Lenard Larry McKelvey (born June 29, 1978), known professionally as Charlamagne tha God, is an American radio presenter and television personality. He is a co-host of the nationally syndicated radio show, The Breakfast Club with DJ Envy and Angela Yee, and stars in Guy Code, Guy Court and Girl Code. He is also a VJ for The Week in Jams with DJ Envy and Sofi Green. In 2015, Charlamagne began hosting the MTV2 show Uncommon Sense. He was previously on The Wendy Williams Experience with Wendy Williams on VH1.\n', '

McKelvey was born to Larry Thomas McKelvey and his wife on June 29, 1978, and grew up in Moncks Corner, South Carolina. As a teenager, McKelvey began selling drugs, and was arrested twice for possession of marijuana and cocaine with intent to distribute. After witnessing a shooting from the back seat of a car, McKelvey was arrested for a third time. His father refused to pay his bail money, and McKelvey remained in jail for 41 days. Eventually, he called his mother, who paid for his bail and McKelvey was released.\n', '

After being released from the county jail, McKelvey began attending night school and eventually got a job as a radio intern. He went on to become second mic to radio host, Wendy Williams. He developed the stage name of Charlamagne, taken from his pseudonym as a drug dealer, "Charles", and created a new persona based on Charlemagne, who ruled much of western Europe in the late 700s and early 800s, whom he read about at night school. He added "Tha God" because it "sounded cool". At this point, his unorthodox and upfront questioning of hip-hop/R&B artists on radio raised his public profile but also caused rifts between himself and the guests of the show. He was laid off from the program in 2008. Relations between Charlamagne and Williams deteriorated, though Charlamagne has stated numerous times on his show The Breakfast Club that he views Williams as a mentor and bears no ill feeling toward her.\n', '

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