Dave Chappelle may well be in hot water over his latest Netflix special at the moment, but his influence remains as strong as ever. Just take a look at J. Cole’s “Mt. Rushmore of Rap” display from his Off-Season tour currently crossing the nation. The cheeky statue takes just as much inspiration from Chappelle’s Show as it does from the Twitter meme it references, borrowing one of the hilarious bits from Dave’s parodic Making The Band sketch. Just like Chappelle’s exaggerated version of Jamaican rapper Dylan’s top 5 rappers of all time, Cole’s Mt. Rushmore consists of just one name/face.
J. Cole’s.
J. Cole is a funny guy 😂 pic.twitter.com/7PjrFTEdmS
— Eric Diep (@E_Diep) October 12, 2021
As you can see, the cheeky display, which flashes during his set, consists of just four photos of Cole at different stages of his career (remember when he had the bald fade? Time flies!). The screenshot above comes courtesy of Vibe‘s recap of the Dallas tour stop by Eric Diep, who caught the moment and posted it to Twitter for posterity.
The jokey Mt. Rushmore is illuminating after Cole’s “Heaven’s EP” freestyle in which he compares himself to contemporaries Drake and Kendrick Lamar, ranking himself third behind them. However, on the first night of his tour, Drake popped out to refute Cole’s statement, calling him “one of the greatest rappers to ever touch a mic.”