His hilarious speech also detailed how he ended up working with Ye on a few classic hits.
It’s been decades since we’ve seen Jamie Foxx take to the small screen on In Living Color. We watched his portrayal his hilarious character “Wanda,” and in his speech at the Urban One Honors, he portrayed her once again to a laugh-filled audience. Jamie’s daughter, actress Corinne Foxx, presented him with the Entertainment Icon Award, and the first thing he did was sing her praises. “No matter what you do, it’s how your kids turn out,” he said before she trotted back over to her proud father to give him a hug. Then, he went into how he was just a country boy from Texas listening to and watching people from Los Angeles and New York thinking that “city people are so cool, maybe I’ll get a chance to rub elbows with some those incredible people.”
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Jamie shared that back in the day he wanted to break into the music industry but because he was known as the funny guy, people weren’t taking him seriously. While speaking about his days on In Living Color, the actor revisited Wanda and had the audience in stitches as he revised his character. “Word up, this is nice!” he said in her voice with his eyes crossed. “Oh, Urban Ones!”
He then talked about throwing a party for Diddy way back when (with the Diddy dance the music mogul used to pull f in music videos) and gave details about who was there. Missy Elliott, who was also in the audience because she was honored with the Music Innovation Award, was apparently at Jamie’s party for Diddy along with Jay Z, who no one knew at the time.
The comedian gave his best Jay Z impression before saying a producer friend his brought Kanye West to the shindig, as well. “He brought this guy in, his jaw was kinda messed up and he had a backpack on. Who was it? Kanye West,” Jamie said. While giving his Kanye impersonation, Jamie said Ye told him he had a song he thought the actor would be great on. They immediately went to Jamie’s studio and worked on the classic hit “Slow Jamz.” He also shared how “Gold Digger” came about, so check out his speech in full and don’t miss out on these hilarious Jamie Foxx memories.