Well aware of the chatter surrounding his resurfaced rape allegations, Charlamagne Tha God is addressing his past actions surrounding women and sex on his podcast.
“The Breakfast Club” host was accused of raping a 15-year-old girl in his native South Carolina back in 2001. He was sentenced to 3 years probation on a lesser charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. And while a state solicitor recently said he’s “innocent of the dismissed allegation” and the case can’t be “resurrected,” that doesn’t mean he hasn’t had other issues with women.
“For me, it’s simple, when you know better, you do better and you teach better,” he says on “The Brilliant Idiots” podcast Monday, July 23. “And that’s what I have attempted to do horribly on this podcast.”
Charla, whose real name is Lenard McKelvey, said he posted the episode to tackle some videos “where I failed to have productive, mature conversations around issues that demand respect.”
Referring to a conversation on the podcast where he discussed giving a woman Spanish Fly and having sex with her while she was “wasted,” he said the following.
“Back in 2015, I attempted to have a dialogue about rape culture with an emphasis on the role men play and a clip was pulled from that conversation,” he says. “And I can honestly say that I communicated that all wrong … I was looking at some comments from rape survivors who were triggered by that conversation, and I have to apologize to y’all because that was not my intention. … But for the record, in 1997 I was having consensual sex with a young lady.”
He explained further that he and the woman went to a sex shop to buy Spanish Fly, which he clarified is an aphrodisiac and not a drug. They combined the substance with brandy and passed out drunk.
Next, Char addressed the 2013 Vlad TV interview where he said he hit his girlfriend as a 16-year-old “with a fragile ego, filled with insecurities.”
“There’s no legitimate reason for me to do what I did, but I did it. I immediately regretted it and I knew it was wrong,” he said. “But I also made a mistake by generalizing that all men have put their hands on a woman at some point. I’m not gon’ speak for everyone else, I’m only going to speak for myself. That was my unique experience.”
While Charla said he’s “not afraid to discuss” his mistakes, he doesn’t address the allegations launched against him by Reid, which caused him to partner with a team of attorneys to protect his name.
Still, he promised viewers they’d hear more from him over the next week on issues surrounding women and sexual assault.
“I look forward to using my platform more responsibly to bring healing to victims and to just being a better ally,” he says.
