Today on The Breakfast Club, Richelieu Dennis On Essence Fest 2025 Backlash, Leveraging Your Failures, Essence 2026. Listen For More!
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Every day, A weak clicks up the Breakfast Club. You
don't finished for y'all done.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Morning, everybody is DJ Envy just hilarious, Charlamagne to God.
We are the breakfast Club. Law La Roses here as well.
We got a special guest.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
In the building.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
He's back, ladies and gentlemen, Rich Dennis, welcome back.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Good morning, Good morning everybody. Thank you for having me back.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Good owner of Essence and of course the owner of
the Essence Festival that is going down fourth of July
weekend in New Orleans.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
How's let me join us, Come join us, Rich new walking,
he says, the first time I've walked in this room
and had had had had to apologize.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
For at least now yet it's early in the day now.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
For people that don't know, just tell them about this
year's lineup, some of the people that will be performing,
and some of the cool things you have, like Michelle Obama,
which is amazing.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Talk about some of the stuff you have going on.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Yeah, so this this year, we really went back. So
we took a lot of the feedback from last year
and out here, and one of the things that I
realized is that we were moving very fast to try
to evolve into the future, and we weren't letting people
know where we were headed and what we were doing.
So we've taken the time this year to say, Okay,
we're going to slow down, let.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
People know where we're going so everybody I can get
on board.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
So the first thing we did was announced our first
ever Culture Curator Council and led by Tianna Taylor and
some just incredible, incredible women like Nina who leads the
Food Festival, Nicole Hannah Jones is leading the book Festival
(01:37):
on the nonfiction side, and mar Brakakiel on the fiction side.
So Ni Laythan is leading the film festival. So it's
been very thoughtful about making sure that all the people
that are driving culture can see themselves represented in the
people that are actually putting the festival together. So that
was the first one. I think that's been a big
that's been a big, big win. Right up, we said
(02:00):
we're going to get lineup out early. Our strategy, he
has always been for the thirty something years, is to
drop the lineup as we go along. And there's two
reasons for that. One is become a very practical reason
is because we compete against Live Nation so Live Nation
has the resources and the infrastructure that they suck up
all the talent out of the market very quickly. First thing,
(02:24):
So we're competing against that as an independent media business, right,
and we're fighting everybody at this point.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
But there's that, right.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
But then the other reason that that is is because
we're not looking to just be.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
A place where you come to a concert.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
We don't want to be a concert, right, we want
to be a cultural hub, which means we have to
curate it around things that are actually driving the broader culture,
not just the music culture.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Right. So this year you have.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
Cardi b Lotto Kilani and that's all on Friday Night.
They're really driving youth culture right on. But then the
greatest part of Friday Night is Michelle Obama opens up
the festival on Friday evening with her podcasts on the
(03:19):
Essence Festival concert stage in the Superdome, right, so forty
thousand people there to see our forever first Lady, and
she's partnering with Keiki Palmer.
Speaker 5 (03:31):
On it which you're being crazy the best.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Podcast, the best podcast podcasters out there, having a conversation
around where this is all headed. And we're launching the
podcast festival within that. So we get to do that
and headline our podcast festival with Michelle Obama and Kiki Palmer.
You don't get any better than that. You can't get
(03:56):
any more grateful than to have those two women in
a conversation on the Essence Concert main stage in the Superdome.
And we have been doing podcasts and so and thank
you for inviting me and and and and entertaining me
and supporting me. While while I came to York Blacks
(04:19):
because it was for me, it was it was it
was mind blowing, right because we've been doing podcasts at
festival for probably six seven years, but it's it was
never focused and organized, right, it was. It was it
was a podcast road and different podcasters would show up
and they would do that. And so now having an
opportunity to say, okay, well what if we were really
(04:40):
thoughtful about building a black creator economy, right, So this
isn't about a podcast festival.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
This is about.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Building a black owned, black run, black established infrastructure to
grow the creator industry in America. Not just that we
have to run to all these different entities to do that.
And so that's really the impetus of saying Okay, why
don't we put infrastructure into this thing? So why don't
(05:09):
we do a creator podcast festival alongside the Film Festival? Right,
So the Film Festival this year will have not will
have has already almost six hundred and fifty films submitted,
which makes us one of the largest film festivals in
the country.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Right.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
Last year, out of the Film Festival came two Emmys.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
That's huge.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Out of the book Festival, we gave five book contracts
in partnership with Penguin, Right, so five authors got signed
last year books coming out. That's what when we talk
about building infrastructure, and we talk about building now the
creator infrastructure. It's not just saying, hey, come see these podcasts,
(05:56):
but it's taking these podcasts, taking these creators, platform them,
and then giving them opportunities beyond what they typically would
do in podcasting.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Right. So it's an exciting time. I think.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
I think we're delivering on the promise, and this time
we're sharing it early so that people understand what we're
trying to do and where and where we're headed with it.
So it's going to be exciting. And then we got
some big news. So I don't know when you're ready
to start talking about that. We did the only reason
I'm going today.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
So yeah, we partnered up.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
If you don't know, Rich is a huge car collector,
like out of this world and not just old new
like he's He's such a fixation and nobody ever knows that.
And the only reason I knew that we went on
a ride one day and he pulled up and I'm like,
oh wow. So we're bringing the car show to Es'
Music Festival inter Convention Center, so to be absolutely positively free.
We're going to curate just some of the dopest cars
from different areas from the sixties to seventies to eighties
(06:48):
and nineties to two thousands. And we're also bringing a
lot of New Orleans talent, so what they're into because
everywhere you go they do different things to cars, and
New Orleans is totally different. So we have a bunch
of cure currency and a bunch of New Orleans artists
that's gonna be given the media cause. And what we're
doing too is focusing on some of the artists that's performing,
like Cardi b has giving me her Ferrari truck, which
we're taking from New York and bringing out to audience
(07:11):
for her car show.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
So it's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm excited.
Speaker 6 (07:13):
That's such a great attraction to you know, it's it's
exciting and one of the I don't know if it's
the best kept secrets, but one one of the great
I think contributions that Essence has made to our society
and our community and continues to.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Make is it's become a place where people meet right,
where people start relationships, whether they're networking to build something together,
whether they're falling in love and on their first date
together or meeting there. So there's it's a very it's
a very family friendly environment. And so we continue to
(07:51):
think about how do we include the whole set of
our communities, not just one group, right.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
And so so for.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
This year we're saying, Okay, what is it that we're
going to do so that the men that come to
festival with their wives, with their girlfriends, with their daughters,
with their grand like however they're coming, that they are
also not just an afterthought, but that.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
They're feeling really, really included.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
So we started a couple of years ago, we relaunched Swede,
we opened it, opened it up as the Swede Lounge,
so in the Suede Lounge, we're gonna be doing a
car show in the Convention Center, And as you said,
I'm really excited about the way you've curated it because
you've put New Orleans at the center of it, the
(08:41):
New Orleans car culture, and that there's other things for
people to see, but the New Orleans car culture is
at the center, as you said, having celebrities that are
in the shows in the there for the weekend with
their cars, because when you're a car guy or a
car girl, there's nothing better than the memories that you
make with the car. Of course, right it's people get
these cars, they put them in garages, they never drives them,
(09:03):
they never see them. But when you're working on the
car and you're tuning the car, and you're tweaking the car,
and you're changing this, and you're you're building a bond
in a relationship with the car, you want to share
that bond and relationship. And I think all too often
it becomes harder and harder for us to do in
a community in a community environment. This this where we're
(09:23):
now able to do. And as you said, you know
everything in the Convention Center General emissions is free there's
VIP packages if you want to get to the front
of the line and you want to do it. But
you can walk in and see anything and meet anybody
at any time. It's free, and that's very important to
us because that's where you come and you get the knowledge.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Right, that's where you get the information. That's where you
get the access.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
That's where you see you know that, and you're you're
you're you're hosting the main stage out here.
Speaker 7 (09:54):
Yes, we're working on it right now.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Yes, I knock it out.
Speaker 7 (09:56):
Yeah, yeah, welled out.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
With car and No.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
That's the concert stage and the main stage in the
convention center. So that's that's what we call the Essen stage.
So that's where all the big conversations. Yeah, that's where
all the big, big conversations happen.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
And so I'm excited to have you.
Speaker 7 (10:16):
I'm excited to be on board. This is my second
Essence Festival, the first time I've ever participated. So oh really, yes,
last time I just went, as it was years ago,
I just went as a person just enjoying the festival.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
So now now you get to be a part of
all of that energy and all that. Yes, what do
you what do you what do you what are you
looking to share with people?
Speaker 7 (10:36):
I think I'm looking to share with people that like
community matters. And I don't mean community like you know
how people go to network. I mean like when you
meet people for real, for real that like pour into you. Like.
The only reason why we're I even started having a
conversation with your team is because some of your team
listens to the podcast, and when they listen, we actually talk,
like we have a conversations about some of the things
that I cover my podcast. And from that they were like,
(10:59):
we want to invest and like you growing, and we
think that the stage would make sense for you. The
podcast is amazing, And I was like, and that came
from natural conversation. I think Essence Festival is a place
where you can, you know, you meet those type of
people where they really want to invest and grow. And
I think people should come there with the open mind
just to do that and have a good time.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
Yeah, no, And that's that's important. So now maybe we
can have you do a few years of hosting that
because let's say lock it in. No, we will because
for me, it's the longevity of it, and it's the
long term thinking of it, right and Like I said earlier,
sometimes we get too far into the future and we
forget to bring people along.
Speaker 7 (11:36):
But that's why I think it's fired though, because a
lot of corporations don't care, like it's like who's hot
right now and then they just move on. Like your
team is very much invested in a real way. And
that's why I think Essence Festival in Essence as a
magazine is important. Like you know, that's why when all
the other stuff come your way, Yeah, I think we
should make sure we balance out that conversation. That's how
we kicked off our relationship me and your team is
(11:57):
because of the way I covered all the other stuff happen.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
And that's the thing, right, It's the it's the objectivity
right of challenge. Right, So you hit a wall, you
run into a problem, you have issues.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
It's the objective.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
Thinking around how you solve that that gets you to
the other side of it, right, as opposed to the
closed thinking, all right, this is this is wrong, so
therefore I'm gonna kill it or this is wrong, so
I'm definitely never gonna do it. But it's stepping back
and saying, hey, what do we what do we do differently?
How do we and then you come to realize a
lot of this stuff you don't really need to do differently,
It's just that you executed it poorly, right, So then
(12:38):
you focus on the proper execution and then and then
you get it back.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
But we've we've always been focused.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
On on on long term and what is it going
to look like fifty years from now versus what it
looks like today.
Speaker 7 (12:50):
I saw the Essence Festival Steering Committee that you guys
developed with the Mayor Helena Moreno, which is a response
to a lot of like the issues that people had
last year and like all those things. Can you talk
about like what that committee will do for people that
are experiencing Essence Festival and why you guys got together
with the mayor to create it.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Yeah, So there's I think people when they hear steering committee,
I think it's you know, what you read in the
presses and always what it is. So we've always had
a host committee and that host committee continues right now.
We're adding in the steering piece so that we have
a closer working relationship between the things that the city
(13:32):
is interested in and the things that we're interested in,
so that we're able to execute collectively as opposed to independently, right,
And so that's the real purpose of that steering committee.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Right.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
So if you think about it, So we just had
a press conference last Friday, right where the mayor spoke.
So this gives the mayor and the city an opportunity
to express their vision for what where the city is headed,
what the city is doing, because you got to we're
bringing hundreds of thousands of people to the city, right,
(14:04):
So the city's ability to weigh in and say, hey,
these five things are super important to us, and we're
able to say, hey, these five things are super important us.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Here's how we solve it.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
And we've got a great we've got a great framework
now to make sure that that that continues in that way,
as opposed to a host committee that works on just
the hosting issues and then we're working just on the
execution issues.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
And an event becomes so successful that its size actually
starts to work against the experience that made people love
it in the.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
First Absolutely, absolutely, I mean I think that's I think
that's what we ran up against last year, right, is
people look that people go to these experiences because they
crave human interaction and intimacy.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Right.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
When you're as big as Essence Festival has gotten, it's
easy to lose that right and it doesn't show up.
That's not the intent, but just from it's a great question.
From the mere size of it, it becomes harder and
harder to keep that intimacy. So if you step back
at it like we did and say, okay, well, what
are the things that keep that right? It is understanding
(15:12):
who you're serving and then figuring out how.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
To super serve them. Right.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
So we're using the car show as example. There's hundreds
of thousands of men that show up, right, and what's
programmed for them, what's curated for them is has not
necessarily been intentional.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
So now let's be very intentional about that.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
I guarantee you those men will come there and feel like, hey,
this was intimate, This was a feeling. I was in
a large environment of my people. I felt safe there,
but I could also narrow in and focus in on
the things that I care about, right. I think it's
the same thing for for women. It's like, hey, I'm
you know, having mar Brack Akiel and Nicolehannah Jones, who
(15:59):
are people that most women in our community grow up
absolutely adoring and admiring to now be able to connect
directly with them to learn from them. On Okay, how
is I successful in writing all these scripts and creating
all these all these number one these bestsellers, or how
have I been able to change the consciousness of our
(16:20):
community and impact the consciousness of our community. There's a
group of women that want that, right. Then there's a
group of women and men who come and they just
want to go see a great show at night and
go experience the restaurants during the day. Let's make sure
that they get that. But when you get so big,
you can lose sight of that, and then the other
(16:41):
thing that really happens is the execution becomes challenged. Right,
So going back to basis and saying, okay, let's focus
on the execution. When I show up here, I'm supposed
to start at eight o'clock, let's start at eight o'clock
because I've got a full day schedule and I've got
to be back in my room by four o'clock because
i got to get ready to go see Cardi B
(17:02):
at eight o'clock. Right, And so that window that we
have with her in the convention center should be flawless right.
She should be able to move around easily. She should
be able to if she if she bought a VIP pass.
She should be able to get to where she's going.
She should be able to get her seat, she should
be like.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
So we're really really focused on those things.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
And I think over the years as it grew, that
those things kind of got away from us. Right, So
we're going back now to say, okay, let's do that.
And I think this now opens up the next tier
of growth for us because we're fixing the infrastructure to
now handle the scale. Right, And in you guys's individual
businesses and all the things that you do, is you
know that as you start to scale, it feels different, right,
(17:43):
Like when you cook a potus stew for two people,
it's a very different cooking experience than when you're cooking
it for two hundred people, right, And so we've got
to learn that. And the thing is there's nothing of
this size and caliber in the black community. So the
other thing is making sure that we continue to train
up our people so that they can grow along with
(18:05):
us as we scale. So big, big emphasis on training
up people on what we call the pipeline program in
hiring black businesses and then giving them. So we're going
to create Last year, we created twenty five hundred jobs
over the course of that weekend. Think about that number, right.
(18:26):
This year we're going to get close to probably twenty
eight hundred. So if you think about that number and
you're saying, hey, I want to use this platform to
develop these people, to develop these small businesses, to have them,
to have them grow alongside us, you're going to have
some challenges because they're not getting those same opportunities repeatedly. Right,
(18:47):
we may be the only one or two that they
get in New Orleans the whole year, or maybe three
that they get the whole year, when there's twenty or
thirty opportunities.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
That are out there.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
So we've got to our community has been patient with us,
We've got to be patient with our partners, and we're
going to collectively build the infrastructure and the expertise to
be able to continue to scale.
Speaker 7 (19:08):
So what's different this year and how you guys are
working with those smaller contractors in production companies on that,
Because last time you were here, you were talking about
how that was kind of like an issue for you guys.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
Yeah, yeah, well it was. It was an issue in
that some of some of the folks that we had
last year may have had experiences doing other things, but
they hadn't had experiences doing essence, and essence is a
whole another you know, it's a whole nother vibe, it's
a whole another beast. So we've now been able to
(19:37):
continue with those partners. So the one thing is you're
not going to get you know, I always say, you know,
in the black community, you get one shot. In other
communities you got two, five, ten times to fail.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Right.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
So I'm not going to be the guy who if
somebody failed me one time, I'm going to be like,
I see you later, you know, and then move on
to the next one. I'm going to be the one
that say, let's talk about where where we went wrong,
let's put in the things that we're going to fix it,
and let's give us another shot. So why I'm confident
about this year is because we spent the year working
with people where we thought that there were challenges or
(20:12):
where we knew that there were issues, putting things in
place to fix that. And so now they have a
year of experience under them to be able to say, okay,
here if this happens, Here's what happened. If this happens,
here was what happened. And then the other thing is
we upgraded the team. Right, So we went out and
found people that have done things at this scale or
larger and brought them in to help us make sure
(20:33):
that we make sure that.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
We get it. We get it right.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
So we're doing the things that it takes to build
a business to have a solid foundation that cannot just scale,
but that can have longevity and do it profitably, right,
because if we're not doing it profitably, Essence won't be here.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
And that all of that is for not.
Speaker 5 (20:51):
So what do you do when people like they did
it you last year? When people think taking corporate money,
it kind of threatens to trust that people have placed
in a brand like Essence, who you took dollars from.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
If you don't get those dollars, you can great, you can't.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
You can't do the Convince Center for free. But and
I think that had an effect that maybe some people
we were looking to to have or or or or
didn't or or was an unintended consequence. But then we
lost sponsors, right, so because of the noise, right, So
then so then we lost sponsors. So then I look
(21:27):
back and I say, well, you know, if I've got
twenty five to twenty eight hundred jobs, that I've got
a fund, right, I've got you know, we will have
you know, three hundred black businesses in and around the
convention center as vendors, as partners. Right, that's a sizeable
impact to our community economically. So I don't think that
(21:52):
it was people's intent to do that, but I think
some of these companies were looking for excuses to not
invest in black and so when they hear that, then
they can say, oh, you know, even your people.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Don't like you, right, that's right. No, but that's what
they were saying.
Speaker 5 (22:08):
They see other black people criticizing something that's for black people, like, well,
why should we spend money with them?
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Why should we?
Speaker 4 (22:14):
We're not going and now we don't have to that, right,
nobody's holding me accountable anymore. Right, So I can take
my dollars and I can take it to live nation
where you know, my people are the all of their
people are there, all their relationships are there. Why would
you take it and invest it here? And so I
think that was an unintended consequence, at least I hope
(22:36):
that there was anybody out there saying, hey, let's just
go destroy this black business because we want to. But
that's one of the.
Speaker 7 (22:42):
Consequences why you're on that point. When you see headlines
like the four hundred and sixty five thousand dollars and
y'all owning money to all these contractors and these people,
knowing that you invest in the black talent, how do
you feel in response to that, because, well.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
It's disheartening. I mean it's disheartening because again, we're running
a business.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Right.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
When you run a business, you are going to renegotiate
or negotiate, or you're going to take stance with other
businesses that you don't think are even giving you the
value that you want, or they don't think you're giving
them the value that you want. It's part of running
a business, right, And so the way that I feel
about it is, I know I'm running a business. I
(23:23):
also know that because of who we are as a
black business, we're a target, right, and so people would
love to see us fail. But that's not going to
deter me from running a proper business. You're not going
to threaten me by putting me in the press because
you want me to behave the way that you want
me to behave. I'm building a business here. I'm building
that business for my community. What I tell our team
(23:44):
all the three most important things in business, pride, courage,
and conviction.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Right.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
If you've got the pride, you've got the courage, you've
got the conviction, you will overcome the challenges.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Right.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
So for me, it's hey, this is part of doing business.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Right.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
If you don't like what I'm doing, or if you
want to take me out because I'm competitive to you,
then those stories get published, right, and then our community
reacts in the way that they react, and then it's
just like, no, we're not going anywhere.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
We're doing this.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
I should have the same right to renegotiate and to
negotiate my deals in my terms as any other business.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Right.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
So we go at it from that perspective, and I'm
really proud of the way our team has been handling
all of this because it's also the maturation process, right, so.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
The first time, and that's the other thing.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
Many of our businesses don't have the resources to stand
the impact of some of these things that happen to us, right,
so those things can take us out. Right, I'm very
proud of the fortitude of our team to double down
and say, no, we're going to continue executing the way
that we need to execute. We're going to make the improvements,
(24:57):
but we're going to continue to do the things that
we do because we have pride, cards and conviction and.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
What we're doing.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
I see we got to see more more hands on
this year than ever before. Is that part of the reason?
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Well, yes, and no.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
I'm a builder, right, and and I'm a some would
say a visionary, right, And so the two don't always
go together, right, Somebody that has a vision usually isn't
the person that's here. I'm not hands on in terms
of building. We've got a great team that's doing that.
(25:34):
But what I am hands on about is making sure
that the obstacles get removed, right, and partnering with Kirkus,
our CEO, to make sure that that the obstacles get removed,
and then making sure that the teams are empowered to do.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
The things that they need to do.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
So what you're seeing is is us transforming, and we've
been doing this very publicly for the past five years, right,
transforming a fifty five year old legacy business into a
business of the future, right, the things that we were
doing five years ago. I mean, look at you guys
(26:13):
in your business, right, what you were doing a year
ago is not what you're doing today, right, And so
if you don't transform, and you don't transform quickly, it
becomes I mean, like I've if you look at iHeart
and you look at the transition from where you guys
were five, six, seven years ago, the things that the
business had to do to restructure in order to put
(26:34):
it in a healthier place.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
When that happens with iHeart, no advice has anything with us.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
It's you know, and that's part of that's a longer conversation,
but that's Those are the things that I think Festival
helps us to understand and get through even our lived
experience with how our businesses is being managed and being run.
But also now to take all of that knowledge and
put it on these stages, right, because that's what you're
going to get. You're not going to get somebody who's
(27:05):
you know, hypothetically done something on Instagram teaching you how
to go do. You're gonna get real professionals that have
had real experiences, that have developed real businesses, or that
have built real families, that have done, right, that have
really done these things that are vetted that you can
trust and rely on to be the ones providing the information.
(27:27):
That's the other that's the other thing that we take
great pride in is vetting the information that we that
we put out and the people that the people that
we bring in, because otherwise it becomes what's the difference
between a an essence and you know, anything else that's
out there. Right, it's got to be trust, it's got
(27:49):
to be valuable. We've got to invest in it. And
that's what we're doing it. And that reminds that takes
me to another exciting part.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
And so we're also relaunching the magazine. Oh print print.
We're the only black owned print, right, I think that's
something to that.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
Yeah, we can't go away, right, It's like we don't
have a we don't have a choice, right, So we
have to make sure that we're delivering an excellent product
and that we're doing it across our platform. So so
the magazine now you know, more long form focus. Right,
we're not trying to compete with Instagram and Facebook and all.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Right, long form long form.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
Focus, real journalism around the things that are happening in
our communities, Real stories about the things that are happening
in our communities from our community's point of view, right,
not just one writer or one editor and one We
want to bring our community onto the platform, Let them
(28:54):
tell their stories. Use our platform as the vessel, but
let them tell their story. So we're really excited about
and that'll drop at festival.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Wow, who's on the cover for that one?
Speaker 4 (29:03):
I can't tell you, but what I can tell you.
What I can tell you is that you will be proud.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
You know. I just got a couple of questions.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
A lot of black institutions have had to answer, the question,
how do we evolve without losing our soul?
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Is that one of the challenges is no, no, no, no,
no no.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
Ours is not a sole problem, right, It's how do
we evolve without losing a generation or two?
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Right?
Speaker 4 (29:30):
Because if you think about it, you know, at the
core of it, you know who we serve are black women, right,
And we are hyper hyper focused on that.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Right.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
And you and you and your children, and your mother
and your grandmother all care about the same things but
in different ways, right, And so our job is to
make sure that the things that you all care about
are represented but that you can experience it in different ways, right,
And that's where it's hard, right, because if you do
(30:03):
something this way, it's like, oh, now you're focused on
young people. You're not focused on who got you here?
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Right? If you do too much here, essence is old
is not right.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
And at the end of the day, if you don't
have this evolution, then where do your daughters go?
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Where do your children? Where do my child? Where do
your children go? Right? Where? Where where's the pride that.
Speaker 4 (30:23):
Comes and sits on your coffee table, you know, once
a month, once every three months, or you know quarterly
or annually, whatever it?
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Where's that pride?
Speaker 4 (30:31):
Where do you physically see yourself in a in a
publication that is talking about the things that you care about, not.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Just about your dress and not just about your hairstyle.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
Right, those things are important, but the things that fuel you,
the things that challenge you, the things that develop you. Right,
there's got to be a safe space for that. That's
what essence is. And then you see that manifest and
live experiences.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Right.
Speaker 4 (30:54):
And so so it's it's not it's not a sole
question for us. It is a generational question, right, And
we've got to We've got to make sure that we
build a big enough boat that all generations can feel respected,
wanted and loved. And so you see that even with
the even with the lineup, you know, we go everything
from Cardi b to George Pat, George Clinton, Leon Thomas.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Right. So we're curating a cultural experience every year, which
becomes harder and harder to do as people steal more
and more of our culture and represent it as their own.
Speaker 6 (31:30):
I'm really excited about being a chief care I know
you don't want to get everything, give everything away, right,
but be able to bring.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
Oh boy, So so she's been she's been able to.
So here's the here's the interesting thing, right, it's you know,
we we have you guys ever heard of the company
actively black?
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Lanny has a uh a election.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
That had some mixed reviews called black women are Superheroes, right,
and he had he hadn't produced it for a while,
and then he brought it back and he did a
video explaining why he brought it back, right, And I
thought that was that was extremely powerful.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Right.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
The connection between that and Tiana is Tiana is helping
us bring it back.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Right. She's she's helped she's helping us rethink how we
go forward. Right, the future is the future, it's what's there.
Speaker 4 (32:37):
She's helping us rethink, oh should do this, we should
do that, we should do the other. Right, here's how
the merch should look, here's how the audience address. Here's
here's what and let's let's help them do that.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Let's let's create. Let's create the recreate the community feel.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
Not not so much the individual feel, but let's recreate
the community field.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
So she's she's been wonderful. And I even gotten to
the to the creative party.
Speaker 6 (33:00):
Yeah right, I'm listening an everything she touched.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Oh my god, amazing. She's one of my favorite creators
all the time.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
She's all hands on this.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Yeah, that's why I'm like, she went last week for
community the community stuff, like she's.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
Yeah, she's all And those are the kinds of partners. One,
those are the kinds of partners that we all need
in our businesses. But two, and probably more important, our
young people need to see black people collaborating and building
stuff together, right, Like, like they really really really need
to see that because they're growing up in an environment
(33:36):
that's telling them black people don't matter anymore. Right, And
you guys definitely shouldn't be doing stuff together, right, And
so we've got it. We've got any anywhere that we
can show that and display that we should and then
we should come back and talk about the results.
Speaker 5 (33:50):
Two last questions, are you gonna be able to celebrate
the entire the sport this year without unintentionally making some
people feel like their own traditions are being diluted because
last year they got on you.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
They not once you celebrating Mother Africa for whatever reason.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Yeah, the the So the answer to the questions, yes, right,
I think it again.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
It's helping people.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
Understand where we're headed and what we're doing and how
we're doing it. This is not about making anybody feel
less than or forgotten.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
In fact, we're leaning even.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
Harder right into into the different communities and how we
and how we serve them, and there will be something
for everybody, right, And we are not under any illusion
here that we're ever going to get away from serving
Black American women.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Right. Black Americans is who gave all of us that.
Speaker 4 (34:40):
Came from somewhere else the opportunity to be here and
to stay here, and we all ought to be grateful
for that. I for one, am extremely grateful for that.
I am never going to forget that, right. Second part
of it is this is my children's life, right, and
they are making sure that this thing stays here as well.
So they're all working here, learning and building together. So
(35:03):
we believe we're greater together than we are separate. And
we also understand the doctrines that separate us, right, and
the strategies and the systems.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
That try to keep us separated. Right. And when you
can separate us.
Speaker 4 (35:19):
You can do things to us that you can't do
when we're together.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Our job is to bring us, is to bring us together.
Our job is to.
Speaker 4 (35:26):
Make sure that we have a very strong and healthy
connected community globally, because that's the greatest protection we can have.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
If we don't have that, we are.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
Just small pockets, small pockets. And just look at how
we're being picked off right now. Take a look at
what's happening in black media.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
Where the voices right, where are the platforms jobs? They
don't have no jobs, right, Not only do they have no.
Speaker 5 (35:54):
That we live in right now because you can create
your own platforms and there's so many people that are
doing it.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
The joy read the Don Lemmon, I mean I can name.
Speaker 5 (36:03):
A million people that have their own platform, but Charlemagne
one that was a reaction.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
To somebody else's action. It shouldn't have been them, but
it was right.
Speaker 4 (36:18):
And so the way that I think about it is again,
places like Essence and Essence Festival should be there to
teach people the paths and the ways, so that it
doesn't have to be a reaction that they that that
in their mind, it's always an action. And I think
that the generation that's coming up behind us has that mindset.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
But they still need the tools.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
Right, They still need the access, they still need they
still need the experience, they still need the expertise, right,
So so going and starting your I mean like and
you're a perfect example of that. The you know, the
twenty two year old Charlemagne would not have been to
build what you're building, absolutely right. You had to be
somewhere to learn it. So if I'm not getting a job,
(37:06):
if I'm not getting twitored, if I'm not getting mentored,
if I'm not getting access, I'm not getting that. More
than that, I think the thing that makes us great
is our abilities to leverage our.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Failures expound on that.
Speaker 4 (37:21):
I like that if you don't get an opportunity to fail. Right,
either either you never did anything, or you did something
and you failed and you never were empowered to do
it again. You never learn how to build, you never
learn how to scale, And there's nothing that happens in
this world without failure, nothing, Right, you name the most
(37:44):
successful people on this planet, they've probably failed more than
you and I. Right, But it's learning how to fail,
it's learning how to then leverage.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
That failure to go do the next thing.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
Unfortunately, we don't have the.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
The grace in this world right to be able.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
To fail repeatedly and fail up right, we get judged
very quickly before we ever get in the door, we
were already judged, so which means it's going to be
hard for me to get the opportunity to fail one time, right,
And if I go do that and I fail, I'm done.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Right. So part of what we're.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
Trying to do here is yeah, you come and you
have the great entertainment and you get there. But it's
what happens on the Global Black Economic Forum stage that's
teaching you about the economics, right, what's happening there that's
teaching you about your voter rights and protecting protecting them
and with real lawyers, real civil rights lawyers that are
(38:43):
trying these cases, and taking what they've learned from trying
these cases and bringing that information back to our community
and putting it out there for everybody to see and
to engage with rights. It's those things that make us different.
I think that makes the Essence and that's why I
changed the name the Essence Festival culture because it's not
just about entertaining right, it's not just about having a
(39:04):
great time.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
We have to have that.
Speaker 4 (39:06):
We're going to have that, no doubt, but it's also
how do we leave their armed with the knowledge to
go combat the things that.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Come at us?
Speaker 4 (39:13):
How do we how do we get a collective viewpoint
of how to even maneuver around those things?
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Right? Because I'm sitting at home, you're at home, you're
at home.
Speaker 4 (39:22):
It's tough, right, but you're we're all experiencing things differently,
and there's nowhere where we're collectively strategizing on how we're
going to overcome those challenges.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Right.
Speaker 4 (39:33):
We do things in in in reaction because we're not
given the opportunity to prepare. Let's use Essence as the
place to prepare. Both your mind your soul, your heart,
your spirit. Let's use that plus we're bringing get lifted back.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
This is my last question.
Speaker 5 (39:52):
Are you nervous going into this year's festival due to
all the backlash from last year?
Speaker 1 (39:56):
Are you confident in the changes that have been made? No,
I'm coming. I'm confident because a lot of.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
The the challenges last year weren't structural. There were executions, right,
so let's make sure we get the execution right.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
That though the poor.
Speaker 4 (40:16):
Execution in some instances. And here's the other thing, Right,
we still had.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Forty thousand people a day right come through. We still mate.
I mean there were no incidents, there were no right.
So there's.
Speaker 4 (40:31):
There's this tendency to want to go back and dwell on,
hey this was bad that that's not the case, But
there were a ton of learnings on how to be better, right,
and so that's what we're taking forward.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
And so I'm extremely confident.
Speaker 4 (40:45):
Right is we've learned from that, from the execution challenges,
We've made the adjustice. The soul was there, the intent
is always there, and now we just got to execute
against it. And then the other thing is communicating what
it is that we're attempting to do so that people
know what they're coming along.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
For and get lifted for. Is the spiritual and gospel
side of.
Speaker 5 (41:08):
Legend.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
That's why I get lifted is Yes, we appreciate you
for joining us, and thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
And the crazy thing about it, the.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
Car showed conversation happened on the plane. We were on
a plane with each other and I was I think
I was going to a city for a car show,
and he's like, why don't you bring up the essence?
And I was like how he was liked in the
convention center And that was I think last July.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
That was last yearly last July, and we got it done.
So thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
I've got a.
Speaker 7 (41:32):
Strong spirit, like for everything that they'd be trying to
throw at everything that you do, but you are so
focused on like the silver lining, and like still poor people,
some people everybody don't make it.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
I'm not I'm not, you know.
Speaker 4 (41:48):
And and when do you ask me a question last
time I was here, uh, if I was angry or
or And my response then always has ben continue to
be I don't have the luxury of being mad, right
that that's that's a luxury that that others.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
Can afford in our world. We can't afford that.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
We got to pick up and keep going because at
the end of the day, my job is to leave
this place a better place than I found it for
my children, and I think that's all of us as jobs, right,
So getting mad is't gonna it's not gonna change it.
It's not gonna not gonna make But there's the other
side to this though, right, is when they love me,
they love me right, So I can't I can't you
(42:34):
know that it's never as good as it feels, and
it's never as bad as you think.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
Right.
Speaker 4 (42:39):
So it's like when when we're doing good, they're loving
on us, they're pushing us up, and when we're not
giving what they want, they let us know. The only
thing that I say to that is let's just not
do it in a destructive way because it can be
permanent and some people can't recover from it. I'm seeing
you know, you guys have all seen all these these
these black businesses that have closed.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
For one reason or another.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
A lot the ones that are most disheartening are the
ones that are closed because their community turned on them.
And Dennis, right, they couldn't handle it mentally, or they
couldn't handle it financially, or you know, their families, and
so we just got to be thoughtful in how we
try to help each other get better and not be
destructive in doing it.
Speaker 3 (43:19):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
Last thing.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
The next year, you got to add a comedy component,
so we'll talk.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
Yeah, let me know, let me know. Next time you're
on a plane, I'll meet you.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
The Ris Dennis Ladies and Gentlemen Essence Festival goes down
July third through the fifth.
Speaker 3 (43:34):
If you haven't get your got your tickets. Get your tickets.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Cardi b Kalanie, Brian Demonica, Patti LaBelle, Leon Thomas, George Clinton,
baby Face, Public, got to me, Dougie Fresh plus tons
of free stuff. So get your tickets and I'll see
y'all down there. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, all right,
every day up.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Way click up the Breakfast Club. You don't finish for
y'all done
Every day, A weak clicks up the Breakfast Club. You
don't finished for y'all done.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Morning, everybody is DJ Envy just hilarious, Charlamagne to God.
We are the breakfast Club. Law La Roses here as well.
We got a special guest.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
In the building.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
He's back, ladies and gentlemen, Rich Dennis, welcome back.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Good morning, Good morning everybody. Thank you for having me back.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Good owner of Essence and of course the owner of
the Essence Festival that is going down fourth of July
weekend in New Orleans.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
How's let me join us, Come join us, Rich new walking,
he says, the first time I've walked in this room
and had had had had to apologize.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
For at least now yet it's early in the day now.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
For people that don't know, just tell them about this
year's lineup, some of the people that will be performing,
and some of the cool things you have, like Michelle Obama,
which is amazing.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Talk about some of the stuff you have going on.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Yeah, so this this year, we really went back. So
we took a lot of the feedback from last year
and out here, and one of the things that I
realized is that we were moving very fast to try
to evolve into the future, and we weren't letting people
know where we were headed and what we were doing.
So we've taken the time this year to say, Okay,
we're going to slow down, let.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
People know where we're going so everybody I can get
on board.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
So the first thing we did was announced our first
ever Culture Curator Council and led by Tianna Taylor and
some just incredible, incredible women like Nina who leads the
Food Festival, Nicole Hannah Jones is leading the book Festival
(01:37):
on the nonfiction side, and mar Brakakiel on the fiction side.
So Ni Laythan is leading the film festival. So it's
been very thoughtful about making sure that all the people
that are driving culture can see themselves represented in the
people that are actually putting the festival together. So that
was the first one. I think that's been a big
that's been a big, big win. Right up, we said
(02:00):
we're going to get lineup out early. Our strategy, he
has always been for the thirty something years, is to
drop the lineup as we go along. And there's two
reasons for that. One is become a very practical reason
is because we compete against Live Nation so Live Nation
has the resources and the infrastructure that they suck up
all the talent out of the market very quickly. First thing,
(02:24):
So we're competing against that as an independent media business, right,
and we're fighting everybody at this point.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
But there's that, right.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
But then the other reason that that is is because
we're not looking to just be.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
A place where you come to a concert.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
We don't want to be a concert, right, we want
to be a cultural hub, which means we have to
curate it around things that are actually driving the broader culture,
not just the music culture.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Right. So this year you have.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
Cardi b Lotto Kilani and that's all on Friday Night.
They're really driving youth culture right on. But then the
greatest part of Friday Night is Michelle Obama opens up
the festival on Friday evening with her podcasts on the
(03:19):
Essence Festival concert stage in the Superdome, right, so forty
thousand people there to see our forever first Lady, and
she's partnering with Keiki Palmer.
Speaker 5 (03:31):
On it which you're being crazy the best.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Podcast, the best podcast podcasters out there, having a conversation
around where this is all headed. And we're launching the
podcast festival within that. So we get to do that
and headline our podcast festival with Michelle Obama and Kiki Palmer.
You don't get any better than that. You can't get
(03:56):
any more grateful than to have those two women in
a conversation on the Essence Concert main stage in the Superdome.
And we have been doing podcasts and so and thank
you for inviting me and and and and entertaining me
and supporting me. While while I came to York Blacks
(04:19):
because it was for me, it was it was it
was mind blowing, right because we've been doing podcasts at
festival for probably six seven years, but it's it was
never focused and organized, right, it was. It was it
was a podcast road and different podcasters would show up
and they would do that. And so now having an
opportunity to say, okay, well what if we were really
(04:40):
thoughtful about building a black creator economy, right, So this
isn't about a podcast festival.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
This is about.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Building a black owned, black run, black established infrastructure to
grow the creator industry in America. Not just that we
have to run to all these different entities to do that.
And so that's really the impetus of saying Okay, why
don't we put infrastructure into this thing? So why don't
(05:09):
we do a creator podcast festival alongside the Film Festival? Right,
So the Film Festival this year will have not will
have has already almost six hundred and fifty films submitted,
which makes us one of the largest film festivals in
the country.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Right.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
Last year, out of the Film Festival came two Emmys.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
That's huge.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Out of the book Festival, we gave five book contracts
in partnership with Penguin, Right, so five authors got signed
last year books coming out. That's what when we talk
about building infrastructure, and we talk about building now the
creator infrastructure. It's not just saying, hey, come see these podcasts,
(05:56):
but it's taking these podcasts, taking these creators, platform them,
and then giving them opportunities beyond what they typically would
do in podcasting.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Right. So it's an exciting time. I think.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
I think we're delivering on the promise, and this time
we're sharing it early so that people understand what we're
trying to do and where and where we're headed with it.
So it's going to be exciting. And then we got
some big news. So I don't know when you're ready
to start talking about that. We did the only reason
I'm going today.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
So yeah, we partnered up.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
If you don't know, Rich is a huge car collector,
like out of this world and not just old new
like he's He's such a fixation and nobody ever knows that.
And the only reason I knew that we went on
a ride one day and he pulled up and I'm like,
oh wow. So we're bringing the car show to Es'
Music Festival inter Convention Center, so to be absolutely positively free.
We're going to curate just some of the dopest cars
from different areas from the sixties to seventies to eighties
(06:48):
and nineties to two thousands. And we're also bringing a
lot of New Orleans talent, so what they're into because
everywhere you go they do different things to cars, and
New Orleans is totally different. So we have a bunch
of cure currency and a bunch of New Orleans artists
that's gonna be given the media cause. And what we're
doing too is focusing on some of the artists that's performing,
like Cardi b has giving me her Ferrari truck, which
we're taking from New York and bringing out to audience
(07:11):
for her car show.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
So it's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm excited.
Speaker 6 (07:13):
That's such a great attraction to you know, it's it's
exciting and one of the I don't know if it's
the best kept secrets, but one one of the great
I think contributions that Essence has made to our society
and our community and continues to.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Make is it's become a place where people meet right,
where people start relationships, whether they're networking to build something together,
whether they're falling in love and on their first date
together or meeting there. So there's it's a very it's
a very family friendly environment. And so we continue to
(07:51):
think about how do we include the whole set of
our communities, not just one group, right.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
And so so for.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
This year we're saying, Okay, what is it that we're
going to do so that the men that come to
festival with their wives, with their girlfriends, with their daughters,
with their grand like however they're coming, that they are
also not just an afterthought, but that.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
They're feeling really, really included.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
So we started a couple of years ago, we relaunched Swede,
we opened it, opened it up as the Swede Lounge,
so in the Suede Lounge, we're gonna be doing a
car show in the Convention Center, And as you said,
I'm really excited about the way you've curated it because
you've put New Orleans at the center of it, the
(08:41):
New Orleans car culture, and that there's other things for
people to see, but the New Orleans car culture is
at the center, as you said, having celebrities that are
in the shows in the there for the weekend with
their cars, because when you're a car guy or a
car girl, there's nothing better than the memories that you
make with the car. Of course, right it's people get
these cars, they put them in garages, they never drives them,
(09:03):
they never see them. But when you're working on the
car and you're tuning the car, and you're tweaking the car,
and you're changing this, and you're you're building a bond
in a relationship with the car, you want to share
that bond and relationship. And I think all too often
it becomes harder and harder for us to do in
a community in a community environment. This this where we're
(09:23):
now able to do. And as you said, you know
everything in the Convention Center General emissions is free there's
VIP packages if you want to get to the front
of the line and you want to do it. But
you can walk in and see anything and meet anybody
at any time. It's free, and that's very important to
us because that's where you come and you get the knowledge.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Right, that's where you get the information. That's where you
get the access.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
That's where you see you know that, and you're you're
you're you're hosting the main stage out here.
Speaker 7 (09:54):
Yes, we're working on it right now.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Yes, I knock it out.
Speaker 7 (09:56):
Yeah, yeah, welled out.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
With car and No.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
That's the concert stage and the main stage in the
convention center. So that's that's what we call the Essen stage.
So that's where all the big conversations. Yeah, that's where
all the big, big conversations happen.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
And so I'm excited to have you.
Speaker 7 (10:16):
I'm excited to be on board. This is my second
Essence Festival, the first time I've ever participated. So oh really, yes,
last time I just went, as it was years ago,
I just went as a person just enjoying the festival.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
So now now you get to be a part of
all of that energy and all that. Yes, what do
you what do you what do you what are you
looking to share with people?
Speaker 7 (10:36):
I think I'm looking to share with people that like
community matters. And I don't mean community like you know
how people go to network. I mean like when you
meet people for real, for real that like pour into you. Like.
The only reason why we're I even started having a
conversation with your team is because some of your team
listens to the podcast, and when they listen, we actually talk,
like we have a conversations about some of the things
that I cover my podcast. And from that they were like,
(10:59):
we want to invest and like you growing, and we
think that the stage would make sense for you. The
podcast is amazing, And I was like, and that came
from natural conversation. I think Essence Festival is a place
where you can, you know, you meet those type of
people where they really want to invest and grow. And
I think people should come there with the open mind
just to do that and have a good time.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
Yeah, no, And that's that's important. So now maybe we
can have you do a few years of hosting that
because let's say lock it in. No, we will because
for me, it's the longevity of it, and it's the
long term thinking of it, right and Like I said earlier,
sometimes we get too far into the future and we
forget to bring people along.
Speaker 7 (11:36):
But that's why I think it's fired though, because a
lot of corporations don't care, like it's like who's hot
right now and then they just move on. Like your
team is very much invested in a real way. And
that's why I think Essence Festival in Essence as a
magazine is important. Like you know, that's why when all
the other stuff come your way, Yeah, I think we
should make sure we balance out that conversation. That's how
we kicked off our relationship me and your team is
(11:57):
because of the way I covered all the other stuff happen.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
And that's the thing, right, It's the it's the objectivity
right of challenge. Right, So you hit a wall, you
run into a problem, you have issues.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
It's the objective.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
Thinking around how you solve that that gets you to
the other side of it, right, as opposed to the
closed thinking, all right, this is this is wrong, so
therefore I'm gonna kill it or this is wrong, so
I'm definitely never gonna do it. But it's stepping back
and saying, hey, what do we what do we do differently?
How do we and then you come to realize a
lot of this stuff you don't really need to do differently,
It's just that you executed it poorly, right, So then
(12:38):
you focus on the proper execution and then and then
you get it back.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
But we've we've always been focused.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
On on on long term and what is it going
to look like fifty years from now versus what it
looks like today.
Speaker 7 (12:50):
I saw the Essence Festival Steering Committee that you guys
developed with the Mayor Helena Moreno, which is a response
to a lot of like the issues that people had
last year and like all those things. Can you talk
about like what that committee will do for people that
are experiencing Essence Festival and why you guys got together
with the mayor to create it.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Yeah, So there's I think people when they hear steering committee,
I think it's you know, what you read in the
presses and always what it is. So we've always had
a host committee and that host committee continues right now.
We're adding in the steering piece so that we have
a closer working relationship between the things that the city
(13:32):
is interested in and the things that we're interested in,
so that we're able to execute collectively as opposed to independently, right,
And so that's the real purpose of that steering committee.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Right.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
So if you think about it, So we just had
a press conference last Friday, right where the mayor spoke.
So this gives the mayor and the city an opportunity
to express their vision for what where the city is headed,
what the city is doing, because you got to we're
bringing hundreds of thousands of people to the city, right,
(14:04):
So the city's ability to weigh in and say, hey,
these five things are super important to us, and we're
able to say, hey, these five things are super important us.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Here's how we solve it.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
And we've got a great we've got a great framework
now to make sure that that that continues in that way,
as opposed to a host committee that works on just
the hosting issues and then we're working just on the
execution issues.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
And an event becomes so successful that its size actually
starts to work against the experience that made people love
it in the.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
First Absolutely, absolutely, I mean I think that's I think
that's what we ran up against last year, right, is
people look that people go to these experiences because they
crave human interaction and intimacy.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Right.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
When you're as big as Essence Festival has gotten, it's
easy to lose that right and it doesn't show up.
That's not the intent, but just from it's a great question.
From the mere size of it, it becomes harder and
harder to keep that intimacy. So if you step back
at it like we did and say, okay, well, what
are the things that keep that right? It is understanding
(15:12):
who you're serving and then figuring out how.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
To super serve them. Right.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
So we're using the car show as example. There's hundreds
of thousands of men that show up, right, and what's
programmed for them, what's curated for them is has not
necessarily been intentional.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
So now let's be very intentional about that.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
I guarantee you those men will come there and feel like, hey,
this was intimate, This was a feeling. I was in
a large environment of my people. I felt safe there,
but I could also narrow in and focus in on
the things that I care about, right. I think it's
the same thing for for women. It's like, hey, I'm
you know, having mar Brack Akiel and Nicolehannah Jones, who
(15:59):
are people that most women in our community grow up
absolutely adoring and admiring to now be able to connect
directly with them to learn from them. On Okay, how
is I successful in writing all these scripts and creating
all these all these number one these bestsellers, or how
have I been able to change the consciousness of our
(16:20):
community and impact the consciousness of our community. There's a
group of women that want that, right. Then there's a
group of women and men who come and they just
want to go see a great show at night and
go experience the restaurants during the day. Let's make sure
that they get that. But when you get so big,
you can lose sight of that, and then the other
(16:41):
thing that really happens is the execution becomes challenged. Right,
So going back to basis and saying, okay, let's focus
on the execution. When I show up here, I'm supposed
to start at eight o'clock, let's start at eight o'clock
because I've got a full day schedule and I've got
to be back in my room by four o'clock because
i got to get ready to go see Cardi B
(17:02):
at eight o'clock. Right, And so that window that we
have with her in the convention center should be flawless right.
She should be able to move around easily. She should
be able to if she if she bought a VIP pass.
She should be able to get to where she's going.
She should be able to get her seat, she should
be like.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
So we're really really focused on those things.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
And I think over the years as it grew, that
those things kind of got away from us. Right, So
we're going back now to say, okay, let's do that.
And I think this now opens up the next tier
of growth for us because we're fixing the infrastructure to
now handle the scale. Right, And in you guys's individual
businesses and all the things that you do, is you
know that as you start to scale, it feels different, right,
(17:43):
Like when you cook a potus stew for two people,
it's a very different cooking experience than when you're cooking
it for two hundred people, right, And so we've got
to learn that. And the thing is there's nothing of
this size and caliber in the black community. So the
other thing is making sure that we continue to train
up our people so that they can grow along with
(18:05):
us as we scale. So big, big emphasis on training
up people on what we call the pipeline program in
hiring black businesses and then giving them. So we're going
to create Last year, we created twenty five hundred jobs
over the course of that weekend. Think about that number, right.
(18:26):
This year we're going to get close to probably twenty
eight hundred. So if you think about that number and
you're saying, hey, I want to use this platform to
develop these people, to develop these small businesses, to have them,
to have them grow alongside us, you're going to have
some challenges because they're not getting those same opportunities repeatedly. Right,
(18:47):
we may be the only one or two that they
get in New Orleans the whole year, or maybe three
that they get the whole year, when there's twenty or
thirty opportunities.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
That are out there.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
So we've got to our community has been patient with us,
We've got to be patient with our partners, and we're
going to collectively build the infrastructure and the expertise to
be able to continue to scale.
Speaker 7 (19:08):
So what's different this year and how you guys are
working with those smaller contractors in production companies on that,
Because last time you were here, you were talking about
how that was kind of like an issue for you guys.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
Yeah, yeah, well it was. It was an issue in
that some of some of the folks that we had
last year may have had experiences doing other things, but
they hadn't had experiences doing essence, and essence is a
whole another you know, it's a whole nother vibe, it's
a whole another beast. So we've now been able to
(19:37):
continue with those partners. So the one thing is you're
not going to get you know, I always say, you know,
in the black community, you get one shot. In other
communities you got two, five, ten times to fail.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Right.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
So I'm not going to be the guy who if
somebody failed me one time, I'm going to be like,
I see you later, you know, and then move on
to the next one. I'm going to be the one
that say, let's talk about where where we went wrong,
let's put in the things that we're going to fix it,
and let's give us another shot. So why I'm confident
about this year is because we spent the year working
with people where we thought that there were challenges or
(20:12):
where we knew that there were issues, putting things in
place to fix that. And so now they have a
year of experience under them to be able to say, okay,
here if this happens, Here's what happened. If this happens,
here was what happened. And then the other thing is
we upgraded the team. Right, So we went out and
found people that have done things at this scale or
larger and brought them in to help us make sure
(20:33):
that we make sure that.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
We get it. We get it right.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
So we're doing the things that it takes to build
a business to have a solid foundation that cannot just scale,
but that can have longevity and do it profitably, right,
because if we're not doing it profitably, Essence won't be here.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
And that all of that is for not.
Speaker 5 (20:51):
So what do you do when people like they did
it you last year? When people think taking corporate money,
it kind of threatens to trust that people have placed
in a brand like Essence, who you took dollars from.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
If you don't get those dollars, you can great, you can't.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
You can't do the Convince Center for free. But and
I think that had an effect that maybe some people
we were looking to to have or or or or
didn't or or was an unintended consequence. But then we
lost sponsors, right, so because of the noise, right, So
then so then we lost sponsors. So then I look
(21:27):
back and I say, well, you know, if I've got
twenty five to twenty eight hundred jobs, that I've got
a fund, right, I've got you know, we will have
you know, three hundred black businesses in and around the
convention center as vendors, as partners. Right, that's a sizeable
impact to our community economically. So I don't think that
(21:52):
it was people's intent to do that, but I think
some of these companies were looking for excuses to not
invest in black and so when they hear that, then
they can say, oh, you know, even your people.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Don't like you, right, that's right. No, but that's what
they were saying.
Speaker 5 (22:08):
They see other black people criticizing something that's for black people, like, well,
why should we spend money with them?
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Why should we?
Speaker 4 (22:14):
We're not going and now we don't have to that, right,
nobody's holding me accountable anymore. Right, So I can take
my dollars and I can take it to live nation
where you know, my people are the all of their
people are there, all their relationships are there. Why would
you take it and invest it here? And so I
think that was an unintended consequence, at least I hope
(22:36):
that there was anybody out there saying, hey, let's just
go destroy this black business because we want to. But
that's one of the.
Speaker 7 (22:42):
Consequences why you're on that point. When you see headlines
like the four hundred and sixty five thousand dollars and
y'all owning money to all these contractors and these people,
knowing that you invest in the black talent, how do
you feel in response to that, because, well.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
It's disheartening. I mean it's disheartening because again, we're running
a business.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Right.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
When you run a business, you are going to renegotiate
or negotiate, or you're going to take stance with other
businesses that you don't think are even giving you the
value that you want, or they don't think you're giving
them the value that you want. It's part of running
a business, right, And so the way that I feel
about it is, I know I'm running a business. I
(23:23):
also know that because of who we are as a
black business, we're a target, right, and so people would
love to see us fail. But that's not going to
deter me from running a proper business. You're not going
to threaten me by putting me in the press because
you want me to behave the way that you want
me to behave. I'm building a business here. I'm building
that business for my community. What I tell our team
(23:44):
all the three most important things in business, pride, courage,
and conviction.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Right.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
If you've got the pride, you've got the courage, you've
got the conviction, you will overcome the challenges.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Right.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
So for me, it's hey, this is part of doing business.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Right.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
If you don't like what I'm doing, or if you
want to take me out because I'm competitive to you,
then those stories get published, right, and then our community
reacts in the way that they react, and then it's
just like, no, we're not going anywhere.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
We're doing this.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
I should have the same right to renegotiate and to
negotiate my deals in my terms as any other business.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Right.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
So we go at it from that perspective, and I'm
really proud of the way our team has been handling
all of this because it's also the maturation process, right, so.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
The first time, and that's the other thing.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
Many of our businesses don't have the resources to stand
the impact of some of these things that happen to us, right,
so those things can take us out. Right, I'm very
proud of the fortitude of our team to double down
and say, no, we're going to continue executing the way
that we need to execute. We're going to make the improvements,
(24:57):
but we're going to continue to do the things that
we do because we have pride, cards and conviction and.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
What we're doing.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
I see we got to see more more hands on
this year than ever before. Is that part of the reason?
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Well, yes, and no.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
I'm a builder, right, and and I'm a some would
say a visionary, right, And so the two don't always
go together, right, Somebody that has a vision usually isn't
the person that's here. I'm not hands on in terms
of building. We've got a great team that's doing that.
(25:34):
But what I am hands on about is making sure
that the obstacles get removed, right, and partnering with Kirkus,
our CEO, to make sure that that the obstacles get removed,
and then making sure that the teams are empowered to do.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
The things that they need to do.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
So what you're seeing is is us transforming, and we've
been doing this very publicly for the past five years, right,
transforming a fifty five year old legacy business into a
business of the future, right, the things that we were
doing five years ago. I mean, look at you guys
(26:13):
in your business, right, what you were doing a year
ago is not what you're doing today, right, And so
if you don't transform, and you don't transform quickly, it
becomes I mean, like I've if you look at iHeart
and you look at the transition from where you guys
were five, six, seven years ago, the things that the
business had to do to restructure in order to put
(26:34):
it in a healthier place.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
When that happens with iHeart, no advice has anything with us.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
It's you know, and that's part of that's a longer conversation,
but that's Those are the things that I think Festival
helps us to understand and get through even our lived
experience with how our businesses is being managed and being run.
But also now to take all of that knowledge and
put it on these stages, right, because that's what you're
going to get. You're not going to get somebody who's
(27:05):
you know, hypothetically done something on Instagram teaching you how
to go do. You're gonna get real professionals that have
had real experiences, that have developed real businesses, or that
have built real families, that have done, right, that have
really done these things that are vetted that you can
trust and rely on to be the ones providing the information.
(27:27):
That's the other that's the other thing that we take
great pride in is vetting the information that we that
we put out and the people that the people that
we bring in, because otherwise it becomes what's the difference
between a an essence and you know, anything else that's
out there. Right, it's got to be trust, it's got
(27:49):
to be valuable. We've got to invest in it. And
that's what we're doing it. And that reminds that takes
me to another exciting part.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
And so we're also relaunching the magazine. Oh print print.
We're the only black owned print, right, I think that's
something to that.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
Yeah, we can't go away, right, It's like we don't
have a we don't have a choice, right, So we
have to make sure that we're delivering an excellent product
and that we're doing it across our platform. So so
the magazine now you know, more long form focus. Right,
we're not trying to compete with Instagram and Facebook and all.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Right, long form long form.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
Focus, real journalism around the things that are happening in
our communities, Real stories about the things that are happening
in our communities from our community's point of view, right,
not just one writer or one editor and one We
want to bring our community onto the platform, Let them
(28:54):
tell their stories. Use our platform as the vessel, but
let them tell their story. So we're really excited about
and that'll drop at festival.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Wow, who's on the cover for that one?
Speaker 4 (29:03):
I can't tell you, but what I can tell you.
What I can tell you is that you will be proud.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
You know. I just got a couple of questions.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
A lot of black institutions have had to answer, the question,
how do we evolve without losing our soul?
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Is that one of the challenges is no, no, no, no,
no no.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
Ours is not a sole problem, right, It's how do
we evolve without losing a generation or two?
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Right?
Speaker 4 (29:30):
Because if you think about it, you know, at the
core of it, you know who we serve are black women, right,
And we are hyper hyper focused on that.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Right.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
And you and you and your children, and your mother
and your grandmother all care about the same things but
in different ways, right, And so our job is to
make sure that the things that you all care about
are represented but that you can experience it in different ways, right,
And that's where it's hard, right, because if you do
(30:03):
something this way, it's like, oh, now you're focused on
young people. You're not focused on who got you here?
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Right? If you do too much here, essence is old
is not right.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
And at the end of the day, if you don't
have this evolution, then where do your daughters go?
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Where do your children? Where do my child? Where do
your children go? Right? Where? Where where's the pride that.
Speaker 4 (30:23):
Comes and sits on your coffee table, you know, once
a month, once every three months, or you know quarterly
or annually, whatever it?
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Where's that pride?
Speaker 4 (30:31):
Where do you physically see yourself in a in a
publication that is talking about the things that you care about, not.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Just about your dress and not just about your hairstyle.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
Right, those things are important, but the things that fuel you,
the things that challenge you, the things that develop you. Right,
there's got to be a safe space for that. That's
what essence is. And then you see that manifest and
live experiences.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Right.
Speaker 4 (30:54):
And so so it's it's not it's not a sole
question for us. It is a generational question, right, And
we've got to We've got to make sure that we
build a big enough boat that all generations can feel respected,
wanted and loved. And so you see that even with
the even with the lineup, you know, we go everything
from Cardi b to George Pat, George Clinton, Leon Thomas.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Right. So we're curating a cultural experience every year, which
becomes harder and harder to do as people steal more
and more of our culture and represent it as their own.
Speaker 6 (31:30):
I'm really excited about being a chief care I know
you don't want to get everything, give everything away, right,
but be able to bring.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
Oh boy, So so she's been she's been able to.
So here's the here's the interesting thing, right, it's you know,
we we have you guys ever heard of the company
actively black?
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Lanny has a uh a election.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
That had some mixed reviews called black women are Superheroes, right,
and he had he hadn't produced it for a while,
and then he brought it back and he did a
video explaining why he brought it back, right, And I
thought that was that was extremely powerful.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Right.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
The connection between that and Tiana is Tiana is helping
us bring it back.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Right. She's she's helped she's helping us rethink how we
go forward. Right, the future is the future, it's what's there.
Speaker 4 (32:37):
She's helping us rethink, oh should do this, we should
do that, we should do the other. Right, here's how
the merch should look, here's how the audience address. Here's
here's what and let's let's help them do that.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Let's let's create. Let's create the recreate the community feel.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
Not not so much the individual feel, but let's recreate
the community field.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
So she's she's been wonderful. And I even gotten to
the to the creative party.
Speaker 6 (33:00):
Yeah right, I'm listening an everything she touched.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Oh my god, amazing. She's one of my favorite creators
all the time.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
She's all hands on this.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Yeah, that's why I'm like, she went last week for
community the community stuff, like she's.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
Yeah, she's all And those are the kinds of partners. One,
those are the kinds of partners that we all need
in our businesses. But two, and probably more important, our
young people need to see black people collaborating and building
stuff together, right, Like, like they really really really need
to see that because they're growing up in an environment
(33:36):
that's telling them black people don't matter anymore. Right, And
you guys definitely shouldn't be doing stuff together, right, And
so we've got it. We've got any anywhere that we
can show that and display that we should and then
we should come back and talk about the results.
Speaker 5 (33:50):
Two last questions, are you gonna be able to celebrate
the entire the sport this year without unintentionally making some
people feel like their own traditions are being diluted because
last year they got on you.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
They not once you celebrating Mother Africa for whatever reason.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Yeah, the the So the answer to the questions, yes, right,
I think it again.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
It's helping people.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
Understand where we're headed and what we're doing and how
we're doing it. This is not about making anybody feel
less than or forgotten.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
In fact, we're leaning even.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
Harder right into into the different communities and how we
and how we serve them, and there will be something
for everybody, right, And we are not under any illusion
here that we're ever going to get away from serving
Black American women.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Right. Black Americans is who gave all of us that.
Speaker 4 (34:40):
Came from somewhere else the opportunity to be here and
to stay here, and we all ought to be grateful
for that. I for one, am extremely grateful for that.
I am never going to forget that, right. Second part
of it is this is my children's life, right, and
they are making sure that this thing stays here as well.
So they're all working here, learning and building together. So
(35:03):
we believe we're greater together than we are separate. And
we also understand the doctrines that separate us, right, and
the strategies and the systems.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
That try to keep us separated. Right. And when you
can separate us.
Speaker 4 (35:19):
You can do things to us that you can't do
when we're together.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Our job is to bring us, is to bring us together.
Our job is to.
Speaker 4 (35:26):
Make sure that we have a very strong and healthy
connected community globally, because that's the greatest protection we can have.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
If we don't have that, we are.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
Just small pockets, small pockets. And just look at how
we're being picked off right now. Take a look at
what's happening in black media.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
Where the voices right, where are the platforms jobs? They
don't have no jobs, right, Not only do they have no.
Speaker 5 (35:54):
That we live in right now because you can create
your own platforms and there's so many people that are
doing it.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
The joy read the Don Lemmon, I mean I can name.
Speaker 5 (36:03):
A million people that have their own platform, but Charlemagne
one that was a reaction.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
To somebody else's action. It shouldn't have been them, but
it was right.
Speaker 4 (36:18):
And so the way that I think about it is again,
places like Essence and Essence Festival should be there to
teach people the paths and the ways, so that it
doesn't have to be a reaction that they that that
in their mind, it's always an action. And I think
that the generation that's coming up behind us has that mindset.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
But they still need the tools.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
Right, They still need the access, they still need they
still need the experience, they still need the expertise, right,
So so going and starting your I mean like and
you're a perfect example of that. The you know, the
twenty two year old Charlemagne would not have been to
build what you're building, absolutely right. You had to be
somewhere to learn it. So if I'm not getting a job,
(37:06):
if I'm not getting twitored, if I'm not getting mentored,
if I'm not getting access, I'm not getting that. More
than that, I think the thing that makes us great
is our abilities to leverage our.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Failures expound on that.
Speaker 4 (37:21):
I like that if you don't get an opportunity to fail. Right,
either either you never did anything, or you did something
and you failed and you never were empowered to do
it again. You never learn how to build, you never
learn how to scale, And there's nothing that happens in
this world without failure, nothing, Right, you name the most
(37:44):
successful people on this planet, they've probably failed more than
you and I. Right, But it's learning how to fail,
it's learning how to then leverage.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
That failure to go do the next thing.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
Unfortunately, we don't have the.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
The grace in this world right to be able.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
To fail repeatedly and fail up right, we get judged
very quickly before we ever get in the door, we
were already judged, so which means it's going to be
hard for me to get the opportunity to fail one time, right,
And if I go do that and I fail, I'm done.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Right. So part of what we're.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
Trying to do here is yeah, you come and you
have the great entertainment and you get there. But it's
what happens on the Global Black Economic Forum stage that's
teaching you about the economics, right, what's happening there that's
teaching you about your voter rights and protecting protecting them
and with real lawyers, real civil rights lawyers that are
(38:43):
trying these cases, and taking what they've learned from trying
these cases and bringing that information back to our community
and putting it out there for everybody to see and
to engage with rights. It's those things that make us different.
I think that makes the Essence and that's why I
changed the name the Essence Festival culture because it's not
just about entertaining right, it's not just about having a
(39:04):
great time.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
We have to have that.
Speaker 4 (39:06):
We're going to have that, no doubt, but it's also
how do we leave their armed with the knowledge to
go combat the things that.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Come at us?
Speaker 4 (39:13):
How do we how do we get a collective viewpoint
of how to even maneuver around those things?
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Right? Because I'm sitting at home, you're at home, you're
at home.
Speaker 4 (39:22):
It's tough, right, but you're we're all experiencing things differently,
and there's nowhere where we're collectively strategizing on how we're
going to overcome those challenges.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Right.
Speaker 4 (39:33):
We do things in in in reaction because we're not
given the opportunity to prepare. Let's use Essence as the
place to prepare. Both your mind your soul, your heart,
your spirit. Let's use that plus we're bringing get lifted back.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
This is my last question.
Speaker 5 (39:52):
Are you nervous going into this year's festival due to
all the backlash from last year?
Speaker 1 (39:56):
Are you confident in the changes that have been made? No,
I'm coming. I'm confident because a lot of.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
The the challenges last year weren't structural. There were executions, right,
so let's make sure we get the execution right.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
That though the poor.
Speaker 4 (40:16):
Execution in some instances. And here's the other thing, Right,
we still had.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Forty thousand people a day right come through. We still mate.
I mean there were no incidents, there were no right.
So there's.
Speaker 4 (40:31):
There's this tendency to want to go back and dwell on,
hey this was bad that that's not the case, But
there were a ton of learnings on how to be better, right,
and so that's what we're taking forward.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
And so I'm extremely confident.
Speaker 4 (40:45):
Right is we've learned from that, from the execution challenges,
We've made the adjustice. The soul was there, the intent
is always there, and now we just got to execute
against it. And then the other thing is communicating what
it is that we're attempting to do so that people
know what they're coming along.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
For and get lifted for. Is the spiritual and gospel
side of.
Speaker 5 (41:08):
Legend.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
That's why I get lifted is Yes, we appreciate you
for joining us, and thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
And the crazy thing about it, the.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
Car showed conversation happened on the plane. We were on
a plane with each other and I was I think
I was going to a city for a car show,
and he's like, why don't you bring up the essence?
And I was like how he was liked in the
convention center And that was I think last July.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
That was last yearly last July, and we got it done.
So thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
I've got a.
Speaker 7 (41:32):
Strong spirit, like for everything that they'd be trying to
throw at everything that you do, but you are so
focused on like the silver lining, and like still poor people,
some people everybody don't make it.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
I'm not I'm not, you know.
Speaker 4 (41:48):
And and when do you ask me a question last
time I was here, uh, if I was angry or
or And my response then always has ben continue to
be I don't have the luxury of being mad, right
that that's that's a luxury that that others.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
Can afford in our world. We can't afford that.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
We got to pick up and keep going because at
the end of the day, my job is to leave
this place a better place than I found it for
my children, and I think that's all of us as jobs, right,
So getting mad is't gonna it's not gonna change it.
It's not gonna not gonna make But there's the other
side to this though, right, is when they love me,
they love me right, So I can't I can't you
(42:34):
know that it's never as good as it feels, and
it's never as bad as you think.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
Right.
Speaker 4 (42:39):
So it's like when when we're doing good, they're loving
on us, they're pushing us up, and when we're not
giving what they want, they let us know. The only
thing that I say to that is let's just not
do it in a destructive way because it can be
permanent and some people can't recover from it. I'm seeing
you know, you guys have all seen all these these
these black businesses that have closed.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
For one reason or another.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
A lot the ones that are most disheartening are the
ones that are closed because their community turned on them.
And Dennis, right, they couldn't handle it mentally, or they
couldn't handle it financially, or you know, their families, and
so we just got to be thoughtful in how we
try to help each other get better and not be
destructive in doing it.
Speaker 3 (43:19):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
Last thing.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
The next year, you got to add a comedy component,
so we'll talk.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
Yeah, let me know, let me know. Next time you're
on a plane, I'll meet you.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
The Ris Dennis Ladies and Gentlemen Essence Festival goes down
July third through the fifth.
Speaker 3 (43:34):
If you haven't get your got your tickets. Get your tickets.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Cardi b Kalanie, Brian Demonica, Patti LaBelle, Leon Thomas, George Clinton,
baby Face, Public, got to me, Dougie Fresh plus tons
of free stuff. So get your tickets and I'll see
y'all down there. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, all right,
every day up.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Way click up the Breakfast Club. You don't finish for
y'all done
The Breakfast Club News
Hosts And Creators
Charlamagne Tha God
DJ Envy
Jess Hilarious
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