From Audioblogs to Black Effect: 5 Years of Changing the Podcast Game

From the earliest days of internet audio to the cultural takeover of podcasts, Black voices have shaped the space in unforgettable ways. In this episode of TDKMYDE, B Daht salutes Charlamagne Tha God and the 5-year anniversary of the Black Effect Podcast Network, the first major platform built to amplify Us.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
What's really good?

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Nord alls be down here with another episode, a bonus episode,
if you will.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Of I didn't know, maybe you didn't either.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
And in September, under that Virgo umbrella, we were celebrating
the five year anniversary for a Black Effect podcast network.
And because this podcast is all things history, I said,
why not take a little deep dive into where black
podcasting has come from and possibly where it's even going. Now,
before we get into today's topic, of course, I have

(00:31):
to give you three of the most useless facts you'll
never need, never, not a day in life. Your first
useless fact, the very first MP three player came out
in nineteen ninety seven. Nineteen ninety seven was a good year.
That's when I graduated high school. It was also the
year we lost Biggie. A couple months before that, we
had lost Park. Yeah, in the fall of my senior year,

(00:53):
we lost Park. In the spring of my senior year,
we lost big Your second useless fact, you even know
where the word podcast comes from? I bet you don't.
It comes from iPod and broadcast podcast. And your third
useless facts, the very first internet radio show that was

(01:15):
in nineteen ninety three, long before Spotify, nineteen ninety three
was the eighth grade dance. I won the dance contest
doing the Steve Erkle dance because I wore thick glasses.
And you know what I think. Sharing that with y'all
just now just made me realize why Shalone danced with
Q that night and not me. Shalone knew I wanted

(01:35):
to dance for her. Those have been your three useless facts.
The very first MP three player came out at nineteen
ninety seven. The word podcast comes from iPod and broadcast,
and the first internet radio show was in nineteen ninety three.
Now my question for you is do you know how
podcasting started? Because I didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
I didn't know.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
See, in the nineteen eighties, tech nerds was already making
audio blogs. Then in nineteen ninety three, Carl malamud He
was a computer scientist, a writer, a hustler, he launched
an internet talk radio show. He'd interview experts, upload the audio,
and listeners would get the files one at a time. Now,
what made it revolutionary was you could listen to it

(02:29):
whenever you want it, you could pause it, you could
rewind it, you could skip the computer Chronicles called it
a synchronous radio. That's radio on your schedule, not theirs. Now,
by the early two thousands, when Nelly was singing about
Pimp Juice and jay Z was making the blueprint, broadband
Internet and stuff like the iPod made podcasting accessible. Suddenly

(02:51):
audio on demand wasn't some nerdy experiment. It had completely
crossed over like flow ridder. Then Black Voices ended the
and when black creators into the space, podcasting became the culture.
Twenty ten, the Combat Jack Show that wasn't just a podcast.
It was a hip hop history class with first person stories.
Man the host Combat Jack, and every artist wanted to

(03:15):
be on The Combat Jack Show because he gave them
space to tell their stories unfiltered. Man, The Combat Jack
Show got a legacy that still stamped across the industry.
In twenty thirteen, the Read with Kid Fury and Krizzle,
it was like an unapologetic humor that they just turned
to community.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
They wasn't just entertaining us.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
It was sort of like a cultural therapy session for
all us millennials that was navigating life and race and identity.
At that time, the early black podcast they wasn't just shows,
they were archives, oral history, barbershops in your headphones.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Here's the challenge, though.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Podcasting was booming, but it was hard to organize Black
creators in the networks that could monetize at scale.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Folks, wasn't making no bank off it? You did.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
But that changed by years ago when the boss Man
Charlemagne to God announced the Black Effect Podcast Network at
a partnership with Our Heart. That was the very first
large scale podcast network dedicated to amplifying Black.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Voices, us telling our stories. And it worked.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Forty plus shows signed on hundreds of millions of downloads.
I'm a part of that number, consistently high performing shows.
I'm talking drink champs, all the smoke decisions, decisions.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Trap nerds.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Oh, let me throw in I didn't know. Maybe you
didn't either, or we eat that first quarter. Now the
goal is to maintain them numbers. But that's a whole
other episode. Look, the Black Effects shifted podcasting from individual
hustles to an organized ecosystem. Before I got blessed with
the opportunity to be on the Black Effect Podcast Network,
I was just putting videos on Instagram, not monetizing a

(04:53):
damn thing. Now four years later, over ten million downloads
in and we booming. Baby, I'm talking about you. It's
me the Black Effect Podcast Network. In the five years
they've been kicking it, Haydne wracked up awards, accolades, and
of course recognizing totality by the industry. I just saw
an episode of The Breakfast Club where Nick Cannon was
on there and that Charlemagne was giving him his flowers.

(05:15):
Nick Cannon had to return it and give Charlemagne to
God his flowers because what he's doing with the Black
Effect Podcast Network has never been seen before. Now, some
people joke about they should raise the damn tariffs on
mics because everybody got one, and yes, I agree.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
But here's the thing. Podcast that is still very young.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
This is like the early eighties of hip hop in
podcast form. According to Edison Research, over one hundred million
Americans listening to podcasts monthly and ad revenue passed two
billion dollars in twenty twenty two. That scale, that's money
on the table, and for us, the Black creators, that
means more lanes, owning our ip of building generational platforms,

(06:00):
telling our stories our way. So as the Black Effect
Podcast Network celebrates five years. I want to salute the
pioneers who paved the road and point out the opportunities
still ahead, because the future of black podcasting is not
just loud. It's permanent. Baby, and I didn't know. Maybe
you didn't either,