Radio Personality Charlamagne Tha God Talks Mental Health with Claflin Students
Apr 08, 2019
Claflin University students filled the W.V. Middleton Fine Arts Center on Wednesday, April 3, to listen and participate in a Mental Health and Hip-Hop Forum featuring Charlamagne Tha God, one of the featured events during Claflin's 2019 CALA-bash celebration.
Born in Charleston and raised in Moncks Corner, South Carolina, Charlamagne is best known for expressing his unfiltered opinions and giving out his "Donkey of the Day" accolade on the nationally syndicated radio show, The Breakfast Club, alongside cohosts Angela Yee and DJ Envy.
Now that he has found his voice on radio, Charlamagne is using his platform to speak on his personal battle with mental health issues. He sat down to discuss his journey with Claflin faculty members, Dr. Arlecia D. Simmons, assistant professor of mass communications, who moderated the event; and Dr. Napoleon Wells, assistant professor of psychology and clinical psychologist.
"I think I've been what you call crazy," Charlamagne joked. "For me, I feel like you have trauma and you have pain and anxiety. I have this crazy sense of anxiety that I chalked up to being paranoid, and I was thinking 'why am I always feeling like this, and why do I always feel like I'm about to have a heart attack,'" he said.
Charlamagne added, "I'm a stern believer in the law of attraction, so I believe that your thoughts become things. Anything that you want to happen in your life, you should think about constantly, and the things you don't want to happen, you shouldn't think about at all. But, what happens when you can't stop thinking about the worst?"
During the forum, the panel discussed everything from helping college students deal with stress from school and a recent tragedy in the media, the murder of rapper Nipsey Hussle.
"I think the very first thing I will say to our community of students in general is part of what brother Charlamagne said, you're not crazy," Dr. Wells said. "You're black and you've been raised in this society; you, in fact, have experienced a certain amount of trauma. You can take the issue that we've had with Nipsey Hussle. You are bombarded with images; there are folks who are showing his death to you repeatedly. So within our area, we have what you call a secondary trauma, even if you haven't been exposed to it directly, if you see it enough or hear word of it enough, you can be impacted by it."
Charlamagne added that the rapper's death hit him in a different way and made him realize that the saying 'hurt people hurt people,' still stands true. He encouraged everyone in the audience to love each other and help each other while they still can, especially the men.
"Sometimes you just have to tell your people 'I love you, and I support you,' and 'I value you,'" he said. He asked all the men in the room, "when was the last time you told your homeboy you love him? Or when was the last time you shook your homeboy's hand and gave him a hug and said I love? We don't do it enough."
Charlamagne also said that he would make everyone hug before leaving the event, and he kept his promise.
Charlamagne Tha God's most recent book
Shook One: Anxiety Playing Tricks On Me can be found at Barnes and Noble, on Amazon and at other major retailers. For a look at the full forum, visit
Claflin University's Facebook page.