US comedian Dave Chappelle signed an infamous $50m contract with the Comedy Central channel in 2004 and this seems to be one of the first results: he shells out for a free block party in a secret location in Brooklyn, busses in some mates and a marching band from Ohio and gets Michel Gondry (the video director who graduated to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) to film it.
The result, like the show itself, is raggedy but very likeable. The acts chosen reflect the attitude that, as Chappelle says of hip-hop: "The more you say with it, the less you get airplay." So there's no gangsta rap, but you can enjoy Kanye West, Mos Def, Erykah Badu and Jill Scott - together and separately - and a reunion, after seven years, of the Fugees, though all we see of it is the overdone Killing Me Softly.
But what counts most is the feeling of camaraderie in this Bedford-Stuyvesant location that sparked Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing riot, and the unexpected, like Wyclef Jean's impassioned rant on behalf of libraries. Now, you don't get that from 50 Cent.
