‘I live right here.’ Dave Chappelle crashes Cincinnati Music Festival Saturday night
CINCINNATI (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER) -Everything was going as planned at the Cincinnati Music Festival Saturday night until Dave Chappelle showed up, according to our media partners at the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Norman Brown wowed the crowd with his “spirit catcher” guitar solos. Avery Sunshine lifted everyone’s spirits with heartwarming anthems and banter with her guitarist and husband, Dana Johnson. P-Funk Connection gave up the funk and tore the roof off the sucker. Babyface had the crowd singing along and falling back in love with him.
Jazz guitarist Norman Brown opens the final night of the Cincinnati Music Festival Saturday, July 22, 2023 at Paycor Stadium. (Cara Owsley | Cincinnati Enquirer)
Then Dave Chappelle got on stage.
Dave Chappelle talks Ohio
The first time Chappelle hopped on stage, it was to introduce the headliner, Snoop Dogg:
Dave Chappelle takes the stage to introduce rapper Snoop Dogg on the last night of the Cincinnati Music Festival Saturday July 22, 2023. (Cara Owsley | The Cincinnati Enquirer)
“I pulled up tonight just to let everyone know, thank you for letting me live a normal life in Ohio. Thank you for letting me and my family be safe.” Then he introduced Snoop, “With all the east coast, west coast beef, he was always Switzerland. He was always Hip-Hop. Please make some noise, please make some noise for S-n-o-o-p D-o-g-g!”
It was after the show, after Snoop had said goodbye to Cincinnati and walked offstage, that Chappelle took the spotlight.
“Ohio!” Chappelle called out to the dwindling crowd. Many concert-goers were booking it out of Paycor Stadium to beat the traffic. “Ohio, let’s go! From this state, we can change the world. Let’s see what we can do if we get a chance. I live right here. I live right down the road.”
Chappelle recently amassed large swaths of real estate in Yellow Springs, near Dayton, and said he intends on “restoring the cultural and creative economy.”
Dave Chappelle takes the stage to introduce rapper Snoop Dogg on the last night of the Cincinnati Music Festival Saturday July 22, 2023. (Photo Credit: Cara Owsley). (Cincinnati Enquirer)
After his short speech, Chappelle asked the drummer to lay a beat down. After a few moments of coordination, the comedian rapped Rakim’s first verse, “Paid in Full.” Chappelle had lost his luster by the time he got to the hook.
“Ohio, Ohio, Ohio, yo, it’s the moment to go. Goodnight.” And he walked off of the stage.
Highlights from CMF Saturday night
But beyond Dave Chappelle, Saturday night at Cincinnati Music Festival was full of highlights, including tributes to late great musicians.
Rapper Snoop Dogg performs on the last night of the Cincinnati Music Festival Saturday July 22, 2023 at Paycor Stadium. (Cara Owsley | The Cincinnati Enquirer)
Avery Sunshine shouted out Aretha Franklin, saying, “Every chance I get, I gotta play some Aretha,” before performing an artful rendition of Franklin’s “Day Dreaming” (1972). Babyface paid tribute to Whitney Houston, playing a video of Houston performing “Exhale (Shoop Shoop)” (1995), which Babyface had produced and written. Snoop, in turn, paid tribute to Hip-Hop’s patriarchs, Biggie and Tupac, performing a song from each of their collections, one after the other.
P-Funk Connection, an Atlanta-based funk band, performs during the last night of the Cincinnati Music Festival Saturday July 22, 2023. (Cara Owsley | The Cincinnati Enquirer)
The award for loudest sing-along at Cincinnati Music Festival 2023, however, went to P-Funk Connection for their spirited rendition of their ancestral group’s biggest hit, “Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker)” (1975).
Everyone in Paycor Stadium Saturday night knew the lyrics and felt the funk.
See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please click here to report it.
Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.
Copyright 2023 CINCINNATI ENQUIRER. All rights reserved.
Source: FOX19
