News — Elon Musk

Comedian Dave Chappelle says he used to buy weed from Idris Elba back in the day. Appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Chappelle delved into topics like the coronavirus pandemic, Elon Musk hosting SNL, cancel culture and gay rights.

During the podcast, Chapelle started talking about the importance of treating people in the service industry with kindness, since no one knows where such people might end up. Using Hollywood star Elba as an example, Chapelle said: “Idris Elba, the famous actor, used to be a security guard at Caroline’s [comedy club] … I used to buy weed from him.”

British actor, musician and DJ Elba, who was born to immigrant working-class parents, was brought up in east London before finding fame in America. He is best known for playing Nelson Mandela in the biographical film Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013), drug trafficker Stringer Bell on the HBO series The Wire, and DCI John Luther on the BBC One series Luther. 

The TV and film star has never shied away from talking about his drug-dealing past. 

In his Saturday Night Live monologue in 2019, Elba talked about his years working as a bouncer at Caroline’s comedy club. 

“Now, this was my night job when I started in this country. This time of year, I would be standing outside freezing my bollocks off. I mean, it was a decent job, though. I made some great contacts. By which I mean, I sold weed,” the Luther star said. 

“I’m not proud of it, it’s just a fact.” 

In a 2013 interview with GQ Magazine, the actor said,”…I was DJ’ing, but I was also pushing bags of weed; I was doing my work. I had to. I know that sounds corny, but this is the truth.”

He said while selling drugs at Carolines, a lot of Black comedians came through, including Chapelle. “All those black comedians, they knew me as a doorman.”

Elba has been nominated four times for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film, winning one and was nominated five times for a Primetime Emmy Award.

South African-born entrepreneur Elon Musk has seen his fortune rise to $195 billion, making him the richest man on earth, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Until Thursday, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was the richest man in the world with a net worth of $185 billion.

The Space X and Tesla founder was pushed to the top spot after shares in Tesla rose by more than 6 percent on Thursday. Since the start of 2020, Tesla’s capitalization has grown from $80 billion in January 2020 to just over $760 billion as of Thursday, according to NBC News, while his personal fortune rose by more than $150 billion last year.

The new evaluation is more than eight times the combined values of the traditional “Big Three” U.S. automakers — GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler, NBC added.

“How strange,” Musk tweeted Thursday. “Well, back to work …”

“Musk’s wealth surge over the past year marks the fastest rise to the top of the rich list in history — and is a dramatic financial turnaround for the famed entrepreneur, who just 18 months ago was in the headlines for Tesla’s rapid cash burn and his personal leverage against the company’s stock,” CNBC wrote. “Tesla’s rocketing share price — which has increased more than ninefold over the past year — along with his generous pay package have added more than $150 billion to his net worth.”

Musk started 2020 worth about $27 billion and was not among the top 50 richest list. However, he passed Warren Buffett to become the seventh-richest person in July. He gained more wealth than Bill Gates to become the second-richest person in November and has since gained more wealth over the past 12 months than Gates’ entire net worth of $132 billion, according to CNBC.

While Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index ranks Musk as the richest man in the world, Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires lists Bezos ahead of him. Bezos tops Forbes’ list with $184 billion while Musk comes in second with $177.2 billion.

However, according to CNBC, Forbes evaluation did not include the value of Musk’s options, which he received as part of his pay package, to buy more than 33 million shares of Tesla.

Last year, Musk’s Space X launched two crewed missions to the International Space Station, the first of it in the U.S. since NASA retired its space shuttle fleet in 2011, according to space.com. In all, Space X launched 26 missions in 2020.