Open Mike Eagle New Negroes

Open Mike Eagle's Comedy Central show premiered; new song w/ Danny Brown out now

Rapper Open Mike Eagle and comedian Baron Vaughn‘s new Comedy Central The New Negroes premiered on Friday night. It’s a stand-up comedy and music series, and each episode features a music video sketch. Episode one has one featuring and starring Danny Brown. You can watch that below and see the entire series premiere (also featuring SNL’s Chris Redd) at Comedy Central’s website.

Pitchfork interviewed OME and Vaughn about the series and here’s some more background from their article:

On “The New Negroes,” which originally began as a live show in 2013, the pair host and banter between stand-up sets and appearances from comics like Hannibal Buress, Donnell Rawlings (“Chappelle’s Show”), Sasheer Zamata, Lil Rel Howery (Get Out), “Daily Show” correspondent Dulcé Sloan, and George Wallace. Every episode concludes with a music video sketch featuring rappers like MF Doom, Phonte, Lizzo, Father, Method Man, or Sammus. In the premiere, Danny Brown plays Open Mike Eagle’s long-suppressed id, emerging from Eagle’s head to rant at coworkers and cops. Each episode follows a theme, unpacking an aspect of blackness with wry humor. That’s an extension of its two thoughtful creators, who first met at a comedy rap battle in 2012 (which Vaughn won).

[…] The music videos are almost like sketches, but they work as songs, too. Did it require you to think differently about your craft?

OME: Absolutely. I’m six albums deep making music by myself in my house and not talking to nobody. Every part of this show—from brainstorming concepts to picking beats to deciding which rappers to reach out to—is collaborative. That has been valuable for me, because my tendencies aren’t always very broad or accessible. Even if I know what I’m trying to say, I don’t always take the time to make it clear. This forces me to fit this platform.

When you’re doing this, are you writing specifically with the visual component in mind? Is that the first time that you’ve been put in that position?

OME: Yeah, it is. When we were brainstorming concepts, we weren’t just saying, “Hey, this would be a fun song.” We had to be like, “This would be a funny song, and we could set it here and this could be a gag.” All of that kind of had to happen at the same time.

You can read more here and watch the Danny Brown and MF Doom videos below.

MF Doom is also on the surprise Your Old Droog album that came out on Friday.