JAY-Z has been known to push the creative envelope with his shorts from his latest album 4:44, but his latest short takes a jab at Hollywood’s double standards in a real way.
The six minute short features Issa Rae, Tiffany Haddish, Tessa Thompson, Lil Rel Howery, Lakeith Stanfield and Jerrod Carmichael re-imagining an episode of the NBC hit series Friends with an all Black cast. The original episode titled “The One Where No One’s Ready” focused on Ross as he desperately tries to get the rest of the gang ready for a black tie event at the museum, but “Moonlight” takes a twist.
During the taping of the episode Lil Rell (who’s playing Joey) receives a phone call which stops the production during the infamous “Richard calling Monica” scene. While off set talking to who seems to be a good friend, the friend tells Carmichael how terrible it is to remake white shows with black faces.
“It’s garbage. It’s terrible man, it was whack as sh*t. It was just episodes of Seinfeld with Black people.”
After releasing the short for “Moonlight,” JAY-Z has now released a behind-the-scenes look at the video. The two and a half minute video features director Allan Yang and the rest of the cast explaining the meaning behind the video.
Actress Tiffany Haddish opens the interviews hilariously giving her reasoning on taking the role, stating that it gave her a chance to play a white woman, while Tessa Thompson went a little more in depth, saying, “We wanted to have a conversation about diversity and inclusion, which is something that is really ripe in the cultural conversation at the moment.”
Jerrod Carmichael also gave his interpretation of the video, calling it “art that would make people think.”
Check out the trailer below.
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