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Rodney Barnes on Boondocks Comeback: 'Today’s World Ain’t Ready'"
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Jun 4, 2025
Boondocks writer Rodney Barnes keeps it real with AllHipHop’s Chuck "Jigsaw" Creekmur at Fan Expo Philadelphia—breaking down the challenges of reviving the legendary animated series. Could it come back? Is the world too sensitive for satire? Find out what’s really holding it back and what the future could look like for Huey, Riley, and Granddad. 👀🔥 Subscribe to AllHipHop on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/allhiphoptv?sub_confirmation=1 Check out more of AHH here on social media: https://allhiphop.com https://twitter.com/allhiphopcom https://facebook.com/allhiphopcom https://instagram.com/allhiphopcom Executive Producers: “Grouchy” Greg Watkins and Chuck “Jigsaw” Creekmur
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0:00
What's going on everybody? Chuck Creek
0:02
here. All hip hop. We're here with
0:05
Rodney. Rodney Barnes, the legend, the
0:08
the the writer, the story writer. What
0:10
else are you nowadays? Uh just writer,
0:13
producer primarily. I mean, TV more than
0:16
anything else, but I got this love for
0:18
comic books that I just can't let go.
0:19
Yeah. Yeah, man. So much respect for
0:22
you. A lot of people don't know
0:23
Boondocks is in your uh CV. We don't do
0:26
resumes anymore. No.
0:29
So, so how are you doing? First my
0:31
LinkedIn account. LinkedIn, right? I'm
0:34
doing good. Just busy here in Philly.
0:37
Um, once a year, the East Coast towns
0:40
cuz I live in LA. Love coming to them.
0:42
Baltimore, Philly, DC. Never get a
0:45
chance to. So, this is cool. What about
0:47
New York? We do New York every year. Um,
0:50
New York is always busy, crazy. Kind of
0:52
like San Diego, right? Yeah. Yeah. So,
0:56
how have you, you know, made out here? I
0:58
mean, it's not as busy today on Sunday
1:01
that it was yesterday. Friday and
1:03
Saturday are always the big days. Um,
1:06
Sunday comes with the contract. Do a few
1:08
hours here on a Sunday and see what
1:10
happens. But Friday and Saturday, as far
1:12
as business is concerned, always the hot
1:14
days. Yeah. So, let's talk about you as
1:16
a creator. You've uh put out a number
1:19
of, you
1:20
know, you call them titles. Yeah.
1:24
and some of which now wait a minute.
1:27
Have any of these been converted into
1:29
shows yet or Philadelphia has been
1:31
optioned? That's the one that people ask
1:33
me about the most. Um I'm shopping it
1:36
around town. Uh Levventine Films as
1:38
well. They optioned it. Okay. And just
1:40
um doing our best trying to get it set
1:43
up. Centers helps. Rise and tide lifts
1:46
all boats. Right. I was going to ask you
1:48
about that. What you thought? Yeah, I
1:50
loved it. I thought it was great. I
1:52
thought um I think Ryan Cougler is truly
1:55
a um masterful filmmaker. Highest
1:58
compliment is the nuance and specificity
2:00
that he puts into the film, set design,
2:03
cinematography, you know, it's not just
2:06
point and shoot. It really is tell the
2:08
background and everything around it is
2:09
telling the story as well. Now with
2:11
Philadelphia, what made you set that in
2:14
in Philly? Uh love the name. When I was
2:17
a kid, when I was in the Boy Scouts, way
2:19
back when they had Boy Scouts, we would
2:21
come to Philly to do like field trips,
2:23
go see the Liberty Bell, all of the all
2:26
the the history that's connected to the
2:29
origins of the United States coming into
2:31
be. So,
2:33
Philadelphia juxtaposing the idea of
2:37
democracy plus some of the social ills
2:39
that come with it. Uhhuh. I felt like
2:41
Philly would be a great, you know, the
2:44
duality of the two. the idea of what it
2:47
was supposed to be and the reality of
2:50
not necessarily what it's become, but
2:52
aspects of what it's become. Thought it
2:53
would make for a good storytelling. I
2:56
guess you know Delaware wasn't good
2:57
enough for you cuz cuz they call Wait,
3:01
they call Wilmington Kilmington. So,
3:03
well, see, that don't sound Philadelphia
3:06
is a lot harder than Kilington. Yeah.
3:08
Yeah. No kidding. I'm kidding. But, uh,
3:12
I have I have an idea for a story line
3:14
in Delaware. I can't say it on camera.
3:16
Okay. Don't do it. But but but I'll
3:18
maybe when I develop it, I'll run it
3:20
past you. No, please do. Please do. Now,
3:23
your legacy, uh, which I didn't know
3:26
until pretty much way after we met, your
3:30
legacy with the Boondocks. Yeah. How do
3:32
you in hindsight, I mean, I always
3:35
thought it would would come back. Yeah.
3:37
Uh, first of all, any shot of that
3:40
happening? Never say never. Um, I think
3:44
it's a different time when we were
3:45
riding the boondocks way back when in
3:47
the early 2000s. Social media wasn't
3:49
what it was. Now they got this thing
3:50
called Twitter, but it's X. Yeah. Where
3:54
as soon as you offend me, you can
3:57
immediately go and say, "I didn't like
3:58
what you did." I don't think
4:00
corporations like that very much. Right.
4:02
So, we didn't have a whole lot of
4:04
oversight back in the day. I think
4:06
today's world, eyes are on everything.
4:10
So, you know, I think it would just be
4:12
tough. Yeah. But we are in an era of
4:18
it's it's different even in the middle
4:20
there. So, now it's it's it's pendulum
4:23
is swinging. But the polarization when
4:26
people don't like something, they really
4:28
don't like it. Like back in my day, if I
4:30
didn't like somebody that didn't watch
4:32
it or, you know, you had to write a
4:34
letter to get somebody to, you know, and
4:37
didn't really know if anybody was
4:38
actually reading the letter or whatever.
4:41
Um, now, like I said, you have direct
4:44
access. You have people that are reading
4:46
those things and figuring out um how
4:49
people really feel about the show. Yeah.
4:51
So, a show like the Boondocks that's a
4:53
satire, I don't know. How you doing? Um,
4:56
I don't know if there's enough satire
4:59
made in order to be able to get people
5:01
to see that the joke is trying to say
5:04
something bigger than what it's actually
5:06
saying. Yeah. Okay. It's just a
5:09
different time. Yeah. Again, I don't
5:11
know, you know, but instinctively the
5:14
way people react to comedy now is a lot
5:16
different than they did back in the 80s,
5:19
90s, early 2000s. Yeah. We won't talk
5:22
about the intellectual
5:24
uh capacities of of the public, it's
5:28
another story. Yes. Um but as far as
5:30
your
5:32
as that being a part of your legacy,
5:34
Yeah. you know, how do how do you feel
5:36
about that? U very very proud of it. I
5:38
mean, um, I was doing network TV when I
5:41
was doing my wife and kids and everybody
5:42
hates Chris. So, I did the
5:45
boondocks during that entire period. So,
5:48
by day, you're trying to figure out how
5:50
to say something to get on network TV
5:52
and at night you said whatever you want
5:54
to say. So, it was a great juosition of
5:56
the two for a young writer at the time
5:59
to figure out what his voice was and
6:01
what I was doing. So, yeah, honor. Yeah.
6:05
What are you most proud of uh in regards
6:08
to the bulldogs or everything? Um just
6:11
that I've been able to do it for this
6:12
long. Um I've been able to survive and
6:15
live a relatively good life just by
6:17
being creative. You know, there's so
6:19
many folks if you would have told the 8
6:21
nyear-old version of me that just love
6:23
comic books that one day I would be in
6:25
this business on TV and film, I told you
6:27
you were crazy. and being able to come
6:29
from Maryland, get to LA, actually be
6:32
doing it for a while, you know, got a
6:35
pension coming. Yeah. So, hey, man, I
6:37
can't be, man. That's what's And I see
6:39
you with everybody. I I'm looking here.
6:41
I see an Exhibit. Exhibit just dropped a
6:43
new album, by the way. Exhibit. Shout
6:46
out to Exhibit. You've been so
6:48
successful. Conor McGregor. Yes. That's
6:51
do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you you you it
6:54
seems like you're cool with like random
6:57
everybody. That's right. Yeah. That's
6:59
that's pretty tough. I think the thing
7:01
is
7:02
it's not when you grow up in a small
7:04
town, your friends kind of find you
7:07
because you live in a small community.
7:08
Yeah. When you get out of that, you get
7:10
into the entertainment business.
7:12
Friendship isn't the same. You know, you
7:13
have a lot of associations cuz people
7:15
come and people go. But often times when
7:17
I find people and we kind of vibe
7:19
together and we sort of relate to each
7:21
other either by family, how much we love
7:23
our kids, whatever it is, you build
7:26
community. And so if you can work with
7:29
those people and make some money, Yeah.
7:32
Hollywood is a people place. Yeah. Mhm.
7:34
You got to spend hours with people. You
7:36
got to spend all of this time. Why not
7:38
be with people that you dig that dig you
7:40
and that you can do some cool stuff and
7:41
hopefully make some money, too. Yeah.
7:43
All right. Last question. Who Who was
7:45
your favorite superhero growing up?
7:47
Swamp Thing. Swamp Thing. Swamp Thing.
7:49
Whoa. thing. It was a small thing Batman
7:51
thing that I had. Darker Batman. Yeah.
7:54
That went into the horror realm. Um Neil
7:57
Adams, Bernie writes, and Batman, but as
8:00
it pertained to Swamp Thing cuz he would
8:03
show up in those books. Yeah. But I love
8:05
Swamp Thing. And then I loved um the
8:07
original in the 70s with Bernie writes
8:11
and Len Win. And then the Alan Moore one
8:13
that came later was my favorite of all
8:15
time. So that one day I've written
8:18
Batman, now I want to write sponsor. I
8:20
made it clear. I let him know. Yeah,
8:22
it's going to happen. And by the way, I
8:24
I follow all the people from the movie
8:26
to this day. That's what I'm thinking. I
8:29
stalk Jude. Um Adrian, I'm just like I
8:33
love that movie. Yeah. Even the little
8:35
man, the guy that turned into the
8:38
Mitch, I'm stalking him, too. Yeah, man.
8:41
Um All right. Thank you. Oh, you're
8:43
welcome. Thank you. Yeah. Huh? No. I
8:47
thought you were to me. Yeah. Thank you.
8:49
Thank you.
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