Jay-Z’s New Video Stars Issa Rae, Tiffany Haddish, Jerrod Carmichael, and More in a Black Friends Parody

For Jay-Z’s latest example of black excellence, he’s re-cast Friends as a black parody turned horror movie about black exploitation. His video for “Moonlight,� directed by Alan Yang, stars Issa Rae as the perfect Rachel, Tessa Thompson as Monica (who’s in her feelings about her boyfriend, voiced by Jay-Z), Tiffany Haddish as Phoebe, Lakeith Stanfield as Chandler, Lil Rel as Joey, and Jerrod Carmichael as a highly paranoid Ross in a sendup of season three’s “The One Where No One’s Ready.� The opening credits are perfectly copied (they got the couch and the umbrellas), but let’s just say there’s a slight improvement on the theme song. (Spoiler: It’s black sitcom good.) Everything’s going just fine until the video breaks the fourth wall, and Carmichael walks offset and gets roasted by none other than Hannibal Buress for letting network television use him for “diversity.� (We can’t imagine what he’s referring to.) Things get existential and referential of the song title’s inspiration real quick.