Charlie Global turned his life around with content creation. When he was 20, he was charged with armed robbery and aggravated assault, serious offenses that carried the possibility of a life sentence. He served his bid and while working at Wendy’s started making content during his walks to work. Within a year, his prison stories blew up on YouTube, and he started getting paid for his videos. He was our guest on Star Studio and told us about his journey.
How did you prepare yourself for your sentencing?
Before I got sentenced, the jailhouse lawyers told me straight up. Based on my charges, I was looking at a long road, possibly life. I was scared. I’d been to jail before, but never prison, and I knew this time it was real. When they offered 15 years as the final plea, I took it. I was 20 and knew if I went to trial with all the evidence they had on armed robbery and aggravated assault, I’d never come home. So I ran with the deal, I figured I’d still be young when I got out.
How was your time in prison?
I was the type of dude that did my time trying to get money, contraband, officers, whatever. But I also had a big heart, gave most of my stuff away, helped people. And I got told on the most. The ones who kept to themselves, never gave nothing, they stayed good. That hurt, cause being kind-hearted in prison [is] one of the worst things you can be. Folks take that for weakness. So eventually, I stopped messing with everybody. If I didn’t see none of me in you, I couldn’t deal with you.
How was going into jail so young?
I came in at 21, and jail was depressing. I’d been to county before and used to hear dudes behind the door like, ‘Man, just shoot me to prison.’ I never understood that until I got there. County jail [you’re] locked down 23 hours a day, you get one hour to shower or use the phone. But in prison, it’s different. You can go outside, move around a little, even get a phone if you know how. Not saying I wanted to be there, but I saw why people preferred it to county. It was a whole different world.
Why did you start creating content?
Getting into content wasn’t something I planned, it really just fell in my lap. My boy Bill Eazy called me out [of] the blue one day like, ‘Yo, I just found out you out. You tryna get some money?’ I was like, ‘How?’ He told me to check out his YouTube. I clicked the link, he had over 100,000 subscribers. I was like, ‘Damn!’ Then he said, ‘Bro, all you gotta do is tell some of them stories. You already funny, you already got personality, they gon’ love it.’ He was already doing prison content too, so he knew the lane. He told me, ‘Drop like 15–20 stories and then I’ll interview you on my platform. I’ll get the people to you, and it’s your job to keep ’em.’ I followed through, dropped the content, he brought me on, and it just blew up. I got monetized in 90 days. After everything I’d been through, it finally felt like something real was happening. That one call changed everything.
