Skip to content
Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Bigger & Blacker

Chris Rock

DreamWorks Records · Album · 1999

Stand-up and sketches concerning gun violence, fidelity, and expensive ammunition.

Listen free on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Chris Rock paces the stage with absolute authority, breaking down societal hypocrisy with a staccato rhythm that treats every punchline like a drumbeat. The defining segment is a heavily quoted monologue on gun violence, where he suggests the solution isn’t restricting firearms but charging $5,000 per bullet. He takes a massive cultural issue and reduces it to simple economics, pointing out that nobody would catch a stray round if the shooter had to put ammunition on layaway.

This hour served as the follow-up to his 1996 breakthrough Bring the Pain, the performance that salvaged his television career and made him a superstar. Recorded at the Apollo Theater in Harlem in 1999, the 68-minute audio release pairs his live stage work with studio-recorded sketches. Rock uses the momentum of his newfound leverage to swing at everything from the Columbine massacre to the differences between black and white shopping malls. He also tackles the dynamics of fidelity, arguing that men might lie about their whereabouts, but women rely on the visual deception of weaves and Wonderbras.

The set list

5 bits

  1. The difference between ghetto and suburban shopping malls

    Explored through live standup material

  2. Taxes and insurance

    Observational live standup routines

  3. Send-up of N.W.A.'s 'F**k tha Police'

    Studio sketch collaboration with Ice Cube

  4. Interpretation of 'Brown Sugar'

    Ribald musical sketch performed with Biz Markie

  5. Me and ODB

    A pimped-out ghetto fairytale set to the funky beat of Average White Band's 'Pick up the Pieces'

How it plays

Tone
Cutting-edge, manic, and brash.
On stage
Possesses a delivery driven by manic energy teetering on the edge, reined in just enough to remain controlled.
Pace
Manic energy teetering on the edge.
About
Difference between ghetto and suburban shopping malls, Taxes, Homophobia, Insurance, Women, Race

What the critics said

Spence Abbott praised the album as a cutting-edge mishmash that showcases Rock as equally at home performing standup before a live audience as he is goofing in the studio.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: ototoy.jp, cede.de.

Backstory

Chris Rock re-teamed with producer Prince Paul following their Grammy win for 1997's 'Roll with the New', creating an album format combining road-tested live club standup with studio skits and musical numbers featuring guest collaborators like Ol' Dirty Bastard, Ice Cube, Biz Markie, and Gerald Levert.

Details

Released
Taped
Comedy Corner, West Palm Beach
Where
DreamWorks Records (album)
Topics
Before
Roll with the New (1997)
After
Never Scared (2004)

More from Chris Rock

If you liked this