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ook'$ toll ChrisRock's eyes dart toward the door of hisoffice every time thesound of hiscolleague$ at work 0n the other side nearly knocksit off its hinges. Clearly, he'd rather be ouer there with Adam$andler, David $pade and - theYoung Turks of '$aturdayl{ight [ive' - whippingupa sketch for this week's show (anden$uring his Firstthe comedy clubs, then the almighty 'Saturdayl{ight live' and noltr his otlln movie, nCB4.n Dogood thingscome in threes for Chris Rock? By Tom 0'lleill spot in the lineup)than performing themundane task of pr0motings0me moviehe's only co-written, coproduced andstarred in. . Perched notunlike abird about to take flight, the twenty-six-year-old sits onthe heels of hisshoe$, planted $quarely onthe seat of his swivelchair, and turns in measured half-circles. "The pres$ure's 0il,"says Fock of 'C84'(short for "Cell Block 4") the rap c0me- dythat could propel him out of herefaster than you can think tddief$urphy."l||y namens allover this. lf it hits,we got a hit. lf it fails,'Cilristoek'is the only name the audience isgoing t0 krow.nn

Photog/aphs by D OMINIQUE PALOMBO US APRIL 1993.69 f

Heaps of paper literally falling from his desktop every time he "But no one took me seriously becauseI was too young." brushes against it testify that it's not for lack of trying that this At about the sametime, Grazer met rap pioneer Tone Loc and whisper-thin comedian (five-foot-eleven, 130 pounds) isn't becamefascinated with what he perceivedto be a subculture of akeady a household name. While waiting for Monday night's gangster rappers. He decided to do "a rap comedy in the spirit meet-the-host gathering to begin, Rock confides that on more ol Airplane!" but his idea went into hibernation until last win- than one of these occa- ter when he mentioned it sions he's traded how-do- to . you-do's with celebshe'd "Eddie said, 'I know never even heard of. "I a guy who's been work- had no idea who Kyle ing on a script for two Maclachlan was," says years!"' recalls Grazer. 'Help Rock with a chuckle, "or "He said, this SusanLucci." brother! "' His unfamiliarity with Grazer, whose Imagine certain entertainers is as Films (cofounded with much a gauge of the cul- Ron Howard) has pro- tural and physical land- duced some of the most scape Rock's covered - successfulmovies of the from one of the roughest past decade(from Parent- neighborhoods in hood to Kindergarten to one of the Cop) loved the script, but most prestigious jobs in as desperateas Rock was television - as it is an to seehis dream become explanation for why his a reality, the actor particular brand of wouldn't sign the dotted humor rarely makes it line unlessit also read past the pitch meetings. "producer." A ballsy Rock's hyperkinetic move, but maybe not for injections of street-smart a kid who used to pack a humor into this mostly knife with his lunch every -white institution are day before school. more often than not rele- Rock's steely determi- gated to the shows hosted nation to maintain con- by African-Americans (he trol over his project got loads of airtime with extended to the confer- Sinbad, Michael Jordan, encerooms of Universal, and Hammer). And his the studio that financed two recurring characters the $6.4 million film, as (the afro-ed retroradical well. Tiptoeing around "Nat X" and the home- the issue,Rock allows 'Thepre$$ure'$ 0n,'$ay$ Rock 0f "CB{," the movie that c0rld make hima mosiestar.'Hy namo'$ all ouer this; lf it hits,tlle got a hit.lf it fails,nnChrisRock" is the only name the audience isgoing to know' boy host of "I'm Chillin"') make their rare appearancesin the that he'd listen to the executives' ideas about story and struc- last - and least watched - half hour of the show. ture but when it came to content he was, uh, apprehensive. "It's okay, it's okay," saysRock with a disarming smile. "I love "They had no idea what corny was," says Rock with a shud- it here." So said David (Letterman) to Goliath (NBC) before let- der, "and it's very easyto turn off a bunch of rap kids. , . . One ting him have it. "Black or white," he adds diplomatically, "SNl [wrong] element just pissesthem the l--- off." is a good show." But he admits that his homeboys from Brooklyn The resulting sendup of the rap music world is, if anything, at rarely watch, and when they do "they don't get half of it." least authentic. Rock recruited only die-hard fans like himself Brran Grazer, the coexecutive producer of CB4, calls Rock's "who love rap with all their heart and see the humor in it." work on SNL "really limited," adding, "I didn't reahzein any Coscreenwriter and Rock's businesspartner, , is way at all that [Rock] had this level of comedic depth. It gets a highly esteemedblack music critic who's "been hanging '79 completely tapped in this movie." around the hip-hop scenesince when it was still a Harlem thing." Director Tamra Davis's previous work includes Tone "I wanna do a rap Spina! Tap,I wanna do a rap Spinal Tap," Loc's practically historic "Funky Cold Medina." And CB4 Rock recalls saying to anyone who would listen four years ago. received the official blessingof the gods when the Ices - Cube

US APRIL 1993.7I and T - agreedto appearas themselvesin cameos. the press, Murphy "did find me in a club" but "it was a In other words, CB4 was orchestrated by a hard-core enthu- momentary thing that lasted about a year." That year includ- siast who countered any and all aspersionsto his producing cre- ed appearances in Murphy's HBO special and Beuerly Hills dentials with the pointed counterchallenge: "It's a rdp movre. Cop II. After that? "Nothing!" laughs Rock. Do you know more about rap than me?" "Eddie's like a cooler older cousin that comes by every now If rap is the product of a and then," he explains. life exposed to violence, "He's got coolerclothes, crime and bigotry. proba- girls and a nicer car," bly not. Rock grew up the But don't call Rock a eldest of six kids in prot6g6: "That usually Brooklyn's Bedford- means that this guy is Stuyvesant,one of the not going to work again, roughest neighborhoods and I don't want to be in New York. He suffered anybody's anything." the added cruelty of being Like Murphy, Rock's bused to Bensonhurst, the career hasn't been with- notorious Italian-Amer- out its little controver- ican community where a sies. During his first black teen's murder by a appearanceon Arsenio mob of white youths in Hall's The Late Show, 1989 ignited a summer of the producers cut to a racial turmoil from which commercial when Rock the city still hasn't fully joked about Johnny recovered.If Rock isn't Carson having a black inrimidated by Tinsel- grandchild. His next vis- town biggies, it's because it elicitedan embarrassed he's been roughed up by a apology from Arsenio to lot worse. "I got called his viewers the following 'nigger' every day," says night for a joke Rock Rock of his school years. made about date rape. "It was, like, my name." The joke, Rock claims, From second to sixth wasn't about rape at all grade he was the only and went over well at the black kid in his class and time. Nevertheless,he carried bricks, knives and wasn't invited back until at one point a phony gun well after his successat to fend off the daily beat- SNL and Arsenio has ings. (!7hen he pulled the never discussedthe mat- gun on his tormenters he ter with him. was suspended from Perhaps they'll have a Rockwas the only black student inhis class:'lf lhad gone t0 a blackschool, I'd have a n0rmaliob s0metllhere. l{olvay in therll0rld I'd be in show busines$. I'dbe the funny guy at work' school.)Asked if the pain of being a child whipping-post informed chancewhen Rock hits the taik-show circuit to promote CB4,the his comedy, Rock doesn't hesitate. "Totally. If I had gone to a movie that Brian Grazer predictswill not only "make Chris Rock black school, I'd have a normal job somewhere.No way in the a movie star" but will causeproducers to finance films basedon world I'd be in show business.I'd be the funny guy at work." his name alone. Indeed,he's in the processof writing a script with And he was the funny busboy at the Red Lobster on Queens (House Party, Boomerangl and has been Boulevard - until the day he couldn't get tickets to his idol approachedto direct his first feature. Eddie Murphy's show at Radio City Music Hall. The eighteen- But for Rock, who calls the day he landed the SNL gig the hap- year-old, having "nothing better to do," wandered uptown to a piest of his life, there's yet another week to scramble for air time comedy club and drew a number from a hat for open-mike and another host to be met. Tonight he sums up his iourney from night. Despite having nothing prepared (and no experienceper- Brooklyn to Rockefeller Center and beyond when he returns forming, savea lifetime of mother-baiting jokes delivered on the after meeting a host he ls familiar with and sayswith a chuckle, stoops of Bed-Stuy),Rock killed. He didn't stop doing stand-up "'S7howould ever think l would meet Glenn Close?" I years - "Eddie happened. for three until the thing" 'US" According to what Rock complains has been overplayed by Tom O'Neill profiled Tom Cruisein the January issueof

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