Hey everyone who listens to this podcast. It's Ari Melbert from The Beat. This is an original episode here, not something from the show, but something that we recorded special for you guys.

You've said in some of the comments and the stuff you send in that you like when we do extra stuff, and sometimes it's longer form or a little different than what we do with the nightly news.

This is an original interview. You're about to hear for the first time that I recorded with Charlemagne the God, Angela Yee, and DJ Envy from The Becrest Club. It's a digital exclusive. And we talk politics, of course, including their views on Barack Obama and his relationship to hip-hop, which, as you may all know, really embraced him long before he was president, As well as some of their wildest interviews, YDJMV thinks Jay-Z is a rap god. Obviously, that was interesting to me. You may remember the Breakfast Club was all over the 2020 campaign when Fox News got into a beef mischaracterizing their interview with Kamala Harris. They've also previously interviewed Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Corey Booker, so they really are in the space that we find pretty interesting, which is between politics, policy, music, and culture.

And then after that, we'll play you there Fallback Friday, which, after the original podcast, is something that aired on the show.

And as always, you can let us know your thoughts on it. You can give us a rating. We love five stars, but whatever you think we deserve. And you can always email me at Ari at MSNBC.com and let us know

what other things you want to hear, either on the show or on these original extras we do on the podcast.

As always, thanks for listening to The Beat with Ari Melbert.

We are turning now to an exclusive first time ever in our newsroom, the Breakfast Club, here.

Angelie, Charlene the God, Jim B. Thanks for being here.

All right, what's happening, my brother?

What's happening? You guys have a unique show, and I want to use this conversation to dig deeper into it,

because you have one of the widest ranges of conversations and guests, truly in all media,

all forms.

Let's start with 21 Savage who's been in the news.

He comes on your show and he talks about life in Atlanta.

It'll be like 10 us in the back of the school, but 15, you know what I'm saying?

We are out from the hood, so we ratchet.

Why the hell Atlanta got so bad lately, man? I mean, Atlanta ain't never been sweet, but it's like, it's 10 times. It's no point in 10, but it's Savage is out there in Atlanta right now. It's just the light being shined on it now. It's always been like that. When you were talking to 21 Savage, did you ever know that he was British born?

Did it matter?

No. It's always been like that. When you were talking to 21 Savage, did you ever know that he was British born? Did it matter? Nah, it didn't matter to me, you know? It didn't matter to me because he's just a young black man from the South, just like I'm a young black man from the South. And it's a lot of the experiences, a lot of experiences that he was talking about and describing, I knew exactly what he was talking about. And I also saw a young man who wanted to evolve, you know, who understood the era in a lot of his ways and was trying to do better and was respecting and appreciating the position that he was in. You know, being this rapper who's getting paid for shows now and getting a chance to go out there and sell records. So I've always liked 21 from the start. I don't think his British background was any concern among him. And he moved there such a young age. Yeah, I think he moved, five? Five. His lawyers say, yeah. So he was from Atlanta. Being there since five, he's from Atlanta. But do you think he felt like some immigrants do that he had to hide that growing up, just like he had to hide it in hip hop because it might not play right well he

was here legally so that's why he that's why he wasn't saying anything about it but that's the fact to

apply to get all his paperwork well they yeah his lawyers would say he was here partly legally

...