While Mike Epps has acknowledged Chris Rock as a talented comedian, the two aren’t exactly friendly. He addressed the dynamic during the January 7 episode of Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay show, where he touched on the mild tensions between him and the Saturday Night Live alum.
“You think he ended Shuckey Duckey,” Sharpe said.
“He did. He fucked Shuckey Duckey’s career up,” Epps responded. “What little career there was.”
The two were referencing an old Def Jam Comedy show in which Rock dissed Ducky’s preceding set.
“That n***a (Rock) went on one of them shows and said, ‘Shuckey Duckey needs some jokey wokeys,’” Epps said, before referencing Rock’s 2022 Academy Awards slap incident. “See, that’s why Will Smith popped that n***a upside his head. I ain’t condoning, but I can see how a n***a would pop him upside his head.”
Epps then recalled the time when he felt a little slighted by Rock early on in his career.
“He said some shit to me one time,” he told Sharpe. “That motherfucker walked up to me and said, ‘You can’t act rich if you ain’t rich.’ I said, ‘Huh? What the hell?’”
Epps said he understood what Rock was trying to say because he “wasn’t rich” at the time; however, he believed Rock got the wrong impression of him.
“What he didn’t understand was I came from a drug-dealer world, so I always liked a little diamonds,” he explained. “He thinking I’m up there trying to make the people think I got show business money and said that shit to me. I said, ‘Man, I’m rich in a whole lot of ways. Ferret-looking ass n***a.”
Sharpe then returned the conversation to the “slap heard around the world.” During the 94th Academy Awards broadcast, Rock took the stage to present Best Documentary Feature. But before he announced the winner, Rock cracked a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved hairstyle.
“Jada, I love you. G.I. Jane 2, can’t wait to see it,” he said to the actress, who suffers from alopecia.
Moments after the quip, Smith walked on stage and slapped Rock across the face. Epps told Sharpe that he thought it was a stunt — that is until he saw Smith return to his seat and shout at Rock.
“I knew it was real when I seen Will Smith’s face when he sat down,” Epps recalled, “When he said, ‘Keep my wife’s name [out of your fucking mouth]!”
Epps said he also would’ve slapped Rock over the joke, but would’ve done so behind the scenes.
“I wouldn’t have done it front of anybody… not in front of the white people because it’s gonna fuck your money up and my money up,” he said. “As soon as the white people see you violent, they done.”
Sharpe then questioned if Epps had ever tried to settle his issues with Rock. Epps said no, mostly because he doesn’t have “a relationship with him.”
“I don’t think he gets me, and I don’t get him,” he said. “Do I think he’s funny? Yeah. I think he’s funny as hell. But personality-wise, I’ve never met enough to know how cool he is. I really don’t know him, and he don’t know me like that.”
