Charlamagne Tha God has always wanted to be a storyteller. His first inclination to do that was as a rapper.
“The only reason I wanted to be a rapper is because I do love storytelling, and I saw it working for other people,” The Breakfast Club host told Variety.
“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.”
Absorbing himself in other storytellers changed his perspective. For him, Judy Blume was akin to Ghostface, as was Beverly Cleary to Jay-Z.
“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,” he explained.
But at one point during his youth, he spent a week in jail after becoming a low-level drug dealer and catching a firearms charge. He later spent 45 days in county jail for selling drugs.
His father, Larry McKelvey, scared him straight.
“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."
As a radio host and author, he's come far from his childhood in South Carolina, which has helped keep his outlook in check.
“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 told the outlet. “No. I used to sell crack. I know what a problem looks like.”
