- You wat Black fo?
Just listen to their music.
Our music will tell you everythg
That's going on
in the.
It's a beautiful (applause)
Telegram
And nowhere in thc
is there a hit patriotic song.
(audience laughing)
That ain't what we do.
I mean, we'll cover a song
but like, we don't write no original patriotic song
Black artists ain't never
because we got a conflicted relationship with the country.
You can't write no honest patri.
You got to leave up to the whit,
they've had a good time.
(audience laughing)
You had a good time in America, you're damn right
you should be writing the patri.
♪ I'm proud to be an American ♪
♪ Where at least I know I'm fre♪
(audience laughing)
Like, you serious?
You couldn't possibly expect that level of patriotism
from a race of people that has so many issues.
You can't, it's not realistic.
Black people don't, we don't sing about America.
We sing about specific cities
where you can have a good-ass t.
(audience cheering)
That's what we do.
We won't talk about the country,
we can tell you where the party.
We can do that.
(audience laughs)
Look, I can't tell you nothing about America
but let me tell you about the cy
where the heat is on all night on the beach
to the early morning,
(audience laughing, cheering)
probably to Miami.
That's what you got to go.
You ever been to California?
Oh my god, you gotta go down to California.
Well, California knows how to py
The city of LA,
the city of good old Watts,
And the city of Compton.
They keep it rocking.
Write that shit down, we're trying to tell you.
They keep it rocking.
- I think hip hop and comedy always had a close relationship
because they're both about the rebel spirit.
Real hip hop at its core
Is about spitting the truth
that a lot of people don't want,
or spitting the truth that a lot of people don't know about.
What's the n that and?
Black comedy at its core is about spitting truth
and making people face things that they probably
didn't want to really hear about, which is why,
if you look at a lot of the comedy sketches that were
on hip hop albums, back in the ,
the relationship between comedy and hip hop,
more often than not,
was with artists that had something to say.
If you look at Wu with their jo,
the Fugees said, let me get foo.
Chicken wings fried hard like t,
that type of stuff.
Even Snoop.
And he was telling stories about what was going on
in his hood.
And there was comedy sprinkled in there, beautifully.
Outkast used to do a bunch of comedy sketches.
So, comedy and hip hop have both about the spirit
of rebelt of spit.
And I think that's why they have a dope-ass synergy
that you wouldn't get if you tried to infuse
comedy into a Smashing Pumpkins.
It just ain't the same.
No disrespect to the Smashing P,
you make good music.
(hip hop music)
- The comedy industry and the music industry
are similar because I mean, it'l
about entertainment, music, and.
Those are things that our heel is too, too, too many.
And you know, you have love son.
You have happy songs, you know, you can have a bad day
and comedy can come and lift yo.
Just like a song can.
(Soulful rap music plays)
♪ Got that brand new money, ♪
♪ Yeah, I just got paid. ♪
♪ I'm trading macaroni ♪
♪ For them gold, rope chains. ♪
♪ I got bills, I'll eat grills.♪
♪ I'll eat hundred dollar bills♪
♪ I'm feeling like a million bu♪
♪ I'll eat how I feel. ♪
- A thing that comedy
and hip hop have always had in common is the spirit
of reportage.
Of reporting your experience,
reporting what's going on in your environment
and making it something that people can relate to.
Either people who are not livine
or people who are living that l.
♪ Well racism got canceled ♪
♪ But just to pretend stop. ♪
♪ Now it's back with ♪
♪ A whole new season to binge w♪
♪ It's racism 2.0, the sequel ♪
♪ A grass roots Kickstarter ♪
♪ Funded through repo. ♪
♪ So, racism has got a dope marketing team ♪
♪ They're u♪
♪ And Black folks ♪
♪ When they're done riding our ♪
♪ They'll just park them and le♪
♪ Pull the rug, ♪
♪ They won't even have the carpeting cleaned. ♪
- You never saw music as an int.
This isI to find .
When I got to LA you pick whater
song you want to go onto,
or you say, Hey man, I want sna.
I'm coming out to snap.
Snap was hot.
♪ I got the power. ♪
♪ (beatboxing) ♪
You got everybody all hyped, yo,
and then you start your act.
Black comedy started blowing up
and then Def Jam came.
Host, Chris Tucker, host Martin, host Chris Rock.
And that was like the hottest s.
Hip hop and comedy were starting to become synonymous.
- Def Comedy Jam is a great example of that, right?
Of what of hip hop and comedy m.
If you think about that show made a lot of stars.
You know, I mean movies like Fr,
like Ice Cube only cast in thate
based on what who we saw on Def.
And then that movie became this instant classic
because of them, you know
but thr calling on.
- I got to see a tiny show called In Living Color,
but that was hip hop.
It was coming from that hip hop point of view.
We had, we broke open all the as
Queen Latifa was seen on
In Living Color, D'Nice,
I mean, you name it.
Whoever was hot was on In Livin.
So that mesh happened.
There was this barrier between, you know, white America
white American entertainment.
And it never really had the taste of the city
never had the taste of where we were coming from.
And it just started flowering, the Fat Boys.
They're responsible for crossin.
Flava Flav, Bill Bellamy, downtown Julie Brown
that just brought in a whole no.
And we were synonymous with tha.
That all became one movement.
And now it's, it's, it's, it's just broadened out.
You just seeing the different ss
of the B, it's .
- I feel like rappers are just getting funnier.
Rappers want to be comedians.
Two Chainz is hilarious.
Two Chainz off his last album
Was like, "I'm anti phony.
My girl, anti boney."
That's a bar.
That's a punchline.
That's funny.
If I heard that in the club, I .
- I think that hip hop artists and comedians are very
similar when it comes to freest,
A comic, I mean a rapper, has to think ahead
of what he's going to
say before actually comes out of his mouth.
He knows the next line.
He's going to say,
that's going to rhyme with
the line that's coming out
of his mouth is sorta some geni.
And I think that comedy is the .
Especially if you get a heckler before they're
finished saying what they're saying to you, you already
know what you're going to say bk
to them because our mind works
faster than our mouth does, tha.
- I grew up in a neighborhood in
called East New York. Have you guys heard of it?
(audience cheers)
You've heard of East New York?
Have any of y'all been to East ?
You've been to East New York?
- (Audience member) From the Br!
- You ain't from East New York,
what are you talking about?
Oh, okay.
I'm from a different, dangerous neighborhood.
Okay.
I would have to take a train
to my murder in your neighborho.
- Comedy is music. It's rhythm.
There's a cadence.
Everybody has a cadence.
You know, Bernie Mac had a cade.
(Bernie Mac impression)
"The fuck you talking about?"
"Motherfucker gonna run around!"
"What the fuck you you think you're doing, boy?"
"What the fuck do you think you"
It's a cadence.
It's a rhythm.
It's a music to him.
- See, neither kid is us.
See, we're some punk-ass pansie.
So we didn't push heads pants t.
So we don't need to go back
to the old school cause ain't no grandma no more.
Aint that a bitch?
Ain't that a say no, grandma,
Remember Big Mama?
See, Big Mama gone.
So your grandmamma now what?
You're 24?
Great grandmamma is 36.
Talking about, "I ain't babysit"
- Just music.
I'm seducing your eardrums.
Now the magic can happen.
If I have something to say.
- I think about comedy and rhyt.
At least that's how I write.
I don't sit down at a paper or computer to write.
I like listened to myself in the shower and I feel
I don't know, maybe not melodious, but I feel rhythm.
That's what's so fascinating about people like Chris Rock
where there's just this,
musical kind of like rhythmic dt
where the pacing keeps a certai.
He paces a lot and he like yanks the, mic cord
on like a certain kind of beat.
He like, speaks in refrains.
Like, there's a lot of repetition of certain phrases.
You know? That's always been fascinating to me
because I was raised Muslim.
So I didn't ge.
So it'sg to watch hos
and people who got to spend time in churches,
sort of carry it everywhere.
I mean, like there's like a gospel kind of music moving
through .
- Dr. King and Mr. Mandela's dreams are coming true,
and Black peo,
and Asians and everybody's hanging out together.
All my Ble a bunch ,
and all s have on.
- The mindset to approach a topic in a different way
with punchlines and imagery andl
descriptive vocabulary is very .
The way I look at certain subjects and topics
as I would a rapper, I look at the same as comedy.
Even just like, writing in a kit
almost iambic pentameter kind o,
and splitting up certain lines t
they kind of match the next line
or a shorter or longer.
The punch word needs to be shorr
than the sentence you just wrot.
And I feel like that approach is very similar.
- And my girlfriend is white.
That's just as she is, it's not.
And I feel like the dangers we e
apart are neutralized more toge.
That make sense?
Like, one time we were
on the subway platform facing er
and standing behind me,
looking in her direction,
was a guy who was like licking .
Just like, putting on chapstick for way too long.
And she felt nervous.
Held my hand,
and felt safe.
And then standing behind in herg
in my direction were two fully uniformed police officers.
And I felt nervous,
held her hand,
and felt safe.
(audience laughter)
And then a cop started putting on chapstick.
(more laughter)
- I think it goes back to the authenticity, you know?
With hip hop, it's all about being real, you know
do you write your own jokes?
You know?
Can I? It's like we might not roast battle other comedians.
We might not battle all the comedians, but it's like
can I follow that person?
You want to be so good that nobody can touch you.
You want to be on stage and be ,
Hey, good luck following me, br.
You know?
And it's not, it's not
because you're trying to destro,
but you're just trying to say, Hey, I'm here.
You know, you might want to thik
about doing something else.
You know what I mean?
UPS is hiring big.
You know what I mean?
That's what you want to put out as a, as a comic.
And I think hip hop that, that competition also
that storytelling is all the sa.
And I e a lot os
like if you are a hip hop fan
you have once thought about doing a hip hop comedy rap.
You've you, you have broken down people's jokes
like bars, like, 'Aw man, look how we took that word
and went there with it and made this leftover here.'
And it was a bars, same thing.
We do it with hip hop.
You know what I mean?
So I think it's a, I think it's intertwined.
♪ Think you're a baller ♪
♪ But I'm not impressed. ♪
♪ Your girlfriend knows my juice is pressed. ♪
♪ You got a helipad and a priva♪
♪ But I'm over here sipping on ♪
♪ The best lettuce. ♪
♪ Is it romaine? ♪
♪ Is it spring mint? ♪
♪ Is it Vegas spinach? ♪
♪ Is it iceberg? ♪
♪ Tell everybody what you're si♪
- I think the relationship withp
and modery is lik.
It's a way of life.
It's a thought process.
It's swag.
It's style.
It's something that represents the community.
It's dope as fuck.
Different places, different wor,
but they speak the same languag.