Ed Lover has been making a living off wit and sarcasm for over 20 years. He went from hosting Yo! MTV Raps in 1989 to top radio stations like New York City’s Hot 97 and Power 105, and even found time to do some acting in between. It’s not surprising that his initially improvised web series, C’Mon Son, became a hit. C’Mon Son, which launched online last August, is Ed Lover’s snarky take on pop culture events that seems to be getting more love than hate.
The iconic TV/radio personality is in talks with various networks to get C’Mon Son on air as a sketch comedy show, aiming to fill the void left behind by Dave Chappelle with a slot in Comedy Central’s fall lineup. Ed Lover shared his plans for TV domination with VIBE.com and offers brief commentary on Lil’ Kim, Nicki Minaj, Drake, Gary Coleman’s Ex and Kat Stacks. ⎯Starrene Rhett
VIBE: You have an interesting story behind C’Mon Son that a lot of people don’t know. What was the inspiration behind it?
Ed Lover: Something I saw and thought was ridiculous that I wanted to speak on was the whole DJ Drama/Jeezy beef. Here’s a little background: They were beefing and it really came to a head when Jeezy hired Drama to play at his [record] label release party. Drama knew that Jeezy had beef with Gucci Mane and he’s at the party playing Gucci Mane records. So Jeezy allegedly got mad and stormed out of the party [and] my take on it is, if somebody’s hiring you to do something and you know that person got beef with somebody then why would you be playing that person’s records. Drama’s take on it was Gucci Mane is hot he’s the dj so he was gonna play what the people wanna hear and that made me say, “C’mon son, really!” This guy hired you to play his party and you gonna play his arch enemy’s music at his party? So it was that and a few other things that I wanted to speak on.
The first video definitely looked like you started it on a whim but it evolved really fast.
When I was doing the first one, I did it on my MacBook, on iMovie. I didn’t know how to get the [superscript] on the screen. Whenever I was doing something for MTV, like Yo! MTV Raps, if I was saying something that they wanted to emphasize, they would [add] our name on the bottom of the screen or they would [add] what I said and make it flash, so with C’mon Son, that was my intention but I didn’t know how to do it. And at the same time I had just bought a house and had unpacked boxes so I just tore a piece of card board off the box and wrote what I wanted to say [c’mon son] in a sharpie on the box. It wasn’t my intention for it to blow up like that but I’m happy people took to it. It’s the most organic thing I’ve don in my career besides my transition from television to radio.
“Lamar Odum got mad at me. After I said Khloe Kardashian looked like Frankenberry, he texted me like, ‘We from the same hood!’”
Now that C’Mon Son could be coming back to TV, are you ready to make more people mad?
I think it’s needed because what I see is a lot of people scared to say what they really feel for a lot of different reasons, like, “That’s the label that I’m on I can’t say that,” or “I don’t want to offend him because maybe later on I might have to do a record with him,” or “I don’t want to say this because I don’t want them to think that we got beef.” I’m the voice for everybody⎯for the regular every day person that really wants to say to the celebrities and sports figures and politicians and people just people in general, “C’mon son! Really, what you trying to sell me right now is bullshit and I’m not having it, so get the fuck out here with that!”
Has anyone ever called you out on some of your c’mon son moments?
Oh absolutely. Lamar Odum got mad at me. [He] texted me after I said Khloe Kardashian looked like Frankenberry. He texted me like, “We from the same hood,” me and Lamar know each other [so] he said, “You supposed to be my boy,” blah blah blah. I said to him would, “Would you have texted Jay Leno, Chris Rock, or Conan O’Brian?” And he said no. What I’m doing is comedy. It’s my take on reality and it’s my take on life. He said we’re supposed to be boys but I wasn’t invited to his wedding so c’mon son to that! When I saw the picture of her that’s what she looked like, like she needs some bolts on her neck and she look like Frankenberry, sorry. I just said what people were saying. When they saw her they were like he’s the third best player on the Lakers and he got the third best Kardashian sister. That’s what they were saying so I said it for them. You’re not always going to agree with everything I say but C’Mon Son is my forum and my right so say what I feel.
So it’s safe to assume that if you get the Comedy Central deal, you’ll have a lot of freedom to say what you want?
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