Whether you noticed or not, on Thursday, Netflix quietly dropped a brand new special from Dave Chappelle titled What’s In A Name?
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Per Rolling Stone, the title and subsequent 40-minutes of content both reportedly revolve around a speech the comedian gave during the renaming ceremony at his alma mater, Duke Ellington School of Arts in Washington D.C. last month, where he “reflected on his time at his alma mater, paid tribute to old teachers, recounted the familiar tale of his career and his decision to leave Chappelle’s Show.”
It also captures the moments he addressed the backlash he received from current students at the school over his now-controversial Netflix special, The Closer. As previously reported by The Root, Chappelle announced at the time that he declined on having the school’s theater renamed after him and instead wanted to be called the Theater of Artistic Freedom and Expression instead.
After that revelation, Chappelle went on to address the students’ complaints, saying in part:
“No matter what they say about The Closer, it is still [one of the] most-watched specials on Netflix. The more you say I can’t say something, the more urgent it is for me to say it. It has nothing to do with what you are saying I can’t say. It has everything to do with my freedom of artistic expression.”
He later went on to refer to his special as a “masterpiece,” noting that it received maltreatment from the media and that while students had everything to say about gender, “they didn’t say anything about art.” Thus, the specific renaming of the theater to include the terms “artistic freedom and expression” was intentional on Chappelle’s part in an effort to highlight “the nuance of art.”
What’s In A Name?, as well as The Closer, are both available to stream now on Netflix.
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