This
transcript is the continuation on the Dolemite article in the
November/December issue of Seaspot Magazine:
SLO: Okay, one of the questions I had is, are there any young comedians that
you enjoy that are out right now?
RRM: Is there any that I enjoy now? I can say a lot of them I enjoy…not
necessarily enjoy but I do appreciate their efforts in trying to get a piece
of the rock. But I do advise them if you’re gonna use 4-letter comedy which
we call explicit language, it would be good to put it in sort of a art
form…like I am the inventor of this type of comedy. I started off with it.
There is a phrasing like I do…the Signified Monkey, “way down in the jungle
deep…the lion stepped on the monkey’s feet. The monkey said, mutha fucka,
can’t you see? You standin’ on my God damned feet…”. Ya see, that is just
not a bunch of 4-letter words put together…
SLO: Right
RRM: …it is a form of poetry in an art form which some of the new comedians
that I cannot totally say I enjoy them because they would come out and they
would say the mutha fucka this, the mutha fucka that, suck my dick, blah,
blah, blah…
SLO: (giggles)
RRM: …over and over and over and over and over just a bunch of stuff put
together that they think is funny. But I do try to advise them and give them
advice on put their act together in somewhat of an art form.
SLO: Okay. Are there any of them that you’d like to work with…of those out
there?
RRM: Well, not really. Ya know, Chris Rock he offered me a spot on one of
his shows when I was in New York but I had another job and couldn’t make it.
I would’ve liked to work with the young man for the show. And I like
Martin…I appreciate Martin because Martin does his act in art form…
SLO: Right…
RRM: Martin also put me on his sitcom, ya know?
SLO: Oh!
RRM: I did one episode called “The Players”…
ROE: I saw it!
RRM: I appreciate his work. And to sum it up, I would say Martin and Chris
Rock and one of the young men who haven’t made it so big is Chris Thomas…he
is nice…
SLO: Okay, he used to host Rap City…was it Rap City?
ROE: Rap City.
SLO: Rap City, yeah, okay.
RRM: Yeah, Chris Thomas. And I like the new stuff that what’s his name is
doin. What’s my man’s name? Um, Chris Tucker.
SLO: Okay, okay, all right. I was also gonna ask you, you’ve been sampled by
like many rappers and have been imitated by countless so are there any
rappers you like to listen to?
RRM: My favorite rapper was the late Tupac Shakur…
SLO: Right…right on…
RRM: I thought he was the finest rapper I’d ever heard…with the styling, the
delivery…the structure of material. I was never sampled by him. I knew the
young man. We hit it off very well. But, uh, I liked working with the Dogg.
I was on Dogg’s album called “Top Dogg No Limit” and Busta Rhymes “When
Disaster Strikes” and I’m also on my way to New York to do another one…Busta
Rhymes has called me back…
SLO: Right on!
RRM: …to rap with him on a new album but being sampled so many times, I’ve
enjoyed it and I’ve felt they have paid homage to me such as the 2 Live
Crew, Big Daddy Kane, Dr. Dre from his fabulous album “The Chronic”…I was
sampled 5 or 6 times on that and Eazy E. I liked Eazy. He did one with me
live. Me and Eazy did a Christmas record together and we did another album
together and he sampled me some 10 times…out of my records so I take my hat
off to the late Eazy E.
SLO: Right on. We know that you influenced, ya know, many
comedians and rappers but who were some of your influences?
RRM: That influenced me?
SLO: Yeah.
RRM: The late, well all of them that influenced me are late...
SLO: Okay...
RRM: I liked Moms Mabley. Did you ever hear of her?
SLO: I’ve heard of her but I don’t think I ever heard...
RRM: She was fabulous. An old lady that did comedy...not too risqué, though,
because they wasn’t doin it at that time. Redd Fox was sort of risqué but I
take my hat off to the late Redd Fox because I got a lot of influence from
him. But the ones that I have influenced have not given me a lot of credit
like Richard Prior...he is one of the great comedians of our time but he has
copied, not my structure but the style that I set forth in 1969, Richard
Prior come out doing this style of comedy in 1974 never giving me any credit
for it. The young man is very ill and I never have tried to say his
greatness is not there because he is a fine comedian but I pay respect to
those that were in front of me that set a pace for me...
SLO: Right, right...
RRM: Uh, Martin Lawrence spoke of me very highly, Arsenio Hall...quite a
few. Steve Harvey...I have to say about him...he called hisself “The
Original King of Comedy”. Which I felt this was quite crude to me...
SLO: Right...
RRM: ...I been out so long ago...years and years and years ago and he just
started a few years ago and overnight he becomes the original King of
comedy. Now I cannot say he’s not great...’cause he is great and I should
say. He should consider himself the new King of comedy and allow me to
remain until I’m gone...
SLO: Thank you! (giggles)
RRM: ...the original King of comedy.
SLO: Right, right. I was gonna say, too, I mean I heard that you have an
upcoming movie and can you tell me a little bit about that and the plot,
when its gonna be released and the title?
RRM: My up and coming movie the title is “The Return of Dolemite – 2002”.
Some of my stars in it is Jimmy Lynch who is known as the “Funky Tramp”,
Reynaldo Rey who is on Comic View, and a rapper by the name of...
DONALD (Rudy’s manager): Lazy Bones.
RRM: Lazy Bones is in this picture and it is a hard-hitting picture. It is
just the way my audience wants to see me. I am notoriously bad and it
carries a gorgeous message to it ‘cause I am out to clean up the community
and will kick all asses...
SLO: (giggles)
RRM: ...who doesn’t deal with me on the right way they get a foot...
SLO: (laughing)
RRM: ...I give em a foot. The movie should do wonders, wonders, wonders for
me. It is great. I have to say it is great. I’m not conceited I’m merely
convinced of its greatness.
SLO: How do you plan on promoting?
RRM: I’m gonna promote it. I’m going to New Orleans for the world premiere
and I will go there a week in advance and I’m going to give myself to the
city of New Orleans in concert...free...for all of those who’d like to come
out and see the original King of comedy in stand-up performances. I will be
there for them in order to set the pace for the release of “The Return of
Dolemite...”.
SLO: I’m gonna ask you, too, about a lot of the movies in the 70’s around
that period a lot of them were labeled “blaxploitation”...I wanna know your
thoughts on that label and what you think of that.
RRM: Horrible, horrible, horrible. I think the people that would do that to
us…call us “blaxploitation” is a bunch of crap because if you seen the
“Godfather”, they didn’t call it Italian-exploitation. The Indians were
exploited in motion pictures during the days that I used to go the movies,
the Indian never won. Did we call that Indian-exploitation? No. So when we
come out doin a picture where we weren’t getting kicked in the ass by the
white folks, they call it blaxploitation, which was very crude and I spoke
against it anytime anybody interviewed me about the point. I feel that it is
a crude term for us as a people. We made those pictures in the 70’s
primarily for a black audience because we were hungry for something
different than what we had to see during the years when I was a youngster
like “Gone With the Wind” where Vivien Leigh knocked the shit outta the late
Butterfly McQueen…
SLO: Mmm-hmm…
RRM: …who died a few years ago…a couple years ago, when she said (*very
animated in his talking and action*) “I don’t know about…” she goes WHAM!
SLO: (laughing)
RRM: Knocked the shit outta her. But we had to sit there and look at this,
ya know? Now I come out with a picture and when I saw the white cops messin
with me I said “Move over mutha fucka, let me pass…”…
SLO: (laughing)
RRM: “…before I have to pull these AAA’s out yo mutha fuckin ass!” and then
they wanna say well its “blaxploitation”. No, it wasn’t. It was something
that our people could sit there in that theater and enjoy…
SLO: Right…
RRM: I enjoyed doing it. And today I have been able to survive with my
character “Dolemite”. It lives on. In fact, LL Cool J wants to do a version
of being Dolemite with an offspring of me being a relative.
SLO: What do you feel about that?
RRM: I feel all right because I’ve got to the age as to where I don’t think
I can keep this character going to be notorious like he was when I first
come out…without having it very well written like this late one is written
for me…at my age. And I feel good over that because I’m taking him as a
relative as a brother’s child that I named when I was coming up…I named my
nephew after me so he becomes Dolemite.
SLO: Okay! Now one last question I have is what do you want people to think
of when they hear the name “Rudy Ray Moore”?
RRM: I want them to think of me as a person who have tried to help other
people in show business who didn’t have a chance. When I made my first movie
“Dolemite”, I used a writer that had never wrote a screenplay…it opened a
door for him. I used a make-up artist who is one of the big artists in
Hollywood today, Ms. Marie Carter. I also give the man who directed me was
D'Urville Martin…he played with Fred Williamson (in 1973’s “Black Caesar”)
he never directed a film. I allowed him to direct me in that performance and
numerous other actors and actresses who had never had a chance to appear, I
opened doors by letting them be a first…in my films. In fact about it, James
Ingram, I know you have heard of him…
SLO: Yeah! I saw…
ROE: Oh my God!
SLO: I knew it…we knew it ‘cause when we watched it and we were just like
“That looks like James Ingram!” in the band…when their doin the little club
scene…
RRM: That was James Ingram.
SLO: Thank you! (giggles)
RRM: They asked me during those years which he was nobody then but I felt it
like it would be nice to give em a break so I put James Ingram and his group
“The Revelation Funk” in “Dolemite” and in my second “Dolemite” I opened the
door for another young man, Cliff Roquemore, to direct me…first time
director and the third film “Petey Wheatstraw”, I allowed him to write that
one so another words, I feel that I want this said about me: “That he wasn’t
partial in everything for his self. That he did try to open doors as much as
he could for others to get a piece of the rock.
SLO: Right on! Okay…now cuss us out!
**Everyone in the room laughs**
SLO: We want to be cussed out now…call us…
RRM: Oh, no, no! I’ve got to be a gentleman.
SLO: Well, cuss him (Russ) out! (laughing)
RRM: Oh, no. I would like to say some good things about ya’ll…I think it is
very nice of ya’ll to come down to interview me. I appreciate it so very
much and if I can survive a few more years, you will see some big and better
things from me.
SLO: Okay…
RRM: In fact, I want to do another “Dolemite” picture called “The Sons of
Dolemite” in which I will have 3 bad, notorious boys. And I’m gonna do just
like, what’s my man’s name? George Foreman…
SLO: Mmm-hmm (laughing) Name them all Dolemite…
RRM: Name em all Dolemite. The sons of Dolemite and they all, when I was so
bad on the road and going places and doing shows, I had these babies by
different women…different women and these women when they found out that I’m
on the road and the boys have done messed up and so at home, the mothers
couldn’t do nothing, “Imma send ya to yo daddy!” and they call me and they
send all these boys to me at one time. All of my sons. And these will be the
sons of Dolemite, which will be well written for me at this age and to have
the sons of Dolemite behind me, taking over and kickin ass.
SLO: Ooow…ooow, I like that! I like that. And bad women, too!
RRM: Well…
SLO: I’ll be one of the bad women! I can kick some butt but I’m small…
(laughing)
RRM: That’s another idea!
ROE: Speakin of records, man, I memorized all that stuff when I was a kid…
SLO: (laughing)
RRM: Don…keep this in mind. That’s another idea…”The Daughters of Dolemite”!
SLO: Oh, yes…thank you! I told him (Russ) I said there should be, what, a
Lady Dolemite this morning. (laughing)
DONALD: That’s an idea. I’ve actually thought about that one myself!
SLO: Ooow, that’d be nice…
DONALD: Another thing, we always thinking about was the Kung Fu girls but
never…
RRM: The Kung Fu Killers I call em…
DONALD: …but never like a bad ass Dolemite (as a female)
RRM: An all girl army of Kung Fu Killers. I changed it though…I put Kung Fu
Fighters. I didn’t put killers down. An all girl army of Kung Fu Fighters.
SLO: Well, thank you very much for talking to us. Like I said, this has
just…I’ve been high…on this natural high for the last couple days knowing
that this (interviews) was gonna happen.
