The following is an exerpt of an excellent cover story with Dave Chappelle. The story is as told by writer Kevin Powell in this months issue of Esquire Magazine. They are on their way to Prince's 3121 party. Dave has just finished his duties at this years Grammy's introducing Sly Stone.

I found it interesting that Quincy Jones was at this party, I figured he hated Prince after that “We are The World” reunion fiasco. Anyway I thought the story was pretty interesting.

Back at the Grammys, Chapelle discards another cigarette, the show is over and we head out of the Staple Center to Princes Party. As the rented black SUV nudges its way around West Hollywood, Chapelle is relieved. ………………………… "Laughter pops inside the SUV as we arrive at Prince's mansion. And what a mansion it is. Tall iron gates. Beige granite with the numbers of the address deliberately jumbled. A swarm of chiseled, no- neck security men. Parking valets zigzagging from vehicle to vehicle. A Gothic doorman with black eyeliner, black fingernail polish, and a black tongue ring, standing there with a guest list on a clipboard. 'Is this a club or Prince's home?' Chappelle asks no one in perticular. Dave Chappelle is not on the sheet, but he's admitted after Prince himself is told who is waiting outside the iron gate. A shuttle van is sent down to ride us up the hill to Prince's palace. It is a thirteen-second excursion we could have done by foot.

If Dave Chappelle is hyped to be here, he does not show it, and as we go by two hostesses at the colossal threshold to Prince's home, one of them says to Chappelle wryly, 'You need to thank Prince for letting you in.' No reaction from Chappelle, but he does make it a point to spot Prince, promptly, and walks right over to thank him for his hospitality. Although Chappelle stands nearly six feet and is long and wiry, it is the elfin Prince in a natty outfit - a blue blazer, white slacks, white shoes- who is the Goliath in this instance. Dig if you will this picture: Chappelle's a kid all of a sudden, the pubescent Dave who worshipped Prince in the 1980s. His gaunt face is tight and nervous, and his gleaming eyes bounce like ping-pong balls from the Purple One's face to the hardwood floor. But ain't Dave Chappelle famous, too? And for sure, dues-paying members of the fame club are omnipresent and accounted for at this joint: Mariah Carey, Alicia Keys, Jeremy Piven from HBO's Entourage, and Morris Day and the Time, the headliners for the evening.' The following paragraphs describe Dave sitting alone and looking uncomfortable at the party , chain smoking, sipping on water, and eating cupcakes, even during the Times performance of “777-9311”. He only talked to people who happened to sit next to him.

.....At the close of the night, Chappelle finally leaps from his seat when he eyeballs music imprasario Quincy Jones. Like a little boy, he shyly introduces himself, but of course Jones knows who he is. When Chapelle was a student at Duke Ellington, Jones came to screen the documentary film “Listen Up”, brought copies for the school, and books of the same title, for the entire student body. Chappelle said that Jones came into the auditorium while he was onstage doing comedy, and goosebumps covered his body. “You never really stop looking at these people as how you saw them as a child, as a kid,” Chappelle says in reference to Prince, to Quincy Jones, to Eddie Murhpy, his boyhood idol. “I mean, man I love them.”
[Edited 5/6/06 20:30pm]

prince lets people smoke in his house? no wonder boozer is pissed.


[Edited 5/6/06 23:10pm]