Get Honest or Die Lying

May 15, 2024
The famous Black radio and TV personality makes the case for raising the bar on the quality of our conversations. Charlamagne Tha God, author of Black Privilege, hates small talk. Rather than using the traditional definition of small talk as idle chatter, the author describes it as "a symbol of our lack of authentic communication. Both as individuals and collectively." Throughout the book, he provides examples of types of small talk and the damage that it can do. In one chapter, he discusses how right-wing politicians often excel at unvarnished, blunt conversation, a trend that garners them votes while politicians like Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris--whom the author admires--lose support due to their perceived lack of authenticity. Elsewhere, the author critiques his own history of emulating "shock jocks" and states his new commitment to elevating the level of conversation on his morning radio show, The Breakfast Club. He also spends time criticizing the social media landscape that has led to young people's sense of "entitlement" that he feels is both detrimental to their development and uncharacteristic of previous generations. "Back in the day," he writes, "no one felt the need to put on a front when they were just starting out." Throughout, Charlamagne returns to the premise that honest conversations can change the world. "Now I want to encourage you to make rejecting small talk a priority in your life," he pleads, "because small talk is killing us as a society." The author's voice is frank, funny, and intimate, and his capacity for vulnerability drives his storytelling. At times, his signature brashness crosses the line--as, for instance, when he unnecessarily repeats verbatim a homophobic joke his father used to tell--and his analysis can lean toward the patriarchal. Not without flaws, but a compellingly honest manifesto about authenticity.

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May 13, 2024
Charlamagne (Black Privilege), cohost of the Breakfast Club radio show, opines on mental health, social media, and the power of comedy in these punchy if occasionally clichéd essays. The most successful selections showcase Charlamagne’s comic chops and idiosyncratic thinking, as when he argues that delivering big ideas in a humorous way can encourage people to engage in difficult debates with “the same level of focus you acquire with post-nut clarity” (the alleged lucidity of mind that follows an orgasm). Serving up frank personal reflection, Charlamagne discusses straining to keep his ego in check as his career took off in the mid-2010s and recounts how writing a book about his mental health struggles led his father to open up for the first time about living with depression. Other essays offer tired takes on how social media is allegedly ruining society. For example, he contends that unrealistic lifestyle standards set by influencers have created a generation of entitled brats who lack the hustle that he displayed during his rise to fame (“Kids today really believe that they should receive the fruits of one’s labor without having to do one’s labor”). The author’s charisma and candor buoy the selections, even as they’re sometimes dragged down by finger-wagging platitudes. Still, Charlamagne’s listeners will find much to enjoy. Agent: Jan Miller, Dupree Miller & Assoc.