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'Dave Chappelle's Block Party': Hip-hop and hilarity

In 2004, long before he flipped out, walked away from his television comedy series and escaped to Africa, the very funny Dave Chappelle envisioned throwing a free hip-hop music and rap comedy concert in the decidedly untrendy Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.

Rogue Pictures 'Dave Chappelle's Block Party' C The verdict: A documentary of a hip-hop concert thrown by comic Chappelle, chiefly for his own amusement. Director: Michel Gondry Starring: Dave Chappelle, Kanye West, Dante 'Mos Def' Smith, Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli Run time: 100 minutes Release date: March 3, 2006 Rating: R for language. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime [an error occurred while processing this directive]

And since the economics of such a no-charge event only work if it is filmed for later paid viewing, he enlisted the aid of mind-expanding director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) to capture it, as well as the assorted tongue-in-cheek antics of assembling such a black urban Woodstock in Dave Chappelle's Block Party.

Depending on your tolerance for hip-hop, you will either become impatient to get to such performers as Kayne West, Erykah Badu, Mos Def and a reunited Fugees or you will prefer the preliminaries. Count me staunchly in the latter camp, amused by Chappelle's goofing on the residents of his hometown of Dayton, Ohio, passing out Willy Wonka-ish "golden tickets" for a bus ride and hotel room in New York City to attend the show. Maybe it was the camera in their faces, but an awful lot of trusting souls — including a university marching band — follow this glib pied piper.

In Brooklyn, Chappelle prowls the neighborhood, introducing us to the aged hippie owners of a building shell dubbed "Broken Angel" and the staff at a nearby day-care center. Eventually, the music begins and — I know this will expose me for the tin-eared clod that I am — it all sounds mind-numbingly the same. Chappelle keeps saving the movie with his wry comic observations on race, but there needed to be more of him in Dave Chappelle's Block Party.