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