D.L. HUGHLEY, Laughing With A Legend: DL Hughley in conversation with Septimus the Great
What does a comedy album sound like when the comedian isn’t simply performing jokes, but opening the door to the life, philosophy and cultural history behind them? That’s the intriguing premise of Laughing With A Legend: Conversations With Septimius The Great, a 14-track hybrid that finds comedy veteran D.L. Hughley looking back, looking around, taking stock, observing with his trademark raucous wit, obliterating the limits and, naturally, finding plenty to laugh about along the way. Released August 23, 2026, and submitted for Grammy consideration in Best Comedy Album, the project is less a conventional stand-up recording than an intimate career portrait in which interview and performance continually illuminate one another.
Award winning singer, songwriter, model and actor Septimius The Great guides Hughley through subjects ranging from his first joke and family support to politics, race, religion, current events and the responsibilities of making people laugh in an increasingly complicated culture. Live excerpts are seamlessly woven into the dialogue, allowing listeners to hear Hughley demonstrate the very craft he is describing. Some of the live passages are less pristine sonically, but the unmistakable eruption of an audience provides its own testimony. Under portions of the interview, relaxed, low-key musical accompaniment gives the proceedings a subtle rhythmic pulse before a funky horn-driven flourish brings the project home.
One of Hughley’s most revealing observations comes when he explains that great comedy is about expressing exactly what you feel in a way so vivid that people can see it. The audience, he suggests, ultimately decides what that picture means. That philosophy explains his willingness to tackle virtually anything: immigration, racial violence, politics, religion, masculinity, family and the absurdities of everyday life. On “No Boundaries,” he makes an important distinction about provocative material: the joke doesn’t necessarily have to be on the subject; it can be built around it, with irony doing the heavy lifting.
That fearlessness is particularly evident in “Black Super Hero,” where Hughley turns the familiar mythology of comic-book superpowers into a pointed meditation on the realities of being Black in America. His ability to find humor inside uncomfortable truths is part of what has kept his voice distinctive for decades. “White people can stop a speeding bullet, leap tall buildings and outrun a train,” he says. ‘A Black superpower is being able to get credit approved with a phone call. ‘I jumped over a building.’ ‘Well Bank of America said yes to my loan.’ That’s a superpower. ‘It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a N*** with good credit!”
The deeply personal material adds another dimension. “The Future of My Estate” finds the veteran comedian riffing on family and grandchildren, while “Drama with Mo’Nique” reveals something fundamental about his professionalism: whatever happens behind the scenes, the audience has paid for his time and deserves his best. His story of performing in the rain in Atlanta after a crowd refused to leave when the headliner didn’t show up captures that ethic perfectly.
But the project reaches its greatest historical significance with “The Kings.” Hughley recalls standing before 20,000 people at Chicago’s United Center during The Original Kings of Comedy tour (with Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer and Bernie Mac) and realizing he was witnessing rare air – affirmed by his splitting ears! He places that experience within a lineage stretching from Redd Foxx, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy and Bill Cosby through his own generation and onward to Kevin Hart and Dave Chappelle. His comparison of the Kings’ impact on Black comedy to Magic Johnson and Larry Bird’s influence on basketball underscores the larger cultural stakes.
Ultimately, Laughing With A Legend is a celebration of longevity, artistic independence and the stubborn joy of the craft. Asked how he wants history to describe his impact, Hughley wisely leaves that judgment to everyone else. He has simply kept showing up, performing, evolving and making people laugh. His final declaration says it best: “Comedy is my woman, everything else is my side piece. I love nothing more than I love comedy.”
That isn’t merely a punchline. After 35 years, it sounds like the legend’s ultimate mission statement.
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