Living comedy legend Chris Rock is on a roll lately. (See what I did there?) He's been in the news over the past few weeks for a couple different reasons, like his brilliant defense of Colin Kaepernick, and his appearance on the "Netflix Is a Joke" ad campaign being run by the streaming giant. But Rock is making an appearance on this very site right now because of his recent candid conversation with fellow comedian Hannibal Buress, which was recorded for a new episode of Buress' podcast, Handsome Rambler. In Hannibal's own words: "We were doing shows at the legendary Chicago Theatre with Chris Rock so I asked him to do the podcast and he kindly obliged."
Rock was a little late to join the party, but he didn't hesitate to dive right in. He and Buress ended up covering a wide range of topics, which included Rock's current taste in music. Around the 45:00 minute mark, Buress asks Rock who he's listening to. "Kendrick'd up, J. Cole'd up," Rock says. "You know who I loved? Not a rapper, but my man Frank Ocean’s show is amazing. It’s stupendous." Rock said he saw him perform at this year's FYF fest, where Buress was also in attendance, albeit high out of his mind.
A few minutes earlier, around 42:00, Rock breaks down how a few of his memorable moments in music came together. According to Rock, the late, great Gerald Levert ended up on the iconic "No Sex (In the Champagne Room)" because Levert "just happened to be in the studio upstairs."
About the album on which it was featured, 1999's Bigger & Blacker: "We recorded the album at the same spot where Tupac got shot. Ol' Dirty Bastard’s on the album, he just happened to be up the stairs recording and we got him on a sketch. He did this thing called 'Words of Wisdom by the Ol' Dirty Bastard.' ... I partied with ODB. On my record, he’s so high that we had a sketch for him to do and he was just so fucked up. But he was on the mic for 12 minutes just saying shit, so we took that stuff and we edited it down."
Rock also took a minute (around the 51:00 minute mark) to touch on the current atmosphere in the comedy world.
"Now, there's so much hateration in comedy," he said. "I'm more of a 'live and let live' motherfucker. I just have fun. I got no beef with nobody. Anybody that's really successful, I can appreciate what's good about them. Even though, you know, some of the shit's not for me."
Around 59:30, Hannibal asks Chris if he’s writing any new movies. "I’m working on a couple movies," Rock said. "One with all of us, and one more Top Five-ish, relationshippy. But I just gotta tour, man. I gotta make some money. The movies are not as lucrative, so I’ve just been, like, 'OK, let me get into this tour head.'"
Later in the episode, around 1:02:00, Buress asks Rock about what it's like to direct comedy specials for other comedians, namely, Amy Schumer, who's no stranger to hateration herself.
"First of all, you watch the material and go, 'Do I wanna do this?'" Rock said. "You give her some notes. She did all the notes. We picked a venue. I was like, 'Hey, how about the Apollo?' She had some other venue, some random fucking venue. I was like, 'OK, the Apollo. That sounds interesting.' Because you wanna do shit in an interesting place. You know, but most specials take place in the cut. The problem with most specials, honestly, is comedians, they try to capture the show. The reality is, when you sit there to edit the special, you’re creating a whole new piece of art."
Elsewhere in the episode, Buress and Rock talk about the Knicks, breaking into show business, and the time Martin Lawrence opened up for Rock and stole the show. You can watch the full interview up top, or listen to it down below.
