Dave Chappelle Teams Up With Third Man to Release ‘8:46’ Stand-Up Special on Vinyl

Dave Chappelle will release a vinyl edition of his 2020 stand-up special, 8:46, which he recorded and released in the wake of George Floyd’s murder last summer.

A special version pressed on red, black, and green vinyl and limited to just 846 copies is available now on a first-come, first-served basis at the Third Man Records stores in Nashville and Detroit, and online. A standard black vinyl pressing is also available to preorder and will be shipped October 29th. All proceeds from the vinyl sales will be donated to Chappelle’s high school, Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C.

“When I was a student at Duke Ellington, the teachers instilled in me the notion of activism through art,” Chappelle said in a statement. “We need more soldiers for great causes on the stage.”

8:46 captures a rather raw and unrefined stand-up set Chappelle delivered on June 6th at an event near his home in Yellow Springs, Ohio, to a small audience following Covid-19 safety protocols. Released on Netflix’s YouTube page just six days later, the special found Chappelle speaking on high-profile instances of police brutality and violence against black Americans (8:46 took its name from the eight minutes and 46 seconds Derek Chauvin held his knee on Floyd’s neck).

Along with Chappelle’s stand-up set, the vinyl version of 8:46 will include a B-side that features poet Amir Sulaiman’s performance of “My Insides Out” and “We Must Win,” also recorded in Ohio. There will also be a “White Noise” track, eight minutes and 46 seconds of silence in remembrance of Floyd and other victims of police brutality and systemic racism.