Isaiah Lee, the struggling rap aspirant who rushed the stage during Dave Chappelle’s “Netflix is a Joke” comedy festival on May 3, 2022, explains that he was inspired by Will Smith’s smackdown of Chris Rock at the Oscars.
The media reported ad nauseam on every conceivable angle of Smith’s purposeful strut onto the stage at the 2022 Academy Awards in March to lower a thunderous smack on Rock’s cheek. During a second interview with the New York Post, Lee said he had that in the back of his head as he observed a comedian before Chappelle deliver a homeless joke that “triggered” him.
Lee admits that he was “clout chasing” when he tackled Chappelle. But he also said he wanted to deliver an unmistakable message that producing laughs at the expense of the LBGTQ+ community — Lee claims he is bisexual — is not going to be tolerated.
“I wanted him to know that next time, he should consider first running his material by people it could affect,” he insisted.
In the same vein, Lee said that Rock’s scathing joke at the expense of Jada Pinkett Smith, who suffered hair loss due to alopecia, was inappropriate.
“That’s not right what [Chris Rock] said about his wife, calling her G.I. Jane,” he told the newspaper from his Los Angeles County jail. After saying that Smith inspired him, he added that Smith was right in “standing up for his wife.”
Lee is currently being charged with four misdemeanor counts related to his attack on Chappelle at the Hollywood Bowl in L.A. Much more problematic for Lee is that LA. County District Attorney’s Office has leveled the charge of attempted murder against him for the alleged stabbing of his former roommate in December 2021.
