From February 2009:
"They were saying I smoke crack and using all this innuendo, and I thought a magazine as credible as Newsweek? I was very surprised that this was happening. And then I thought I had to make some real choices. Is that what I want for myself? Did I get TOO big? Because I like people. And I like entertaining. And the higher up I go, for some reason the less happy I am. You know, is it going to get to the point where I'm doing a strip tease on TRL or waving a gun on the street saying they're trying to kill me? No, I'm not going to let it get to that point. I'm going to go to Africa... I'm going to find a way to be myself man, I gotta you know... I'm an artist man, you know I don't need a Sneaker deal. There's only six studios, man. There's only six agencies, man. This is a small controlled thing and I don't... like having to beg for the spotlight, man. You know, the machine is good for us and we're good for the machine and it should be... it should be fair, man. Martin had a stroke, he almost died. And then after that, I saw him and I said oh my God Martin, are you okay? And he said, I got the best sleep I ever got in my life. That's how tough he is. And so the question is, what is happening in Hollywood? That a guy that tough... would be on the street waving a gun screaming 'they are trying to kill me'? What is going on? Why is Dave Chappelle going to Africa? Why is Mariah Carey taking a one hundred million dollar deal and taking her clothes off on TRL? A weak person cannot get to sit here and talk to you. There ain't no weak people talking to you. So what is happening in Hollywood? Nobody knows! The worst thing to call somebody is crazy, it's dismissive. I don't understand this person, so they're crazy. That's bullshit. These people are not crazy, they're strong people. Maybe their environment...... is a little sick."
"What if rape wasn't even the worst thing happening in Hollywood- wouldn't that be something?"- Dave Chappelle.
Dave once compared what goes on in Hollywood to the autobiography "Pimp" by Iceberg Slim. Anyone who has read that book knows it can get hard to read at times due to the writer's violent nature and the things he would do to gain and keep total control over his bitches.
He also said that his stand up bit about seeing a baby on a street corner in the middle of the night selling weed was based on a true story: he saw babies/very young children on street corners but what they were selling wasn't weed.
Kinda lame how some are calling him a clone. I think he's been incredibly brave. When I learned about the things he'd said about Hollywood, it was like one of the 1st big things that made it all real to me. Just because of how smart and , in my eyes, trustworthy he is.
Amen. You have to understand the historical context of his material to understand what he's really saying. This is how any literary theme builds over the years - people build of the messages of their forefathers, for good or for evil. You have to know the original messages to interpret the present words.