Hughley discovered Chris Rock was working on his titular TV show, and was being paid more.
On the latest episode of On Par with Maury Povich, D.L. Hughley opened up about his long-standing issues with Chris Rock before they reconciled.
At around the 12-minute mark of the interview, which can be seen up top, Hughley spoke with Maury Povich about working on his ABC and UPN sitcom, The Hughleys,which aired from 1998-2002. Hughley starred in and co-created the series, but unbeknownst to him, Chris Rock was an executive producer on the project. “I didn’t know at all until I was on The View,” explained Hughley at the 14:50 point of the interview. “I don’t remember who said, but [they asked], ‘How’s it feel to work with Chris Rock?’ And I’m like, ‘For what?’”
Hughley admitted that he knew Chris Rock at the time, and they shared the manager and the same agent, but as it turned out, there was a massive pay discrepancy. “Chris and my managers were making more money off The Hughleys than I was, which insulted the fuck out of me,” Hughley continued. “I was like, ‘Wait, what?’ But I didn’t find out ‘till we were on The View… It incensed me that they would make a decision like that and didn’t have the courtesy to talk to me about it.”
Povich related to Hughley’s comments and said everyone in show business has stories about getting “fucked over.”
“Chris Rock is the only person that ever called me n***a that hurt my feelings,” Hughley continued. “Now I’ve been called that a lot of times. But I remember one time, I called him…. After I found out and after I calmed down, I was like, ‘He could obviously help us with the script.’ So, I called him, and I said, ‘Chris, man, I know you getting paid on the show. Can you at least give us notes on the script?’ … And he says, ‘Me and Keenen Ivory Wayans are the only Black people that won Emmys. If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have had the show, you dumb n***a.’”
In response to that, Hughley said he threatened to “beat the shit out of” Chris Rock. He said that the way Rock called him the n-word “registered” like “somebody punched” him in the face. “We’ve talked since then and we’re cool, but in that moment, I had never seen anybody feel that superior to me in a way that registered to me,” he explained, adding that eventually Rock apologized to him for his behavior.
