More than 15 years after he made a movie out of one (and however many years after the several he's thrown that were not movies) Dave Chappelle held a "block party" over the July 4 weekend that gathered an exclusive list of famous entertainers for an event in his hometown of Yellow Springs, Ohio. Note that this is actually just down the road (a long road, but still) from a block party he hosted in August 2019 in the wake of a mass shooting in the city of Dayton.
Takeaway: he likes block parties.
As for this more recent edition, Spin notes that a 400-person audience was in attendance, and that each of those people had to be tested for COVID before they could gain entry. Once admission was granted, those same had to keep on their masks and stay six-feet apart from one another. Cincinnati's CityBeat reports that these cautionary guidelines were then "gently enforced."
As for the famous people that were there, performances from musicians included: Common, Talib Kweli, and Erykah Badu. Comedy was performed by: Michelle Wolf, Michael Che, Tiffany Haddish, and Chappelle. Questlove reportedly played music during a fireworks display. And also Jon Hamm was there to get the crowd worked up.
The event also saw interesting pairings in the form of Hamm singing Journey's "Don't Stop Believing," Chappelle singing Radiohead's "Creep" (and not for the first time either), Kweli, Common, and Chappelle singing Eric B. and Rakim's "Paid in Full," and Badu covering Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit."
The party was reportedly filmed, in a more formal way than a bunch of people pulling out their phones (although it looks like that happened too), and will reportedly be distributed at a later date. In the meantime check out some footage/pictures below:
