The Art of Storytelling

When the Oddball Comedy & Curiosity Festival rolled through Pittsburgh the Friday night of Labor Day Weekend, yours truly was on hand to watch Dave Chappelle quickly quell any negative public perception that had started to build after a tough set in Hartford the night before. But unfortunately for me, Dave didn't tell this story about Kanye while in Pittsburgh (or maybe he did...I think I was a few hours deep into beer and other adult refreshments before he got onstage).

By now everyone has heard Aziz Ansari's tale of hanging with Yeezy. It sounds as though every comedian who has had the honor of chilling with him has ended up with stand-up material.

From Complex:

On Kanye West's rise to stardom:

"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."

*dead* It sounds like hanging out with 'Ye back when his fame was still on the rise was ridic.

The full audio is below.