Dan Charnas is an American author, radio host and record company executive. He is considered to have played a role in the creation of hip-hop journalism. In 2010 he wrote the book The Big Payback about the history of the hip-hop business. As a radio personality, Charnas hosted a segment on KPWR on the first hip-hop show in Los Angeles. As a journalist he was a writer for the hip-hop magazine The Source.