Black Effect Podcast Festival 2026: Yung Miami, CeeLo, More

1 week ago 6

ATLANTA, GA — Saturday, April 25 belonged to Black podcasting. The fourth annual Black Effect Podcast Festival took over Pullman Yards in the historic Kirkwood neighborhood for an eight-hour run that pulled together the loudest names in Black audio, music, comedy, and culture for one of the most-anticipated stops on the Atlanta media calendar.

Charlamagne Tha God and DJ Envy hosted alongside Loren LoRosa, with music by DJ Loui Vee. State Farm presented. A pop-up rain shower mid-afternoon didn’t move the crowd one bit.

By the time Drink Champs took the closing slot at 6:15 p.m. and N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN brought out CeeLo Green and K. Michelle for the final taping of the night, the venue was eight hours deep and still moving.

What unfolded between doors at 11 a.m. and the closing chant at 8 p.m. was a full snapshot of where Black podcast culture sits in 2026 — loud, valuable, and increasingly the place serious money and serious culture both look to plant flags.

Yung Miami Brings “Spend Dat” Energy to the Stage

The day’s most-talked-about appearance came from Yung Miami, who joined Crystal Renee Hayslett (Sistas) for a live taping of Keep It Positive, Sweetie. The Pullman Yards stop landed exactly one day after Caresha released her new single “Spend Dat” on April 24, turning the festival appearance into a real-time promo run for the new music. The audience was ready, and the timing made the booking one of the clearest wins of the day.

The full schedule rolled through Grits & Eggs Podcast at 12:10 p.m., Club 520 Podcast, Reality With The King hosted by Carlos King, The Don’t Call Me White Girl Live Show, Keep It Positive Sweetie with Yung Miami and Crystal Renee Hayslett, and the closing Drink Champs taping.

Panels covered Gen X to Gen Z, AI: The Evolution and Future, and an Audio & Media Development panel with industry voices including Tika Sumpter, Carlos King, and finance educator Ian Dunlap.

Drink Champs Closes With CeeLo Green and K. Michelle

Drink Champs, the long-running N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN podcast, took the closing slot at 6:15 p.m. and delivered the surprise of the evening. CeeLo Green and K. Michelle sat down for the final taping of the night — two Atlanta legends closing out a podcast festival in their own city. The intergenerational pairing landed exactly the kind of full-circle moment Charlamagne and the Black Effect team have built the festival around since the inaugural year.

The Pullman Yards Roll Call

The festival floor stayed loaded all afternoon. Two-time Olympic boxing gold medalist Claressa Shields — the undisputed world champion across multiple weight classes — worked the carpet in purple.

Sheryl Underwood was in the building. Tika Sumpter spoke backstage as part of the audio and media development panel. Michael Bivins, Lil Duval, AJ Calloway, Ray Daniels, and KevOnStage moved through the festival grounds and stages throughout the day.

My Butler AL Lands a Sponsorship Moment

Sitting on the sponsor list alongside presenting sponsor State Farm: My Butler AL, the new social platform from founder Summer Grays that launched in March 2026. Hosts named the brand from the stage throughout the run-of-show. The My Butler AL video commercial played on the venue screens between sets. And in the week leading up to the festival, the company’s :30 radio spot ran in rotation on 96.1 The Beat — the Atlanta iHeartMedia station that carries The Breakfast Club, co-hosted by the same Charlamagne Tha God and DJ Envy headlining the festival.

My Butler AL is being built as the social platform Facebook and Instagram used to be — a place to post, build a following, and connect — minus the shadow banning, content takedowns, and algorithmic gatekeeping that have made the legacy platforms increasingly hostile to Black creators and culture. The pitch is simple: grown adults should be able to speak freely on their own social feeds without being put in timeout.

Pulling that pitch directly into a roomful of podcasters, comedians, and content creators — the audience most affected by Meta’s moderation policies — was the strategic play. For an app that’s four weeks into its public life, sponsoring the year’s flagship Black podcast festival next to State Farm is the kind of saturation most early-stage platforms spend a year trying to build.

Inside the Festival: Marketplace, Zen Lounge, and the Vibe

Outside the main stages, the festival grounds delivered. The Black Effect Marketplace powered by Shopify spotlighted Black-owned brands and product drops to a buyer-ready crowd, with vendors moving merchandise from doors to closing.

The Zen Lounge offered back and hand massages between tapings — a thoughtful, on-brand reset for an audience moving from set to set all day. Food trucks kept the lines manageable throughout, and the Pitch Your Podcast Booth stayed busy with creators looking to land their concept in front of the network that has launched more than 60 shows since its 2020 founding.

“We’re celebrating and uplifting the power of Black voices, creating space for creators to inspire, connect and shape culture,” said Dollie S. Bishop, president of The Black Effect Podcast Network. “From conversations on AI and investing to the future of audio, we’re bringing the culture together for connection, innovation and a few surprises.”

The Bigger Picture: Why Black Effect Matters in 2026

The Black Effect Podcast Network, founded in 2020 as a joint venture between Charlamagne Tha God and iHeartMedia, has grown into the flagship home for Black voices in audio. Podcasts now account for roughly 40 percent of spoken-word listening time in the U.S. according to Edison Research, edging past AM/FM talk radio for the first time. The Breakfast Club itself has expanded into a Netflix streaming presence and continues climbing in 18-to-54 listener ratings.

The festival is the network’s annual statement: this is who we are, this is who’s listening, and this is what gets built when Black creators control their own platforms. Atlanta has now hosted the event four years running — cementing the city’s position as the cultural capital where Black media, music, and entrepreneurship intersect.

For My Butler AL, sitting on a sponsor list alongside State Farm at month four was a debut on the kind of stage brands fight years to be invited to. A social platform launching as a free-speech alternative to Meta, hitting the room where Black podcasting, comedy, sports, and entrepreneurship were all gathered in one place. Summer Grays did it in week four.

The rain didn’t stop nothing. The 2026 Black Effect Podcast Festival cemented its place as one of the most important annual stops on the Black media calendar, with my Butler AL’s name running through the day from start to finish.

The 2026 Black Effect Podcast Festival took place Saturday, April 25 at Pullman Yards in Atlanta. Presented by State Farm. Hosted by Charlamagne Tha God, DJ Envy, and Loren LoRosa with music by DJ Loui Vee. The Black Effect Podcast Network operates under a joint venture between Charlamagne Tha God and iHeartMedia.

Festival photography by Derek Whyte & Paras Griffin/Getty Images for iHeart Media and The Black Effect Podcast Network. Additional images licensed via Getty Images.

Follow My Butler AL on Instagram: @mybutleralapp
Follow Summer Grays: @therealsummerg
Follow The Black Effect: @blackeffect

The post Black Effect Podcast Festival 2026: Yung Miami, CeeLo, More appeared first on The Hype Magazine.

Read Entire Article