But the thing is, being a rapper now, you don’t want to exclude anybody or neglect any demographics. It’s not as mature.ĬARMICHAEL: Jay-Z was the first rapper I ever listened to who was talking about family. Now, rap is stuck in this braggadocious, adolescent space. That all changed with the internet and self-releasing. Like, we had Lil’ Bow Wow and that was it. and Jeezy and Ross was on, rappers looked old. ROCKY: Rap is in its adolescence and it’s been stuck here since Soulja Boy. Rothaniel is a special about a man in his thirties contending with himself, which makes sense, given that I made it afterwards.ĬARMICHAEL: Let me ask you a question about growth.
You first time gay videos movie#
But the movie came out after the special. I made the movie a couple years ago, and then I made Rothaniel pretty soon after. A lot of people can’t see over that hill.
The movie feels like the culminating moment of youth anxiety: the fear of the 30th birthday, feeling anxious that my life isn’t what it was promised to be, trying to fulfill the promises you made to yourself as a teenager. I felt stuck and I felt like I needed to make a leap.ĬARMICHAEL: To a lot of people, 30 feels like the death of your youth. It’s about the freedom of that-what if you had one day to do every deep dark thing you’ve ever wanted? It was where I was in my life at the time. It’s about them trying to tie up all their loose ends and fulfill their dreams before ending it. What was the thought process behind that?ĬARMICHAEL: The film is about two angsty 30-year-old friends who decide to end their lives, and they make a pact to live one last day. ROCKY: You told me about this movie shit in 2019. That’s going to be the new shit for 2022. I’m not going to sit here and act like my shit don’t stink, but if I got a mustard stain, Imma rock it. That’s the mystique that people can’t see behind, but I’m not hiding. ROCKY: I don’t think that the world knows how much of a fucking goofball I am. Do you find it hard to maintain an image? How conscious are you of being A$AP Rocky? And you’re you.ĬARMICHAEL: I have to ask, you’re in this space of, like, cool niggas who are so cool-like you, Hov, and Obama are three niggas I couldn’t imagine with mustard on your shirt.ĬARMICHAEL: It sounds like a joke, but I mean it. You know I’m a fucking goofball-we’ve chilled without no cameras.
ROCKY: I can’t express enough how happy I am for you, because I’m an advocate for being yourself. ROCKY: When I saw the special-the earrings, nigga, the earrings the pizzazz, the posture, the fade-I was like, “Look at my nigga!” Papa’s got a brand new bag!” You was like, “Yo listen, I know I’m a comedian, but I’m deadass serious about this.”
ROCKY: But that’s just close-minded people. You and I are from different hoods, but I think it’s a similar mentality sometimes. It’s a deep-rooted thing that some people can’t get over. And who gives a fuck? If people you know are concerned about that, you don’t need those motherfuckers in your life.ĬARMICHAEL: No, you’re right. ROCKY: But you got to know this: You finding yourself, and really becoming yourself, and being proud of that, is the coolest shit ever. That’s why I needed to talk to you, because you are the homeboy I’m referring to in the special, and I still need you to think I’m cool! Your opinion means a lot. ROCKY: But you want to know the funniest part? When I watched the special, I kind of felt like I was one of the homeboys you was referring to, like, “The whole time nigga? You was gay the whole time?”ĬARMICHAEL: Yes, bro. In a year when the foundations of comedy are being shaken and people have lost their senses of humor about serious issues, Carmichael-long a favorite in tastemaker circles-has arrived, and not a moment too soon. In both projects, Carmichael mines the dark contours of the mind for lucid comic brilliance, turning our collective death drive into something with a prescriptive feeling of levity-all while mining tropes of masculinity and male intimacy in a way that feels refreshingly anti-conventional. The comedian-turned-auteur was always known for finding humor in the tragic and discomforting, and those dueling obsessions have crystallized into a diptych with the back-to-back releases of On the Count of Three, a dark comedy about two friends making a suicide pact, which Carmichael starred in and directed, and Rothaniel, his HBO special in which he stunned the industry by coming out as gay. It’s finally Jerrod Carmichael’s moment, and it couldn’t feel more right.