Part of the joy of watching Haddish is that she treats every opportunity like a dry run for her next stand-up special and this appearance on Ellen’s show is no different.
For those who have spent at least twenty minutes before bed reenacting the fated meeting between Haddish and Barbra Streisand, Haddish’s explanation for how that came to be does not disappoint.
“We recently met at Ron Meyer’s house. He invited me over for dinner and a movie and then there she was… Barbra Streisand.”
“I had informed her about Cardi B., you know how she transformed her whole life and is a role model to children and how we have to be role models to show young girls how you can empower yourself and be whatever you want in life, and she was like, “Who is Cardi B?” And I was like, what, you don’t know?”
Per Haddish’s lively retelling, she rapped the chorus of “Bodak Yellow” for Barbra Streisand—please take a moment to picture this incident—and then clock Streisand’s reaction: “Sounds catchy.”
Please take five to ten minutes to imagine Barbra Streisand getting in her car, asking Siri to play “Bodak Yellow” and then closing her eyes as the driver whisks her away to Malibu, drifting off to restful slumber as the dulcet tones of Belicalis Almanzar rapping about red bottoms rings out through her BMW.
Did the conversation stop there? No, it certainly did not. Haddish and Streisand also commiserated on their similar upbringings…
“I’m from South Central, she’s from Brooklyn, then we found out we both from the hood, we both ghetto chicks, except it’s just different times… different ghetto, different times.”
Another salient bit of information gleaned from this interview is the blossoming friendship between Haddish and enemy of the state Taylor Swift. Post SNL-appearance, Swift apparently came up to Haddish and said that they should hang out. Haddish took the bait but with a caveat. “Look if I come over, you gotta make me some barbecue chicken, some potato salad, and a brisket,” she said. Apparently Tay-Tay listened and produced…something.
“When I get over there, she got all this food…First off, Taylor can cook. Ok? She can cook. Like, the chicken was bomb, all right? And she made cornbread. Bomb! So good! And then she ate my greens, she said ‘Oh my god, Tiffany, I have been wanting greens for so long, I go to all these different places to get greens and they’re never good, these greens are so delicous.’ And I said okay, girl, that’s because they’re joyful greens!”
I’ll withhold judgment. Ellen’s face says it all.