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S42.E06: Dave Chappelle / A Tribe Called Quest


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I kind of wish that last night's episode was a straight hour and a half of Dave Chappelle's stand up because it was all so on the mark. The sketches, on the other hand, felt like they had pacing issues. The election sketch was on the mark. Every time they flashed the time I could vividly recall my exact emotion at that point of the night (although I admit I only lasted until 9:15 before flipping to a rerun of Boy Meets World because I realized what was happening. That show holds up.)

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18 minutes ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

Does David Chappelle often wear clothing with his own name on it? (Monologue, Kids Talk Politics, closing.)

Also, it appears that he is still a smoker - Inside SNL, the bumper, the closing.

I've seen Chappelle do stand up twice in Toronto.

People often report he smokes through the entire set.  Toronto has/had different laws than the American cities he's worked in I guess, because he talked about how he had a meeting with the Mayor (Rob Ford the first time, known crack smoker) and tried to discuss it but was not given the go ahead.  The second time he showed up all built up like crazy and I thought smoking wasn't so much of an issue, but he obviously needed his cigarettes last night :)

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I think it would have been funny for Baldwin as Trump & Hillary to appear together. SNL should be happy with President Trump. There is so much opportunity to mock him. Weren't there Trump skits in 2011 & 2012. They could bring back Darrel Hammond to play Trump.

I hope Alec comes back to play Trump as someone who clearly did not want the job and didn't expect to win and is now in way over his head. The pictures of his visit to Washington this week where he looked liked a condemned man.

Edited by VCRTracking
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Mike Ryan is one of the SNL writers I check in with every Sunday - sometimes I agree, sometimes I disagree with his analysis of the previous night's show. This week's is a must-read. (In particular the first section, where he talks about the impact of having Trump as a host last year.) 

I agree with so much of what has been said already, especially how Chappelle absolutely nailed the monologue and the first skit about the shock and surprise of white liberals and how lovely and timely McKinnon's open was. So I'll just add this: A Tribe Called Quest was fucking amazing. And I almost cried when Busta came out of the audience in the second song.

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I didn't watch the show, however I did watch the cold opening. Wow Kate did a great job and great tribute to Lenard Cohen. I am still not over the shock and sadness of the election. I was of course brought to tears once again by her performance. I think it was a great (and dark) opening to the show. It shows how a good portion of the country, including me felt after that election. And was a great send off to her character.

On another note, I am sort of glad to hear that Alec Baldwin not agreeing to reappear as Trump. I do hope they continue to make fun of and laugh at the orange asshole since sadly he'll be there for the next four years.

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Mike Ryan is one of the SNL writers I check in with every Sunday - sometimes I agree, sometimes I disagree with his analysis of the previous night's show. This week's is a must-read. (In particular the first section, where he talks about the impact of having Trump as a host last year.) 

I can't join Mike Ryan condemning the show for not taking Trump seriously because I didn't take it seriously at the time. Jon Stewart didn't take it seriously and John Oliver admitted recently he thought Trump running would be a joke before reality hit. We overestimated the people of this country.  Candidates who were considered having a serious chance for president never hosted SNL the same year. They only hosted after they lost the nomination or election. John McCain hosted, but it was in 2002 and he was eying six years into the future and he lost. Candidates might appear in sketches but briefly as themselves or in bit parts and nothing would demean them. They want to appear to have a sense of humor but they want to be also taken seriously. Trump hosted because he likes the attention. That's all he's wanted and he was a terrible host. Nobody thought "Wow, he's really good! I bet he'll make a great president!"

Edited by VCRTracking
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I think Fallon is another person who never took Trump seriously.  (Sorry was going to write more then I realize it's off topic).

I'm a Chappelle stan so I loved the show.  I'm so glad he did it.  It's kind of like a dream realized for me now.

Now I'd love to see Chris Rock host, because he's a lot more..... edgier than Chappelle.  He's angrier, he's more real.  I don't know how to put it intelligently but it would cut a lot harder than Chappelle's reaction to this.

Edited by Ms Blue Jay
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2 hours ago, Indigo Luna said:

I live in the WRAL viewing area and I was pissed off as well. They didn't just bleep words but whole sentences at a time and you only heard about half the monologue and the walking dead sketch. I'll try to catch it on hulu tomorrow I guess.

I can understand the "10 words" (per the WRAL tweet) aspect but that's not what they did, they censored entire passages.  Sad.

EDIT: Here's a story from the entertainment industry news org "Variety"

http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/saturday-night-live-wral-dave-chappelle-1201916985/

Edited by kib
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Now I'd love to see Chris Rock host, because he's a lot more..... edgier than Chappelle.  He's angrier, he's more real.  I don't know how to put it intelligently but it would cut a lot harder than Chappelle's reaction to this.

My favorite bit from when Chris hosted in 1997(I think) was when he said we already had a black president with Bill Clinton. "They second-guess everything he does! Really! You would think he was black!"

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I'd heard of Dave Chappelle but I never watched him, so I was unfamiliar with his work.  So having said that, I thought the opening monologue was rather disappointing.  Maybe he was emotional about the election, or it was something else, but his timing seemed to be "off."  I didn't enjoy it.  

Also, since i'd never seen his characters, the Negan joke didn't work for me either, but I can understand how someone who knew his work would find it hilarious. 

It was nice to see Chris Rock, even though that skit was lame.

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5 minutes ago, Ohwell said:

I'd heard of Dave Chappelle but I never watched him, so I was unfamiliar with his work.  So having said that, I thought the opening monologue was rather disappointing.  Maybe he was emotional about the election, or it was something else, but his timing seemed to be "off."  I didn't enjoy it.  

Also, since i'd never seen his characters, the Negan joke didn't work for me either, but I can understand how someone who knew his work would find it hilarious. 

It was nice to see Chris Rock, even though that skit was lame.

I believe Negan is the name of the character in The Walking Dead (yes, I live under a rock in real life), not one of Chappelle's characters. I don't know Chappelle either (he is one of my kids' favorites so I had heard of him) but I thought he came across as the smart funny man he apparently is and thought he did an amazing job. YMMV.

Edited by MakeMeLaugh
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11 hours ago, Pete Martell said:

I'll give Kate McKinnon a lot of credit for her performance (sincere, full of appropriate pathos, with genuine comfort at the end), but it felt jarringly out of place for a show that painfully, painfully tries to not take a political position, a show that actively enabled Trump, and whose creator and executive producer is involved with a talk show (Fallon) that enabled Trump. He's tried to have it both ways, at a great cost to many, and the only thing I could think of during the otherwise tasteful and powerful opening was - too little, too late.

Very true. And they contributed to the "Hillary is a horrible calculating shrew" narrative with her portrayal, which was only likable because of McKinnon.

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37 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Now I'd love to see Chris Rock host, because he's a lot more..... edgier than Chappelle.  He's angrier, he's more real.  I don't know how to put it intelligently but it would cut a lot harder than Chappelle's reaction to this.

I remember him hosting right around the time "Top Five" came out a couple years back and it was kind of lackluster but yeah seeing his take on what's going on now would be interesting. Although mileage varied on reactions to him as Oscar host under a racially charged controversy so who knows.

Edited by Negritude
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3 minutes ago, MakeMeLaugh said:

I believe Negan is the name of the character in The Walking Dead, not one of Chappelle's characters. I don't know Chappelle either (he is one of my kids' favorites so I had heard of him) but I thought he came across as the smart funny man he apparently is and thought he did an amazing job. YMMV.

I didn't make myself clear.  I know who Negan is, but I didn't recognize the characters who played Negan's kneeling victims, who are characters Chapelle played.

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"Speaking of which, who on earth did Bobby Moynihan piss off because he's hardly been on the show."

Probably the same person as Vanessa Bayer. I can't remember seeing her in more than one sketch an episode in a looooong time.

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The cold open was a reminder that SNL doesn't have to be funny, it just needs to be entertaining, and that can include poignant.  See also the Phil Hartman / Jan Hooks dance sketch.  And the end blurred the line.  Was it "Hillary Clinton" saying she wouldn't give up politics and fighting against injustice, or Kate McKinnon saying she wouldn't give up comedy and fighting against injustice.  

I like when the actors show their actual emotions (as long as it doesn't derail a sketch) which happened a lot this episode between Kate nearly crying in the cold open, Michael and Colin laughing at their joke flub, and everyone but Kyle breaking in the milk sketch.

Stand-up monologues are the best.  Though Lorne has a reputation of not liking when hosts are profane.

I haven't seen Chapelle's Show, and I haven't watched the Walking Dead in years, so that sketch was doubly lost on me.

As for the last sketch, David Walliams and Matt Lucas called and they want their Bitty sketch back.

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2 hours ago, blueray said:

On another note, I am sort of glad to hear that Alec Baldwin not agreeing to reappear as Trump. I do hope they continue to make fun of and laugh at the orange asshole since sadly he'll be there for the next four years.

I hope they continue to have zero skits with Trump from now on. Not with Baldwin, not with a different cast member, not even with a poop emoji pillow filling in. Just keep jokes about him for WU and ignore him otherwise.

I think Trump would probably be MORE pissed about this than being made fun of.

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I so enjoyed this. As others said, it was good all the way thru.

Kate/Hillary playing the piano and singing Hallelujah was wonderful. I wonder who came up with that. It meshed together beautifully.

Fantastic monologue. Chapelle just nailed everything.

I thought all the sketches were great. The watching-the-election one was so real -- all us liberal white people aghast at how the evening progressed -- with the black guys laughing at their naiveté. Last week I read an article by a black blogger who basically said, "Now you know how we feel every day."

I enjoyed The Walking Dead sketch even though I don't watch that show (though occasionally read about episodes) and have not seen many Chapelle shows, so I wasn't all that familiar with his characters. Still, it was funny.

WU was good. Glad to see the Notorious RBG again. Loved her line about hiding horcruxes all over D.C. so she'll never die.

Boy, when the Jheri's Place sketch was going on, I was appalled and embarrassed at badly Leslie was doing. I was so relieved to find out that was part of the gag. Chapelle's line about David S Pumpkins was outstanding.

I liked the Kids Talk Politics sketch, though it didn't go where I thought it would. I didn't realize that was possibly Chapelle's own daughter.

I love the Donnelly's Bar sketches. The lines are hilarious. I can't remember any except for Chapelle saying she had given him a hard-off. (That's probably been said before, but it was new to me.) And for once I found Kenan to be very funny. I loved all his reactions, starting with him giving Sheila a yellow card. I also loved when he said the two of them were a sign of the apocalypse, then a frog drops down on the bar. I'm so glad all Kenan did was look up. Perfect joke.

Leslie and Kyle was great. Very funny when they're talking intimately then walk away, revealing that they were standing in front of a secretary. 

Finally, the breastfeeding sketch was terrific. Pete trying to block his laughing mouth with the cookie cracked me up. Dave emerging from behind the blanket covered in milk was great. 

Is it true that Baldwin said he didn't want to play Trump? Does that mean ever again or just in this ep?

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6 minutes ago, shantown said:

I hope they continue to have zero skits with Trump from now on. Not with Baldwin, not with a different cast member, not even with a poop emoji pillow filling in. Just keep jokes about him for WU and ignore him otherwise.

4 years without a presidential sketch? Unlikely and childish.

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5 hours ago, blueray said:

I didn't watch the show, however I did watch the cold opening. Wow Kate did a great job and great tribute to Lenard Cohen. I am still not over the shock and sadness of the election. I was of course brought to tears once again by her performance. I think it was a great (and dark) opening to the show. It shows how a good portion of the country, including me felt after that election. And was a great send off to her character.

On another note, I am sort of glad to hear that Alec Baldwin not agreeing to reappear as Trump. I do hope they continue to make fun of and laugh at the orange asshole since sadly he'll be there for the next four years.

It would be funny if, as a form of protest, they had an orange beachball on a stick represent Trump.

The annoying thing about the election sketch (beyond how eerily similar it was to my thought process) was that it treated their reaction like white people just discovered much of this country was racist.  That wasn't the case with me - I always knew a frighteningly large number were both racist and sexist - it's just that it seemed like we might actually overcome it, for this election anyway.  In some respects, we did.  Had Hillary Clinton won the Electoral College, though, I wouldn't have been confident she'd hold off the forces of darkness for more than four years 

ETA: I'm sure there are some Americans who have been under a rock for the past several decades and didn't realize this country was racist/sexist. In my case, I just figured we had temporarily held them off.

Edited by Brn2bwild
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12 hours ago, oakville said:

Apparently Baldwin quit the show without notice and refused to appear as Trump. That was a missed opportunity.

Alec did a good Trump, but Hammond knocked his impression out of the park.  He can do Trump better than Trump can do Trump.  I hope we get to see it again.      

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2 hours ago, VCRTracking said:

I can't join Mike Ryan condemning the show for not taking Trump seriously because I didn't take it seriously at the time. Jon Stewart didn't take it seriously and John Oliver admitted recently he thought Trump running would be a joke before reality hit. We overestimated the people of this country.  Candidates who were considered having a serious chance for president never hosted SNL the same year. They only hosted after they lost the nomination or election. John McCain hosted, but it was in 2002 and he was eying six years into the future and he lost. Candidates might appear in sketches but briefly as themselves or in bit parts and nothing would demean them. They want to appear to have a sense of humor but they want to be also taken seriously. Trump hosted because he likes the attention. That's all he's wanted and he was a terrible host. Nobody thought "Wow, he's really good! I bet he'll make a great president!"

I didn't take it seriously until he won the primary, but the comments made by him by the time he hosted were still horrific and unworthy of a host. He fit SNL's need for attention and general apathetic shrugging, so they ignored all that. I'd guess their instinct is still to just continue to shrug, find obvious flaws to zero in on (as they often did with Hillary), or do "Everyone is terrible anyway," because that's about as far as their political nuance goes in the last 20 years. I think they see it all as a game, which just enables the idea that there's no point in bothering.  I'll always remember that awful sketch with Tina's Palin opening for Trump, yammering and jabbering away as Trump talks to us about how crazy she is. That's a classic easy, cheap route and also a classic way of enabling a dangerous personality. And it's classic Lorne Michaels as well.

I don't expect apologies and hair-tearing, but I would rather they just move away from politics because I don't need any ha-has over "yooge" and hair and a wife with a funny accent. 

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19 minutes ago, Writing Wrongs said:

4 years without a presidential sketch? Unlikely and childish.

SNL didn't do as many sketches when Obama was President. However, they always excelled at making fun of GOP Presidents. The sketches about the Bushes & Reagan were hilarious. Trump offers so much material to make fun of. I would be shocked if they didn't find a suitable replacement for Baldwin.

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56 minutes ago, shantown said:

I hope they continue to have zero skits with Trump from now on. Not with Baldwin, not with a different cast member, not even with a poop emoji pillow filling in. Just keep jokes about him for WU and ignore him otherwise.

I think Trump would probably be MORE pissed about this than being made fun of.

I totally agree .  I think what he hates more than being criticized and made fun of is being ignored .  

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I would love if SNL just ignored the Trump presidency with no skits. In fact just have Kate do Hilary skits about what's she's up to now. They won't though, they will probably find someone to do Trump. I think they struggled with finding a good Obama and that;s why there weren't many Obama skits. 

I mean, I can't fault SNL for making this election a joke. And yes, SNL was not alone in the "it's so funny" entertainment value of the whole thing. I think most of all the shows were doing this. 

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As a blue boomer in a red state, I sort of needed this show, too.  My stepson is a gay fireman who voted for Obama in '08.  He voted for Trump on Tuesday, despite Pence's views.  A couple hours before the show, we had our first discussion since the election, and it was unsettling and depressing. 

I've been watching SNL since the show started my freshman year in high school.  I've knocked SNL over the last few years for falling behind the likes of the Daily Show, et al, regarding political satire.  Last night's show was probably one of the sharpest and most relevant in its history, and thank gawd, it was funny as hell.

Anyone else catch Chapelle's quick apology to Lorne during the monologue? 

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People talk about SNL "normalizing" Donald Trump as if he was David Duke before. He's been in the public eye as long as I've been alive these 30+ years and for most of it he was a silly but mostly harmless figure.  Even as a kid I knew who Donald and Ivana Trump and Marla Maples was. I saw him being helpful to Macauley Culkin in Home Alone 2, saw his book and boardgame in stores. He had a hit reality show that lasted more than a dozen seasons, with contestants of different ethnicities and genders some including celebrities like George Takei. He was a rich blowhard with weird hair but you never thought he was a racist. At least for a white millionaire. He hung out with the Clintons and his daughter is best friends with Chelsea. It's when he started openly criticizing Obama that he started getting traction with the right.  He was saying things Republican politicians were too polite or more diplomatic to say but what blue collar, red state white Americans wanted to hear.

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SNL didn't do as many sketches when Obama was President. However, they always excelled at making fun of GOP Presidents.

Writer Jim Downey said in the updated "Live From New York" book:

"If I had to describe Obama as a comedy project, I would say, "Degree of difficulty, 10 point 10." It's like being a rock climber looking up at a thousand-foot-high face of solid obsidian, polished and oiled. There's not a single thing to grab onto — certainly not a flaw or hook that you can caricature. [Al] Gore had these "handles," so did Bush, and Sarah Palin, and even Hillary had them. But with Obama, it was the phenomenon — less about him and more about the effect he had on other people and the way he changed their behavior. So that's the way I wrote him."

I think with Trump he had such obvious "handles" that the show focused on them instead of the (poisonous) phenomenon that was happening around him until it was too late.

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Anyone else catch Chapelle's quick apology to Lorne during the monologue? 

I saw a reaction video from a black couple who was like "Who's Lorne? Is that his wife?"

Edited by VCRTracking
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7 hours ago, oakville said:

SNL should be happy with President Trump. There is so much opportunity to mock him.

This reminds me of what Patton Oswalt said about George W Bush and comedy:

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"Man, you're really going to miss Bush. You comedians are going to be hurting." Tell you what, worry-warts. I'll happily give back the 15 minutes of "our president's a sociopath who can't speak and believes in angels" material I wrote if we WEREN'T TORTURING PEOPLE ANYMORE. I know everyone thinks Bush was some sort of comedic Everlasting Gobstopper but believe me, history's going to look at these last eight years and think, "I don't know if teetering that close to the brink was worth the funny YouTube impressions."

At a certain point, someone is so awful that no amount of comedic material is worth it. 

Kate McKinnon's cold open was so emotional and genuine and had me crying. And just a half hour before the episode started I had gotten cocky because I hadn't cried all day. So thanks a lot, Kate McKinnon; I had to set the "X days since I last cried because of President-Elect Trump" clock back to 0. 

I normally can't stand Weekend Update or Colin Jost and Michael Che, but I was cracking up at the "This is My Fight Song" list of the record-breaking 4 minority women who are now in Congress. 

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This is the first SNL for years that I enjoyed all the way through. FINALLY, a monologue that isn't some song tribute created to just fill the time. Every skit was clever and well-done IMO. I've never seen Chapelle's show and would never recognize him on the street, although I know his name. So, kudos to him and all cast members for the best show of the decade IMO. Loved all of it.

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Kate's cold open made me cry; it was a perfect combination of tribute to Cohen, send-off to Hillary and Kate's own feelings on the subject. Also liked Chapelle's monologue. I liked watching the people awaiting election returns, but like someone else said, I think most white people understand there  are racists in this country.  It seems to be a reoccurring joke on tv now: you cant be upset about X because it's not as bad as Y.  I hope Leslie Jones is onboard and wants to have the oversexed skits, otherwise it just making fun of her because she isn't 25 and size zero.

I like Jost and Che on weekend update but I always think the guests are on too long. I would have liked to see Drunk Uncle and his take on the election-why is Bobby not on more? Other than that: I am a walking dead fan but havent seen Chapelle's show so I was not familiar with any of the characters. Continue to like the barfly sketches, especially Kenan's reactions. 

Edited by Madding crowd
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Quick question re A Tribe Called Quest...who was on the painting they were singing in front of?  Embarrassing question, I know, but I am an old fat white woman and there have been so many young black men memorialized in the past several years...

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4 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Now I'd love to see Chris Rock host, because he's a lot more..... edgier than Chappelle.  He's angrier, he's more real.  I don't know how to put it intelligently but it would cut a lot harder than Chappelle's reaction to this.

I'm not sure that he's edgier, but he understands other people better than Chappelle and is better at explaining different experiences to an audience that doesn't necessarily share the same POV. He's also not afraid to admit that he cares about larger issues.

1 hour ago, oakville said:

SNL didn't do as many sketches when Obama was President. However, they always excelled at making fun of GOP Presidents. The sketches about the Bushes & Reagan were hilarious. Trump offers so much material to make fun of. I would be shocked if they didn't find a suitable replacement for Baldwin.

I don't think it has anything to do with partisan affiliations. Remember Darrell Hammond as Bill Clinton? There are other factors involved in why they didn't do as much on Obama. First it's hard to write him as a comic character. Unsurprisingly Jim Downey explains it better than I can in the quote that was posted above. But it's true - Obama has such tremendous self control that he doesn't provide a hook so you have to be doing real satire of current events rather than just getting laughs with "Clinton is slick" or "Bush is inarticulate" Also there is the issue of personnel - before Jay was hired they did not have anyone who could really do Obama well and the writing staff didn't seem to do topical material very well, especially as Seth was more and more focused on Weekend Update.

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22 minutes ago, Red Bridey said:

Quick question re A Tribe Called Quest...who was on the painting they were singing in front of?  Embarrassing question, I know, but I am an old fat white woman and there have been so many young black men memorialized in the past several years...

This old fat white woman read about him this morning--Phife was one of the founders of the group: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/a-tribe-called-quests-phife-dawg-dead-at-45-20160323

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Thank you, MakeMeLaugh and fastiller!  Just goes to show I am completely not "hip" to that music scene.  Would be kind of ridiculous if I were, though!  I do remember reading about the death, but didn't remember what group the singer was in!

Edited by Red Bridey
Just read obituary link
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I am not sure how you ladies define 'old'. I am 47 yo.  I am almost exactly 1 year older than Phife would be. I am always proud of ATCQ, they're from the neighborhood next to where I grew up in Queens.   It's always nice to see the local guys doing well.  

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33 minutes ago, fastiller said:

I am not sure how you ladies define 'old'. I am 47 yo.  I am almost exactly 1 year older than Phife would be. I am always proud of ATCQ, they're from the neighborhood next to where I grew up in Queens.   It's always nice to see the local guys doing well.  

My jeans are older than you :)

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Quick question re A Tribe Called Quest...who was on the painting they were singing in front of?  Embarrassing question, I know, but I am an old fat white woman and there have been so many young black men memorialized in the past several years...

The face on the banner was Phife Dawg. A founding member who died from diabetes last March. We did hear his recorded voice.

(From another old white woman who has realized that it's not too late to learn new stuff!)

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