pride is an opportunity for you to create your own space, to celebrate your existence.

IHeartRadio is proud to be an official sponsor of Pride Toronto Festival, and we won't stop. Celebrate Pride. Turn up the love and listen to IHeart Pride Canada, your 24-7 radio stream and the only playlist you need for your Toronto Pride celebrations. Pride is so great because it gives a whole bunch of people this visibility that they've never had before. We have a ton to celebrate Toronto. Happy Pride. IHeart Radio. In the moment, it felt like it was going on forever. I didn't think I was going to live.

I was terrified. There was no anything inside those eyes. They turned black. It scared the hell out of me. That was your first murder case? Yes, sir. Fear to say this was the biggest case of your career? Yes, sir.

Rape a murder for a child. She's as bad as it gets. I would think so. People wake up. I'm the one that saw the murder take place by crime. Free that and DePippo. Anthony DePippo showed no signs of remorse, appearing unfazed after being sentenced to the maximum.

I said, I'm not guilty. I'll take it to the grief. Listen to the devil's quarry on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear the Devil's Quarry ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Joy is essential, and it's also illusion. You can't order it, you can't borrow it, or simply hope it into life.

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Economically. So I don't think that it was people's intent to do that. But I think some of these companies were looking for excuses to not invest in black. And so when they hear that, then they can say, oh, you know, even your people don't like you. Right. Please say that again. Yeah. That's right. No, but that's what they would say.

They see other black people criticize than something that's for black people. Like, well, why should we spend money with them? Why should we? We're not going to. And now we don't have to. Yeah, that's right. Right. Nobody's holding me accountable anymore, right?

So I can take my dollars and I can take it to Live Nation where, you know, my people are. All the, all their people are there, all their relationships are there. Why would you take it and invest it here? And so I think that was an unintended consequence. At least I hope that there was anybody out there saying, hey, let's just go destroy this black business because we want to, but that's one of the consequences. While you're on that point, when you see headlines like the 460, $6,000 and y'all owning money to all these contractors and these people, knowing that you invest

in the black talent. How do you feel in response to that? Because, well, it's disheartening. I mean, it's disheartening because, again, we're running a business, right? When you run a business, you are going to renegotiate or negotiate or you're going to take stance with other businesses that you don't think are even giving you the value that you want or they don't think you're giving them the value that you want. It's part of running a business, right? And so the way that I feel about it is, I know I'm running a business. I also know that because of who we are as a black business, we're a target, right? And so people would love to see us fail, but that's not going to deter me from running a proper business. You're not going to threaten me by putting me in the press because you

want me to behave the way that you want me to behave. I'm building a business here. I'm building that business for my community. What I tell our team, well, the three most important things in business, pride, courage, and conviction, right? If you've got the pride, you've got the courage, you've got the conviction, you will overcome the challenges, right? So for me, it's, it's, hey, this is part of doing business, right? If you don't like what I'm doing, or if you want to take me out because I'm competitive to you, then those stories get published, right? And then our community reacts in the way that they react and then it's just like no we're not going anywhere we're doing this I I should have the same right to renegotiate and to negotiate my deals and my terms as any other business right so so

we go at it from that perspective and I'm really proud of the way our team has been handling all of this because it's also the maturation process right so the first time and that's the other thing many of our businesses don't have the resources to stand the impact of some of these things that happened to us. Right. So those things can take us out, right? I'm very proud of the fortitude of our team to double down and say, no, we're going to continue executing the way that we need to execute.

We're going to make the improvements, but we're going to continue to do the things that we do because we have prior courage and conviction in what we're doing. I see you're more hands-on this year than ever before. Is that part of the reason? Well, yes and no. I'm a builder, right? And I'm a, some would say a visionary, right?

And so the two don't always go together, right? Somebody that has a vision usually isn't the person that's here. I'm not hands-on in terms of building. We've got a great team that's doing that. But what I am hands-on about is making sure that the obstacles get removed. right and partnering with karko's our CEO to make sure that that the obstacles get removed and then making sure that the teams are empowered to do the things that they need to do so what you're seeing is is us transforming and we've been doing this very publicly for the past five years right

transforming a 55 year old legacy business into a business of the future right the things that we were doing five years ago, I mean, look at you guys in your business, right? What you were doing a year ago is not what you're doing today. Right? And so if you don't transform and you don't transform quickly, it becomes, I mean, like, if you look at eye heart and you look at the transition from where you guys were five, six, seven years ago, the things that the business had to do to restructure in order to put it in a healthier place, when that happens with Iheart, nobody says anything. With us, it's, you know, and that's part of that's a longer conversation,

but that's, those are the things that I think Festival helps us to understand and get through. Even I lived experience with how our businesses is being managed and being run, but also now to take all that knowledge and put it on these stages, right? Because that's what you're going to get. You're not going to get somebody who's, you know, hypothetically done something on Instagram, I'm teaching you how to go do. You're going to get real professionals that have had real experiences that have developed real businesses or that have built real families that have done, right, that have really done these things that are vetted that you can trust and rely on to be

the ones providing the information. That's the other thing that we take great pride and is vetting the information that we put out and the people that the people that we bring in because otherwise it becomes what's the difference between an essence and you know anything else that's out there right it's got to be trust it's got to be valuable we've got to invest in it and that's what we're doing it and that takes me to another exciting part and so we're also relaunching the magazine oh print or really don't print oh wow print we're the only black-owned print right we can't go away i think there's something to that yeah we can't go away right it's like we don't have a we don't have a choice right so we have to make sure that we're delivering an excellent

product and that we're doing it across our our platform so so the magazine now you know more long-form focus right we're not trying to compete with instagram and facebook and all right long-form long-form focus, real journalism around the things that are happening in our communities, real stories about the things that are happening in our communities from our community's point of view, right? Not just one writer or one editor. We want to bring our community onto the platform. Let them tell their stories, use our platform as the vessel, but let them tell their stories. So we're really excited about it, and that'll drop at festival. Oh, wow.

Who's on the cover for that one? I can't tell you, but what I can tell you, what I can tell you is that you will be proud. You know, I got a couple more questions. A lot of black institutions have had to answer the question, how do we evolve without losing our soul?

Is that one of the challenges? No, no, no, no, no. Ours is not a soul problem. Okay. Right? It's how do we evolve without losing a generation or two? Right?

Because if you think about it, you know, at the core of it, you know, who we serve are black women, right? And we are hyper, hyper focused on it. Right. And you and you and your children and your mother and your grandmother all care about the same things, but in different ways. Yeah. Right? And so our job is to make sure that the things that you all care about are represented, but that you can experience it in different ways. right and that's where it's hard right because if you do something this way it's like oh now you're

focused on young people you're not focused on who got you here right if you do too much here essence is old is not right and at the end of the day if you don't have this evolution then where do your daughters go where do your children where do my children where do your children go right where where where's the pride that comes and sits on your coffee table you know once a month or once every three months or quarterly or annual or whatever. Where's that pride? Where do you physically see yourself in a publication that is talking about the things that you care about, not just about your dress and not just about your hairstyle, right? Those things are important, but the things that fuel you, the things that challenge you, the things that develop you, right? There's got to be a safe space

for that. That's what essence is. And then you see that manifest in live experiences, right? And so So it's not a sole question for us. It is a generational question, right? And we've got to make sure that we build a big enough boat that all generations can feel respected, wanted and love. And so you see that even with the lineup. You know, we go everything from Cardi B to George Patti LaBelle. Baby phase, public phase, George Clinton,

George Clinton, Leon Thomas, right? So we're curating a cultural experience every year, which becomes harder and harder. to do as people steal more and more of our culture and represented as their own. Ooh. I'm really excited about Sianna being the chief curator. Oh, my God. I know you don't want to get everything, give everything away, right?

But what has she been able to bring to the festival? Oh, boy. So she's been able to, so here's the interesting thing, right? It's, you know, we, we, have you guys ever heard of the company actively black? Yeah. Yeah. We have a lot here. Lanny.

That's all, yeah. So, Lanny has a collection that had some mixed reviews called Black Women are Superheroes. Right? And he hadn't produced it for a while and then he brought it back. And he did a video explaining why he brought it back. And I thought that was extremely powerful. Right. the connection between that and Tiana is Tiana is helping us bring it back.

She's helping us rethink how we go forward, right? The future is the future. It's what's there. She's helping us rethink. Oh, should do this. We should do that. We should do the other, right? Here's how the merch should look.

Here's how the audience should dress. Here's what we're. And let's help them do that. Let's create, let's create, recreate the community feel. Not so much the individual feel, but let's recreate the community feel. So she's, she's been wonderful. And I haven't gotten to the creative fight yet. Yeah, right?

I'm listening. I mean, everything she touched. Oh, my God. Amazing. She's one of my favorite creators all the time. She's all hands on, too, with this. Yes, that's why I'm like, I can't wait to see. Yeah, no, she went to last week for community, the community stuff.

Like, she's, she's all. And those are the kinds of partners, one. Those are the kinds of partners that we all need in our businesses. But two, and probably more important, our young people need to see black people collaborating and building stuff together. Right? Like they really, really, really need to see that. Because they're growing up in an environment that's telling them black people don't matter.

Right? And you guys definitely shouldn't be doing stuff together. Right? And so we've got anywhere that we can show that and display that, we should. And then we should come back and talk about the results. Two last questions. Are you going to be able to celebrate the entire desporre this year without unintentionally making some people feel like their own traditions of being diluted? Because last year they got on you.

They did not want you celebrating Mother Africa for whatever reason. Yeah. So the answer to the question is yes. Right. I think, again, it's helping people understand where we're headed and what we're doing and how we're doing it. This is not about making anybody feel less than or forget. God. And in fact, we're leaning even harder, right, into the different communities and how we and how we serve them. And there will be something for everybody, right? And we are not under

any illusion here that we're ever going to get away from serving black American women, right? Black Americans is who gave all of us that came from somewhere else the opportunity to be here and to stay here. And we all ought to be grateful for that. I, for one, I'm extremely grateful. for that. I am never going to forget that, right? Second part of it is, this is my children's life, right? And they are making sure that this thing stays here as well. So they're all working here, learning and building together. So we believe we're greater together than we are separate. And we also understand the doctrines that separate us, right? And the strategies and the systems that try to keep us separated, right? And when you can separate us, you can do things to us that you can't do

when we're together. Our job is to bring us is to bring us together. Our job is to make sure that we have a very strong and healthy connected community globally because that's the greatest protection we can have. If we don't have that, we are just small pockets, small pockets, and just look at how we're being picked off right now. Take a look at what's happening in black media where are the voices right where are the platforms they don't have no jobs they don't have no jobs right not only they don't have no jobs kind of crazy in the air that we live in right now though because you can create your own platforms and there's so many people that that are doing it the joy and reads the don't limit i mean i can name a a million people that have their own platform

but charlemagne one um that was a reaction to somebody else's action Shouldn't have been, though. But it was. Yeah, yeah. Right. And so the way that I think about it is, again, places like Essence and Essence Festival should be there to teach people the paths and the ways so that it doesn't have to be a reaction. That in their mind, it's always an action. And I think that the generation that's coming up behind us has that mindset.

But they still need the tools, right? they still need the access. They still need the experience. They still need the expertise, right? So going and starting your, I mean, like, and you're a perfect example of that. The, you know, the 22-year-old Charlemagne would not have been equipped to build what you're building. Absolutely. Right?

You had to be somewhere to learn it. So if I'm not getting a job, if I'm not getting tutored, if I'm not getting mentored, if I'm not getting access, I'm not getting that. More than that, I think the thing that, makes us great is our abilities to leverage our failures. Expound on that, I like that. If you don't get an opportunity to fail, right? Either you never did anything or you did something and you failed and you never were empowered to do it again. You never learn how to build.

You never learn how to scale. And there's nothing that happens in this world without failure. Nothing, right? You name the most successful people on this planet, they've probably failed more than you and I, right? But it's learning how to fail. It's learning how to then leverage that failure to go do the next thing. Unfortunately, we don't have the grace in this world, right, to be able to fail repeatedly and fail up, right? We get judged very quickly.

Before we ever get in the door, we were already judged. So which means it's going to be hard for me to get the opportunity to fail one time, right? And if I go do that and I fail, I'm done, right? So part of what we're trying to do here is, yeah, you come and you have the great entertainment and you got to get. But it's what happens on a global black economic forum stage that's teaching you about the economics, right? What's happening there that's teaching you about your voter rights and protecting them and with real lawyers, real civil rights. rights lawyers that are trying these cases and taking what they've learned from trying these cases and bringing that information back to our community and putting it out there for everybody

to see and to engage with, right? It's those things that make us different. I think that makes the essence, and that's why I changed the name, the Essence Festival of Culture, because it's not just about entertaining, right? It's not just about having a great time. We have to have that. We're going to have that, no doubt. But it's also, how do we leave there armed with the knowledge to go combat the things that come at us. How do we get a collective viewpoint of how to even maneuver around those things, right? Because I'm sitting at home, you're at home. You're at home.

It's tough, right? But we're all experiencing things differently. And there's nowhere where we're collectively strategizing on how we're going to overcome those challenges, right? We do things in reaction because we're not given the opportunity to prepare. Let's use essence as the place to prepare. Both your mind, your soul, your heart, your spirit. Let's use that. Plus, we're bringing, get lifted back.

This is my last question. Are you nervous going into this year's festival due to all the backlash from last year? Are you confident in the changes that have been made? No, I'm confident. Okay. I'm confident because a lot of the challenges last year weren't structural. They were execution. Right. So let's make sure we get the execution right. That though, the poor execution in some instances. And here's the other thing, right? We still had 40,000 people a day, right, come through. We still mad. I mean, there were no incidents. There were no, right? So there's this tendency to want to go back and dwell on, hey, this was bad. That's not the case. But there were a ton of learnings on how to be.

be better, right? And so that's what we're taking forward. And so I'm extremely confident, right? We've learned from that, from the execution challenges. We've made the adjusters. The soul was there. The intent is always there. And now we just got to execute against it. And then the other thing is communicating what it is that we're attempting to do so that people know what they're coming along for. And get lifted for is the spiritual and gospel side of that. I immediately called John Legend. I was like, John Legend. That's what get lifted. Yes. That's what Get Lifted is. That's right.

We appreciate you for joining us. Thank you so much. And the crazy thing about it, the car show conversation happened on a plane. We were on a plane with each other. And I was, I think I was going to a city for a car show. And he's like, why don't you bring it to essence? And I was like, do it in the convention center. And that was, I think, last July.

That was last July. Last July. And we got it done. So thank you so much. And you got a strong spirit. Like, for everything that they'd be trying to throw at everything that you do, but you are so focused on like the silver lining and like still pouring into people. What else are supposed to do?

Some people, everybody don't make it through all of them. Yeah, everybody don't make it through all of that. I'm not. I'm not, I'm not, you know, and when do you ask me a question last time I was here, if I was angry or mad, and my response then always has me and will continue to be, I don't have the luxury of being mad. Right? That's a luxury that others can afford in our worlds.

we can't afford that. We got to pick up and keep going because at the end of the day, my job is to leave this place a better place than I found it for my children. And I think that's all of us as jobs, right? So getting mad, it's not going to change it. It's not going to make. But there's the other side to this, though, right? Is when they love me, they love me.

Right? So I can't, you know, it's never as good as it feels and it's never as bad as you think, right? So it's like when we're doing good, they're loving on us, they're pushing us up. And when we're not giving what they want, they let us know. The only thing that I say to that is let's just not do it in a destructive way. Because it can be permanent and some people can't recover from it. I'm seeing, you know, you guys have all seen all these black businesses that have closed for one reason or another. A lot, the ones that are most disheartening are the ones that are closed because their community turned on them.

And then they couldn't handle it mentally or they couldn't handle it. financially or, you know, their families. And so we just got to be thoughtful in how we try to help each other get better and not be destructive in doing it. That's right. Last thing, next year, you got to add a comedy component. So we'll talk. Let me know next time you're on a plane.

I'll meet you there. It's Rips Dennis, ladies and gentlemen. Essence Festival goes down July 3rd through the 5th. If you haven't got your tickets, get your tickets. Cardi B. Kalani. D. Monica, Patty LaBelle, Leon Thomas, George Clinton, babyface, public enemy, Dougie Fresh, plus tons of free

stuff, so get your tickets, and I'll see y'all down there. It's the breakfast club. Good morning. All right. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. The breakfast club. You're all finished or y'all's done? There was no anything inside those eyes.

They turned black. It scared the hell out of me. Evil, wake up. I'm the one that saw the murder. take place by Krivac and DePippo. Anthony DePippo showed no signs of remorse, appearing unfazed after being sentenced to the maximum. I said, I'm not guilty. I'll take it to the grief.

Listen to the devil's quarry in the Bone Valley Feed on the IHeart Radio app. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Joy is essential, and it's also elusive. But now, there's a new and exciting way to start your journey. toward a more joyful existence. Joy 101. It's a new podcast hosted by me, Hoda Kotby. If you're craving inspiration to maximize your joy,

tune into these candid, uplifting, and moving on-air chats. Open your free I-Heart Radio app. Search Joy 101 and listen now. Joy 101 with Hoda Kotfi is presented by CVS. June is Black Music Month, and on the Drink Chams podcast, we're speaking with the hottest names in the culture, like Sway Lee.

Do you realize how legendary you are? I appreciate that. I'd be seeing it, but I'm like, man, I still got like so much more to do. Like Prince, he dropped like 30 albums. We dropped like five right now. That's the rate we gotta be going. Yep, that's a good attitude. No matter the era, Drink Chams brings you the biggest names

and the most unfiltered conversations. Listen to Drink Chams from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Here's something that should not be as complicated as it is, getting a racist statue removed. And here's something that should be a whole lot easier than it is, getting a new one put up in its place. I'm Akila Hughes, and Rebel Spirit Season 2 is about both of those things. As I was watching these statues come down, I was thinking about what it meant that I grew up in a majority black city

in which there were more homages to enslavers than there were to enslave people. Listen to Rebel Spirit Season 2 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an I-Heart podcast Guaranteed Human