Dave Chappelle’s Idea For “Purple Rain”
One of the few people privy to the comedic mind of Dave Chappelle is his friend Ahmir Khalib Thompson, better known as Questlove of The Roots. When Quest and his bandmate Black Thought joined HuffPost Live’s Marc Lamont Hill on Wednesday, he shared one of Chappelle’s ideas that never made it past the brainstorming stage. “He often gives me these random, late-night phone calls, and one time he said, ‘Amir, I got it. Purple Rain: The Comedy.’ He damn near acted out all the parts in a 20-minute description. He’s like, ‘But just make it a comedy,'” Questlove described. The Roots, who recently joined Chappelle during his run of performances at Radio City Music Hall, also speculated on whether the elusive comedian will ever return to television. As Dave would probably say, “I will when I need the money.”
