Anderson .Paak Played a Surprise DJ Set at Dave Chappelle's Dallas Show

One of the comedy greats of our generation, David Chappelle, stopped in Dallas on Thursday night to smoke out the American Airlines Center stage, and he didn't come alone.

As the seats started to fill up, the tour DJ, DJ Trauma, announced that Chappelle had brought a few special guests with him. The audience rejoiced before being barraged by three back-to-back killers: Ralph Barbosa, Marshall Brandon and Mohammed Amer. Between Barbosa’s trouble with the police, Brandon’s bit about his strategy to rebrand abortions and Amer recounting the three months he spent after 9/11 pretending to be Italian, there were no dull moments in the action.

Following Amer’s departure from the stage, Chappelle’s voice boomed from the PA system, announcing that the next act would be a DJ set from none other than the forever funky Anderson .Paak. While this was a surprise to the comedy fans, this isn’t out of character for Chappelle, who had many musical guests on his Chappelle Show such as De La Soul, John Mayer and Kanye West.

In Dallas, Chappelle's a frequent guest at his close friend Erykah Badu's shows, and he even jumped on the mic at the Free Man in Deep Ellum while in town in 2017, for an impromptu hip-hop jam with members of Bruno Mars' band.

Donning his emcee alter-ego, DJ PEE WEE,  .Paak showed up dressed to the nines, rocking a vintage blue blazer and zebra shades with a straight black wig to top it off. Before the audience could fully acclimate to the comedy show-turned-dance party,  .Paak dove into his set without missing a beat.

The Grammy-winning rapper proudly shouted that his set was all vinyl with no computers involved, and the crowd lost their minds. There was something magical about watching him put his head down to line up the next transition and then hearing it play out in real time, with the cheek-to-cheek grin on his face being proof enough that he nailed it. His energy was electric and deathly contagious. Even .Paak’s stage assistant, Eddie Mcdonald, could be seen singing along to every song and celebrating with .Paak while running back and forth in a vinyl-swapping frenzy.

Chappelle's Dallas show was one of his tour's four Texas dates, including a Friday evening stop in Fort Worth.

The show was truly full of "you had to be there" jokes. No phones were allowed and had to be locked away upon entering the venue, though a few rebels might have snuck one in.

.Paak’s musical taste seemed all-encompassing, as he threw in everything from Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams” to “Fergalicious” and back to Tevin Campbell’s “Can We Talk." In no time, DJ Pee Wee had the crowd in the palm of his hand and made every lady in the building hit their feet with Too $hort’s “Blow the Whistle” and kept them there with T-Pain and Yung Joc’s "Buy U a Drank." He also flaunted his mixing skills and musical creativity, with one of the most notable moments being his transition from the chorus of Dead Prez’s “Hip-Hop” into “Whip It” from Devo.

When .Paak announced that his set was ending soon, he was met with an understandable amount of dismay, but then with one unexpected move, he got the crowd more amped up than ever: Abandoning his turntable, he picked up a pair of sticks and took to the drums for a jam sesh with his trusty trumpeter, Maurice Brown. Their performance lasted around 10 minutes and was full of solos from both .Paak and Brown, keeping the audience enthralled. After a big, showy finish, Paak made his exit and the stadium flooded with applause before Chappelle took the stage to wow the crowd with his signature irreverence.