INTERVIEW: Richelieu Dennis On Essence Fest 2025 Backlash, Leveraging Your Failures, Essence 2026 + More

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Breakfast Club

Episode: Interview: Richelieu Dennis On Essence Fest 2025 Backlash, Leveraging Your Failures, Essence 2026 + More
Date: June 12, 2026
Hosts: DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne Tha God, Lauren LaRose
Guest: Richelieu "Rich" Dennis (Owner of Essence & Essence Festival)

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Overview

This episode of The Breakfast Club features a candid and comprehensive interview with Richelieu Dennis, the owner of Essence and the driving force behind the Essence Festival. The conversation dives into the Festival’s evolution, recent public backlash, building community and creator economies, addressing criticism, and Essence’s vision for the future. Rich shares hard-won insights on leadership, learning from failure, and the importance of Black-owned media and cultural infrastructure.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Essence Festival 2025—Intentional Evolution & Transparency (03:18)

• Responding to Feedback: After facing criticism for moving too quickly and not communicating clearly with their audience, the team intentionally "slowed down" this year to let people know where the Festival is headed.
• Culture Curator Council: Led by Teyana Taylor and influential women like Nina (Food Festival), Nikole Hannah-Jones (Book Festival), Mara Brock Akil (Fiction), and Sanaa Lathan (Film). This council ensures diverse, authentic representation in festival planning—giving voice to those shaping culture.
• Beyond a Concert: "We don't want to be a concert. We want to be a cultural hub." (Rich Dennis, 04:17)

Major Lineups & New Features (05:43)

• Friday Night Highlights: Cardi B, Latto, Kehlani headline; Michelle Obama and Keke Palmer will open the festival with a live podcast on the Superdome mainstage (06:09).
• Podcast Festival: Launching a more thoughtful, infrastructure-driven Black creator economy through a formal podcast festival within the Essence Festival.
• Film & Book Festival: One of the country’s largest Black film festivals (650+ submissions, 2 Emmys last year), and partnerships with Penguin for book deals.
• Car Show Collaboration: Charlamagne and Rich organize an expansive car show, bringing together classic cars and New Orleans car culture to better include men and automotive enthusiasts. Celebrity vehicles and local artistry featured. (09:02–09:50)

Building Genuine Community (12:31)

• Essence as a Meeting Place: Rich emphasizes Essence’s role in nurturing real connections—networking, business, love, and multi-generational family experiences.
• Including Men: The Suede Lounge and car show are set up to make men feel authentically included, not as an afterthought.

Long-Term Thinking, Leveraging Failure, and Community Investment (14:13, 21:55, 44:11)

• Growth Mindset: Rich stresses the need for long-term vision, objectivity, and learning from mistakes—not just reacting to problems with "closed thinking."
• Supporting Black Businesses: Rather than cutting ties after one failure (as often happens in the Black community), Essence works with partners to improve and provide additional opportunities to build capacity.
• Job Creation: “Last year we created 2,500 jobs over the course of that weekend… This year, probably 2,800.” (Rich Dennis, 20:34)
• Leveraging Failures: “There’s nothing that happens in this world without failure. Nothing. You name the most successful people on this planet, they’ve probably failed more than you and I.” (Rich Dennis, 44:15)

Addressing Backlash, Black Investment, and Media Narratives (23:28, 29:31)

• The Sponsorship Dilemma: Taking corporate money is vital for paying staff and vendors: “If you don’t get those dollars, you can’t pay...you can’t do the convention center for free.” (Host, 23:43)
• Public Criticism Impact: Negative press and community pushback led to lost sponsors, affecting economic impact and jobs for Black businesses. “Some of these companies were looking for excuses not to invest in Blacks. So when they hear that, then they can say, ‘Oh, even your people don’t like you.’” (Rich Dennis, 28:39)
• Business Challenges: Press coverage around unpaid contractors is both disheartening and part of doing business, made harder when you’re a Black-owned business. “I’m building that business for my community. The three most important things in business: pride, courage, and conviction.” (Rich Dennis, 29:43)

Essence’s Unique Approach (34:50)

• Print Magazine Relaunch: Announcing the return of Essence’s print magazine, focusing on long-form journalism and authentic community storytelling. “We’re the only Black-owned print.” (Rich Dennis, 34:51)

Evolution without Losing the Soul (36:06)

• Serving All Generations: The struggle is not a loss of soul but bridging generational gaps so all age groups feel represented and connected.
• Building a “Big Enough Boat”: The festival seeks to honor both tradition and contemporary culture, spanning artists from Cardi B to Patti LaBelle and George Clinton.

Curatorial Partners—The Role of Teyana Taylor (38:22)

• Teyana Taylor leads creative vision, helping modernize and strengthen community spirit through authentic collaborations. “She’s helping us rethink how we go forward… creatively. Not so much the individual feel, but let’s recreate the community feel.” (Rich Dennis, 39:24)

Global Black Community, Diaspora Inclusion & Cultural Tensions (40:38)

• Pan-African Approach: Essence strives to celebrate the global Black diaspora while centering Black American women, careful not to alienate anyone or dilute traditions. “We believe we’re greater together than we are separate, and we also understand the doctrines that separate us.” (Rich Dennis, 41:01)
• Media Ownership: Crisis in Black media—fewer platforms and jobs, and the need to use Essence to teach, prepare, and empower the next generation of creators.

Personal Responsibility, Resilience, and Purpose (48:20)

• On Surviving Adversity: Lauren LaRose praises Rich’s resilience: “You got a strong spirit, for everything they be trying to throw… you are so focused on, like, the silver lining.”
• On Anger: “I don’t have the luxury of being mad… We got to pick up and keep going. Because at the end of the day, my job is to leave this place a better place than I found it for my children. And I think that’s all of us’s jobs.” (Rich Dennis, 48:43)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Slowing Down for Transparency:

  “We were moving very fast to try to evolve into the future, and we weren’t letting people know where we were headed and what we were doing. So we’ve taken the time this year to say, okay, we’re going to slow down, let people know where we’re going, so everybody can get on board.”
  — Rich Dennis, (03:27)

• On Building for the Long-Term:

  “For me, it’s the longevity of it and it’s the long-term thinking of it... sometimes we get too far into the future and we forget to bring people along.”
  — Rich Dennis, (14:01)

• On Backlash and Sponsorship:

  “Some of these companies were looking for excuses to not invest in Blacks. So when they hear that, then they can say, ‘Oh, you know, even your people don’t like you.’... Now we don’t have to [give you money].”
  — Rich Dennis, (28:39)

• On Learning from Setbacks:

  “If you don’t get an opportunity to fail, either you never did anything or you did something and you failed and you never were empowered to do it again... there’s nothing that happens in this world without failure. Nothing.”
  — Rich Dennis, (44:11)

• On Essence’s Unique Place:

  “There’s nothing of this size and caliber in the Black community… Making sure that we continue to train up our people so that they can grow along with us as we scale.”
  — Rich Dennis, (19:58)

• On Not Losing Generations:

  “Ours is not a soul problem. It’s how do we evolve without losing a generation or two… we’ve got to make sure that we build a big enough boat that all generations can feel respected, wanted, and loved.”
  — Rich Dennis, (36:06)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• First Discussion on 2025 Festival & Response to Backlash
  03:18–05:43

• Announcing Curators & Festival Philosophy
  05:43–08:58

• Podcast & Film Festival Details
  06:09–08:58

• Car Show & Inclusive Programming
  09:02–12:31

• Building Real Community
  12:31–14:01

• Handling Criticism & Commitment to Black Businesses
  21:45–29:43

• Print Magazine Relaunch Announcement
  34:50–35:57

• On Maintaining Generational Relevance
  36:06–38:19

• Pan-Africanism & Education for Black Creators
  40:38–44:09

• Leveraging Failures as Assets
  44:11–46:39

• Addressing 2023/2024 Backlash & Execution Failures
  46:39–48:00

• Personal Philosophy—On Resilience & Not Getting Mad
  48:36–49:53

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Final Thoughts

The episode presents Richelieu Dennis as a determined, thoughtful leader, committed to Black empowerment, community building, and long-term growth. Even as Essence Festival faces challenges—economic, social, and infrastructural—Dennis demonstrates transparency about shortcomings and an unwavering focus on solutions and community impact. Both the festival and the Essence brand are positioned not just as entertainment, but as cultural infrastructure, economic engines, and places of healing, learning, and connection for Black people across generations and across the globe.

Essence Festival 2025 will be held July 3–5 in New Orleans, with a robust program reflecting renewed commitment to inclusion, culture, and Black excellence.

Transcript

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[Charlamagne Tha God]

Morning Everybody, it's DJ Envy. Just hilarious. Charlemagne, the guy. We are the breakfast club. Lauren LaRose is here as well. We got a special guest in the building.

[DJ Envy]

He's back.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Ladies and gentlemen, Rich Dennis.

[Host/Interviewer]

Welcome back.

[Rich Dennis]

Good morning. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for having me back. Good.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Owner of Essence, and of course, owner of the Essence Festival that is going down 4th of July weekend in New Orleans.

[Rich Dennis]

How's everybody join us? Come join us, Rich.

[Host/Interviewer]

Lou walked in, he said, it's the first time I've walked in this room and hadn't had to apologize for anything.

[Rich Dennis]

At least not yet.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Right?

[Rich Dennis]

That's right. It's early in the day now.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

For people that don't know, just tell them about this year's lineup, some of the people that will be performing and some of the cool things you have, like Michelle Obama, which is amazing. Talk about some of the stuff you have going on.

[Rich Dennis]

Yeah, yeah. So this, this year we really went back. So we took a lot of the feedback from last year, and I was here. And one of the things that I realized is that we were moving very fast to try to evolve into the future, and we weren't letting people know where we were headed and what we were doing. So we've taken the time this year to say, okay, we're going to slow down, let people know where we're going, so everybody can get on board. So the first thing we did was announced our first ever Culture Curator Council and led by Tiana Taylor and some just incredible, incredible women like Nina, who leads the food festival. Nicole Hannah Jones is leading the book festival on the nonfiction side, and Mar Brak Akil on the fiction side. Sanai Lathan is leading the film festival. So been very thoughtful about making sure that all the people that are driving culture can see themselves represented in the people that are actually putting the festival together. So that was the first one. I think that's been a big. That's been a big, big win. Right. Lineup. We said we're going to get lineup out early. Our strategy has always been for the 30 something years is to drop the lineup as we go along. And there's two reasons for that. One has become a very practical reason is because we compete against Live Nation. So Live Nation has the resources and the infrastructure that they suck up all the talent out of the market very quickly. First thing. So we're competing against that as an independent media business. Right. And we're fighting everybody at this point. But there's that. Right. But then the other reason that that, that is, is because we're not looking to just be a place where you come to, to a concert. We don't want to be a concert. Right. We want to be a cultural hub, which means we have to curate it around things that are actually driving the broader culture, not just the music culture. Right. So this year you have Cardi B, Lotto, Kelani, and that's all on Friday night. They're really driving youth culture, Right?

[Lauren LaRose]

Yes, sir.

[Rich Dennis]

On. But then the greatest part of Friday night is Michelle Obama opens up the festival on Friday evening with her podcast on the Essence Festival concert stage in the Superdome. Right. So 40,000 people dare to see our forever first lady. Yeah. And she's partnering with Kiki Palmer on it.

[Host/Interviewer]

Oh, that's dope. So crazy. Two of the best podcasts, two of

[Rich Dennis]

the best podcast podcasters out there having a conversation around where this is all headed. And, and we're launching the podcast festival within that. So we get to do that and headline our podcast festival with Michelle Obama and Kiki Palmer. You don't, you don't get any better than that. You can't get any more grateful than to have those two women in a conversation on the Essence concert mainstage in the Superdome. And we have been doing podcasts and so, and thank you for inviting me and entertaining me and supporting me while, while I came to your podcast. Yeah. The Black Effect Podcast Festival. Because it was, for me, it was, it was, it was mind blowing. Right, because we've been doing podcasts festival for probably six, seven years, but it's, it was never focused and organized. Right. It was, it was, it was a podcast row and different podcasters would show up and they would do that. And so now having an opportunity to say, okay, well what if we were really thoughtful about building a black creator economy? Right. So this isn't about a podcast festival. This is about building a black owned, black run, black established infrastructure to grow the creator industry in America. Not just that we have to run to all these different entities to do that. And so, so that's really the impetus of saying, okay, why don't we put infrastructure on this thing? So why don't we do a creator podcast festival alongside the film festival? Right? So the film festival this year we'll have, not will have, has already almost 650 films submitted, which makes us one of the largest film festivals in the country. Right. Last year, out of the film festival came two Emmys. That's huge. Out of the book festival, we gave five book contracts in partnership with Penguin. Right. So, so five, five authors got Signed last year, books coming out. That's what we. When we talk about building infrastructure, and we talk about building now the creator infrastructure, it's not just saying, hey, come see these podcasts, but it's taking these podcasts, taking these creators, platforming them, and then giving them opportunities beyond what they typically would do in. In podcasting. Right. So it's. It's an exciting time, I think. I think we're delivering on the promise, and this time we're sharing it early so that people understand what we're trying to do and where. And where we're headed with it. So it's gonna be exciting. And then we got some big news. So I. I don't know when you're ready to start talking about that.

[Host/Interviewer]

Yeah, we did, but that's probably the

[Rich Dennis]

only reason I'm going.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

So, yeah, we partnered up. If you don't know, Rich is a huge car collector, like, out of this world. And not just old, new. Like, he's. He's such a fixation, and nobody ever knows that. And the only reason I knew that we went on a ride one day and he pulled up, and I'm like, oh, wow. So we are bringing the car show to Essence Music Festival.

[Rich Dennis]

That's so dope.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

In the convention center. So it'll be absolutely, positively free. We're gonna curate just some of the dopest cars from different eras, from the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, and 90s, to 2000s. And we're also bringing a lot of New Orleans talent. So what they're into. Cause everywhere you go, they do different things to cars, and New Orleans is totally different. So we have a bunch of currency and a bunch of New Orleans artists that's gonna be giving me their cars. And what we're doing, too, is focusing on some of the artists that's performing.

[DJ Envy]

Like, Cardi B is giving me her

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Ferrari truck, which we're taking from New York and bringing out to New Orleans for her car show. So it's going to be a lot of fun. I'm excited.

[Rich Dennis]

That's such a great attraction to add to the Essence Festival. You know, it's. It's exciting. And one of the. I don't know if it's the best kept secrets, but one. One of the great, I think, contributions that ESSENCE has made to our society and our community and continues to make is it's become a place where people meet, right? Where people start relationships, whether they're networking to build something together, whether they're falling in love and on their first date together or meeting There. So it's a very family friendly environment. And so we continue to think about how do we include the whole set of our communities, not just one group, right. And so forth. This year we're saying, okay, what is it that we're gonna do so that the men that come to festival with their wives, with their girlfriends, with their daughters, with their grand, like however they're coming, that they are also not just an afterthought, but that they're feeling really, really included. So we started, a couple of years ago, we, we relaunched Suede. We opened it, opened it up as the Suede Lounge. So in the Suede Lounge, we're gonna be doing a car show in the convention center. And as you said, I'm really excited about the way you've curated it because you've put New Orleans at the center of it, the New Orleans car culture. And there's other things for people to see. But the New Orleans car culture is at the center, as you said, having celebrities that are in the shows there for the weekend with their cars. Because when you're a car guy or a car girl, there's nothing better than the memories that you make with the car, right? It's. People get these cars. They put them in Gar. They never drives them, they never see them. But when you're working on the car and you're tuning the car and you're tweaking the car and you're changing this and you're building a bond and a relationship with the car, you want to share that bond and relationship. And I think all too often it becomes harder and harder for us to do in a community, in a community environment. This, this we're, we're now able to do. And as you said, you know, everything in the convention center, general admissions is free. It's free. There's VIP packages if you want to get to the front of the line and you want to do. But you can walk in and see anything and meet anybody at any time. It's free. And that's very important to us because that's where you come and you get the knowledge, right? That's where you get the information. That's where you get the access. That's where you see, you know that. And you're hosting the main stage out here.

[Lauren LaRose]

Yes, we're working on it right now. Yes.

[Rich Dennis]

Knock it out.

[Lauren LaRose]

Yeah. Well, if you say it's knocked out, then it's not.

[Host/Interviewer]

The main stage is with Cardi and Kalani and Latto and all that.

[Rich Dennis]

No, that's the concert stage. The main stage in the convention center. So that's. That's what we call the Essence Stage. So that's where all the big conversations.

[Lauren LaRose]

Yeah, right.

[Rich Dennis]

That's where all the big, big conversations happen. And so I'm. I'm excited to have you.

[Lauren LaRose]

I'm excited to be on board.

[Rich Dennis]

Yeah.

[Lauren LaRose]

This is my second Essence Festival, the first time I've ever participated, so.

[Rich Dennis]

Oh, really? Yes.

[Lauren LaRose]

Last time I just went as. It was years ago, I just went as a person just enjoying the festival.

[Rich Dennis]

So now, now you get to be a part of all of that energy and all that.

[Lauren LaRose]

I know. Yes.

[Rich Dennis]

What do you. What do you. What do you. What are you looking to share with people?

[Lauren LaRose]

I think I'm looking to share with people that, like, community matters. And I don't mean community like, you know, how people go to network. I mean, like, when you meet people for real. For real, that, like, pour into you. Like, the only reason why, where I even started having a conversation with your team is because some of your team listens to the podcast. And when they listen, we actually talk. Like, we have a conversation about some of the things that I cover on my podcast. And, and from that, they were like, we want to invest in, like, you growing. We think that the stage would make sense for you. The podcast is amazing. And I was like. And that came from natural conversation. I think Essence Festival is a place where you can, you know, you meet those type of people where they really want to invest and grow. And I think people should come there with an open mind just to do that and have a good time.

[Rich Dennis]

Yeah, yeah. No, and that's. That's important. So now maybe we can have you do a few years of hosting that.

[Lauren LaRose]

Because, listen, lock it in.

[Rich Dennis]

No, we will. Because for me, it's the longevity of it and it's the long term thinking of it. Right. And like I said earlier, sometimes we get too far into the future and we forget to bring people along.

[Lauren LaRose]

But that's why I think it's fire, though, because a lot of corporations don't care. Like, it's like, who's hot right now? And then they just move on. Like, your team is very much invested in a real way. And that's why I think Essence Festival and Essence as a magazine is important. Like, you know, that's why when all the other stuff come your way, I think we should make sure we balance out that conversation. That's how we kicked off our relationship, me and your team, is because of the way I covered all the other stuff that happened.

[Rich Dennis]

And that's the thing. Right. It's the, it's the objectivity. Right. Of challenge. Right. So you hit a wall, you run into a problem, you have issues. It's the objective thinking around how you solve that that gets you to the other side of it. Right. As opposed to the close thinking. All right, this is, this is wrong, so therefore I'm going to kill it. Or this is wrong, so I'm therefore never going to do it. But it's stepping back and saying, hey, what do we, what do we do differently? How do we. And then you come to realize a lot of this stuff you don't really need to do differently. It's just that you executed it poorly. Right. So then you focus on the proper execution and then, and then you get it back. But we've, we've always been focused on, on, on long term. And, and what is it going to look like 50 years from now versus what it looks like today?

[Lauren LaRose]

I saw the, the Essence Festival steering committee that you guys developed with the mayor, Helena Moreno, which is a response to a lot of, like, the issues that people had last year. And like, all those things. Can you talk about, like, what that committee will do for people that are experiencing Essence Festival and why you guys got together with the mayor to create it?

[Rich Dennis]

Yeah. So there's, I think, people, when they hear steering committee, I think it's, you know, what you read in the press isn't always what it is. So we've always had a host committee, and that host committee continues right now. We adding in the steering piece so that we have a closer working relationship between the things that the city is interested in and the things that we're interested in, so that we're able to execute collectively as opposed to independently. And so that's the real purpose of that steering committee. Right. So if you think about it, so we just had a press conference last Friday, right. Where the mayor spoke. So this gives the mayor and the city an opportunity to express their vision for where the city is headed, what the city is doing. Because you got to remember we're bringing hundreds of thousands of people to the city. So the city's ability to weigh in and say, hey, these five things are super important to us. And we're able to say, hey, these five things are super important to us. Here's how we solve it. And we've got a great, we've got a great framework now to make sure that, that, that, that continues in that way, as opposed to a host committee that works on just the hosting issues. And then we're working just on the execution issues.

[Host/Interviewer]

Can an event become so successful that its size actually starts to work against the experience that made people love it in the first.

[Rich Dennis]

Absolutely. Okay.

[Host/Interviewer]

Absolutely.

[Rich Dennis]

I mean, I think that's. I think that's what we ran up against last year, right? Is people. Look, the people go to these experiences because they crave human interaction and intimacy, right. When you're as big as Essence Festival has gotten, it's easy to lose that, right? And it doesn't show up. That's not the intent, but just from mere. It's a great question. From the mere size of it, it becomes harder and harder to keep that intimacy. So if you step back at it like we did and say, okay, well, what are the things that keep that, Right? It is understanding who you're serving and then figuring out how to super serve them. Right? So using the car show as an example, there's hundreds of thousands of men that show up, right? And what's programmed for them, what's curated for them, is. Has not necessarily been intentional. So now let's be very intentional about that. I guarantee you those men will come there and feel like, hey, this was intimate. This was a feeling. I was in a large environment of my people. I felt safe there, but I could also narrow in and focus in on the things that I care about. Right? I think it's the same thing for women. It's like, hey, I'm having Mara Brock Akil and Nicole Hannah Jones, who are people that most women in our community grow up absolutely adoring and admiring, to now be able to connect directly with them, to learn from them. On, okay, how was I successful in writing all these scripts and creating all these. All these number one, these bestsellers? Or how have I been able to change the consciousness of our community and impact the consciousness of our community? There's a group of women that want that, right? Then there's a group of women and men who come and they just want to go see a great show at night and go experience the restaurants during the day. Let's make sure that they get that. But when you get so big, you can lose sight of that. And then the other thing that really happens is the execution becomes challenged, right? So going back to bases and saying, okay, let's focus on the execution. When I show up here, I'm supposed to start at 8 o'. Clock. Let's start at 8 o' clock because I've got a full day schedule and I've got to be back in my room by 4 o' clock because I got to get ready to go see Cardi B. At 8 o', clock, right? And so that window that we have with her in the convention center should be flawless, right? She should be able to move around easily. She should be able to. If she. If she bought a VIP pass, she should be able to get to where she's going. She should be able to get her seat. She should be like. So we're really, really focused on those things. And I think over the years, as it grew, those things kind of got away from us, right? So we're going back now to say, okay, let's do that. And I think this now opens up the next tier of growth for us because we're fixing the infrastructure to now, to now handle the scale, right? And in you guys as individual businesses and all the things that you do is, you know that as you start to scale, it feels different, right? Like when you cook a pot of stew for two people, it's a very different cooking experience than when you're cooking it for 200 people, right? And so we've. We've got to learn that. And the thing is, there's nothing of this size and caliber in the black community. So the other thing is making sure that we continue to train up our people so that they can grow along with us as we scale. So big, big emphasis on training up people on the, what we call the pipeline program in hiring black businesses and then giving them. So we're going to create. Last year, we created 2,500 jobs over the course of that weekend. Think about that number, right? This year we're going to get close to probably 2800, right? So if you think about that number and you're saying, hey, I want to use this platform to develop these people, to develop these small businesses, to have them, to have them grow alongside us, you're going to have some challenges because they're not getting those same opportunities repeatedly, right? We may be the only one or two that they get in New Orleans the whole year, or maybe three that they get the whole year when there's 20 or 30 opportunities that are out there. So we've got it. Our community has been patient with us. We've got to be patient with our partners, and we're going to collectively build the infrastructure and the expertise to be able to continue to scale.

[Lauren LaRose]

So what's different this year and how you guys are working with those smaller contractors and production companies on that? Because last time you were here, you were talking about how that was kind of like an issue for you guys yeah, yeah.

[Rich Dennis]

Well, it was. It was an issue in that some of, some of the folks that we had last year may have had experiences doing other things, but they hadn't had experiences doing essence. And essence is a whole nother. You know, it's a whole nother vibe. It's a whole nother beast. So we've now been able to. To continue with those partners. So the one thing is, you're not going to get, you know, I always say, you know, in the black community, you get one shot. In other communities, you get 2, 3, 5, 10 times to fail. Right. So I'm not going to be the guy who, if somebody failed me one time, I'm going to be like, see you later, you know, and then move on to the next one. I'm going to be the one that say, let's talk about where, where we went wrong. Let's put in the things that we're going to fix in and let's give us another shot. So why I'm confident about this year is because we spent the year working with people where we thought that there were challenges or where we knew that there were issues putting things in place to, to fix that. And so now they have a year of experience under them to be able to say, okay, here, if this happens, here's what happened. If this happens, here was what happened. And then the other thing is we upgraded the team, right. So we went out and found people that have done things at this scale or larger and brought them in to help us make sure that we. Make sure that we get it. We get it. Right. So we're doing the things that it takes to build a business, to have a solid foundation that can not just scale, but that can have longevity and do it profitably. Right. Because if we're not doing it profitably, ESSENCE won't be here. And that all of that is for not.

[Host/Interviewer]

So what do you do when people, like, they did it to you last year, when people think taking corporate money, it kind of threatens the trust that people have placed in a brand like essence.

[Rich Dennis]

Yeah.

[Host/Interviewer]

Who you took dollars from. But if you don't get those dollars, you can't pay. You can't do this.

[Rich Dennis]

You can't do the convention center for free. But. And I think that had an effect that maybe some people were looking to, to have or, or, or, or didn't or was an unintended consequence. But then we lost sponsors, right? So. Because of the noise. Right? So then, so then we lost sponsors. So then I look back and I say, well, you know, If I've got 25 to 2800 jobs that I've got to fund, right, I've got, you know, we will have, you know, 300 black businesses in and around the convention center as vendors, as partners and. Right. That's a sizable impact to our community.

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[Rich Dennis]

All?

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[Rich Dennis]

So I don't think that it was people's intent to do that, but I think some of these companies were looking for excuses to not invest in blocks. That's right. And so when they hear that, then they can say, oh, you know, even your people don't like you. Right? That's right. No, but that's what they would say.

[Host/Interviewer]

They see other black people criticizing something that's for black people. Like, well, why should we spend money with them?

[Rich Dennis]

Why should we? We're not going. And now we don't have to. Yeah, that's right. Right. Nobody. Nobody's holding me accountable anymore. Right. So I can. I can take my dollars and I can take it to Live Nation, where, you know, my people are. All the, all the. Their people are there, all their relationships are there. Why would you take it and invest it here? And so, so I think that was an unintended consequence. At least I hope that there was anybody out there saying, hey, let's just go destroy this black business because we want to. But that's. That's one of the consequences.

[Lauren LaRose]

While you're on that point, when you see headlines like the $465,000 and y' all owing money to all these contractors and these people, knowing that you invest in the black talent, how do you feel in response to that? Because, well, it's.

[Rich Dennis]

It's disheartening. I mean, it's disheartening because, again, we're running a business, right? When you run a business, you are going to renegotiate or negotiate or you're going to take stance with other businesses that you don't think are even giving you the value that you want, or they don't think you're giving them the value that you want. It's, it's. It's part of running a business, right? And so the way that I feel about it is I know I'm running a business. I also know that because of who we are as a black business, we're a target, right? And so people would love to see us fail. But that's not going to deter me from running a proper business. You're not going to threaten me by putting me in the press because you want me to behave the way that you want me to behave. I'm building a business here. I'm building that business for my community. What I tell our team, all of that, the three most important things in business, pride, courage and conviction, right? If you've got the pride, you've got the courage, you've got the conviction, you will overcome the challenges, right? So for me, it's, it's, it's, hey, this is part of doing business, right? If you don't like what I'm doing or if you want to take me out because I'm competitive to you, then those stories get published, right? And then our community reacts in the way that they react, and then it's just like, no, we're not going anywhere. We're doing this. I. I should have the same right to renegotiate and to negotiate my Deals and my terms as any other business. Right. So we go at it from that perspective. And I'm really proud of the way our team has been handling all of this because it's also the maturation process. Right. So the first time. And that's the other thing. Many of our businesses don't have the resources to stand the impact of some of these things that happen to us. Right. So those things can take us out. Right. I'm very proud of the fortitude of our team to double down and say, no, we're going to continue executing the way that we need to execute. We're going to make the improvements, but we're going to continue to do the things that we do because we have pride, courage and conviction in what we're doing.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

I see more. You're more hands on this year than ever before. Is that part of the reason?

[Rich Dennis]

Well, yes and no. I'm a builder. Right. And I'm a, some would say a visionary. Right. And so the two don't always go together. Right. Somebody that has a vision usually isn't the person that's here. I'm not hands on in terms of building. We've got a great team that's doing that. But what I am hands on about is making sure that the obstacles get removed. Right. And partnering with Kirk, who's our CEO, to make sure that the obstacles get removed and then making sure that the teams are empowered to do the things that they need to do. So what you're seeing is us transforming and we've been doing this very publicly for the past five years, right? Transforming a 55 year old legacy business into a business of the future. Right? The things that we were doing five years ago. I mean, look at you guys in your business, right? What you were doing a year ago is not what you're doing today. Right? And so if you don't transform and you don't transform quickly, it becomes, I mean, like I, if you look at I heart and you look at the, the transition from where you guys were five, six, seven years ago, the things that the business had to do to restructure in order to put it in a healthier place. When that happens with I heart, nobody says anything. With us, it's, you know, and that, and that's part of, that's a longer conversation. But, but that's, those are the things that I think Festival helps us to understand and get through even our lived experience with how our businesses is being managed and being run. But also now to take all of that knowledge and put it on these stages. Right. Because that's what you're going to get. You're not going to get somebody who's, you know, hypothetically done something on Instagram teaching you how to go do. You're going to get real professionals that have had real experiences, that have developed real businesses or that have built real families that have done. Right. That have really done these things that are vetted that you can trust and rely on to be the ones providing the information. That's the other, that's the other thing that we take great pride in is vetting the information that we, that we put out and the people that, the people that we bring in. Because otherwise it becomes what's the difference between a, an essence and, you know, anything else that's out there? Right. It's got to be trust, it's got to be valuable. We've got to invest in it. And that's what we're doing. And that, that takes me to another exciting part. And so we're also relaunching the magazine.

[Host/Interviewer]

Print or digital?

[Rich Dennis]

Print. Wow. Print. We're the only black owned print. Right.

[Host/Interviewer]

I think there's something to that.

[Rich Dennis]

Yeah. We can't go away, right. It's like we don't have a, we don't have a choice. Right. So we have to make sure that we're develop, delivering an excellent product and that we're doing it across our platform. So, so the magazine now, you know, more long form, focused. Right. We're not trying to compete with Instagram and Facebook and I. Long form, long form focus. Real journalism around the things that are happening in our communities. Real stories about the things that are happening in our communities from our community's point of view. Right. Not just one writer or one editor. We want to bring our community onto the platform. Let them tell their stories, use our platform as the vessel, but let them tell their story. So we're really excited about. And that'll drop at festival.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Oh, wow. Who's on the COVID for that one?

[Rich Dennis]

I can't tell you. But what I can tell you, what I can tell you is that you will be proud.

[Host/Interviewer]

You know, I just got a couple more questions. A lot of black institutions have had to answer the question, how do we evolve without losing our soul? Is that one of the challenges?

[Rich Dennis]

No, no, no, no, no, no. Ours is not a soul problem. Okay, Right. It's how do we evolve without losing a generation or two. Right. Because if you think about it, you know, at the core of it, you know, who we serve are black women. Right. And we are hyper. Hyper focused on. On that. Right? And you. And you and your children and your mother and your grandmother all care about the same things, but in different ways. Yeah, Right. And. And so our job is to make sure that the things that you all care about are represented, but that you can experience it in different ways. Right? And that's where it's hard. Right? Because if you do something this way, it's like, oh, now you're focused on young people. You're not focused on who got you here. Right. If you do too much here, oh, essence is old is not. Right. And at the end of the day, if you don't have this evolution, then where do your daughters go? Where do your children. Where do my job. Where do your children go? Right? Where. Where. Where's the pride that comes and sits on your coffee table, you know, once a month or once every three months or, you know, quarterly or annually, whatever? Where's that pride? Where. Where do you physically see yourself in a. In a. In a publication that is talking about the things that you care about, not just about your dress and not just about your hairstyle. Right. Those things are important, but the things that fuel you, the things that challenge you, the things that develop you, Right? There's got to be a safe space for that. That's what essence is. And then you see that manifest in live experiences. Right? And so. So it's. It's not. It's not a sole question for us. It is a generational question, right? And we've got it. We've got to make sure that we build a big enough boat that all generations can feel respected, wanted, and loved. And so you see that even with the. Even with the lineup, you know, we go everything from Cardi B to George, Patti LaBelle, George Clinton, Leon Thomas. Right? So we're curating a cultural experience every year, which becomes harder and harder to do as people steal more and more of our culture and represent it as their own. Oh, okay.

[Advertisement Voice]

I'm really excited about Tiana being the chief curator.

[Rich Dennis]

Oh, my God. I know you don't want to get

[Lauren LaRose]

everything, give everything away, right?

[Rich Dennis]

But what has she been able to bring to the festival? Oh, boy. Creatively. So. So she's been. She's been able to. So here's the. Here's the interesting thing, right? It's, you know, we. We. Have you guys ever heard of the company Actively Black?

[Lauren LaRose]

Yeah.

[Rich Dennis]

Lanny. Lanny has a. A collection that had some mixed reviews called Black Women Are Superheroes. Right. And he had. He hadn't produced it for A while. And then he brought it back and he did a video explaining why he brought it back. Right. And I thought that was, that was extremely powerful. Right. The connection between that. Tiana is. Tiana is helping us bring it back. Right. She's, she's helped. She's helping us rethink how we go forward. Right. The future is the future. It's what's there. She's helping us rethink. Oh, should do this, we should do that, we should do the other. Right. Here's how the merch should look. Here's how the audience address. Here's. Here's what we. And let's, let's help them do that. Let's. Let's create. Let's create the recreate the community feel. Not, not so much the individual feel, but let's recreate the community feel. So she's, she's been wonderful. And I haven't gotten to the, to the creative part yet. Yeah, right.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

I'm listening.

[DJ Envy]

I'm like.

[Advertisement Voice]

And everything she touched.

[Rich Dennis]

Oh my God.

[Lauren LaRose]

Amazing. She's one of my, my favorite creators of all time.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

She's all hands on too, with this.

[Rich Dennis]

Yeah. That's why I'm like, I can't.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

She went last week for community. The community stuff. Like, she's, she's all.

[Rich Dennis]

She's all. And those are the kinds of partners. One, those are the kinds of partners that we all need in our businesses. But two, and probably more important, our young people need to see black people collaborating and building stuff together. Right. Like, like, they really, really, really need to see that because they're growing up in an, in an environment that's telling them black people don't matter anymore. Right. And you guys definitely shouldn't be doing stuff to. Together. Yeah. Right. And so we've got it. We've got any. Anywhere that we can show that and display that we should. And then we should come back and talk about the results.

[Host/Interviewer]

Two last questions. Are you going to be able to celebrate the entire diaspora this year without unintentionally making some people feel like their own traditions are being diluted? Because last year they got on you. They did not want you celebrating Mother Africa for whatever reason.

[Rich Dennis]

Yeah, the, the. So the answer to the question is yes. Right. I think it. Again, it's helping people understand where we're headed and what we're doing and how we're doing it. This is not about making anybody feel less than or forgotten. In fact, we're leaning even harder right into, into the different communities and how we. And how we serve Them and there will be something for everybody, right? And we, we are not under any illusion here that we're ever gonna get away from serving black American women, right? Black Americans is who gave all of us that came from somewhere else the opportunity to be here and to stay here. And we all ought to be grateful for that. I, for one, am extremely grateful for that. I am never going to forget that. Right. Second part of it is this is my children's life, right? And they are making sure that this thing stays here as well. So they're all working here, learning and building together. So we believe we're greater together than we are separate. And we also understand the doctrines that separate us. Right. And the strategies and the systems that try to keep us separated. Right? And when you can separate us, you can do things to us that you can't do when we're together. That's real. Our job is to bring us, is to bring us together, right? Our job is to make sure that we have a very strong and healthy, connected community globally. Because that's the greatest protection we can have. If we don't have that, we are just small pockets. Small pockets. And just look at how we're being picked off right now. Take a look at what's happening in black media. Where are the voices? Right? Where are the platforms?

[Lauren LaRose]

They don't have jobs.

[Rich Dennis]

They don't have no jobs, Right. Not only do they have no jobs,

[Host/Interviewer]

kind of crazy in the era that we live in right now though, because you can create your own platforms and, and there's so many people that, that are doing it. The Joy Ann Reid, the Don Lemon, I mean, I can name a million people that have their own platform.

[Rich Dennis]

But Charlamagne1, that was a reaction to somebody else's action. It shouldn't have been though. But it was. Yeah, right. And so the way that I think about it is, again, places like Essence and Essence Festival should be there to teach people the paths and the ways so that it doesn't have to be a reaction that they, that that in their mind, it's always an action. And I think the, the generation that's coming up behind us has that mindset, but they still need the tools, right? They still need the access, they still need, they still need the experience, they still need the expertise, right? So, so going and starting your. I mean, like, and you're a perfect example of that. The, you know, the 22 year old Charlemagne would not have been equipped to build what you're building. Absolutely right. You had to be somewhere to learn it. So if I'm not getting a job if I'm not getting tutored, if I'm not getting mentored, if I'm not getting access, I'm not getting that. More than that, I think the thing that makes us great is our abilities to leverage our failures.

[Host/Interviewer]

Expound on that. I like that.

[Rich Dennis]

If you don't get an opportunity to fail, right, either. Either you never did anything or you did something and you failed and you never were empowered to do it again. You never learn how to build, you never learn how to scale. And there's nothing that happens in this world without failure. Nothing, right? You name the most successful people on this planet, they've probably failed more than you and I, right? But it's learning how to fail. It's learning how to then leverage that failure to go do the next thing. Unfortunately, we don't have the, the grace in, in this world, right, to be able to fail repeatedly and fail up, right? We get judged very quickly before we ever get in the door. We were already judged, so. Which means it's going to be hard for me to get the opportunity to fail one time, right? And if I go do that and I fail, I'm done, right? So part of what we're trying to do here is, yeah, you come and you have the great entertainment and you got to. But. But it's what happens on the global black economic forum stage that's teaching you about the economics, right? What's happening there, that's teaching you about your voter rights and protecting them. And with real lawyers, real civil rights lawyers that are trying these cases and taking what they've learned from trying these cases and bringing that information back to our community and putting it out there for everybody to see and to engage with, right? It's those things that make us different, I think, that makes the Essence, and that's why I changed the name the Essence Festival of Culture. Because it's not just about entertaining, right? It's not just about having a great time. We have to have that. We're going to have that, no doubt. But it's also, how do we leave there armed with the knowledge to go combat the things that come at us? How do we, how do we get a collective viewpoint of how to even maneuver around those things, right? Because I'm sitting at home, you're at home, you're at home. Yeah, it's tough, right? But you're all. We're all experiencing things differently. And there's nowhere where we're collectively strategizing on how we're going to overcome Those challenges, right. We do things in. In. In. In reaction because we're not given the opportunity to prepare. Let's use essence as the place to prepare both your mind, your soul, your heart, your spirit. Let's use that. Plus, we're bringing get lifted back.

[Host/Interviewer]

This is my last question. Are you nervous going into this year's festival due to all the backlash from last year? Are you confident in the changes that have been made?

[Rich Dennis]

No, I'm confident.

[Host/Interviewer]

Okay.

[Rich Dennis]

I'm confident because a lot of. A lot of the challenges last year weren't structural. They were execution. Right? So let's make sure we get the execution right. That though the poor execution in some instances. And here's the other thing. Right? We still had 40,000 people a day. Right. Come through. We still. I mean, there were no incidents. There were no. Right. So there's. There's this tendency to want to go back and dwell on, hey, this was bad. That's not the case. But there were a ton of learnings on how to be better. Right? And so that's what we're taking forward. And so I'm extremely confident. Right. Is we've learned from that, from the execution challenges. We've made the adjusters. The soul was there. The intent is always there, and now we just got to execute against it. And then the other thing is communicating what it is that we're attempting to do so that people know what they're coming along for and get lifted for

[Charlamagne Tha God]

is the spiritual and gospel side of it. That's what get lifted.

[Rich Dennis]

Immediately thought John Legend. I was like, john Legend. That's what get lifted is. Yes. That's what get lifted is. Yes. Right.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

We appreciate you for joining us, and thank you so much. And the crazy thing about it, the car show conversation happened on a plane. We were on a plane with each other, and I was. I think I was going to a city for a car show, and he was like, why don't you bring it to essence? And I was like, how? He was like, do it in the convention center. And that was, I think, last July.

[Rich Dennis]

That was last July.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Last July. And. And we got it done. So thank you so much. I'm excited.

[Lauren LaRose]

You got a strong spirit, like, for everything that they be trying to throw at everything that you do, but you are so focused on, like, the silver lining and, like, still pouring some people. Everybody don't make it through all of that.

[Host/Interviewer]

Drive you crazy.

[Lauren LaRose]

Yeah, everybody make it through all of that.

[Host/Interviewer]

I'm not.

[Rich Dennis]

I'm not. You know, and one of you asked me a question. Last time I was here,

[Host/Interviewer]

if I

[Rich Dennis]

was angry or mad, and my response then always has been, will continue to be. I don't have the luxury of being mad, right? That's a luxury that others can afford in our worlds. We can't afford that. We got to pick up and keep going. Because at the end of the day, my job is to leave this place a better place than I found it for my children. And I think that's all of us's jobs, right? So getting mad ain't gonna. It's not gonna change it. It's not gonna. Not gonna make. But there's the other side to this, though, right? Is when they love me, they love me, right? So I. I can't. I can't. You know that it's never as good as it feels, and it's never as bad as you think, right? So it's like when. When we're doing good, they're loving on us, they're pushing us up, and when we're not giving what they want, they let us know. The only thing that I say to that is, let's just not do it in a destructive way, because it can be permanent, and some people can't recover from it. I'm seeing, you know, you guys have all seen all these. These. These black businesses that have closed for one reason or another a lot. The ones that are most disheartening are the ones that are closed because their community turned on them. And then.

[Host/Interviewer]

That's.

[Rich Dennis]

Right. They couldn't handle it mentally or they couldn't handle it financially or, you know, their families and, you know, and so we just got to be thoughtful in how we try to help each other get better and not be destructive in doing it.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

That's right. Last thing next year, you got to add a comedy component.

[Rich Dennis]

So we'll talk. Let me know. Let me know next time you're on a plane. I'll meet you there.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Ladies and gentlemen, Essence Festival goes down July 3rd through the 5th. If you haven't got your tickets, get your tickets. Cardi B. Kalani, brandi, Monica, Patti LaBelle, Leon Thomas, George Clinton, Babyface, Public Enemy, Dougie Fresh, plus tons of free stuff. So get your tickets, and I'll see

[Host/Interviewer]

y' all down there.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning.

[Rich Dennis]

All right, hold up.

[Host/Interviewer]

Every day I wake up.

[Rich Dennis]

Wake your ass up.

[DJ Envy]

The Breakfast Club.

[Rich Dennis]

Y' all finished or y' all done?

[DJ Envy]

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[Advertisement Voice]

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[DJ Envy]

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[Lauren LaRose]

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[DJ Envy]

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[Rich Dennis]

Because it's the best thing ever.

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[Rich Dennis]

So no dinosaurs and dinosaurs. Lingokids.

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[Rich Dennis]

This is total non stop action.

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[DJ Envy]

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