Dave Chappelle has reportedly asked Elon Musk to lift Talib Kweli‘s Twitter ban, after the Black Star rapper was kicked off the platform in 2020.
The request came shortly after Chappelle introduced Musk to a booing crowd at a show in San Francisco’s Chase Center, with the new Twitter leader unable to get a word in edge-wise as he was drowned out by displeased fans.
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“Dave, what should I say?” asked Musk, who appeared thrown off by the vitriol response. Chappelle replied: “Don’t say nothing.”
You can check out a clip from Chappelle’s San Francisco show below:
Turns out Twitter can, in fact, be real life. https://t.co/FFpups1yEypic.twitter.com/41jcZgdDR4
— Steven Goffman (@SteveGoffman) December 12, 2022
As the boos continued – which were likely related to Elon Musk’s criticized takeover of Twitter that resulted in mass resignations and firings – Chappelle attempted to redeem the evening by bringing out fellow comedians Donnell Rawlings as well as Yasiin Bey and Talib Kweli, asking Elon on stage if he’d unban Kweli from Twitter. Considering how tense the evening had become, Musk reluctantly agreed.
Kweli was banned from the social media platform after he was accused of harassing a Black woman named Maya Monroe via Twitter DM’s and other postings. Kweli’s alleged harassment started after Monroe implied the Black Star rapper was a colorist due to him being married to a light-skinned woman.
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Kweli is alleged to have targeted her every day with various tweets, and some of his fans are accused of following suit, with some allegedly threatening death and sexual abuse against Monroe. She even claimed a woman named “Mary” revealed personal information about her online.
“This woman has over 100 accounts and has been posting pictures of my family, our address, my step mom’s old job and salary and our full names in defense of Talib Kweli,” Monroe tweeted at the time. “Leaked messages from her old accounts show her saying she is his paid employee. Please report her.”
As the Reflection Eternal rapper’s name continued to trend on Twitter, many people called for Kweli to be banned along with the numerous fake accounts created by his alleged “paid employee.”
In an email to Jezebel, which first reported the story, Kweli denied the accusations.
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“I’ve never cyber harassed anyone in my life,” he wrote. “I responded, on Twitter, to the lies that Maya posted about me. When you respond to someone who posts lies about you, that is not harassment.”
