It’s a snowy February in midtown Manhattan, and Charlamagne Tha God has a song on his lips. “Oh-oh-oh – it’s the Tom Joyner Morning Show” he sings, while sitting in a small conference room at iHeart Media headquarters, where he co-hosts the nationally syndicated daily radio show “The Breakfast Club.”

Charlamagne, 46, easily summons the jaunty theme he grew up listening to as he discusses the influences who helped steer him into the career he enjoys today.

The South Carolina native, born Lenard Larry McKelvey, is a popular radio and podcast host, author, commentator, comedian and actor. He’s a good example of how versatile talent can soar across disciplines in this media-saturated age. As his public profile has grown, so has Charlamagne’s determination to parlay his considerable following into the foundation for a portfolio of media imprints — from books to podcasts to feature films — designed to create artistic opportunities and jobs for Black people.

“Literally, I live by the motto that if what you build only benefits you, it’s not big enough,” Charlamagne says. “I always want to live up to my full potential as a Black man on this planet.”

The cornerstone of Charlamagne Inc. is “The Breakfast Club,” which reaches many millions of listeners a week via radio, online, podcast and TV platforms. Five hours a day, from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays, Charlamagne and his co-hosts, DJ Envy and Jess Hilarious, riff on the day’s headlines, take calls from listeners and interview celebrities, authors, civic and business leaders who want to reach the show’s young, urban listeners. The power of “Breakfast Club” and Charlamagne as a cultural influencer was underscored last October when Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris sat with him for “We the People: An Audio Town Hall,” an interview special that made international headlines.

A generation ago, Joyner’s nationally syndicated show was a forerunner of “The Breakfast Club” with its focus on news, lifestyle and cultural subjects of interest to Black audiences. But Joyner’s theme song is lodged forever in Charlamagne’s heart for another reason. It reminds him of driving to school in the morning with his mother, Julie Ann Ford McKelvey, who taught high school English. His mother’s devotion to Joyner’s show, which ended in 2019, made an impression on Charlamagne. It also set a high bar that he is proud to have reached with the growth of “The Breakfast Club” since that program began in 2010.

“Every single morning, it was Tom Joyner,” Charlamagne recalls of his high school days. “I was thinking the other day, ‘Yo, we Tom Joyner now.’ Because we’re on in 100-plus markets throughout the country.”

The combination of “The Breakfast Club” airing on local radio stations in big cities and being available on demand via iHeart’s website and YouTube has vaulted Charlamagne into the elite company of boldface entertainers who are known for their skill at juggling more than one media gig at a time.

“When you look at Mario Lopez or Steve Harvey or Ryan Seacrest, Howard Stern, Bobby Bones — these people still get up every day to do morning radio because it’s literally the foundation that we all stand on,” Charlamagne says. “How many people have watched ‘American Idol’ because Ryan was on morning radio telling them to watch it?”

Charlamagne has emerged as a voice of his generation, one that crosses demographic lines. It’s a responsibility he takes seriously as the captain of a four-hour daily show that runs the topical gamut from profound and sublime to sophomoric and ridiculous. “I am blessed, Black and highly favored and happy to be here another day to serve our beautiful listeners,” he says on air near the top of every show. It’s his signature “Breakfast Club” opening.

Charlamagne’s rise in media is emblematic of the industry’s digital revolution. He credits the internet as the great leveler that allowed his voice to emerge on a national stage on his own terms — not through the lens of TV shows or movies produced by other people. It’s something he’s keenly aware of as he takes on more authority as the name on the door of his various imprints.

“Charlamagne has something that’s very unusual in that he’s both right brain and left brain,” says Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of iHeart Media. “He’s both a wildly creative guy, but also a really great businessman. He really understands business and understands that side of the world.”

Pittman continues, “What we’ve been able to do is support Charlamagne as he says, ‘Look, I’ve got an idea for this, I’ve got an idea for that.’ As a host, Charlamagne understands who other great talents are, and he’s able to relate to them. He’s able to help them shape their ideas.”

Charlamagne cites four “entertainment idols” that he sees as role models for his career: late-night trailblazer Arsenio Hall, music mogul Jay-Z, radio DJ turned activist Petey Greene and famed businessman and investor Clarence Avant. He is grateful for having the chance to meet Avant in the years before his death at age 92 in 2023.

“My father was very drawn to Charlamagne’s entrepreneurial spirit and loved watching his success from the sidelines,” says Nicole Avant, a producer and veteran entertainment executive who is also close with Charlamagne. “I personally love the fact that Charlamagne is a free thinker and that he appreciates diversity of thought, and that he doesn’t fall into the traps of what society thinks he’s supposed to think.”

Unlike the boisterous personality he displays on air, Charlamagne in private conversation is casual, candid and quick to share moments of insight he’s come to through years of therapy. He’s now in business with some of the largest media companies in the world but he does not live like a media mogul. He prizes the day-to-day stuff of his family life: daily workouts with his wife, Jessica Gadsden McKelvey; driving their four daughters (ages 3 to 16) to cheerleading practice and dinner time at their suburban home. He and Gadsden McKelvey have been a couple for 26 years and married since 2014.

Charlamagne is animated when talking about his younger self and the uphill climb that marked his early life in Moncks Corner, a small town about 35 miles north of Charleston. “I’m holding hands every day with 6-year-old Lenard, 8-year-old Lenard, teenage Lenard,” he says. “I’m telling that young man, ‘It’s OK — you weren’t being a punk. We didn’t know what anxiety was back then.”

As a teenager, he aspired to make his mark as a rapper. It was a natural inclination. “The only reason I wanted to be a rapper is because I do love storytelling, and I saw it working for other people,” Charlamagne says. “When I would turn on the television or open up a magazine, the people who I saw that look like me, the ones that were successful were either in rap or athletics. I’m 5’6”, 180 pounds. It wasn’t gonna be no basketball. My grades were too bad for football.”

Moreover, he was a voracious reader from an early age, thanks to his mother’s encouragement. He adopted the name Charlamagne (French for Charles the Great) as a street moniker, long before he was on radio, after reading about the former ruler of Western Europe. He added “Tha God” based on the teachings about the divinity of Black men espoused by the Five Percent Nation.

Immersing himself in storytellers of all stripes was the thing that opened up his world. “Judy Blume and [Wu-Tang Clan’s] Ghostface were the same to me. Beverly Cleary and Jay-Z are the same, because they’re all just telling stories. They’re bringing you into their worlds. And that’s all I ever wanted to do since I was a kid.”

That kid had his share of frights and scares growing up in Moncks Corner. He bailed out of high school and became a low-level drug dealer. He eventually wound up spending a week in jail on a firearms charge. He later served a 45-day stretch in county jail for selling drugs.

Charlamagne credits his father, Larry McKelvey, for helping him see the harsh reality of what he would face if he stayed on that path. “I thank God that my daddy used to beat in my head over and over. He’d say, ‘Yo, you don’t change your lifestyle, you’re gonna end up in jail, dead or broke, sitting under the tree,” Charlamagne recalls. “I realized early on, you don’t get no do-overs,” he says.

His strong memories of rough and tumble days in South Carolina have helped him keep perspective on what matters most as his professional life has taken off. “What are my problems? A TV show didn’t get picked up? This podcast that we decided to partner with didn’t necessarily perform the way we thought it was gonna perform? Like, are those really problems,” he says. “No. I used to sell crack. I know what a problem looks like.”

At 19, he wrangled his way into an unpaid internship with hip-hop radio station Z93 in Charleston. He did the drudge work of local radio. Driving around town, putting up posters, setting up tents for promotional giveaway events.

Eventually, Charlamagne was encouraged by the station’s music director, Ron White, to take a turn at the microphone. In time, with help from blunt feedback from trusted elders in music and radio, Charlamagne realized that speaking contemporaneously on the radio was a fit for him in a way that rapping never was.

“I was on Saturday nights, seven to midnight, and that’s when I really got that bug and that love for radio. That’s when I was like, ‘Yo, I want to do this for the rest of my life,’ because it was that immediate connection with people.”

Charlamagne eventually found himself in New York, where he worked as an unpaid on-air side-kick for then radio star Wendy Williams for more than 18 months. Williams gave him a place to sleep and exposure to New York. From there, he moved in and out of other New York radio gigs.

Then, in 2008, he moved to Philadelphia’s 100.3 The Beat WRNB, but famously got fired six months later, after conducting a notoriously heated live interview with rapper Beanie Sigel in which the latter unpacked his beef with Jay-Z.

By 2010, Charlamagne was recruited by iHeart executive Geoff “Geespin” Gamere to be the anchor of a New York morning radio show that was being assembled for top-rated hip hop station Power 105.1 and syndication. From the start, Charlamagne made sure they took advantage of free distribution via YouTube by adding video cameras to the radio studio to make it easy for them to upload interview clips. Today, video highlights of “Breakfast Club” episodes are carried on Tubi.

Those who know him best underscore how far Lenard McKelvey has come while still retaining a strong connection to his rural Southern culture roots. Craig Melvin, an anchor of NBC’s “Today,” has known Charlamange since the two were young adults working in Columbia, South Carolina, when Melvin was a budding reporter for the city’s WIS-TV. “Here’s a guy that literally grew up on a dirt road and a trailer outside Charleston, and there was a point in his life where he could have gone one way, but he chose the other path,” Melvin says. “It’s a remarkable story on so many levels because he also pursued his passion.”

In business, Charlamagne is focused on leveraging his clout to achieve meaningful ownership stakes in the content that he creates and helps others to create. He owns 51% of the Black Effect podcast network that he launched in partnership with iHeart Media in 2020. He has a minority interest in another iHeart-backed podcast network, Reasoned Choice Media, which launched last year and focuses squarely on politics and policy issues.

“It’s been great to witness how many politicians — regardless of party — say yes to going on ‘The Breakfast Club,’ ” says producer Avant. “This says everything about Charlamagne and his power in American culture.”

In 2020, Charlamagne established a book imprint, Black Privilege Publishing, with Simon & Schuster, that has released a half-dozen titles to date, including his 2024 best-seller “Get Honest or Die Lying: Why Small Talk Sucks.” He had penned two previous books for the company’s Atria imprint. When his editor began pressing him to write a third book, Charlamagne had bigger ideas.

“I was like, ‘Look I want to do a third book, but what I really want is a book imprint. I ain’t really looking for the big, crazy payday. I want a book imprint,” he recalls. “And ‘Breakfast Club’ is a place that moves books, so it just made sense.”

Charlamagne and his longtime friend Kevin Hart also run SBH Productions, which has a lucrative pact with Audible for original audio content. (SBH stands for “Short, Black, Handsome.”) Close to home in South Carolina, he and Gadsden own two Krystal fast-food restaurants, with plans for three more. When the latest restaurant opened last December in Orangeburg, South Carolina, the local newspaper’s headline trumpeted that the eatery brought 40 jobs to the community.

“We didn’t ask them to put that in the headline. But to me that’s what it’s all about,” Charlamagne says. “That’s what makes me go.” When it comes to producing content, Charlamagne takes square aim at the factory-like development process that defines creative work in large, mainstream media operations. He sees a world of social media creators who live 24/7 on YouTube and other digital platforms as overshadowing traditional Hollywood in the long run.

“My leadership style is collaboration. My leadership style is making sure that the right people are in the room. I’m not a gatekeeper. I think gatekeeping is whack, especially when we live in an era where there’s no gates,” Charlamagne says. “You really have a lot of idiots in television, a lot of idiots in the film world, who still think that there’s gates. And they’re standing at these invisible gates and then they’re wondering why all of these people are running by them. By the time they look back, there’s a whole other industry that all of these people have built because you’re an idiot. There’s no gate.”

At this stage of his career, Charlamagne loves the work of being a producer. He likes having a swirl of talent deals for himself and content production ventures in motion at any given time.

“You can’t just look at any piece of content as one thing. You got to look at this audio scripted thing, and say, ‘How many different pieces of content can that be?’ You look at this comic book and say, ‘How many different pieces of content can that be?’”

“The Breakfast Club” was a hit with its core audience from the start – although its influence has climbed significantly in the past few years amid racial tensions and fraught national politics. Still, Charlamagne was surprised a few years into the radio show’s run when his friend, author and podcaster Chris Morrow, suggested that he start a podcast.

“I was arrogant. I was like, ‘Podcast? I do morning radio — why would I want to do a podcast?’” Charlamagne says. “And he was like, ‘I’m telling you, this is going to be the future of the industry.’”

Charlamagne launched “The Brilliant Idiots” podcast with comedian Andrew Schulz in 2013. It’s become another cornerstone of his professional life. No matter what else is on his schedule, he makes space for recording an episode each week with Schulz. “Brilliant Idiots” offers a blend of bro-y banter, sophomoric humor, cultural and political observations and deep conversations between two longtime friends.

In 2020, when it came time to renew his contract with iHeart Media for “The Breakfast Club,” Charlamagne used his leverage to establish the Black Effect podcast network.

Conal Byrne, CEO of iHeart Media’s Digital Audio Group, says it wasn’t a hard call for iHeart to make. From the start, Charlamagne was certain that the shows and the talent would be embraced by general market audiences, given how much Black art and culture resonates across the world. Today, iHeart pitches Black Effect shows to mainstream advertisers, and one of its selling points is the strength of the Gen Z listenership across the portfolio.

“Charlamagne came to us and said he sees a crisis of underrepresentation beginning to happen in podcasting,” Byrne says. “He said, ‘I think I have a solve to this. I just need IHeart’s support.’ What I think he really meant was, ‘I just need iHeart to follow my lead and try to keep up,” says Byrne. The fact that Black Effect has a strong young-adult listenership “validates one of Charlamagne’s early theories, which was that, yes, the Black Effect is for Black audiences, but it’s much more than that too.”

Five years on, Black Effect Podcast Network is one of the engines of Charlamagne’s universe. It has surpassed more than 1 billion downloads in total across its titles. It has generated solid advertising business from the start because they recruited a number of established podcasts (including “All the Smoke,” “85 South,” “Drink Champs”) to deliver strong ratings out of the gate.

“We came in with numbers immediately, and the advertisers were like, ‘Oh, OK. I want to be a part of that.’”

Robert L. Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television and one of the nation’s most successful Black media entrepreneurs, sees the totality of Charlamagne’s radio, podcast and publishing operations as reflecting an earlier success story in Black-owned media.

“Charlamagne is a perfect example of a Black content source that has found a distribution platform that appeals to a broad audience,” says Johnson, who sold BET for $3 billion in 2001 and today runs the RLJ Companies investment portfolio. “It’s not all targeted to Black [listeners]– it’s entirely targeted to people who are interested in political thought and dialogue about what’s going on, but principally impacting Black folks. You can argue that Charlamagne is the digital version of Jet magazine.”

From his youth, Charlamagne set his sights on TV as the ultimate measure of stardom and had been frustrated that he’s still not found his perfect fit despite numerous attempts, most recently the 2021-2022 Comedy Central series “Tha God’s Honest Truth,” which was revamped in its second season as “Hell of a Week With Charlamagne Tha God.” But a few years ago, Charlamagne got the ultimate tribute from one of his heroes, Arsenio Hall, who hosted the syndicated late-night series “The Arsenio Hall Show” from 1989 to 1994.

“I remember thinking I had to have a successful [TV] show because my idol was Arsenio Hall,” Charlamagne says.

During the PR campaign around the release of the 2021’s “Coming to America 2,” starring Hall and Eddie Murphy, the former was asked by an interviewer: “Who would be this generation’s version of you?” Hall’s response was revelatory for Charlamagne.

“Arsenio goes, ‘Probably somebody like Charlamagne Tha God,’ ” Charlamagne recalls. “That was so freeing to me. It was so freeing. It was like, Oh, I don’t have to be on television. I don’t. This is a new world that we’re in, and what we’re doing is just as impactful, if not more impactful, than a lot of the things that folks are doing on TV now.”

Charlamagne’s latest push is the launch of a movie production company with veteran producer and financier Basil Iwanyk of Thunder Road Pictures and Asbury Park Pictures. Their company, Southland Stories, is designed to bring to the screen the life and culture of the American South, which has been overshadowed by urbanity in pop culture, in Charlamagne’s view. “I feel like we live in a country that’s focused on a lot of the same stories,” he says. “Coming from where I come from, I just always felt like we didn’t have people amplifying our voices, amplifying our stories, the way that the New Yorks did and the Los Angeleses did.”

Amid the gyrations in the nation’s political landscape — and the Trump administration’s unrelenting assault on civil rights gains of the past century — Charlamagne feels the drive more than ever to make a lasting impact with his own work and that of the artists and creators he now champions.

“When we’re talking about DEI rollbacks, we’re talking about attacks on American history. It’s not just Black history. Black history is American history. It’s our history,” he says. “I want to be at the forefront of this revolution through art and this disruption through art that’s happening. You may not be able to find true American history in classrooms anymore, but you’ll be able to find it in this documentary that Charlamagne is producing. You’ll be able to find it in this book that Charlemagne is publishing. You’ll be able to find it in this podcast that Charlamagne produced. I want to educate and entertain you.”

Charlamagne pauses, perhaps for a flashback to one of those Tom Joyner-powered car rides with his mother. He cites the words of a hip hop elder, revered Bronx rapper KRS-One, to help explain his vision.

“KRS-One called it ‘edutainment.’ That’s what I’m here to do,” he says.

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