“Respek” is very important in entertainment. And Birdman (unintentionally hilariously) spoke of the notion with the same ferocity the character Marlo Stanfield in The Wire classically said, “My name is my name” with The Breakfast Club morning radio show this past Friday morning [April 22, 2016].
The above incident serves as inspiration for our list below. Hostility is nothing new to the immensely popular morning radio show—hosted by Charlamagne Tha God, DJ Envy and Angela Yee—now syndicated in over 40 different radio markets across the nation. Along with the three hosts’ engaging personalities, it’s the sit-down interviews that keep consumers of culturally-relative content consistently checking for the daily morning show.
Since its inception in December 2010, The Breakfast Club’s video interviews have become so popular there are multiple YouTube channels with six-figure followers making it hard to decipher which account is the “real” one. With a thought provoking and enthralling dynamic, Birdman wasn’t the first one to let the “most dangerous morning show” get to him. Take a look at the five most hostile interviews on The Breakfast Club and let us know in the comments below if we missed one.
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#5 – Master P
January 29, 2016
This was Master P‘s second time on The Breakfast Club in the same month. The self-proclaimed Ice Cream Man started to show hostile emotion when the conversation turned to this current generation coming up in the entertainment business and their lack of knowledge and respect. P. Miller turned up more when the discussion featured his wife and what went wrong, but was still very much in control. With less than four minutes left in the interview, Charlamagne asked about P’s marketing plan during the No Limit heyday, commenting on how good Mercedes looked on 1998’s Rear End album cover. In a no-nonsense voice P quickly checked Charla and gave him a lesson on respect. He clearly got the message, as he offered another apology as the parting words to the interview.
#4 – DJ Drama
April 10, 2014
Nine minutes in, DJ Drama notices that DJ Envy is completely engulfed in his phone and seemingly not paying attention to the interview happening in front of him (that he’s expected to be part of). When Charlamagne brings it back up again, Envy goes into the reason for his nonchalant attitude all show: but to understand the cause, a bit of backstory needs to be provided. When Envy left Hot 97 for Power 105, it was very disruptive in the Hip Hop radio world, especially in New York City. Because of Drama’s past affiliation with Clear Channel (having done guest DJ spots when the station was still new), he was allegedly banned from the Emmis building and music he was affiliated with embargoed. Fast-forward to sometime between 2011-2012, plans to do The Breakfast Club x Gangsta Grillz mixtape were already in motion when suddenly, Mr. Thanksgiving changed his mind, essentially leaving the recently-formed morning show sitting on their hands.
#3 – Dame Dash
March 13, 2015
Dame Dash‘s personality is a lot like Kanye West‘s, which is obviously why they worked so well together (“we assholes,” as ‘Ye once rapped). In one of the most legendary contemporary radio interviews, business mogul Dash came on The Breakfast Club with Murda Mook, his OG Daniel and his dog Governor. Already a passionate speaker, Dame started to turn up even more when Envy asked him to recap how he first got in touch with JAY Z. The residual energy from that carried over into the next few questions and something the former Roc-A-Fella co-founder said definitely struck a nerve with Envy, because his retorts were as if Dame was directing much of his boss-talk rant towards him. The back-and-forth between the two went on with no end in sight, until Charlamagne brought up the movie Loisaidas and Dame went right back to being the high-level salesman he is. Only eight minutes into the interview, there was already several edits to an interview run-time of 74 minutes and throughout it was obvious much was cut out of the exchange viewers eventually were privy to.
#2 – K. Michelle
March 29, 2016
In a completely unexpected move, K. Michelle all but G-checked Angela Yee, the show’s designated peacemaker, for her conduct during an interview with Maino and Uncle Murda the week before where the, ah, scent of the R&B singer’s privates was referenced negatively. K answered all questions as if no issue existed, before eloquently confronting Yee about seven minutes into the interview. Making a solid five minutes of thoughtful points, she laid into Angela to the point where Yee wasn’t left with much to say or from what we saw, with too many counterpoints to defend herself. It appeared to be a totally impromptu attack, as watching it more than once allows the viewer to search for telling body language from K. Michelle and besides her rarely looking in Angela’s direction, there wasn’t much warning at all.
#1 – Onyx
July 31, 2014
One of the most notorious interviews in the half-decade run (to date) The Breakfast Club has ever had was when Onyx appeared in summer ’14. Aggressive by brand and nature too, the interview with the “Slam” rappers started off smooth. Five and a half minutes into the 26+ minute interview was the first mention of Fredro Starr‘s past interactions with then young R&B icon, Brandy. While that subject would go on to serve as the catalyst for the tension, it was nearly disregarded the first time it was brought up. Despite strong attempts from Charlamagne to appease Onyx with questions they were happy to answer, at the top of the eighth minute, Fredro cut DJ Envy off to throw a shot at the self-proclaimed “Ruler of Rubbing People the Wrong Way” by mentioning his infamous accosting in front of the radio station. Charlamagne claimed the attack and little more was left to be said. As Fredro got more heated, it’s possible he forget that there were cameras were recording and wasn’t thinking how not standing behind his previous words would look on camera, because he was likely unaware of them. Eighteen minutes into the interview everything was dapped up and peaced, so everything (apparently) ended cool. This is the first time it seemed that there would be a tag-team fight between Sticky Fingaz and Fredro Starr vs Charlamagne and Wax (his bodyguard, who was called out by name). This was the creation of the cult quote “do your Googles,” which is still used—and often by people unaware of this interview. These are the things memes are made of, pop culture, legendary s*it.
