After his 8:46 stand-up special showed that live events can work safely during the pandemic, Dave Chappelle gave his fans another night to remember over the holiday weekend.
The comedy icon hosted a July 4th music festival in Yellow Springs, Ohio, featuring some of the biggest names in both hip-hop and comedy. This isn’t Chappelle’s first music fest — as his famous “Block Party” featuring Kanye West and Mos Def took place 16 years ago and he’s hosted other events in Yellow Springs — but its certainly his first music event featuring a socially distant crowd.
Saturday’s six-hour event was presented to a 400-person audience, with every attendee tested for COVID prior to the show. The show featured performances from Erykah Badu, Common, and Talib Kweli, with stand-up from Michelle Wolf, Tiffany Haddish, Michael Che, and Chappelle. Questlove played music to a fireworks display as Chappelle and Jon Hamm worked the crowd.
During the night, Badu sang Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Chappelle covered Radiohead’s “Creep,” Kweli and Common joined Chappelle for a cover of Eric B. and Rakim’s “Paid in Full” and Hamm sang Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” to the audience’s delight.
BrooklynVegan writes that the event was filmed and will later be distributed.
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I feel so lucky during this time to be able to go to one of these Dave Chappelle & Friends shows in Yellow Springs, Ohio. I truly think it’s gotta be the Best live show a human being could see going on in the entire country. What else is going on? Performers I saw on stage with Dave Chappelle includes Cypha Sounds, Michelle Wolf, Mo Amer, Tiffany Hadish, Donnell Rawlins, Common, Erykah Badu, Quest Love, Talib Kweli, LaMorne Morris, Monie Love, Jon Hamm & Michael Che. What a night! My body needed a live show, I missed it so. Dave Chappelle is the funniest dude in the world right now. Jon Hamm is super white and awkward (I think I’m handsomer than him). I saw Dave sing Radiohead’s Creep & Erykah Badu sing some of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. They were filming it so I hope for a great documentary about these shows so I could relive some memories. Obviously all our phones were locked in a Yondr bag so I have no photos but it felt so good to be out that even before the show started, watching a DJ spin 80s songs was enthralling enough I didn’t miss my phone. So here’s to a great 4th of July weekend and if all things go to plan, next year on this weekend I’ll be in Seattle & Portland and I can keep the tradition of kick-ass July 4th. I stole some pics on this post from @djtrauma & @deshrain 🤫
A post shared by Mike (@thegaz) on Jul 5, 2020 at 10:41am PDT
