Charlamagne Tha God And Dollie S. Bishop On Highlighting Creators Of Color With The 2023 Black Effect Podcast Festival

Photo Credit: Clifton Prescod

By Okla Jones ·Updated April 20, 2023

When the Black Effect Podcast Network was created by Charlamagne tha God in collaboration with iHeartRadio, the main objective was to celebrate the most important voices of color on the planet—in education, politics, entertainment, sports and more. In doing so, he, along with President of Production and Creative Development Dollie S. Bishop transformed the platform into a behemoth in the audio space, and an undeniable staple in popular culture.

This Saturday, the Black Effect Podcast Festival will take place in Atlanta, and will feature its roster of talented content-creators, an unmatched food selection, and a marketplace showcasing local businesses, among other activities. Ahead of the network’s inaugural event, Charlamagne and Bishop spoke to ESSENCE about its creation, the importance of giving opportunities to people of color, and why Georgia’s capital was chosen as the site for a festival of this magnitude.

“We always wanted to do it down South, you know what I mean?,” Charlamagne says. “We just thought the South had the best energy to do it. When you look at the statistics and you see that 60% of all Black people in America are in the south, the south is the heart and soul of Black America. So what better place to do the first ever Black Effect Podcast Festival than the heart and soul of Black America?”

Photo Credit: Clifton Prescod

According to Bishop, this weekend’s festival has been in the works for over a year. Although the production aspect of it was tedious, the assistance of iHeart has made the process almost seamless, giving the two South Carolina natives the space to overseeing and manage putting together this upcoming experience, and to direct the vision of how they wanted it to flow. In addition to helming the festival, Bishop has been critical to the network’s success, recruiting some of the best and brightest creators in the country. “It just has to be different,” the producer says of how she determines what works best for the platform. “It has to be something that everybody’s not talking about, especially something that we don’t already have a plethora of on the network.”

“We have sports, we have music, we have mental health, and we’re moving into the crime space and all of that,” she continues. “So we have a lot of good content for any and every listener if you’re looking for something in the world of podcasting.” Shows such as We Talk Back, Whorible Decisions, and The 85 South Show – which will all be recording live on Saturday – have all become extremely popular in their own rights, respectively, further separating the network as a whole from its competition. Black Effect’s aim was not only to highlight people of color, but people with talent in general, and when Bishop was brought on in 2020 to run the company, Charlamagne knew that the best person possible was in that position, saying the network’s rise was largely due to the “genius” of Bishop, among her other attributes.

“That’s her [Dollie] with the staffing,” Charlemagne says of the creators under the network’s umbrella. “That’s what happens when black women get put in those positions. They go out there and they grab people that look like them. And she might be doing it because they’re black women, but I definitely know she’s doing it because they’re super talented.”

Along with the live shows that are scheduled for Saturday, the 2023 festival will celebrate the many facets of Black media, reaching far beyond the microphone. “It’s also going to be educational, because we’ve The Business of Podcasting panel,” Charlemagne states. “So for everybody that’s always asking questions, or everybody that’s trying to always connect with Dollie or myself and wants to know about the business of podcasting, and how do you make money and advertising off podcasting? How do you just launch a podcast? What kind of tools do you need to launch a podcast?” With all of these building materials, and information in regards to the ins and outs of podcasting, the upcoming event will prove to be much more than just an exciting experience for the people in attendance.

“This is not a music festival, this is not a fair, it’s a podcast festival,” Dollie says to ESSENCE. “It’s a day of festivities – there’ll be the Black marketplace where we’ll have local black vendors and businesses that’s in Atlanta, that will come out and for one announce themselves or amplify what they have going on, or just introduce themselves to the Atlanta space.”

“But there’s a lot that’s happening that day that’s all encompassing of just amplifying Black voices,” she adds. “Showing, improving our representation and being what we want to be in this space as the Black Effect Network.”