Dave Chappelle’s “8:46” Stand-up Set Is Getting a Vinyl Run by Third Man Records
Album cover photo by Mathieu Bitton
It’s been almost a year since Dave Chappelle released “8:46” online in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. Chappelle’s surprise stand-up set was filmed on June 6 of last year, amid the protests and demonstrations against police brutality and systemic racism that had spread throughout the country over the prior week, and during the first few months of a pandemic that is still not entirely over. The half-hour video was posted to Chappelle’s Instagram page and Netflix’s YouTube page on June 12, and despite his own hesitance at sharing it due to how hastily it was put together, it instantly became one of the comedian’s most important works. It’s an angry, solemn, but hilarious rumination on Floyd’s death and the larger societal problems that it’s indicative of, and feels raw and unguarded in a way rarely seen from Chappelle’s stand-up. It was also released as a benefit for the Equal Justice Initiative, a more-than-worthy cause.