Charlamagne Tha God as 'America's Next Top Multimedia Mogul'

There’s a line in Nicki Minaj’s "Moment 4 Life" that will always remind Charlamagne Tha God of his radio show's early days. In 2010, The Breakfast Club—co-hosted by Charlamagne, Angela Yee and DJ Envy—was just hitting the airwaves on Power 105.1 in New York at the same time Minaj’s single was all over the radio. So when Charlamagne heard the lyrics “This moment will be syndicated,” he couldn’t help but think of the show. “I used to sing that all the time and I'd be like, ‘Yo, we need to have that in radio station promos.’ And they was like, ‘Nah, that's corny, whatever, whatever,’ but I saw the vision,” Charlamagne says. Now, 10 years later, The Breakfast Club is indeed syndicated—it has been since 2013—and it’s evolved from a celebrity-centric morning show to one Charlamagne says “pushes the needle” of culture by delving into social and political issues like police brutality and health care. The New York Times bestselling author and radio personality recently finalized several projects and deals that have been underway for years, including a partnership with iHeartMedia to create the Black Effect Podcast Network to amplify Black voices. He's also teamed up with Kevin Hart and Audible on a multiyear development, production and audio licensing deal; founded Black Privilege Publishing with Simon & Schuster’s Atria Books to publish Black authors; and has a late-night talk show called Unt. Charlamage Tha God Project premiering on Comedy Central later this year. When Adweek spoke to Charlamagne at last year's Challenger Brands event, he said he only takes on brand partnerships when he actually uses a product or service because he wants to remain authentic to his followers. A year later, he stands by that. "People seem to trust my voice," he says. "And that's all I have at the end of the day. And even if I wasn't a person who made their living by speaking into a microphone and talking to millions of people, I want people to trust my word. My word is my bond. My word is everything." “I need things to be fair for everybody,” he says. “The days of creators getting the short end of the stick, those days are over.” With so many projects in motion, Charlamagne says he wants to become “America’s next top multimedia mogul,” and in the process, he’s prioritizing shining a spotlight on emerging Black creatives. Charlamagne spoke with Adweek over two Zoom calls at the end of April and early May from his home in New York, in a conversation that explored his latest ventures and how he's using his platform to help other creators embrace being "unapologetically Black." (The following has been edited for length and clarity.) Adweek: In December, you became iHeartMedia’s senior creative officer of culture content and programming. Can you talk about what that role entails and how you’re using that to leverage a new generation of Black voices?Charlamagne Tha God: I love finding or helping elevate those new Black voices that are out there already moving culture. A lot of the people that we're bringing in are people that I've been championing for a long time. I worry about the future of radio because a lot of the two main elements that made radio radio [music and commentary], you can get other places now. And a lot of those other places are doing it way better than radio. With my role at iHeart, I know that the next breakthrough radio personalities are going to come from the podcast space. So while we have these great talents that are doing their thing on the podcasts, I want to start bringing some of them over to radio while still simultaneously doing the podcast. Some of these people easily host their own radio show every day or on weekends. My job is honestly just to find talent, help the growing talent when it comes to radio and find new, creative ways for radio to constantly rebrand itself. Why is it so important for you to continue elevating Black voices, especially in white-dominated spaces? I mean, the answer to that question is in the question: We have to continue to elevate Black voices in these white-dominated spaces. I'm a person who got an opportunity, but I got an opportunity after being fired four times from radio. Power 105.1 is the seventh radio station I worked at before I got success. People knew I had talent. Sometimes that talent worked, but when things got too hot, they had to back away. And that's just the way it's always been. I'm looking at people who have a lot of talent who some people may be afraid to stand next to, may be afraid to empower or put on a platform. I want to be that person that I needed when I was on the come-up. So it’s just like I created a safe space for unsafe voices. Advertisers are flocking to you, and people are really responding to the projects you put out. How do you feel when you see these things succeed? In what ways does that make you feel like you have a voice in this industry?I don't even look at it as me having a voice in the industry. I look at it as I'm able to put the right pieces together. If I had a superpower, [it] would be bringing people together. I'm not even joking when I say I see energy. I look at individuals and I know what energies will work where and what energies will work together. These Black stories are profitable because that's what it's about at the end of the day: It's business. We can kick and scream and talk about diversity all we want, but none of that's going to matter if we can't make money, if we can't make these companies money. We’re building companies to get our own capital and, in the process, we're making other people capital, too. A Collaborative Year It’s been a busy year for Charlamagne Tha God, who released a number of projects, deals and initiatives that have been in the works for a while. (Scroll through the story for the full timeline.) September 2020: Charlamagne and iHeartMedia announced the Black Effect Podcast Network focused on developing programs for Black audiences around topics such as pop culture, social justice and mental health. So far this year, podcasts from the network, which has raised $20 million of its $100 million advertising goal to date, have been downloaded more than 96 million times. How do you know when someone’s the right voice to include in your podcast network or publishing company?What I'm really looking for is just people that are No. 1, entertaining; No. 2, authentic; and No. 3, culturally competent. Do I understand this individual? Is this individual speaking a language that registers with me? And I feel like if it registers with me, I don't see how it couldn't register with millions and millions of people all across the world. But that's all I want at the end of the day. So when you see somebody just being their authentic, true self, it shines. It illuminates the whole room. How do you get creators to believe in your vision and sign on?I just think it's because people trust me. It's not like I'm coming to them saying, “Hey, I want to build a rocket ship.” Now, if Elon Musk starts talking about building a rocket ship, people listen to him. I want the same thing with me. If I'm talking about audio, I'm talking about books, people in these spaces will listen to me. I've had success in those areas. So now I've just got to continue to prove that I can have success as a CEO mogul and not just the talent. You’ve cited Howard Stern as an inspiration, and you’re not afraid to voice your opinions. How do you stay true to your beliefs? Are you open to different perspectives and changing your views?Always. I wouldn't be sitting here right now if I wasn't open to different perspectives and different views because I’ve unlearned more in the past five, six years than I’ve learned. It’s just a lot of things that I learned growing up that simply don't serve me anymore. I'm always about constantly growing and constantly evolving. I'm not afraid to grow. I'm not afraid to evolve. I'm not stuck in my ways at all. I'm always just trying to get to that next level as a human. I care about that more than anything: being whole as a human being and [not] being stuck in your ways. October 2020: Comedian Kevin Hart and Charlamagne entered into a multiyear global project development, production and audio licensing deal with Audible to produce content from emerging storytellers. Photography: Kevin Kwan and Keith Major Are you involved in any of the advertising efforts to promote these partnerships and deals?Every sponsorship that we have not only gets run by me, it gets run through our partners. So you might hear certain ads running on certain shows, and that's because either the advertiser didn't feel like that show was a fit or the host didn't want any part of that brand. And that's fine. That’s what being partners is all about. So where I'm involved with all of that, it's not like, OK, let's just go get that because it's a big check. [Instead], let's go get it if it makes sense. November 2020: Charlamagne launched Black Privilege Publishing in partnership with Atria Books at Simon & Schuster. Its inaugural release was State of Emergency: How We Win in the Country We Built, a memoir by Tamika Mallory, an activist and one of the organizers of the 2017 Women’s March on Washington. February 2021: Charlamagne founded the Mental Wealth Alliance, an organization focused on destigmatizing mental illness and providing generational support for Black communities. The foundation plans to raise $100 million over the next five years and support Black-led organizations in providing free therapy to more than 10 million Black Americans. What's one big lesson you've learned in your career about being a Black creative and empowering other Black creatives?We get nowhere compromising, and we get nowhere trying to make our oppressors comfortable. I think for far too long—Black creators and Black voices—we've muted ourselves. We've held ourselves back because we're happy to be in these rooms, and we want to stay in these rooms. And we think the way to stay in these rooms is to just constantly compromise, to not say what’s really on our mind, to not say what we're really thinking, to not show up and be our unapologetically Black selves with no remorse. So that's literally what I want to empower other Black creators to do, and I want to empower other Black creatives to be. Show up as your unapologetically Black self and be your unapologetically Black self. Let's talk about your Audible partnership with Kevin Hart. How does that play into your day-to-day as you're already involved in other audio projects? We're about to start putting out projects, but it's really a space that Black creatives are getting into now. What's so good about it is a lot of times these TV studios, these film companies, they just miss out on good content. Like you can go pitch a show to them, and it could be the best idea in the world, but they may not get it. They may not get it because they've never seen anything like it before. So let's bring it to Audible. Looking ahead to your own future and your own ventures, what’s next?The next few years of my life are all about execution. It's making sure podcasts on the Black Effect Podcast Network are successful. It's making sure the network continues to grow. [It's] making sure that the network is standing by its mission statement of being a safe space for so-called unsafe voices, for being unapologetically Black, for dispensing information to the Black community and anybody who wants to know about the Black community. It's the same thing with my book-publishing company. You go to high school for four years, you go to college and then you get your master’s. I'm just looking at the next four years of me executing so I can graduate to what that next level of mogul is.

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How Charlamagne Tha God Plans to Become 'America's Next Top Multimedia Mogul'

The radio personality is no longer 'just the talent'—he’s the one elevating Black voices

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