DX: What’s going on with Cadillac Records?
C: I play a guy named Willie Dixon. He was a bass player, and he wrote a lot of those big blues songs. He was actually one of the main guys. At the end of his career, they sued the record label and got a lot of his publishing back. A lot of those songs like “The Rolling Stones” - which The Rolling Stones named themselves after- and a lot of those songs that big bands had remade, [he got recouped for them so] he ended up dying a pretty rich man. But because they were Mississippi men doing the blues early in their career, they were paid in Cadillacs. That’s the whole thing. The guy would give them a lil’ bit of money and buy them new Cadillacs. As long as you looked good and had a couple of thousand dollars in your pocket, that’s what they wanted. Blues was rock ‘n roll but country—with harmonicas. He was one of the success stories. As he matured, he was able to understand about his publishings a lil’ before he died. He knew that he couldn’t just say that he wanted to keep his own publishing so he told the record company that he owed [money] to these gangsters and he made up this name. He made up this publishing company and let his record label think these gangsters owned him. They never challenged it.

DX: That’s pretty slick.
C: Yeah, it was. They just weren’t letting people keep their records. Mos Def is playing Chuck Berry. Chuck Berry was the other one that came on to this record label and changed the music landscape again for these guys. Jeffrey Wright is playing Muddy Waters. Adrien Brody is Leonard Chess. Beyonce is in the movie as Etta James. We’re having a great time with it, too.

DX: Did he play delta blues?
C: He played bass, the upright bass. That was his thing. He did stuff like “Hoochie Coochie Man” and “Backdoor Man” and… “I’m a Man.” You had a lot to prove back then. All right, brutha.

DX: Ced, who are some of the younger comedians that excite you right now?
C: I mean, obviously, Katt Williams is hot. It’s a few people. I mean, the young cat who opens up for me. His name is JJ, Jeremiah Williamson. He’s out of Mississippi but he lives in Atlanta. He’s very funny guy. Rodney Perry [is funny]. There are a few guys that got some pop, some flair, and they’re trying to make a name for themselves. It’s definitely different, even watching this season of Def Comedy Jam. I think comedy has changed so much that it feels the same, like with the subject matter and what people are talking about.

DX: You still like to get on stage?
C: I still do it. I definitely consider it a young man’s sport. It’s some talk of us doing a Kings of Comedy 2. I’m getting ready to go out and do some club work and try to write some new material to at least be ready if the deal comes down. I gotta be ready to throw some bombs out there, you know? I’mma start in April, doing some club dates around the country. I call them “the gym.” I gotta get back in the gym, throw some punches. I’ll go to Columbus, Ohio and if it don’t work out, nobody will hear about it. People in Columbus will be like, “He didn’t do that good here.” Folks be like, “Nobody believe y’all. Shut up!”