Somebody has definitely been violating Dave Chappelle's no-cellphones, no-recording-devices rule on the comic genius' Oddball Comedy tour AKA the comeback trail. And the result is us freeloaders and goat-fuckers here on the internet get free admission to the show--including this hilarious behind the scenes anecdote about Kanye West's very first TV appearance, which just happened to be his live performance of the song "Food" with Common (dancing around a kitchen countertop) on Chappelle's Show.
To be completely honest, deep down I feel sort of dirty posting this (not about listening to it, though. I feel awesome about listening to it) because it makes me feel like I am somehow violating on Dave, too; contributing to the stress of his return to the spotlight and adding one more vaulting horse to the obstacle course standing between him and a full reinstatement to public life, and non-stop crying-tears-of-shame hilarity for the rest of us. I wrestled with it for a minute. It was kind of an ethical dilemma, in fact, or it would have been posted days ago. Here is why I ultimately overcame my moral qualms and decided to post this youtube upload of his full Oddball set in Chicago (mysteriously uploaded by "Dave Chappelle" shortly after other outlets posted an upload of the same audio from "Flip Petrevski"). No, not because "other outlets" have already posted, meaning it's safe to jump on the bandwagon. Fuck them other outlets. No, I feel good about it because--far from--dissuading me from or anybody else from shelling out the ducats to see him live, this digital bootleg reinforces all the feelings that would make me spend my hard-earned money; 1) the hope of being there for moments like this--the Kanye story obviously being a spontaneous reminiscence Dave trotted out specially for the Chicago audience, 2) the desire to see the hecklers he's snapping on in person and 3) the incredible relief of knowing that dude is back in top form and funnier than ever. Listen below and scroll down to find a transcription of the best Kanye West story ever.
Last time I was in Chicago, Kanye gave me tickets to the Watch the Throne tour, now we're even.. he owed me that though.The first time Kanye West was on television was on the Chappelle's Show. It was the week that The Black Album came out. I'll never forget. We were all sitting in the trailer listening to The Black Album, and Jay-Z says on the record, "Kanyeezy, you's a genius. You did it again,"* and Kanye stopped the tape and pressed rewind.
He had that energy. You knew he was gonna be somebody. And then they did the show, him and Common did it. And you remember that song The Food? "You love to hear the story, again and again. About those two brothers from the City of Wind."
The crowd, "EGHHHHHHHEEE." Motherfuckers go nuts. I said, "Hey Kanye, look, we're going back to the studio. We got to edit some sketches, but if you want, you can come with us and check out some of the stuff we're working on." He says, "Oh that'd be great!"
He comes to the studio we're all sitting and there watching all these crazy sketches. Nobody had seen any of this shit before. It was Rick James, all that shit. All on there. It's on footage, we was all cracking up and then in the middle of it all, Kanye's phone rings. This is when I knew he was gonna be famous.
He answers the phone, he goes, "Hello. Huh? What? Uh uh, I can't. I can't. Cause, I'm at Dave Chappelle's show watching sketches that nobody's ever seen before."
And then he says, "Cause my life is dope, and I do dope shit," and then he hung up the phone.
