Dave Chappelle Prefers Being Muslim Over Comedy Millions : His Confused American Public Can't Relate to Anything Being More Important than Money.

Compiled by Onepeoples Editorial Staff

Although the so-called “traditional media” has not disclosed the spiritual transformation of Dave Chappelle for obvious reasoning, his religious culture is extremely crucial to his abrupt sabbatical from show business. For one thing Dave himself doesn't speak too much about it either. "I don't normally talk about my religion publicly because I don't want people to associate me and my flaws with this beautiful thing. And I believe it is a beautiful religion if you learn it the right way. It's a lifelong effort. Your religion is your standard. Coming here [ South Africa ] I don't have the distractions of fame. It quiets the ego down. I'm interested in the kind of person I've got to become. I want to be well rounded and the industry is a place of extremes. I want to be well balanced. I've got to check my intentions, man."

The comedian disappeared from public life and professional responsibilities without warning earlier this year and later he eventually turned up in South Africa where he was rumored to have checked himself into a mental health facility. Rumors of drug abuse and insanity mounted against the entertainer until he finally came forward to set the record straight that he made a deliberate step back from the entertainment business to get his spiritual life together.

Chappelle came from his seclusion to dispel the rumors—that he's got a drug problem, that he's checked into a mental institution in Durban and he set the record straight that he was now happier, more at Peace with himself and not particularly anxious to get back to his previous direction in comedy.

"He was having problems throughout the writing," Time writer Christopher John Farley who was able to interview him added. "It [his writing] dealt with some very difficult sexual and political and racial material ... He himself has sort of changed inside as he has become a practicing Muslim and so with all those issues and the fact that he wants to make sure the show projects him and his comedy in the right light."

Chappelle explained him leaving the United States by saying "Let me tell you the things I can do here [ South Africa ] which I can't at home: think, eat, sleep, laugh. I'm an introspective dude. I enjoy my own thoughts sometimes. And I've been doing a lot of thinking here."

The picture he paints—and it seems a fairly honest and frank assessment— is of someone struggling to come to terms with a new position and power who's still figuring out how to come to grips with how people around him are reacting to the $50 million deal he signed last year with Comedy Central. Without naming specific characters, he seems to blame both some of his inner circle (not his family) and himself for the stresses created by last year's deal.

"There were things that overwhelmed me," he says. "But not in the way that people are saying. I haven't spent any of the money. All that stuff about partying and taking crack is not true. Why do I live on a farm in Ohio ? To support my partying lifestyle?"

His family, he says, has been a huge support over the past eight months. "They've been phenomenal really, just incredible. What beautiful people. Everyone loves their family but it's good if you can like them too."

Meanwhile, production of "Chappelle's Show" is still on hold, leaving the future of the series unclear.

Dave Chappelle

Born: 23-Aug-1972
Birthplace: Washington, DC

Gender: Male
Religion: Muslim
Ethnicity: Black
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Comic , TV Personality

Level of fame: Famous
Executive summary: Funnyman on Chappelle's Show

Father: William (Antioch College professor, d. 1998)
Mother: Yvonne Seon (Unitarian minister)
Wife: Elaine (2 sons)
Son: Sulayman

    High School: Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Washington , DC (1991)

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