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Affion Crockett Explains The Jay-Z vs. Nas Verzuz TV Battle Spoof | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
Feb 11, 2022
Comedian Affion Crockett checked in on Sway In The Morning and talked about his production work that’s coming and collaborating with Spice Adams on Verzuz TV spoofs.
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0:00
listen listen listen listen listen man i
0:02
ain't even got my headphones on for this
0:04
one hold up man
0:06
hold on man let me say this man
0:09
i remember hp i remember
0:12
oh wow hold on
0:15
you going back i'm going back man let me
0:16
take them back how far back way back
0:19
back into time
0:20
there's certain people you meet man and
0:22
you just go man i mean damn that damn
0:25
man that was just pure
0:27
unadulterated unfiltered talent right
0:29
there that's just something that just
0:31
just will never be duplicated again like
0:34
i felt that way about nas when i first
0:37
when ill matter came out and i was like
0:38
how old is he he's what and he was able
0:41
to write this what were his what was his
0:44
mind on you know what um when he did
0:46
that david blaine was somebody i felt
0:48
that way about too man went off when i
0:51
first he scares the [ __ ] out of me
0:56
you know but he scared the [ __ ] out of
0:57
me on the plane once and he did a trick
0:59
in front of my eye and
1:01
it was so bad the trick was so
1:04
he made the plane disappeared while he
1:05
was on it while i was on it it was like
1:07
i was sitting in an invisible seat you
1:08
sat next to him i had to that's how it
1:11
was coming back with some grammys or
1:12
some [ __ ] it was like you know and diddy
1:15
puff was on the other side of the plane
1:16
and david blaine did some trick in front
1:18
of me and i was just looking at him like
1:20
i'm looking at evil
1:22
and puff came up to me and said god
1:24
kneel down on the on the aisle of the
1:26
plane and said you all right
1:28
i said why you say that he said man you
1:30
just i'm just making sure you're all
1:31
right dude is different
1:33
and i said okay cool all right man i'm
1:35
good i'm good every now and then you
1:37
come across these talents but
1:42
you getting children that's david blaine
1:51
candy man
1:52
puffy
1:57
but i got to say this about my brother
1:59
right here man i i've i've often you
2:01
know we've had so much fun over the
2:03
years uh
2:05
and he he shows so much range um and and
2:09
his skill set yeah what he does and
2:11
you know what he does these people are
2:13
some of the most
2:15
um important orators in any generation
2:19
is someone we consider a comedian right
2:22
entertainer um a wise man you know
2:26
someone who puts all those elements
2:28
together and just keeps our attention
2:30
and we learn from them
2:31
we've done so much man i've had this guy
2:33
call this show as russell simmons before
2:36
we done whole interviews and then
2:38
russell called me pissed like man why
2:40
you do that you don't you interview him
2:42
but you're not interviewing me
2:44
i'm in the office why you didn't give me
2:46
a call
2:48
man i put this dude to the test man and
2:51
he's on so many impersonations
2:54
but one of the funniest [ __ ] i've ever
2:56
seen
2:57
i don't know if i laughed harder than
2:59
this i don't know the last time i
3:00
laughed that's hard and i was laughing
3:02
in the pandemic it was just such a
3:04
needed moment man i've been under i've
3:06
been in a slump man
3:07
you know and that [ __ ] made me
3:10
smile so much and rich happened to be at
3:12
my house that day and i hit you and told
3:14
you it's the jay-z versus nas
3:17
animated uh series that atheon crockett
3:20
did who's the guy you did it
3:22
shout out to ace veins ace veins man it
3:25
was the funniest [ __ ] i ever heard and
3:28
ever saw and i just you know now i see
3:30
this dude on ig and he does the cabbage
3:32
sound well what do you call yourself
3:33
devon fontaine fontaine
3:35
you know after everything after every
3:37
verses they do something and it's just
3:40
adams
3:41
vice adams man and it's the most
3:43
hilarious thing and we didn't ask them
3:44
for interview we just asked him to come
3:46
up but he's here with us right now hey i
3:47
got to stop in come on man they feel
3:49
crockett man
3:50
i got to just check on family they say
3:52
interviews at this point i'm just
3:54
checking on family heather rich suede
3:56
come on man tracy in brooklyn look at
3:57
tracy right tracy
4:04
and then the illest [ __ ] is i saw you
4:07
pop locking the other day on ig you
4:09
ain't know he had it no i do
4:11
i really know him he really knows you
4:13
know i know him as a b-boy right yeah
4:16
who's just multi most of most people who
4:18
come from the b-boy b-girl community
4:21
aren't multi-talented
4:23
right you got to be you can't be on that
4:25
level of creativity and that's the
4:26
beautiful thing about hip-hop i mean
4:28
most people
4:29
when when it first started just for fun
4:31
dj graf
4:34
b-boy mc beatbox we all dabbled in all
4:37
of it because that's what we were doing
4:38
in the the hallways of school yeah you
4:40
know what i mean so to me i just carry i
4:43
kept that same energy and just dabbled
4:45
in as much stuff as i could bro um how
4:48
limber are you do you stretch like what
4:50
are you doing yoga [ __ ]
4:52
easily
4:54
nah but uh i was i was born
4:57
yeah a lanky piece of rubber that's just
4:59
my body my body type i thought you did
5:02
that for the russell simmons
5:03
impersonation not it's really that it's
5:05
really that uh my body has always been
5:07
just gristle no bones and um
5:09
i uh you know i'm getting older now so i
5:12
gotta i gotta stretch now
5:13
if i don't want to be like you know
5:16
pulling something yeah
5:18
snap in half hey look here it be
5:20
snapping things be snapping trace
5:23
i don't roll out of bed as fast as i
5:25
used to i get it what do you create like
5:28
do stuff come off the top do you wake up
5:30
and go okay from from 10 to 5 p.m i'm
5:33
gonna try to write something or right
5:35
now it literally just hits me
5:37
organically
5:38
it's like
5:39
i could be riding in the car and i'll
5:40
just think of something i'll bust out
5:42
laughing i'll call spice like yo man we
5:44
gotta do this idea or ace vayne ace hit
5:46
me with the nas jay-z uh versus thing
5:49
um cause he he saw me do i did a
5:52
voiceover first after jay was on the
5:54
twitter live and he was like me can't
5:56
nobody touch me i swear don't put nobody
5:58
on the stage it's just not gonna happen
6:00
for anybody that's just not gonna happen
6:02
and so ace was like yo let's do a
6:04
cartoon where
6:07
where
6:08
nas only plays ether
6:11
every round
6:13
and it was just funny to me like we all
6:15
know jay and nazi you know they squash
6:17
beef and it's all love i you know those
6:19
my heroes but we comedian so it's like
6:22
let's let's do it let's do it and and
6:24
just to have that subtle conversation
6:26
before the rounds start yeah just the
6:28
cordialities and all of that you know
6:30
you know i'm just you know i i didn't
6:31
mean to say that about you guys i know
6:33
you won the king you my my brother you
6:35
know we got past our [ __ ] already
6:37
and now he's like yeah qb
6:40
qb you already grown man [ __ ]
6:43
this is snarls
6:44
[Music]
6:46
and then he gets and jay starts light
6:48
well you know i'm just going to play the
6:50
little you know little orphanage joint
6:52
you know just going to play that real
6:53
quick
6:54
let's just start out it's light round
6:56
round he starts out with a hard knock
6:58
light
6:59
and it dies
7:02
[Music]
7:09
you know i sample tupac to do that [ __ ]
7:11
jay-z right
7:13
this is nas
7:15
he's like loud now that's all we playing
7:17
right here
7:19
that's the right song
7:22
it's got to be the wrong song it's like
7:24
you keep playing it every round you got
7:26
to switch it up
7:30
it's all love man it's all love
7:32
i hope look i hope jay ain't mad because
7:34
he's seen me do a lot of impersonations
7:36
and sketches of him but i hope this one
7:37
didn't piss them off he came to you once
7:39
right y'all said yeah yeah now he's he
7:41
he always shows up he always shows up
7:53
[Laughter]
7:56
i'm a man about mines you understand me
8:00
yeah i'm just laying down with it
8:04
uh so where do you go from here like you
8:06
got so many
8:07
irons in the fire like what is this your
8:10
ultimate plan what do you want i'm in my
8:11
producer bag now sway okay i produced uh
8:15
two years ago i produced my own standard
8:17
special
8:18
and that gave me the the template to say
8:20
that was great
8:22
thank you i like the camera angles i saw
8:24
it you saw that
8:29
we made sure and that was out of my own
8:31
pocket so we made sure that it was on
8:33
the level
8:34
of what the big networks would do for
8:37
all our classic legends from chris rock
8:39
to kat williams or whoever i just wanted
8:41
to make sure that we shot something that
8:42
was like that was uh comparable to them
8:46
and from that there's now opportunities
8:48
for me to produce other people's
8:49
standard specials
8:51
and um
8:52
i produced uh another
8:54
another project
8:56
character based sketch base that's
8:58
coming soon and so yeah i'm i'm
9:01
literally like
9:02
you know i'm on my arm i'm on my drake
9:04
[ __ ] right now
9:05
come on i'm like singing songs
9:21
i mean you're not don't don't get me on
9:22
here
9:25
don't i'm just being i'm bashful man
9:27
just wait
9:28
swear you can't ask me
9:30
[Laughter]
9:40
come on trace trace don't gass me up
9:42
right now
9:50
on trace don't do that to me come on
9:51
tracy yeah i'm trying to just be humble
9:53
today
9:55
oh is that a beat hold on uh-oh no i
9:58
don't play that don't play that don't
9:59
play okay
10:02
you happy hyped dad
10:04
that's about to happen what you doing
10:06
for valentine's day
10:07
yeah man don't worry about what i got
10:09
wait
10:10
we don't talk about my personal business
10:14
look my brother just said he was in a
10:16
slump i i i glossed over and i supported
10:19
him in that
10:20
how are you going to air my personal
10:21
business about valentine's on the air i
10:24
do want to ask you sort of
10:26
well it's not i don't know
10:28
no not you sway
10:30
but do you feel pres do you feel like
10:32
personally you got to get over [ __ ]
10:33
faster because of the comedic side of
10:35
you like when you're dealing with
10:37
personal [ __ ] you can't do you bring it
10:39
to the stage do you feel like let me
10:41
just not deal with this i don't let me i
10:43
got to get my [ __ ] together i got to
10:44
show tonight how do you wow it's it's
10:46
funny not funny but it's ironic that you
10:48
asked that right this is what's today's
10:50
date
10:52
night okay
10:54
tomorrow is the one year anniversary my
10:55
dad passed so
10:57
i i immediately had to not that i had to
11:01
but when he passed last year
11:03
the last thing he told me or the last
11:05
prolific thing he said to me was keep
11:06
your foot on the gas he was watching my
11:08
standard special and he was at home one
11:10
night texting me and quoting lines and
11:12
he said son keep your foot on on the gas
11:14
i think he knew he was gonna go
11:16
he said keep your foot on the gas
11:18
you're doing great work and so when he
11:21
passed
11:22
i had done all the crying and i had done
11:23
all the stuff but i just remembered
11:25
those words keep your foot on the gas
11:27
and some of the funniest stuff started
11:29
to come out on social media stage two
11:31
but i didn't i haven't brought him to
11:33
the stage yet
11:35
but on social media i was able to just
11:37
like
11:39
push past it and that's when me and
11:41
spice did uh that's when i think the
11:43
keith sweat and
11:44
and uh bobby brown oh my god verses
11:47
happen and i did dj cassidy unexpectedly
11:49
and so my point is yeah uh
11:53
i don't have to get over it but
11:55
sometimes
11:56
even in grief the unction to be funny it
11:59
just happens it comes out because it's
12:00
coming from
12:01
the same true place as the grief
12:03
if that makes sense so wow yeah thank
12:06
you for sharing you know writing comedy
12:07
is similar to writing songs and
12:09
sometimes certain songwriters get into
12:11
slumps
12:12
are there any comedians who you like
12:15
that might be in a slump that you would
12:16
like to write for
12:18
well i can't speak for anybody that i
12:20
don't know who's in a slump you know
12:21
what i mean because you never know who's
12:24
in their bag and what sauce
12:26
hits at what time and and who's
12:28
cooking up what um
12:30
but if i
12:32
and no disrespect but if i had the
12:34
opportunity to write for someone not
12:36
because he needs it at all right but if
12:38
i had the opportunity to be in a room
12:39
with somebody to be damon wayans senior
12:41
oh wow damon wayans senior team get a
12:43
round of applause when you say that name
12:44
jesus yes he is beyond a goat i mean the
12:47
whole family is goats and they're all
12:49
individual goats because they all have
12:51
different skill sets and genius but
12:54
stand up specifically
12:56
damon wayans damien wayne's last stand
12:58
go go watch that stanley special if you
13:00
could find it
13:01
damon wayne's last stand was one of the
13:03
funniest standing specials of all time
13:05
wow wow
13:06
i'm a fan of his i've seen him hey john
13:08
crockett hanging out is it is it like um
13:11
when you when you do comedy i i was
13:13
watching this commercial clip of um
13:18
braids braids don't lie
13:20
right i mean about what these uh
13:22
cornrows don't
13:24
kawaii
13:25
yeah
13:27
heather was the one not gonna help you
13:29
out with that she knew what i was doing
13:32
tracy
13:47
every time he got a fresh set he was
13:49
always like in his bag anytime his hair
13:52
was messed up he stuck it up why does he
13:55
always look unimpressed with everything
13:56
in life even with himself that's right
14:09
but they had this commercial and i
14:10
watched colby and my mj and they said
14:12
the
14:13
the best shooters shoot the most they
14:16
miss the most as well but they gotta
14:18
keep shooting until they get it right is
14:20
that true with jokes if a joke doesn't
14:22
hit 100
14:23
okay that's how i am with everything in
14:25
life like i i cannot fail in my mind it
14:28
gets frustrating when i don't get it
14:30
right i'm like i gotta stay up till six
14:32
in the morning to get it right um same
14:34
with jokes like if i have a bad show a
14:36
bomb or whatever
14:38
i gotta get back up and the next time i
14:40
get back on the stage
14:41
there's a taste of blood in my mouth
14:43
literally because i feel like i lost the
14:45
last battle
14:46
and
14:47
if you watch the uh uh fat tuesday's
14:49
documentary it's on amazon right now and
14:51
all of us are in everybody from cedric
14:53
myself jb smoove and we're just talking
14:55
about that whole
14:57
journey especially as a black comedian
14:58
like we don't have the same
14:59
opportunities that white comedians have
15:01
so when we get our shot we go hard but
15:03
it comes from such a raw place
15:05
that that
15:07
as much as you succeed in that raw
15:09
talent when you bomb you feel that same
15:12
rawness
15:13
you're like nah i gotta get back to it
15:15
but you go out with the same joke that
15:17
bombed or you tweaking like how for sure
15:20
because you oh it's not even that you go
15:22
out with the same joke that bomb because
15:24
you never know from stage to stage from
15:26
city to city what the variants are like
15:28
what the the people's attitude was you
15:31
might have been off your rhythm the way
15:32
you delivered the joke okay but it's
15:34
it's like lyricism like if you you could
15:36
say the same rap and kind of miss the
15:39
beat because the your your your
15:41
monitor's not
15:42
giving you the the track you're back all
15:44
kind of all kind of stuff but it's your
15:46
same rhyme that you know is a bar and
15:48
bar bar bar after bar so yeah it's the
15:51
same thing it's comedy's rhythm so the
15:53
next night you might be straight on
15:54
rhythm and the first three jokes before
15:56
the one that bombed they hitting that
15:58
night and then now you're ready to
16:00
deliver the one with clarity because you
16:02
know what happened last night you don't
16:03
want that to happen again
16:04
[Music]
16:06
have you ever had to have a conversation
16:08
with your ego
16:09
when you are writing for someone else
16:11
when you are producing for someone else
16:13
and then it hits you oh [ __ ] i'm giving
16:15
this person fire
16:17
should i maybe keep this for myself you
16:20
know what i mean like is that scarcity
16:21
mindset has it ever creeped up on you no
16:24
i first of all i always talk to my ego
16:25
trace because ego is a is an imaginary
16:29
version of yourself that you create to
16:30
idolize
16:32
right
16:32
so
16:33
i don't feed the ego because the ego
16:36
will get you tripped up and make you
16:37
believe that you're somebody you're not
16:39
um but when it comes to writing for
16:40
somebody legendary in music or in comedy
16:43
or whatever you definitely have to tuck
16:45
your ego and say
16:47
if i'm giving this person this fire it's
16:49
coming from the most organic place right
16:51
now i just thought of this and i'm
16:52
giving it to this person if i can do
16:54
that i can harness that any time yes yes
16:57
so why not
16:58
make this person
17:00
look good with what they doing and and
17:02
just harness that gift because that gift
17:04
that i just gave him is gonna unpack and
17:07
um open up more doors for me to keep
17:09
doing that same thing
17:11
i trust my gift he's smart
17:14
um
17:15
what's the biggest compliment the
17:16
biggest comedian ever gave you bernie
17:18
mac
17:19
bernie man did you say bernie man
17:22
without question i ain't afraid of you
17:24
[ __ ] without question um i had
17:26
to pay homage
17:28
i don't know
17:29
[ __ ] rich nice it is a tutorial
17:32
nice
17:33
that sounded like art carney
17:38
it sounded like mac and cheese was in
17:39
your throat
17:44
[Laughter]
17:50
i ain't afraid of you [ __ ] no
17:52
no
17:55
i ain't scared of you [ __ ]
17:57
yeah i got the point man
18:10
[Music]
18:12
you see what i was just saying what was
18:14
the compliment what was the compliment
18:16
yeah rich you should stop when that's
18:18
not what you do
18:20
when you know what you do then you keep
18:21
going till you get back to your
18:22
perfection yo let's go produce rich you
18:26
nice on rhymes you nice you're legend
18:29
stop with the voices
18:31
i'm alerted
18:32
you know
18:33
tracy stop it
18:35
hey tracy she's snoring i'm not doing
18:37
this with you
18:38
i'm not doing this with you today
18:48
he's not like eddie murphy's jewish
18:49
character from coming to america i'm not
18:51
afraid of you [ __ ] that's why i
18:53
was doing it
18:54
velvet
19:05
i'm not afraid of you [ __ ]
19:22
i'm not afraid of you [ __ ]
19:24
stole about the head of me
19:28
i'm not afraid of your [ __ ]
19:30
you'll deserve this your wrist
19:33
there's a spoon yo
19:36
it was
19:44
so when i did the movie soul man with
19:45
bernie mac uh his last movie um
19:52
i gave him his flowers
19:54
i gave him his flowers i said look this
19:55
is a full circle moment for me
19:58
me doing an impersonation of you on deaf
20:00
comedy jam was what gave me the
20:02
confidence to even believe i can do
20:03
comedy even before i hit the dev jam
20:05
stage but it's because i was doing
20:07
bernie mac's impression that i became
20:09
really popular as a comedian in
20:11
charlotte really fast because i was only
20:13
doing comedy for like eight months
20:14
before i made uh def comedy jam
20:16
so i told him i said look i
20:18
you gave me the confidence to believe
20:20
that i could be funny because i just
20:21
impersonated you and how bold you were
20:24
on on uh on deaf comedy jam when you
20:26
first came out
20:27
and so
20:29
he uh
20:31
he he received it very very humble guy
20:34
man and he thanked me for that that
20:36
compliment and then the last thing he
20:38
said to me
20:39
um we were doing a photo shoot for the
20:41
the poster for the movie
20:43
and he was in the makeup chair and he
20:45
was like you got a lot of mac in you i
20:47
when i look at you you remind me of
20:48
myself when i was first starting out and
20:50
i said that just plays to the the full
20:52
circle moment that i i paid homage like
20:55
i remind you of you because i borrowed
20:57
you
20:58
to do what i do to harness the
21:00
confidence to do stand up so salute the
21:02
bernie mac he told me
21:04
that i remind him of of him uh with my
21:07
skills
21:08
the greatest
21:09
the greatest hey brother
21:11
i love you
21:12
yes i love you i love you too man let me
21:14
say this to you bro
21:17
i i and i know about your slump we spoke
21:19
offline uh months ago when you told me
21:21
that but please don't ever feel ashamed
21:23
about saying that don't ever feel
21:25
ashamed about just reaching out
21:27
you know what i mean yeah and just on
21:29
some brother to brother if it ain't me
21:30
somebody you know what i mean yeah but
21:32
as black men as black people
21:34
this mental health thing is really
21:37
something we we not really speaking
21:40
loudly about and i don't want to see
21:42
anybody else especially somebody i know
21:44
taking themselves out or doing anything
21:47
harmful so
21:49
don't be in a slump don't let me hear
21:50
about you being in a slump
21:52
on the air you know what i'm saying like
21:54
i wanna i wanna be able to embrace you
21:56
man so i love you man from from the
21:58
bottom
22:00
man man can i take your hand
22:03
i was already crying after you hunted
22:05
like playing rich a few moments ago now
22:07
i'm in a slumber yeah
22:10
okay
22:12
i ain't afraid of you [ __ ] all
22:14
right so we want to thank our guest
22:15
today
22:21
[Music]
22:33
you
#Arts & Entertainment