The Genius of Katt Williams Has Been Hiding in Plain Sight
We’ve too often disregarded his gift. He’s actually no joke.
Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.
This weekend, clothing label Supreme dropped a promotional video that Spoke To the Moment. It wasn’t the first; days after the killing of George Floyd, the hypebeast favorites posted a clip of jazz legend Pharaoh Sanders playing sax in a box-logo tee, next to a boilerplate corporate statement about standing with victims of police brutality. But this one hit different: comedian Katt Williams, his signature perm dyed and plaited into a Tekashi 6x9ine Fruit By the Foot spectacle, doing a six-minute monologue about everything from the “perfectly suitable clown” in the White House to Black Lives Matter.
Much like Dave Chappelle’s recent special, 8:46, the stand-up routine was short on jokes; even when there were punchlines, there was no crowd to laugh at them. But it was long on jewels. At one point, Williams said that “civil unrest is what happens every time a place is ruled by the people and the people’s needs are not being met,” which was so astutely put I had to Google to make sure that he wasn’t quoting someone else. All of it was a reminder that Katt Williams is one of the most…
