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Charlamagne Tha God

Larry King NowFeb 20 '15

Charlamagne Tha God — co-host of 'The Breakfast Club' & cast member on MTV2's 'Guy Code' — dishes on his current relationships with former foe Kanye West & mentor Wendy Williams, his bold style of broadcasting, and why he'll support Hillary in 2016.

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On outdated performances at the Grammys this year: "I thought they were boring. [...] Definitely more performances than awards. And it's a lot of out of touch performances. Like, they'll have someone like Katy Perry perform like, a song on her album that nobody's familiar with, you know? Even though it was a good message and a good social message with domestic violence, it's like, who cares about that record?" 

On Iggy Azalea: "The main reason people hate Iggy Azalea is because they just don't think she's a good artist. That's what I think it is. I don't think they think she's a good artist, and the fact that she's a white girl with a big butt from Australia. But nobody can admit that, 'cause if they admit that then that's admitting, 'Hey, I'm prejudiced.’ "

"Kanye's calling for somebody to respect peoples' artistry, but he doesn't respect anybody else's artistry. Kanye West wants us to respect the artistry that he likes, you know? If he likes it, then we all should like it, and if he doesn't like it, then we shouldn't like it, which is hypocritical." — on Kanye West saying Beck doesn't respect artistry

On Kim Kardashian's talent: "She has none." 

On getting older: "If your penis works, that's all I care about." 

On rappers and hip hop artists perpetuating negative stereotypes: "I think art is a reflection of life. And you know, I think it's a lot of social issues that we haven't dealt with as a people that cause our people to, you know, gravitate towards the thug life or the gangster lifestyle, and we do express it through our music, and that music does reinforce it because, you know, when you see people that are celebrating the drug culture or celebrating the gang culture, it makes it look cool." 

On Hillary Clinton in 2016: "I love novelty in my presidents, you know what I'm saying? The first time I ever voted was for Barack Obama. And, you know, I voted for him because he was a black man who seemed like he was speaking to me and my generation, and, you know, 2016 I'm gonna do the same thing for Hillary 'cause I like Bill and she supports Barack, and she's a woman. I can't go back to just a plain white president."

On the “FourFiveSeconds” Grammys performance: "I thought it was a dope performance. You know, I like that song, ‘FourFiveSeconds.’ A lot of people are saying they don’t like it for whatever reason. I just think it’s a dope record, you know? And the one thing I like about Rihanna—she never lets anybody put her in a box as far as music is concerned. She’ll do pop records. She’ll do urban records. She’ll do country—whatever."

On hip hop artists collaborating with artists from other genres: "Hip hop has to not be afraid to step outside of the box and do those kinds of collaborations and I think, you know, artists like the legends like Paul McCartney and them can’t be afraid of hiphop."

On homophobia: "I have a theory about homophobia. My theory about homophobia is like, what are you scared of? You’re either scared of gay people or you’re scared that you may be gay. And I think that a lot of times, people are homophobic because of their own insecurities. They’re scared of their own karma. And what I mean by that is, guys—we’ve basically, for lack of a better term, defecated on women for years. We’ve always not shown women any respect and we catcall women when they walk by […] and I feel like we’re afraid of our own karma and afraid that guys are going to do us like that."

On people he admires in broadcasting: "When I say Bill O’Reilly or Rush Limbaugh […] I mean only because they’re entertaining. I don’t necessarily have to agree with what they do, but them as personalities—they’re entertaining personalities. They’re polarizing. Whether you love them or hate them, you’re going to listen." 

On who made him nervous: "The only person that’s ever made me nervous was the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan."

On radio: "Radio personalities—we were the original catfish. Like, they’d hear our voice and think that we were some attractive guy that they’d grow to love. Now it’s evolved to the social media age." "I get to set people’s opinions. I can shape and mold people’s opinions throughout the day. People can turn the radio on in New York and go to work and have that water cooler talk. […] By the time I say it on the morning show in New York, it gets all the way around the world, damn near."

On prejudice: "I didn’t understand what prejudice was until I got to like sixth grade because […] all my older cousins, who ended up being the ‘thugged out’ ones, who ended up in jail and stuff, they started beating me up for hanging with all the white kids. I didn’t even know I was hanging out with the white kids. I was hanging with the kids that were in my class. I didn’t look at them and say, ‘Oh, these kids are white.’ "

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