Comedian Affion Crockett is ready to take over Sunday nights with his new sketch comedy Fox show, In the Flow With Affion Crockett. Executive produced by both Crockett and fellow comedian Jamie Foxx, In the Flow with Affion Crockett will find the funny man spoofing movie trailers, commercials, TV shows, music videos and celebrities, among other skits.

Far from an overnight success, Crockett, an avid B-boy since his childhood days, put breaking on hold to begin his stand-up career in the early 90s. While performing in a LA night club, he caught the attention of talent scout Bob Sumner and that led to his big break: an appearance on the groundbreaking show Def Comedy Jam. After his stint there, Crockett went on to join the cast of MTV's hip-hop improv program, Wild 'N Out, where he stole the show with quick-witted punch lines battling some of hip hop’s biggest names.

Now, the YouTube sensation plans on showing network television audiences unfamiliar with his vast body of work why millions of others have already jumped on the Crockett bandwagon. On the eve of the Aug. 14th premiere of his show (at 9pm), the comedian caught up with XXL to discuss his upcoming show, YouTube Spoofs and his favorite MCs. —Mike Hennix

XXL: How did In the Flow With Affion Crockett come about?

Affion Crockett: My partner Carl Jones, he’s a producer on the [show] Boondocks. We went to high school together. That’s one of my good friends out here in Hollywood. He called me up one day and was like, ‘I wanna take some of your YouTube joints to my agent because I believe we can have a good meeting with Fox. I believe they are looking for some sketch comedy’. We just compiled all my videos onto a reel and they were diggin it and they paired me up with Jaime [Foxx] for some name value so he could introduce me to the world.

How do you feel about comparisons to to SNL, MADtv, and In Living Color?

I never run from those comparisons. I actually, in the first episode, address those. I learned from every show you just named. I’m a fan of In Living Color I’m a fan of SNL especially when Eddie Murphy was on. The Chris Farley years, they had a lot of good years. Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell killed it. The format is somewhat the same where I come out and host and then I introduce the sketches that are pre-taped. Its pretty much me. Its my YouTube Channel. I have a different brand of comedy. It’s hip-hop, its for this generation, that MADtv would never touch on and SNL could never touch on. This is the voice of our people.

Are you going to have musical performances on your show?

We actually don’t have performers. That’s the one element that I really wanted that we weren’t able to get around to this first season. Personally, if I had my wish list, it would be people like the Roots, Talib [Kweli], [Dr.] Dre, Snoop, Little Brother. I would want to give Nas and my hip-hop heroes a platform. What show can you tune in to where you actually see Rakim performing in 2011?

Sunday August 14th 9pm-10pm we got two back to back episodes for the premiere night. Let me tell the hip-hop community we need those numbers to be astronomical. I need the hip-hop community to understand this is our show. I got [support from] Snoop Dogg, Chris Brown, Russell Simmons and Michael Strahan. Embrace it. Its our show. There’s only one black show on network TV right now and that’s mine. That’s a sad statistic but we gotta change that by supporting this one, so they’ll open the flood gates for Black shows.

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How long have you been doing comedy?

Roughly since about 1994. I started doing stand up. I did Def Comedy Jam in 1995.

What got you into it?

Def Comedy Jam. It was the first time I saw hip-hop comedians that were actually looking and sounding like me and my generation. Before that, all I had to look up to was Eddie Murphy when he did Raw and Delirious. But I never related being a comedian from that. I just was a fan of his and I never thought I could do what he did.

How did you link up with Nick Cannon to do Wild ‘N Out?

Me and Nick had a lot of mutual friends and Nick, he also was a dancer back in the day. He don’t tell a lot of people that. We had a lot friends from the dance world and comedy world. When he wanted to get the Wild ‘N Out show poppin' on MTV he knew it was something that was tailor-made for me.

Between the Wild 'N Out and Def Comedy Jam era, what did you do?

I was doing commercials. I got back into dancing. I went on tour for a couple people. I used to back-up dance for Tyrese.

After Wild ‘N Out, your YouTube spoofs started popping up. Did you pay for those yourself?

Absolutely.

Did you ever think they would garner the attention they did?

I didn’t just say, ‘I’m gonna bank roll all my joints because I believe in them.' It really kinda happened on accident. I had a lot of ideas on Wild ‘N Out and when we stopped doing the show I was like, ‘Man, I want to get some of these ideas out’.

You'ved spoofed Jay-Z and Rick Ross among others. How have the artists that you've spoofed reacted to them?

The artists for the most part, they love what I do. I think it's different from me because they already knew me from Wild ‘N Out. I was always the guy from the show that would battle a rapper. I would joke 'em down and sometimes they would hit me with some good ones.

What's your favorite impersonation?

I don’t know if I have a favorite. I can tell you the audience’s favorite. though. It’s Jay-Z.

Speaking of, what artists are you bumping when you’re stuck in that LA traffic?

Big Pun never leaves the CD changer. He’s one of the most underrated rappers to me, in my opinion. Anything that Talib and Hi-Tek have done or Talib and Mos Def. Little Brother is incredible. The Foreign Exchange is incredible. Cory Gunz is my Favorite young dude right now. He’s killing it. Kendrick Lemar, lyrically, I like where these dudes are going with it. I’m waiting on J.Cole; he's from my hometown, That’s my little brother right there. Of course, Rakim, Nas. I’m really into lyrical dudes.

What advice can you give aspiring dancers and/or comedians who are pursuing their big breaks?

Study, man. You gotta study. Now that we have the internet access, anyone with a laptop or a camera feels like they can do sketch or they can get famous overnight. That might be cool if you blow up overnight. But, if you don’t have no foundation or skills to back that up then it's not going to last you very long. Respect those that came before you. See what they did right and wrong and then learn your way in that. Be persistent, keep moving forward. Just respect the craft and really bring some artistry to all of it, whether its dance, rap, comedy, whatever. Study the game and just don’t rush to be famous.

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