In an interview, comedian Katt Williams made claims about fellow comedian Kevin Hart, alleging that Hart had “sold his soul” in exchange for fame. Williams stated that Hart’s success was a result of compromising his integrity and making deals that compromised his morals. Williams also expressed his belief that Hart’s popularity was fueled by the support of white individuals in Hollywood.

Williams went on to criticize Hart’s work, suggesting that his comedy lacked substance and relied on “white marketing dollars” for success. He argued that Hart’s joke delivery and content catered to a specific demographic, causing him to lose respect from the black community. Williams acknowledged Hart’s financial success but claimed that it came at the expense of true artistic expression.

On Kevin Hart: “In 15 years in Hollywood, no one in Hollywood has a memory of a sold-out Kevin Hart show, there being a line for him, ever getting a standing ovation at any comedy club. He already had his deals when he got here. Have we heard of a comedian that came to L.A., and in his first year in L.A., he had his own sitcom on network television and had his own film called Soul Plane that he was leading? No. We’ve never heard of that before that person or since that person. What do you think a plant is? Maybe people don’t understand the definitions of these words. He just did his documentary with Chris Rock, where he shows you that his whole upbringing in comedy was on the East Coast. So how, simultaneously, was he here in Los Angeles doing the same thing? It didn’t happen.

For a five-year period, every single movie that Kevin Hart did was a movie that had been on my desk. All I had said was ‘Can we take some of this Stepin Fetchit shit out and then I can do it? It don’t need to be overtly homosexual ’cause I’m not homosexual. It doesn’t need that to be funny, right?’ And me saying that and them going, ‘Oh yeah, no problem,’ and then going to give it to this other guy and having him doing it just like it was and acting like I’m a bad person ’cause I keep standing on my standard.

They tell you there’s no gatekeepers, but we keep seeing the same person open the gate. Didn’t Kevin let Tiffany [Haddish] in? … What do you mean ain’t no gatekeepers? There’s a hundred gates out here. Every one I seen got a keeper.” (On January 4, Hart responded to Williams on Twitter in a post promoting his upcoming Netflix movie Lift. “Gotta get that anger up outcha champ,” he wrote. “It’s honestly sad.”)