Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Charles Suitt On Master P's Comments On Patti LaBelle, Publishing Nia Long's Book, Lost Boyz + More

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INTERVIEW: Charles Suitt On Master P's Comments On Patti LaBelle, Publishing Nia Long's Book, Lost Boyz + More · The Breakfast Club

0:00
Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning.
0:02
Speaker 2: The breakfast club, yep, Charlamagne the God just hilarious and
0:06
Speaker 2: if you had to step out, man, his daughter is graduating.
0:09
Speaker 2: But we got a brother in the building. You know,
0:11
Speaker 2: you may not know his face, you might know his name,
0:15
Speaker 2: but it's good that you get to know him because
0:17
Speaker 2: you know a lot of things that you see that
0:19
Speaker 2: are front and center, there's people behind the scenes making
0:22
Speaker 2: a lot of those things happen. And Charles Suit is
0:25
Speaker 2: one of those people behind the scenes making a lot
0:27
Speaker 2: of those things happening.
0:28
Speaker 3: How you doing, my brother, I.
0:30
Speaker 1: Mean, I'm blessed man. I'm happy to be here.
0:32
Speaker 2: I don't even know how to introduce you. Do I
0:33
Speaker 2: say publisher? Do I say business manager?
0:36
Speaker 3: Like? What do I say? You say?
0:37
Speaker 1: Jamaican look product, product of the hip hop environment? Okay?
0:43
Speaker 1: I started uh in the early nineties. God bless Andre Herrel.
0:49
Speaker 1: You know. I saw a video Ralph McDaniels and they
0:53
Speaker 1: were interviewing Andre Herrel and he said that MCA gave
0:57
Speaker 1: him a million dollars to start a record company. I'm
1:00
Speaker 1: sitting at home, I'm a teenager. I said they gave
1:02
Speaker 1: a nigga a million dollars. So no, that was the
1:06
Speaker 1: eighty eight and then fast forward, I would start managing
1:10
Speaker 1: the Lost Boys, and I had the opportunity of meeting
1:14
Speaker 1: Andre jumping Turnstiles to get to Uptown Records. The most
1:18
Speaker 1: amazing experience because they were so for real. It was
1:22
Speaker 1: Heavy DP, Mary J. Blige, Everybody's walking around on this
1:26
Speaker 1: one floor and it was really black excellence, right, And
1:29
Speaker 1: we weren't up, but I was in the building like
1:32
Speaker 1: we were up, like in the marketing and they were like,
1:35
Speaker 1: who what group? What you know? And Lost Boys want
1:38
Speaker 1: the shiny object, you know, Andre had so for real
1:41
Speaker 1: that was bringing all the models in and Heavy and
1:43
Speaker 1: marrying and Jodasda. So we were the grimy Queen's group.
1:48
Speaker 1: But we had to make Andre see that, you know,
1:52
Speaker 1: if you put some money into us, you know we'll
1:54
Speaker 1: be effective. I can't remember one time making seven hundred
1:59
Speaker 1: cassettes everyney and about three weeks trying to get to him,
2:02
Speaker 1: and I just couldn't get to him. And his intern
2:05
Speaker 1: Bobby Springsteen called me and said, hey, Andre's coming up.
2:09
Speaker 1: You know what you wanna do? And Sugar Dice opened
2:11
Speaker 1: up his office and I just sprinkled the cassettes all
2:14
Speaker 1: in his bathroom, everywhere, and about two hours lady he
2:17
Speaker 1: called me and said, I get your point, come on
2:19
Speaker 1: and we talked about the record. So so going from
2:23
Speaker 1: that and then helping start Universal Records with Monty Lipman
2:26
Speaker 1: and Doug Marris and Gene Riggins and Joscelyn Cooper the
2:30
Speaker 1: Great rest in peace to Garnet read. We were the
2:34
Speaker 1: fastest growing record company ever. Our record was the first
2:38
Speaker 1: plaque ever at Universal and that's the Lost Boys album.
2:41
Speaker 1: Now platinum went gold. And now you look at it
2:44
Speaker 1: from Drake to Nikki to the very first, very first
2:49
Speaker 1: record ever. If you asked Monty Lippmann, who heads Universal now,
2:55
Speaker 1: he'll tell you the very first one. And then right
2:58
Speaker 1: after that it was Crucial Conflict and then Cash Money
3:02
Speaker 1: the great eraka my Dude came through with Keto Massenberg
3:05
Speaker 1: and so we were just rolling, you know, Mark Pitt
3:07
Speaker 1: shout out to him. We created something that's never been
3:10
Speaker 1: done and probably will never ever be done again.
3:13
Speaker 3: I didn't realize Universe was so young.
3:15
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we were. Weren't even in the current building.
3:17
Speaker 1: We were like, uh, in the same building that William
3:20
Speaker 1: Morris was and Doug Marris was kind of walking around
3:23
Speaker 1: like you could get to Doug Marris then he was
3:25
Speaker 1: just walking around and Joscelyn and Jean and everybody. So
3:30
Speaker 1: and now look at it. Now, you know I spent
3:32
Speaker 1: eight years there. But also it taught me that you
3:36
Speaker 1: can do all of that work right and leave then
3:40
Speaker 1: you own nothing right. So after my eighth year, I
3:44
Speaker 1: was told that they weren't renewing my contract, and I'm
3:46
Speaker 1: sitting at home and I had spent a whole year
3:49
Speaker 1: recording with a little girl named Jojo little white girl,
3:55
Speaker 1: Leave get Out right, So Leave get Out was a
3:58
Speaker 1: record that she didn't want to sing. Vincent Herbert, who's
4:00
Speaker 1: my brother, didn't really like the record, and I said, guys,
4:04
Speaker 1: we got a whole album of a little white girl
4:07
Speaker 1: singing really urban record and bow and she can blow,
4:10
Speaker 1: and I still love it to this day. So so
4:13
Speaker 1: I found the record recorded with her, and I'm sitting
4:16
Speaker 1: at home with no job, and it's playing on the
4:19
Speaker 1: radio non stop. So at that point I said something
4:23
Speaker 1: has to change. I'm never gonna work for anybody again.
4:26
Speaker 1: And my good friend Troy Carter said, Charles, you got
4:29
Speaker 1: to start calling your resources and people that you t Yeah,
4:32
Speaker 1: Troy Carter, and so I call one of my friends, Zuri,
4:37
Speaker 1: and I said, hey, you know, what is your mom doing?
4:39
Speaker 1: I have some money saved up, and I know that
4:43
Speaker 1: she's always kind of been a royalty based person.
4:46
Speaker 3: Zori is the son of Miss Patty Bell's.
4:49
Speaker 1: He's my best friend and my business partner. And we
4:53
Speaker 1: kind of got together and talked about it, and then
4:55
Speaker 1: I'm nervous. I had known Patty for several years, been
4:58
Speaker 1: in the house, but like you have Patty walk in
5:01
Speaker 1: your office is a different thing. The security comes and
5:04
Speaker 1: she's got the mink code and the diamonds, and she
5:07
Speaker 1: takes off her mink and sits down and says, Charles,
5:10
Speaker 1: you know what would you like to discuss? And I'm
5:12
Speaker 1: just like, you know, my mind is blown. This is
5:15
Speaker 1: Patty LaBelle. So Zuri and I had done a lot
5:17
Speaker 1: of preparation. We had gone to Macy's and we knew
5:21
Speaker 1: that Martha Stewart was one of her best friends, and
5:24
Speaker 1: we took pictures of everything Patty Martha had and said,
5:27
Speaker 1: miss Leablle, we would like to do this with you.
5:30
Speaker 1: And she said, well, Charles, how are you going to
5:31
Speaker 1: do all of that? And I said you're Patty LaBelle.
5:33
Speaker 1: If you let us represent you, there's nobody that won't
5:37
Speaker 1: pick up the phone. And she said, Charles, let's do it.
5:40
Speaker 1: And I credit her not only and by the way,
5:43
Speaker 1: it's her company one hundred percent. I credit her for
5:46
Speaker 1: not only taking the die, but I credit her for
5:50
Speaker 1: looking at Zuri and I as the young kings that
5:53
Speaker 1: we are and that we could pull this off. Right,
5:56
Speaker 1: Patty LaBelle can get the biggest managers in the world,
5:59
Speaker 1: the biggest, and she saw something in us, and she
6:02
Speaker 1: never stops telling us that she appreciates how hard we
6:05
Speaker 1: fight and how hard we work. So truly grateful for her.
6:09
Speaker 2: I want to go back to one thing. How did
6:10
Speaker 2: you connect with the Lost Boys to be their manager?
6:12
Speaker 2: Like why did they say, you know what, this young dude, yeah,
6:16
Speaker 2: you know from the hood, Like, I don't want him
6:17
Speaker 2: to be our manager.
6:18
Speaker 3: So.
6:20
Speaker 1: Real, keeping it real. I'm not from the hood. I'm
6:22
Speaker 1: from rosewult Long Island, which is which is no cakewalk anyway.
6:26
Speaker 1: But I went to college with Cheeks and at that
6:29
Speaker 1: time it was Terrence Kelly and we played on the
6:32
Speaker 1: basketball team together and Terrence flunked off the basketball team, right,
6:38
Speaker 1: but he used to come to every game, and he
6:40
Speaker 1: would come with like a hundred cats, right, And I
6:43
Speaker 1: will never forget one time I went up to dunk
6:47
Speaker 1: the basketball at the end of the game and this
6:49
Speaker 1: guy from CCNY kind of you know, swept me under
6:53
Speaker 1: and Cheeks came out of the stands with like fifty
6:55
Speaker 1: hundred guys and I'm like, Cheeks, no, right, But fast forward,
6:59
Speaker 1: I would moved to Atlanta and I see him coming
7:01
Speaker 1: down the hill and I'm like, Terrence, what are you
7:03
Speaker 1: doing here? Like, what are you doing in Atlanta? He said, well,
7:05
Speaker 1: I rap and Eric Sermon is interested in signing me.
7:09
Speaker 1: And Charles. I loved the way you handed yourself in college.
7:12
Speaker 1: I love the way you dress. I loved the way
7:14
Speaker 1: every way about the way you went about your business.
7:16
Speaker 1: And I'm looking for a manager. So he opens up
7:19
Speaker 1: his briefcase and says, here's a book, and it's Donald
7:22
Speaker 1: Passman's Everything you Want to Know about the Music Business
7:24
Speaker 1: or something like that. So initially I said no, but
7:28
Speaker 1: then that night I read the book and I literally
7:30
Speaker 1: read it in one night. Oh I read it maybe
7:32
Speaker 1: in that week two or three times, right, And I
7:35
Speaker 1: called him, I said, Cheks, I want to do it,
7:36
Speaker 1: you know, And then I called my brother and my partner,
7:39
Speaker 1: Todd Llerby Big Tears, and I said, you know, let's
7:42
Speaker 1: go on this journey together. And unbeknownst to me, they
7:46
Speaker 1: had a demo deal already with Uptown. Cheeks didn't even
7:49
Speaker 1: know that, Like he was just kind of running around
7:51
Speaker 1: with Button Neecker, Tim Dogg and Puff and Biggie and
7:55
Speaker 1: those guys never knew he had a demo deal. He
7:58
Speaker 1: did the first If you ever watched New York Undercover,
8:01
Speaker 1: the very first episode, our record comes on instantly when
8:05
Speaker 1: the very first episode. So because of that, there was
8:08
Speaker 1: a demo. I didn't know that. That book led me
8:12
Speaker 1: to make every mistake I ever made.
8:14
Speaker 3: And you know, it's like.
8:16
Speaker 1: It's the book is literally made for a white young executive.
8:21
Speaker 1: You follow this, you'll be successful. Right, I made every
8:25
Speaker 1: mistake from coming up to Uptown complaining about the demo deal.
8:28
Speaker 1: Andre hit the button, the Muslims came. This is right
8:30
Speaker 1: when Chug can run up in there, so he had
8:33
Speaker 1: the Nation of Islam get this guy out of here,
8:36
Speaker 1: like literally, right, I want to at some point make
8:40
Speaker 1: a book about the gray area, right, like what we
8:42
Speaker 1: experience is African Americans in the music business, what to do,
8:46
Speaker 1: what the pitfalls are with that said, before I realized
8:50
Speaker 1: that we had a demo deal, I literally took them
8:52
Speaker 1: to every I had never ever seen two people in
8:56
Speaker 1: the beginning. It was Cheeks and Tylee, right, the two
8:58
Speaker 1: of their freaky the two of them together was like
9:02
Speaker 1: going to church. You watched them. They literally listened to
9:05
Speaker 1: R and B like twelve play was like the soundtrack
9:08
Speaker 1: of our life at that time, right R. Kelly, and
9:10
Speaker 1: you watched the chemistry between Freaky Tie and mister Cheeks, Yeah,
9:15
Speaker 1: it was. It was mind blowing. And what was so
9:18
Speaker 1: dope is everybody knew their role at that time. You know,
9:21
Speaker 1: Freaky Tie was he wrapped, but his job was to
9:24
Speaker 1: enunciate and make you feel what Cheeks said, like you
9:27
Speaker 1: gonna feel it. And the reason why is because you know,
9:30
Speaker 1: Freaky Tye was authentic. He was authentic one three, four
9:33
Speaker 1: and god broke. He was south Side his finest right,
9:36
Speaker 1: So we went I'll never forget. Our first meeting was
9:40
Speaker 1: with the an R that did not So. Nas was
9:42
Speaker 1: sixteen coming out of her office at the time and
9:46
Speaker 1: we were going in and she was like, hey, do
9:48
Speaker 1: you know Nas? And we were like nah Cheeks knew
9:50
Speaker 1: him from Queen's and she handed us the album and
9:54
Speaker 1: then we went to every in our person in the building.
9:59
Speaker 1: We met Jim the pre that day because Jermaine had
10:01
Speaker 1: heard about us, so Jermaine brought us to this hotel.
10:04
Speaker 1: We met the brat that day, all in one day.
10:06
Speaker 1: And it got back to Andre and Andre said, lawyer up,
10:12
Speaker 1: because you're signed the Uptown Records and you should not be.
10:14
Speaker 1: And I'm like, how do you know? Oh, we know everything,
10:17
Speaker 1: get your butt up here. And we did, and Andre
10:20
Speaker 1: did the right thing, took the guys shopping and at
10:23
Speaker 1: that point it was, you know, work on the album
10:26
Speaker 1: easy Mob.
10:26
Speaker 2: I always wondered why why they didn't sign the Bad
10:28
Speaker 2: Boy I always felt like Lost Boys were such a
10:30
Speaker 2: bad boy group.
10:31
Speaker 1: Well, to be honest with you, when when Puff and Andre separated,
10:37
Speaker 1: he had to make a choice right, and his choice
10:39
Speaker 1: was total Biggie Craig mac right. Andre wasn't letting you
10:42
Speaker 1: take everything because all of them was under what kind
10:45
Speaker 1: of sort of tim dogg who's the an R was
10:48
Speaker 1: a protege of Puffs. Puff was a protege of Andre.
10:51
Speaker 1: I was a protege of a lot of people think
10:53
Speaker 1: I learned everything from Puff I didn't. Tim Dog Patterson
10:56
Speaker 1: kind of taught me everything from soup to nuts. And
11:00
Speaker 1: there was a limit to what andre was gonna let
11:02
Speaker 1: him take. And I'll be honest, in the very beginning,
11:05
Speaker 1: I don't believe Andre knew what the Lost Boys were
11:08
Speaker 1: until we put out Lifestyles and the Richie Seamers and
11:10
Speaker 1: the Dance Classic, you know. So that's how I became
11:14
Speaker 1: a manager. And we went on to ten years of success,
11:17
Speaker 1: and then in you know, as relationships go, you kind
11:20
Speaker 1: of part ways, and his aunt wound up managing him
11:23
Speaker 1: after Freaky Time died, and after about a year that
11:26
Speaker 1: he said, Sue, come to Miami. I want to talk
11:28
Speaker 1: to you. And we sat down and he said, Sue,
11:32
Speaker 1: can you please come back? And I said, there's no
11:34
Speaker 1: where I wouldn't. You're my brother. You know, you put
11:36
Speaker 1: me and it was never a bad breakup. You know,
11:39
Speaker 1: you put me in the game. And I said, Cheeks,
11:41
Speaker 1: if I come back, we got to go back to
11:43
Speaker 1: Mister Sex and Bink Dog and all those easy mobi
11:48
Speaker 1: and we did, and lights camera action came about.
11:50
Speaker 3: Wow, that was a big record joint.
11:53
Speaker 2: Did you die at the end of the Rene video
11:55
Speaker 2: because I don't know if y'all realized, go back and
11:56
Speaker 2: watch the video. This is the guy who kills I
12:00
Speaker 2: don't know if he killed him, but in the lobby.
12:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, true, true story, true story. The game. When you
12:07
Speaker 1: when I said it's the games, the game, kid, that
12:10
Speaker 1: came from a demo that Cheeks did and it was
12:12
Speaker 1: called the Game, the Money, the Bitches and the Cars,
12:15
Speaker 1: and I remember tho. So it just came to me right.
12:18
Speaker 1: That was Biggies. We people don't realize Big, Lost Boys, Junior, Mafia,
12:23
Speaker 1: jay Z and Dame were on the road every weekend together.
12:26
Speaker 1: Lost Boys was BIG's favorite group. So everywhere everything that
12:29
Speaker 1: happened is like we were there after the soul Train thing.
12:32
Speaker 1: We were on in the van going to a radio
12:35
Speaker 1: at Charlotte, and he was telling us what happened and
12:37
Speaker 1: then seized it this and seized it every time I
12:39
Speaker 1: see yo. Big was like, yo, when you say it's
12:41
Speaker 1: the game, it's the game. So I killed him. That's
12:46
Speaker 1: our story, that's our story, he continued. He threw me
12:52
Speaker 1: down on the ground. I pulled out on my coat.
12:55
Speaker 1: He pulled out click click, and it said to be continued.
12:58
Speaker 1: So in my version of it, I killed him. In
13:02
Speaker 1: his version, I killed him, so we never had a
13:05
Speaker 1: chance to do the part too.
13:08
Speaker 3: Wow.
13:09
Speaker 4: Okay, but now you're up here for books. You laid
13:12
Speaker 4: a lot of books out too, so you published up thirteen.
13:16
Speaker 4: How did you started the music? I use it very heavily.
13:20
Speaker 4: And then you became a publisher. How did you trans
13:23
Speaker 4: transition into books?
13:24
Speaker 1: So again, you know, in life, you don't get anywhere
13:27
Speaker 1: by yourself. You might have that eye and you might,
13:29
Speaker 1: but there's always people. So there's a woman in Karen
13:32
Speaker 1: Hunter who I don't know if you guys have. She
13:34
Speaker 1: has her own brilliant woman who asked me to manage
13:39
Speaker 1: her after I also managed Salt and Pepper and she
13:43
Speaker 1: was ghostwriting Pepper's book, so we had a windy She
13:48
Speaker 1: did Wendy Wayne's book, so she asked me to manage her.
13:52
Speaker 1: And after about six months of manager and I realized
13:55
Speaker 1: that there was no pathway to really make money managing
13:58
Speaker 1: a writer. So I said, you know, in my business,
14:00
Speaker 1: which is music. With the success she's had at that
14:03
Speaker 1: time she had written like seven New York Times bestsellers,
14:05
Speaker 1: we get our own and she said, Charles, well, they
14:08
Speaker 1: will never give an African American, their own imprint, and
14:12
Speaker 1: definitely not a female. So I said, we'll give me
14:14
Speaker 1: a same thing like Patty will give me. Give me
14:17
Speaker 1: your name or number, and the name she gave me
14:19
Speaker 1: was Karen Ready. She said, I don't like publishers at all,
14:22
Speaker 1: but if I had to be at one, publisher would
14:23
Speaker 1: be Simon and Schuston Karen Ready. So I called Carolyn,
14:28
Speaker 1: who passed away resting peace to Karen Ready, and she
14:32
Speaker 1: was on vacation. Two weeks later she called me I
14:35
Speaker 1: pick up. She said, Charles, this is Karen Ready, and
14:37
Speaker 1: I was like, who She said, you called me. She's
14:40
Speaker 1: the chairman of Simon and Schuster and I had like
14:43
Speaker 1: two seconds to get us together, and I said, mister Ready,
14:45
Speaker 1: oh my god, thank you so much. Karen Hunter has
14:48
Speaker 1: made you so much money over the years. We'd like
14:50
Speaker 1: to come in and talk about publishing our own books
14:53
Speaker 1: because we understand what our people want to read. And
14:56
Speaker 1: she said, Charles, you're right, Karen has made us tons
14:59
Speaker 1: of money. Come on in, Karen, and I went in.
15:02
Speaker 1: I stood up in front of a bunch of white
15:04
Speaker 1: folks and I'm Charlemagne understands this because he has his
15:06
Speaker 1: own imprint at the same place, and I said, you know,
15:09
Speaker 1: you think guys think that black people don't read. We do.
15:13
Speaker 1: We read a lot. You guys don't know how to
15:16
Speaker 1: make books appetizing, and glasses flew off and it's a
15:19
Speaker 1: whole room full of white folks that I you know,
15:22
Speaker 1: and it is true. Carolyn said, well, how would you
15:25
Speaker 1: do it? And I gave him a couple of suggestions
15:27
Speaker 1: and they were like, man, that's just it sounds so doable.
15:31
Speaker 1: So she said, how do we make a deal happen?
15:33
Speaker 1: I said, well, my lawyer, David Lekakis, who now runs
15:38
Speaker 1: Universal Music Publishing, is right outside that door, and she
15:41
Speaker 1: called her lawyer and we got a deal done. So
15:44
Speaker 1: after about eight after we came downstairs, Karen said, Charles,
15:48
Speaker 1: I want to do this together. I know you did
15:50
Speaker 1: this for me, but I'd like you to be my partner.
15:52
Speaker 1: And we did it again at number eight. We did
15:54
Speaker 1: it for eight years, and after about eight years it
15:57
Speaker 1: was kind of time for me to kind of waiving
16:00
Speaker 1: the Karen Hunter flag because although we were equal partners,
16:03
Speaker 1: we called it Karen Hunter Publishing, and I was ready
16:06
Speaker 1: kind of I was kind of ready to do it
16:08
Speaker 1: my own way. Bringing my own content, and you know,
16:11
Speaker 1: we made a decision that it was time, you know,
16:14
Speaker 1: for me to kind of and I went out and
16:18
Speaker 1: I worked with another publisher for about a year, and
16:21
Speaker 1: I thought that publisher was crazy, and I circled back
16:24
Speaker 1: and they were more than happy to say, come on back,
16:27
Speaker 1: let's do it. What's your vision, what do you want
16:29
Speaker 1: to do? So thirteen A stands for the thirteenth Amendment
16:32
Speaker 1: that says slavery is illegal. So it's kind of a
16:35
Speaker 1: high coup.
16:35
Speaker 3: You know.
16:36
Speaker 1: We went from it being illegal to read to owning
16:39
Speaker 1: our imprint, and not everybody own. Charlemagne owns his right,
16:42
Speaker 1: not everybody that says they owned their imprint. I own
16:45
Speaker 1: my you know, you go on to Simon and Schuster
16:48
Speaker 1: and you look at the office. I spent a lot
16:50
Speaker 1: of money. My office looks different than anybody's right, like
16:53
Speaker 1: I own one hundred percent of the name, the likeness.
16:56
Speaker 1: I do not get a salary from Simon and Schuster.
16:58
Speaker 1: I'm up there three times away week because I believe
17:01
Speaker 1: in what I'm doing. You know, my bread and butter
17:03
Speaker 1: comes from the pail Le Belle group, but books are
17:08
Speaker 1: a passion. I feel like it's a way to get information,
17:12
Speaker 1: and you don't necessarily have to read a page anymore.
17:15
Speaker 1: You can go on audible and you can listen to
17:19
Speaker 1: a book. There's no way. I remember having Kanye up
17:22
Speaker 1: at Simon and Schuster, and I know he loves Steve Jobs.
17:24
Speaker 1: And the first thing I did was handed him a book,
17:27
Speaker 1: this stick, and I said, Kanye, this is for you.
17:30
Speaker 1: I know you're a huge fan. He said, no disrespect,
17:33
Speaker 1: but I'm never going to read that.
17:34
Speaker 3: He said.
17:34
Speaker 1: I love Steve Jobs. He's like Jesus to me. He said,
17:36
Speaker 1: but look, I think that book is And I understood
17:39
Speaker 1: what he meant.
17:39
Speaker 3: I get it. But damn yeah.
17:42
Speaker 1: So the Obama book. I'm a huge Obama fan, but
17:47
Speaker 1: his book was so so I listened to it right
17:50
Speaker 1: every place, every chance I got, in the shower, in
17:53
Speaker 1: the car, every chance I got, and I could not
17:55
Speaker 1: stop listening to it.
17:56
Speaker 3: I did both, you know what.
17:57
Speaker 2: We had to interview him that Monday, and I think
18:00
Speaker 2: I started reading it on the previous Tuesday. So I
18:03
Speaker 2: put the audible on one and a half, bless you,
18:07
Speaker 2: and I read the book as I was listening.
18:09
Speaker 1: Man, that's dope. I never thought about that. That's dope.
18:12
Speaker 1: I'm so man when I look at you, Charlemagne, and
18:16
Speaker 1: I'll never forget. So he's been the same person. I
18:19
Speaker 1: met him at Wendy Williams, but I really like officially
18:23
Speaker 1: met him in a grocery store New Jersey and I
18:26
Speaker 1: just went up to him and said, hey, you're and
18:28
Speaker 1: he wasn't here. He was still with Wendy. And his
18:31
Speaker 1: personality was the same then as it is now. You know,
18:34
Speaker 1: people have no idea how much time you give back,
18:38
Speaker 1: how much you do for people. They just think, oh,
18:40
Speaker 1: he's you know, successful and on the radio he gives
18:44
Speaker 1: so much time and positive energy. I was working on
18:47
Speaker 1: a book, Charlemagne came to my office to do an
18:50
Speaker 1: interview like it was nothing, you know, and you again
18:53
Speaker 1: from the city of Baltimore. I'm just blown away. And
18:57
Speaker 1: I think that the reason why it works is because
19:01
Speaker 1: people look at you as themselves. Right. They could have
19:03
Speaker 1: brought in, uh, some huge person. They brought in a
19:07
Speaker 1: person that was relatable and it was really smart. And
19:09
Speaker 1: I listen to you guys every morning. He's super relatable.
19:12
Speaker 1: You talk about what you're going through and you're funny.
19:15
Speaker 2: Thank you.
19:15
Speaker 3: I appreciate that blessing.
19:19
Speaker 2: I want to talk about some of the books you
19:21
Speaker 2: published so far, Man with thirteen eight Deon Sanders book,
19:26
Speaker 2: which is a bestseller.
19:27
Speaker 1: Ye.
19:28
Speaker 3: Powerful, Steven steven A was the first one.
19:31
Speaker 1: Step stephen was the first one. Steve stephen A said
19:34
Speaker 1: it off and like he's a complex person and he uh,
19:40
Speaker 1: he's not apologetic for who he is. And I think
19:44
Speaker 1: he's really misunderstood. Like him going and doing interviews at
19:48
Speaker 1: Fox News, he's doing that for purpose because they have
19:50
Speaker 1: a bigger audience. And yeah, there's certain guidelines when you
19:54
Speaker 1: at Fox News that you kind of gotta go by.
19:56
Speaker 1: But you know, he doesn't cowtow. You know, he says
19:59
Speaker 1: how he feels. And I think he's misunderstood as as
20:02
Speaker 1: it relates to what he's saying to saying about Biden.
20:08
Speaker 1: He's not saying that he wants Trump to win, right,
20:11
Speaker 1: and and believed Steven, if you're listening, I'm not speaking
20:13
Speaker 1: for you, but all my authors I have a close
20:18
Speaker 1: relationship with. Right. What he's saying is could the Democratic
20:22
Speaker 1: Party have chosen someone else? Great? He did four he
20:25
Speaker 1: did four years, right, but he is clearly older, right,
20:30
Speaker 1: and is there somebody else out there that could? And
20:33
Speaker 1: he's an independent, but could waive the Democrat flag, and
20:37
Speaker 1: they were the Democrats want they wanted, unable to do it.
20:40
Speaker 1: I'm not voting for Trump. There's nothing in my body
20:43
Speaker 1: that would allow me to vote for him at all.
20:46
Speaker 1: And I remember the Trump that was Senator of State
20:49
Speaker 1: Atlantic City on his helicopter and all of that. Right,
20:51
Speaker 1: Trump will do anything to win. He doesn't care if
20:55
Speaker 1: he's with he's not. He's not even a Republican, He's
20:57
Speaker 1: a Democrat. Right, So I don't want to tell politics society.
21:01
Speaker 1: I didn't come up here for that. But Stephen A
21:03
Speaker 1: is super, super complex. I was happy to publish his
21:08
Speaker 1: book because he came from humble beginnings. He was fired
21:12
Speaker 1: and then rehired, and then he came from a family
21:16
Speaker 1: that was kind of broken up with his father, kind
21:18
Speaker 1: of out doing his own thing, raised by his sister Carmen,
21:21
Speaker 1: and his other sisters and his mom. So it's a
21:25
Speaker 1: it's a great American story, these story, all of these stories,
21:28
Speaker 1: from Pinky to Dion. These aren't just black stories. These
21:31
Speaker 1: are American stories. And my job is to tell a story.
21:35
Speaker 1: I'm no different than Kenya Barrus or Spike Lee or
21:39
Speaker 1: any of these filmmakers. My goal is to tell our stories.
21:42
Speaker 1: You know, Italians have been telling their stories for sixty years.
21:45
Speaker 1: We've been watching and idolizing the Italian When when are
21:48
Speaker 1: we going? Ours is the greatest story ever? Ours is
21:52
Speaker 1: the greatest story never really told. The only stories that
21:55
Speaker 1: we're telling are slavery and no. It is, oh my god,
21:59
Speaker 1: this story. He's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of year.
22:02
Speaker 1: One of my favorite movies is Book of Clarence. You know,
22:05
Speaker 1: like that is loved, probably probably the most accurate story
22:09
Speaker 1: ever told about Biblical times, and we laugh about it.
22:13
Speaker 1: So thirteen eight. Our goal is to tell our stories
22:16
Speaker 1: and make them enjoyable. I have a book with Allen
22:19
Speaker 1: iverson coming next year. Who Wallowed Wallow is coming in September.
22:23
Speaker 1: When I tell you Wallow's story and who he is,
22:27
Speaker 1: like it's real, like how hard he works? Right? I
22:30
Speaker 1: wish I could tell you who did his forward, But
22:32
Speaker 1: like he called me from the person's house in the house, yo, suit,
22:36
Speaker 1: you know he still gets excited with all his success
22:39
Speaker 1: and all his all the money and everything. Suit, I'm here,
22:42
Speaker 1: da da da da. And then the next day it
22:45
Speaker 1: was a handwritten forward. He sent it to me, and
22:47
Speaker 1: then the next day he had his assistant transcribe it, right,
22:51
Speaker 1: And the book is just so real, like if you're
22:53
Speaker 1: from the hood, you're gonna love it because he's telling
22:56
Speaker 1: his story of growing up with the family who indulged
23:00
Speaker 1: in crime and he did it because it was what
23:03
Speaker 1: everybody did. But he's also talking about his transformation and
23:07
Speaker 1: the fact that he carried a gun right, but he
23:09
Speaker 1: knew in his mind he didn't have the capacity to
23:11
Speaker 1: shoot anybody at killing anybody. So it's that story and
23:16
Speaker 1: then him waiting. It was almost like you know when
23:18
Speaker 1: you see a boxer and the bells about the ring
23:20
Speaker 1: and they're just like this. He was like that, just
23:22
Speaker 1: waiting to get out, and he couldn't wait. And he's
23:25
Speaker 1: doing great things. I'm happy to publish that book because
23:29
Speaker 1: there's so many messages in it, so many things that
23:32
Speaker 1: he went through that he's trying to get you to
23:34
Speaker 1: not go through it. And as you know, he tells you,
23:37
Speaker 1: you know, love our women, flower your girls, and all
23:39
Speaker 1: that stuff. So while it was real, I have a
23:42
Speaker 1: book with Neil Long coming. I can that book. Oh
23:48
Speaker 1: my god, it reads like boys in the Hood. I mean,
23:51
Speaker 1: she is just she's genius. She's smart. None of it
23:55
Speaker 1: is calculated. She's just like when you read that and
23:59
Speaker 1: you feel like you read movie like from from four
24:02
Speaker 1: years old to current right. And she's standing up for women,
24:06
Speaker 1: she's standing up for racial inequality in Hollywood, she standing
24:12
Speaker 1: up for her family, and what happened with the Boston Celtics,
24:15
Speaker 1: just all of that stuff. And I'm honored to that
24:18
Speaker 1: she chose me. You know, everybody wanted that book. And
24:21
Speaker 1: I looked at her and I says, sister, you are
24:23
Speaker 1: one of our queens, and I got you. I'm not
24:26
Speaker 1: gonna let nothing happen to you. And she she felt
24:30
Speaker 1: that she walked out. She didn't let me know that,
24:32
Speaker 1: you know. And then that was like a Thursday, and
24:34
Speaker 1: she called me on and I want to say thank
24:37
Speaker 1: you to BJ and Mike Kaiser. Literally after she left
24:41
Speaker 1: my meeting, she went to have lunch with them and
24:44
Speaker 1: I called BJ. Had called me murder inc.
24:46
Speaker 3: BJ, And no sign from that table, by the way.
24:49
Speaker 1: Yeah no, no did that. So it's funny, you know,
24:52
Speaker 1: I pride myself. I learned so much from the great
24:55
Speaker 1: Andre Herrol, but I pride myself in learning from everybody.
24:58
Speaker 1: And Doug Morris always taught me return phone calls right.
25:01
Speaker 1: So BJ had called me like the day before. So
25:04
Speaker 1: after the na A long meeting, I looked at my
25:07
Speaker 1: call log and I called BJ back and I said,
25:10
Speaker 1: B I apologize, what's going on? Suit? Where you at?
25:13
Speaker 1: I man Noble with Nori and and Kaiser and Neil.
25:19
Speaker 1: I said, niel lng. She just left my office. Nia,
25:22
Speaker 1: get over here. You just left and she was like,
25:26
Speaker 1: oh my god, yes, and she got on the phone.
25:28
Speaker 1: She said, Charles take my number. And we spoke all
25:31
Speaker 1: week and she told her agent I'm going with him,
25:34
Speaker 1: and we got it Young Publishing. Nori. I can't his
25:38
Speaker 1: book is coming. I can't wait.
25:40
Speaker 4: You're really like careful and passionate about their stories, like
25:46
Speaker 4: you don't just see these people as money, like oh
25:49
Speaker 4: just because of who they are, you know, yeah, like,
25:52
Speaker 4: oh no, this is gonna make money. Like you you
25:54
Speaker 4: seem so like into their story and being able to
25:58
Speaker 4: tell it from their stamp.
26:00
Speaker 2: And if Charles wasn't dead, those stories wouldn't be told.
26:02
Speaker 2: Like people don't understand that. An these publishing companies, these
26:06
Speaker 2: people are icons to us, but they're not looking at
26:08
Speaker 2: noriy Wallow. They're they're not paying attention. They're not paying
26:13
Speaker 2: attention to our culture.
26:14
Speaker 1: And it's strategic. So after the success I was able
26:17
Speaker 1: to sign Norri after the success of stephen A. Right,
26:21
Speaker 1: I just went in the meeting. Hey, there's somebody else
26:23
Speaker 1: I need to sign right now. Who is it? Nori?
26:26
Speaker 1: Of course, nobody in that room. Okay, well you sign them,
26:31
Speaker 1: let's go, you know. So that's strategically the same thing
26:33
Speaker 1: with Wallow. You know, it's always after the success or
26:36
Speaker 1: something I go in. I'm working with Cameron. Now, Cameron
26:39
Speaker 1: story is crazy and it's not just hip hop, and
26:42
Speaker 1: it's not just man. I mean Pinky Cole, you know,
26:45
Speaker 1: it's from Baltimore, but she had a story. She's an entrepreneur.
26:48
Speaker 1: She came from a family that was doing some things
26:50
Speaker 1: in Baltimore, and she created this, this empire. So I
26:54
Speaker 1: want to tell our stories. I'm happy to be that
26:58
Speaker 1: kind doit. And a part of it is I was
27:00
Speaker 1: adopted at age three, right, so I don't know who
27:02
Speaker 1: my birth parents are, and I was I have My
27:07
Speaker 1: story is a good story. It wasn't the whate was
27:09
Speaker 1: me and foster homes and abuse and all that. It
27:13
Speaker 1: was literally when I was three years old, two parents
27:16
Speaker 1: came along who wanted to have a son in their life,
27:20
Speaker 1: and I was blessed, and I feel like my life
27:22
Speaker 1: has been blessed and ordained by God. So my mom
27:27
Speaker 1: used to tell me they never hint that I was adopted,
27:30
Speaker 1: and they said this two ways you can go. You
27:33
Speaker 1: can go this way and use this as a crutch
27:36
Speaker 1: for being adopted, or you can go on and do
27:38
Speaker 1: great things. And you know, I pride myself on trying
27:41
Speaker 1: to do the right thing and do great things. So
27:45
Speaker 1: you know, my mission is to tell our stories. From
27:48
Speaker 1: Pati la Belle. I published Danish Jackson. I published Chris
27:51
Speaker 1: Jenner on which Chris Jenner was I mean to get
27:54
Speaker 1: that book? Was no one saw that coming to tell
27:57
Speaker 1: her story. And you know, we'd go years later and
28:01
Speaker 1: you know, I'd say, you know, when I tell people
28:03
Speaker 1: that I published, you know you she wow, Christian is white.
28:07
Speaker 1: How did you get that book? And Chris would say, Charles,
28:09
Speaker 1: I'm a Kardashian. What would they expect? But I mean
28:12
Speaker 1: she welcomed me in her house like instantly, this is
28:15
Speaker 1: before she really blew. She said, Charles, can you fly?
28:19
Speaker 1: And I was like really, And Kim was running around
28:22
Speaker 1: and Bruce Jenn at the time was running around and
28:25
Speaker 1: she was the first one to tell me that, Look,
28:27
Speaker 1: you know, I believe o J did it. And initially
28:30
Speaker 1: I looked at her, like, you know, why would she
28:32
Speaker 1: tell me that. She said, I can say that because
28:34
Speaker 1: he was my brother. He's like I spent every vacation
28:37
Speaker 1: with OJ. He was he was like family to me.
28:41
Speaker 1: But I know the relationship that Nicole and hed. So
28:43
Speaker 1: that's her belief. I guess we'll never know.
28:47
Speaker 2: But so yeah, and you know it's interesting right because
28:50
Speaker 2: you know, me and Charles are both at Simon and
28:52
Speaker 2: she was through with He got thirteen e.
28:53
Speaker 3: I got black privilege. We don't step on each other
28:56
Speaker 3: at all.
28:56
Speaker 2: If somebody said if they say, YO, doing a book
29:00
Speaker 2: and somebody said, yeah, but thirteen eight doing it, I
29:02
Speaker 2: don't even I'm not trying to outbit him on anything
29:06
Speaker 2: at all.
29:06
Speaker 1: And we talk. I know what he got coming, he's
29:08
Speaker 1: taught he and I don't say a word. He got
29:10
Speaker 1: some great books coming, oh my god, not just his.
29:13
Speaker 1: He got some that I'm gonna buy that I'm gonna
29:16
Speaker 1: we talk about it. And that's the beauty. Like it's yes, competitive,
29:20
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say it's not competitive, but it's not
29:23
Speaker 1: competitive against one another, right, Like I've told him all
29:26
Speaker 1: the books I've gotten. I tell him what I'm going after,
29:29
Speaker 1: and he'll say, okay, that's a good one. He tells
29:31
Speaker 1: the people that I'm going to have to do it
29:32
Speaker 1: with suit. He doesn't say, nah, do it with me,
29:34
Speaker 1: yo nori, do that with suit. That's he, you know.
29:37
Speaker 1: So it's it's a beautiful thing, and it's it's you know,
29:41
Speaker 1: it's it's a blessing with all these beefs going on
29:43
Speaker 1: around and wrap like y'all could really work together instead
29:46
Speaker 1: of doing all of that negativity. Yeah, first, it's fun
29:49
Speaker 1: and it's cute. You know. I was involved in the
29:51
Speaker 1: ll Cannabis beef, Yes on cannabis, which Charlemagne said that
29:56
Speaker 1: it wasn't a real big beef, but it was at
29:58
Speaker 1: the time because LLL it was the gold at the time, right,
30:02
Speaker 1: and cannabis was that young lion, and I got cannabis.
30:05
Speaker 3: In the top ten disrecord. I would say.
30:06
Speaker 2: I said that to somebody yesterday because I saw Elliot
30:08
Speaker 2: Wilson put out the top ten disrecords of all time,
30:10
Speaker 2: and I was like, I feel like second round Knockout
30:12
Speaker 2: should be up there.
30:13
Speaker 1: Oh man, that record. Oh I'm gonna let the world
30:17
Speaker 1: know the truth. You don't want me to shine and study?
30:19
Speaker 1: Oh my god. He played it for me. He was
30:23
Speaker 1: in Europe, and I advised him not to do it.
30:26
Speaker 1: When it all happened, I said, yo, this, you know.
30:29
Speaker 1: And by the way, I saw Elle like last week
30:32
Speaker 1: at the F one in Miami. I'm on the side
30:34
Speaker 1: of the stage. He looked at me a few times,
30:36
Speaker 1: a smile. We never had any beef, right, That was
30:39
Speaker 1: a beef that could have been crazy. I mean, Cannabis
30:42
Speaker 1: ran with Haitian, Jack, Ricky Lee, Scooter, all of the
30:48
Speaker 1: all of those folks, right, and L had been me
30:51
Speaker 1: and self, you know, he had his crew and it
30:53
Speaker 1: never it never really went there. It was two people
30:56
Speaker 1: that the beef was dumb and L. L would admit
31:01
Speaker 1: at some he has admitted that it was kind of
31:03
Speaker 1: his fault. You know, it didn't have to go down
31:05
Speaker 1: the way it went down. Cannabis looked up to L
31:08
Speaker 1: and the rhyme he wrote initially was after sitting with
31:12
Speaker 1: L for like hours and talking about the tattoo on
31:14
Speaker 1: his arm and saying like, I don't have any tattoos
31:16
Speaker 1: like L like if I got and El says, surety,
31:19
Speaker 1: if you want to get you you represent that you
31:22
Speaker 1: can get it. So that the whole his whole rat
31:24
Speaker 1: was giving honor to L, and L kind of came
31:27
Speaker 1: in the studio and heard it and just he went crazy,
31:31
Speaker 1: you know, so go went on top of that. After
31:34
Speaker 1: I found out about it, Eric Simon called me and
31:37
Speaker 1: told me about it, called Cannabis, told him. They spoke again,
31:41
Speaker 1: and Elle said, Yo, if you change your rhyme, I'll
31:45
Speaker 1: change mind. Cannabis came to the studio, changed his rhyme,
31:50
Speaker 1: asked me, you know, and L put the record out anyway,
31:54
Speaker 1: and at that point there's nothing I could do about it.
31:57
Speaker 1: I mean, we went to even after even after Cannabis
32:02
Speaker 1: had been freestyle on the record, the record still was
32:04
Speaker 1: not We still went to visit L in La, went
32:07
Speaker 1: on the set of the sitcom everything. We were trying
32:09
Speaker 1: to really bring this together and it just had gotten
32:12
Speaker 1: to a point where they shot the video without him
32:15
Speaker 1: and Cannabis is like, yo, suit man, you know, I
32:18
Speaker 1: gotta do this, and he went and did it, and
32:20
Speaker 1: I was just I was blown away. Got him back,
32:23
Speaker 1: though I don't think he got him back.
32:25
Speaker 3: He won the war.
32:26
Speaker 1: No, no, I'm not gonna see everybody says that, No,
32:31
Speaker 1: that can that couldn't look ll won the war clearly, right.
32:36
Speaker 1: He had all of the power and muscle of death
32:39
Speaker 1: jam who had been doing this longer than them. Right.
32:41
Speaker 1: He did not win the battle, That's my opinion. His
32:45
Speaker 1: record was better, but he won the war. He had
32:47
Speaker 1: more money, more everything. And l is a legend.
32:50
Speaker 2: But what did you think when you heard Cannabis tell
32:52
Speaker 2: that love you don't got the skills to eat a
32:53
Speaker 2: niggas ass like me.
32:55
Speaker 1: See, that was before, that was before he said he
32:59
Speaker 1: said that. That was before all of this stuff that's
33:03
Speaker 1: calling around. We know we we knew what he meant.
33:08
Speaker 1: He just meant rapping. He meant rapping that he was
33:11
Speaker 1: better than him, so we knew. You knew what that
33:13
Speaker 1: meant then.
33:16
Speaker 2: And also the Patty of products, right, Patty got the
33:19
Speaker 2: pancake mixing everything out now, yep, and I saw master
33:23
Speaker 2: p recently he said in an interview that Patty LaBelle
33:25
Speaker 2: only owns ten percent of her Patty's Pies. You've worked
33:29
Speaker 2: with her, how much truth is in that?
33:31
Speaker 1: So I want to say this respectfully, Right, master p
33:37
Speaker 1: is out of his mind, right, So he has this
33:40
Speaker 1: thing called the master class. And in order to teach
33:44
Speaker 1: a masterclass, you should have done your research, right. So
33:48
Speaker 1: he claimed that Patty's pies are up front because Walmart
33:53
Speaker 1: owns the pie. Walmart does not own anything. They owned
33:57
Speaker 1: zero percent of the pie. What it is is that
34:01
Speaker 1: the bakery itself. If you walk into any Walmart, the
34:03
Speaker 1: bakery is the first thing you see. We are at
34:05
Speaker 1: the back of the bakery, right. And it's strategic for
34:08
Speaker 1: Walmart to do that because when a customer comes through,
34:11
Speaker 1: they're looking for the pie, right, and their goal is like,
34:14
Speaker 1: while they're looking for the pie, they might pick up
34:16
Speaker 1: some cookies and who knows before they get to the pie.
34:19
Speaker 1: He also stated that he did his research and he
34:22
Speaker 1: got stuff from Forbes fifty over fifty. You don't make
34:26
Speaker 1: the fores fifty over fifty. Owning ten percent of a company,
34:29
Speaker 1: she wouldn't even been on the list. Forbes did their
34:31
Speaker 1: own research. Business Week did their own research. She owns
34:34
Speaker 1: one hundred percent. What we did do as a owner,
34:38
Speaker 1: you strategically make different partnerships. So what she did do
34:42
Speaker 1: is five of her items are exclusive to Walmart. On
34:46
Speaker 1: a handshake because they have forty eight hundred stores in
34:49
Speaker 1: their high volume. There's no contract on a handshake. Walmart
34:53
Speaker 1: buys the pie from us, period, No if ends a butt.
34:59
Speaker 1: I think Master Pee mentioned the person who bought the
35:03
Speaker 1: pie in Yes, there are buyers, just like there's an
35:06
Speaker 1: RS at every record company that called us and said, hey,
35:09
Speaker 1: miss LaBelle, I googled you. And when I google you,
35:13
Speaker 1: Mac and Cheese comes up, and sweet Potato Pie comes up?
35:17
Speaker 1: Do you have a sweet Potato pie? And we were ready.
35:19
Speaker 1: And this is a lesson to all the young folks.
35:20
Speaker 1: You gotta be ready. We were ready. We had our
35:23
Speaker 1: business set up and we said yes, and we approached
35:26
Speaker 1: the factory. And the factory we have factories going almost
35:31
Speaker 1: twenty four hours a day making that pie. She employs
35:34
Speaker 1: hundreds and hundreds of people. And we don't just have
35:37
Speaker 1: the poe. We have cobblers, we have mac and cheese,
35:40
Speaker 1: we have collar greens, we have pasta dishes. And oh,
35:44
Speaker 1: by the way, we're not only just in Walmart. We're
35:46
Speaker 1: in Kroger, We're in a Target, We're in our Hold,
35:49
Speaker 1: We're in Rouse, We're all over the country. We are
35:53
Speaker 1: a nationwide brand. So it was extremely reckless of master
35:58
Speaker 1: p to say that I understand it point he's suing
36:01
Speaker 1: Walmart now because he feels like his product isn't being
36:05
Speaker 1: promoted or upfront, that there's a there's a there's a point.
36:12
Speaker 1: He has a point, right, But what the consumer needs
36:17
Speaker 1: to understand is that Walmart is a real estate company.
36:20
Speaker 1: All they're selling is is real estate. They're selling space
36:24
Speaker 1: in their store, right and when you have companies like
36:27
Speaker 1: Craft and uh, you name a, Pepsi and Coke and dropping,
36:32
Speaker 1: all these big companies, they're buying that space. So when
36:36
Speaker 1: a black company comes along, nine times out of ten
36:39
Speaker 1: they don't have the money to but we don't. We
36:40
Speaker 1: don't have the money to buy that space. We don't
36:42
Speaker 1: have Coca Cola money, right, So they take a chance
36:45
Speaker 1: on young, up and coming companies, like they took a
36:49
Speaker 1: chance on us. We hit. They took a chance on us.
36:53
Speaker 1: We hit. And by the way, and shout out to
36:56
Speaker 1: James chanel Wright, my brother who up the pie and
37:02
Speaker 1: it was selling before that, right, so when they called us,
37:05
Speaker 1: they had a sleep. Potato Pie was selling four or
37:07
Speaker 1: five six pies per store per week. Right when we
37:11
Speaker 1: went in. We immediately went up to ten pies per
37:14
Speaker 1: So that's a success. If the video never would have happened,
37:17
Speaker 1: But that video obviously made it infamous. And I'm super
37:20
Speaker 1: grateful for James and what he did, and it was organic.
37:24
Speaker 1: He loved people don't understand. He loved Patty LaBelle. And
37:28
Speaker 1: as a matter of fact, thanks for reminding me. The
37:31
Speaker 1: pie really popped off. Now, Charlaine's gonna probably try to
37:34
Speaker 1: get in my pockets, but the pie really took off
37:37
Speaker 1: because I bought the pie up. I called him, I said,
37:39
Speaker 1: can I bring this pie up? Just let you taste it?
37:41
Speaker 1: So I gave him about four or five pies and
37:44
Speaker 1: he posted it. When he posted it, Charlemagne posted it
37:48
Speaker 1: because look at he's looking like. So when he posted it,
37:53
Speaker 1: James saw that post and went to Walmart, came back.
37:57
Speaker 1: And it's because he loved Patty. He had been to
37:59
Speaker 1: almost every show when she came into town, and that
38:02
Speaker 1: was his ode to her, you know. And on top
38:05
Speaker 1: of that, immediately, not when it went viral. Immediately she
38:09
Speaker 1: was in overseas somewhere. Her security guard hit him on
38:13
Speaker 1: Facebook and said, hey, I saw the video, like, here's
38:16
Speaker 1: my number, and they started talking.
38:18
Speaker 3: I want you to before it blew.
38:20
Speaker 1: I want you to come to my house for Thanksgiving
38:22
Speaker 1: because she was just so blown away. She is at
38:24
Speaker 1: a place now that she is so humble. Right. We
38:27
Speaker 1: just got back from Atlanta and we did two install
38:31
Speaker 1: shinings at Kroger's. Just pulled up, she said, Charles, I
38:33
Speaker 1: want to go to some Krogers, And hundreds of people
38:36
Speaker 1: found out she was in the words spread and she
38:38
Speaker 1: just signed boxes. That's who she is. So the audacity woman, man,
38:42
Speaker 1: So the audacity of master p. And what hurt me
38:45
Speaker 1: so bad is that when he did it, there was
38:48
Speaker 1: a guy in the classroom that said he bought the
38:50
Speaker 1: pie because it's my sister's a black woman. And he
38:53
Speaker 1: was like, you mean she don't own the pie, And
38:55
Speaker 1: then all the comments that were coming in, Pai, I'm
38:58
Speaker 1: never buying that pie again, Patty, we don't even own it.
39:01
Speaker 1: That is a lot of people she owns one hundred percent.
39:04
Speaker 1: If you want to know, call Walmart and they'll tell
39:06
Speaker 1: you that they buy the pie from us and then
39:09
Speaker 1: they sell it. They buy it from us at a
39:12
Speaker 1: wholesale price and then sell it at a retail price.
39:14
Speaker 3: And where did he even get that from? Where do
39:16
Speaker 3: you get that back.
39:16
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, I get what he was
39:18
Speaker 1: trying to say, Like, Patty's pies are up front. Well,
39:21
Speaker 1: they're a front because the bakery is upfront. And the
39:23
Speaker 1: only reason why it's doing well is because it's a front. Well, no,
39:26
Speaker 1: we're in the back of the bakery. You got to
39:28
Speaker 1: go through the whole bakery, defined or pies or cobblers.
39:31
Speaker 1: We have puddings. And now I proclaim today pat Leabelle
39:35
Speaker 1: is the queen of breakfast. So this right here is
39:38
Speaker 1: a pancake mix. And you know, the whole thing with
39:41
Speaker 1: pearrel milling and antemima is when it was created in
39:45
Speaker 1: the eighteen hundreds, it was created to really celebrate black people. Right,
39:50
Speaker 1: it wasn't created in a bad way. What happen is
39:52
Speaker 1: they never updated, right, who a black woman is? A
39:57
Speaker 1: black woman now is an icon. Right, She's a grandmother,
40:00
Speaker 1: she's an aunt's, she's a sister. And I feel like
40:05
Speaker 1: this is what a black woman represents. And oh, by
40:08
Speaker 1: the way, this stuff is good. I mean, this stuff
40:10
Speaker 1: is so good and it's organic. Patty's had best selling
40:14
Speaker 1: cookbooks for thirty years. She's cooked on Oprah. She was
40:17
Speaker 1: the most visited guest on Oprah. Ever, she got voted
40:20
Speaker 1: best mac and Cheese. This is not no like yo,
40:24
Speaker 1: let me go out and this is real.
40:25
Speaker 3: It's organic.
40:26
Speaker 1: It's organic. Everybody wants to come to Patty's house and
40:29
Speaker 1: eat because she loves to cook almost as much and
40:33
Speaker 1: almost as much as she loves to singing. And the team, yes,
40:36
Speaker 1: Charlamagne has been there, so everybody please go out and support.
40:41
Speaker 1: You know, we've gone to essence and Patty's fed forty
40:44
Speaker 1: thousand people, right, and people overwhelmingly say, oh my god,
40:47
Speaker 1: this is good. Why would I buy pro Milling or
40:52
Speaker 1: anybody else is making it when Patty LaBelle, my sister
40:55
Speaker 1: makes the same product. Right And oh, by the way,
40:58
Speaker 1: she gives back so much pandemic. We gave palettes and
41:02
Speaker 1: palace of pies to all the health works. We have
41:05
Speaker 1: photos of just delivering the post. Patty is you know,
41:08
Speaker 1: she's of that age, and she put on her mask
41:11
Speaker 1: and went with us and delivered to the hospitals in
41:13
Speaker 1: Philadelphia every Thanksgiving to the food banks out of her
41:16
Speaker 1: own pocket. Right. So there's not only yes, it's a
41:19
Speaker 1: successful company and you should want it to be successful
41:22
Speaker 1: the same way jay Z is successful with a sus
41:26
Speaker 1: Spade and all his products. Pay La Belle should be
41:30
Speaker 1: held at a certain place because she started a company,
41:33
Speaker 1: is sixty years old. She employs hundreds and hundreds of people,
41:37
Speaker 1: and oh, by the way, she gives back and we
41:39
Speaker 1: make great products and where everywhere. If you if you're
41:42
Speaker 1: buying pancake mix, this is the one. I promise you.
41:46
Speaker 1: I promise you. This is the best pancake mix you're
41:48
Speaker 1: ever gonna taste. It tastes, it tastes like cake. You're like,
41:51
Speaker 1: you're gonna be like, oh my goodness. We have syrups
41:53
Speaker 1: and just everything. So support pay La Belle. We're trying
41:56
Speaker 1: to do what I'm doing in book publishing, bring our
42:00
Speaker 1: coach into stores. I am blessed to be able to
42:03
Speaker 1: text and talk to Doug McMillan, who's the CEO of Walmart,
42:07
Speaker 1: even when they make a mist They did something that
42:08
Speaker 1: was crazy for Juneteenth and I texted him like, dude,
42:11
Speaker 1: what are you doing? And he said, Charles, believe it
42:13
Speaker 1: or not, it was a black employee who suggested it.
42:15
Speaker 1: You take that down. Don't do that. So so so
42:19
Speaker 1: yeah I did, Yeah I did. But but to be
42:24
Speaker 1: able to yeah, to be able to get in touch
42:28
Speaker 1: with the CEO of Walmart and Target and have these conversations.
42:31
Speaker 1: And oh, by the way, we started a company called
42:34
Speaker 1: z Pak where we're bringing in other developing and some
42:39
Speaker 1: One of the companies that we bought into retail is
42:41
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Chop House and Brooklyn Dumpling Shop and it's it's parties.
42:48
Speaker 1: Cardi's whip Shots were already in but we've helped her promote.
42:50
Speaker 1: We called Walmart and helped her get into more stores.
42:54
Speaker 1: Angelaye's Coffee we work with her at Target, but specifically
42:58
Speaker 1: it's a beautiful story. I've known Don Pooh for thirty
43:01
Speaker 1: years and shout out to Don Pooh Cummings. We work
43:06
Speaker 1: with him, got Brooklyn Dumpling Shop into Walmarts and now
43:12
Speaker 1: stud Leonards and shop rights. He then circled back and
43:16
Speaker 1: gave back to us. The Dumpling Shop is going public.
43:20
Speaker 1: We have shares in the Dumpling Shop. Also, we have
43:23
Speaker 1: equity in the parent company of the Dumpling Shop. And
43:27
Speaker 1: he didn't necessarily have to do that, and he did
43:29
Speaker 1: with no question. He said, Charles, we appreciate what you
43:32
Speaker 1: did for you're a partner. We're going public. We're doing
43:35
Speaker 1: this so we want to give you these shares and
43:37
Speaker 1: it's equity. So Patty is working with Kevin O'Leary, who's
43:42
Speaker 1: a partner in it as well. You're gonna see a
43:44
Speaker 1: lot of stuff with them promoting together. But again, it's
43:46
Speaker 1: hip hop and it's the beauty of hip hop. I
43:48
Speaker 1: known Don Pooh since Biggie and Foxy Brown, So for
43:51
Speaker 1: us to be working together in this way is other partner,
43:55
Speaker 1: Dave Thomas. Shout out to him. So we're all working
43:58
Speaker 1: together and it's a beautiful thing. Go out. I'm telling
44:02
Speaker 1: you this pancake mix right now some Kroger nationwide, rouse
44:05
Speaker 1: tons of other stores. You're not going to regret it.
44:08
Speaker 1: It's an amazing product and I'm so proud of it.
44:11
Speaker 3: And get this book.
44:15
Speaker 1: Is coming in September. Your Pinky Wallows is exciting, and
44:20
Speaker 1: shout out to Wallow. Shout out to Gilly as well.
44:23
Speaker 1: Shout out to Norri.
44:24
Speaker 3: I think for pre order now right, it's pre order.
44:27
Speaker 1: Go to his page and you can pre order it.
44:29
Speaker 1: Thank you guys for having me. I'm not famous, but
44:32
Speaker 1: I'm up here and thank you for for having me
44:35
Speaker 1: up here. And it's it's an honor and a pleasure
44:37
Speaker 1: and envy. I don't. I don't take it for granted.
44:39
Speaker 1: I used to see his son Logan all the time
44:41
Speaker 1: in high school. I know envy since he was sixteen
44:44
Speaker 1: years old.
44:44
Speaker 3: Wow, he used to come.
44:45
Speaker 1: Up to my office with his YO, I need a song,
44:48
Speaker 1: you know, for his mixtape. So I questioned whether he's black.
44:53
Speaker 1: I thought I didn't know what he was. I was like, whoa,
44:58
Speaker 1: what is this guy?
45:00
Speaker 3: Another? Well, now, y'all, suit man, you should be celebrated.
45:05
Speaker 2: And like I said earlier, people need to see the
45:07
Speaker 2: folks behind the scenes that are making you know, the
45:10
Speaker 2: people in front of the camera look good man, because
45:13
Speaker 2: a lot of these things don't happen without you.
45:14
Speaker 1: So thank you so much, Strat, thank you, congratulations, thank you.
45:18
Speaker 3: It's chall suit It's the Breakfast Club.
45:20
Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club.