How Charlamagne Became The God of Hip-Hop Radio

What do Hillary Clinton, Martin Shkreli, and Kanye West have in common? They've all been interrogated by Charlamagne, hip-hop's puckish Howard Stern.

- Mark Jacobson

It was 5 a.m. on a chilly early-spring morning, and Charlamagne Tha God was piloting his regal Jaguar across the George Washington Bridge from the wilds of Jersey. As if by Old Testament decree, the Manhattan skies lightened to welcome the King of the Hip-Hop Morning. Another day was dawning, and Charlamagne, co-host of “The Breakfast Club,” the hot-shot urban contemporary wake-up call, was doing what he does best, which is run his mouth.

It was the mouth that had elevated the slightly stocky, slightly short former Lenard McKelvey from Moncks Corner, South Carolina (pop. 9,460), to his current exalted state. It was the Charlamagne mouth that asked the elephant-in-the-room questions, that went in on the haughty high and the mighty.