Chris Rock: Bring the Pain is a 1996 HBO television special starring comedian Chris Rock. This was Rock’s second special for the network following 1994’s Big Ass Jokes. Although Rock was already a well-known comedian, Bring the Pain made him one of the most popular comedians in the United States.
Bring the Pain premiered on June 1, 1996 on HBO. Rock’s performance included bits about then-D.C. mayor Marion Barry, the O.J. Simpson murder case, dating, marriage and race relations in America. The most well-known and controversial piece of the special is “Niggas vs. Black People”[3] in which he states:
“There’s like a civil war goin on with black people and there’s two sides. There’s black people, and there’s niggas. and niggas have got to go…I love black people, but I hate niggas, boy. Oh, I hate niggas. Boy, I wish they’d let me join the Klu Klux Klan [sic]. Shit, I’d do a drive-by from here to Brooklyn.”
