The meat between Steve Harvey and Bernie Mac didn’t begin with stolen jokes. It didn’t begin over somebody blocking the opposite from getting a job in a giant movie. In keeping with one of many males behind “Def Comedy Jam,” the 2 began to have points over a lady. Kind of.
In a resurfaced July 2024 interview on “The Artwork of Dialogue,” Bob Sumner, who helped launch “Def Comedy Jam” with Russell Simmons, defined that the rivalry escalated when Harvey began getting his fits from Chicago-based designer Barbara Bates, who had already been working with Mac.
“Effectively, I can say this to you: Bernie and Steve had already been within the recreation, OK? They’d already had that little rivalry happening earlier than ‘Def Comedy Jam,’ you hear me? Earlier than Kings of Comedy and all that. So, that was similar to one thing that was taking place,” Sumner recalled.
Bates opened her boutique, Bates Designs, in 1986 in Chicago’s South Loop.
She shortly turned one of many metropolis’s most in-demand bespoke tailors, identified for mixing leather-based, python, crocodile, and effective materials into eye-catching fits. Her designs featured pleated leather-based accents, signature pockets, and daring shade palettes — good for comics attempting to face out on stage.
“However I feel that what actually used to drive them nuts was when Steve began getting a pair {dollars}, proper? Steve bought turned on to this girl in Chicago by the identify of Barbara Bates. … And Bernie had already been down along with her as a result of she was from Chicago, you recognize what I’m saying?” Sumner continued.
Sumner added that their competitors wasn’t nearly materials. It was symbolic.
“So now it was like … they used to have the battle within the fits, man,” he mentioned. “And I actually really feel that their rivalry or no matter you need to name it began extra with their apparel than the rest, man, you recognize? And it’s loopy as a result of they weren’t carrying fits at first; Invoice Bellamy was the man carrying the fits.”
As soon as “The Artwork of Dialogue” and TLYoungboss reposted the interview, followers chimed in with their takes.
One consumer wrote, “That’s some old school stuff proper there.”
One other added, “Yeah Chicago dudes don’t play about niggas tryna store at they retailer.”
A 3rd posted, “Hahaha it could’t be that! I feel it’s additionally the woman not simply the fits.”
One other merely joked, “Sounds extra just like the go well with maker than the fits lol.”
Whereas Bates’ fits might have sparked the feud, different points surfaced over time.
In April 2024, former radio host Ed Lover claimed Mac as soon as instructed him that Harvey tried to take his half in “Ocean’s Eleven.”
“All I can say is what Bernie instructed me,” Lover mentioned on “The Tradition Membership.” “And he was upset with Steve as a result of he mentioned Steve tried to get him taken off of Ocean’s — the Ocean’s film he did … and tried to vie for his half after he already bought employed. And, uh, Bernie by no means lied to me. That’s all I’m going to say. He was my good friend. I beloved him.”
The friction was seen throughout the 2000 Unique Kings of Comedy tour with Cedric the Entertainer and D.L. Hughley.
Cedric addressed the stress throughout a 2022 look on “Membership Shay Shay”: “They each alpha males. They each … they simply noticed it completely different. However on the finish of the day, they was capable of get by it.”
A resurfaced clip from a 2000 radio interview throughout the tour’s press run confirmed Mac cracking a joke in a Charlotte station’s studio as Harvey sat off to the aspect with what many referred to as a cool expression whereas Cedric laughed and Hughley gave the impression to be interested by the joke.
Regardless of all the pieces, Harvey has tried to point out respect to Mac lately. In 2016, he devoted an episode of “The Steve Harvey Present” to honor the late comic, that includes Mac’s household, Cedric, Hughley, Man Torry, and Mike Epps. When Mac’s widow Rhonda, spoke about his legacy and the continued love from followers, Harvey grew emotional, tearing up on air. Some viewers, after listening to the rumors for thus lengthy, nonetheless query if the show was real.
Mac, born Bernard Jeffrey McCullough, handed away in 2008 at age 50 after an extended battle with sarcoidosis. His legacy nonetheless lives on by his hefty physique of labor throughout tv and movie.
