Dave Chappelle speaks at The Roots Picnic NYC on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2016. (Photo: Vickey Ford | Sneakshot)
Photo by Vickey Ford (Sneakshot) for Okayplayer
Photo by Vickey Ford of Sneakshot for Okayplayer.
Ahhh, 2004. The world was such a simpler place. Myspace and Okayplayer forums were considered social media platforms, cellphones still flipped, and Dave Chappelle still enjoyed doing Chappelle's Show.
The folks at Hot 97 just unearthed some great throwback audio for their The Vault series. The audio is an interview Dave Chappelle did with Funkmaster Flex in 2004. The interview took place a couple of days before the season two premiere of Chappelle's Show.
It's an interesting interview to listen to. Because, while the show was popular, it wasn't yet the gigantic smash that it would become — that would come after the Rick James episode — and Chappelle was still very optimistic:
"With this show, man, I've been lucky. I've attempted to do television before. It was always on a grand scale, like sitcoms and stuff like this. And within the process, whatever is special about you as a comedian gets watered down to make it appeal to the masses. And you know how it is on cable, you get the option of being more specific about the kind of comedy you want to do...I'm trying to run with it. I'm just trying to do a show that I wanna watch."
A year after this interview, Chappelle would quit the show, turning down $50 million in the process. Check out the interview below.
H/T: Hot 97
