With Saturday Night Live hitting the big 5-0, insider stories are popping up like never before.
During a chat with fellow SNL veteran Seth Meyers, former writer Harper Steele dropped a bombshell – she was the first to sneak real drugs into a sketch, and it was all because of Jay-Z.
The moment went down in December 2000, during Season 26. The scene? Jay-Z, Memphis Bleek, and Beanie Siegel joined Will Ferrell’s lounge singer character Robert Goulet to promote his “rap-and-roll” album Murder in the Make-Believe Ballroom. Between dress rehearsal and the live show, Jay-Z had an interesting request for Steele.
“I get there between dress and air, and Jay-Z goes, ‘Can we get a real joint?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, you’re Jay-Z. Of course you can,'” Steele said. “I got that joint. Jay-Z used it on air.”
The real deal was obvious – Steele mentioned how weed smell took over the entire studio that night. This little stunt landed her in hot water when NBC’s Standards boss Betzy Torres-Mitchell sent some poor intern hunting for her.
“I look at this little pimply-faced intern and I go, ‘You tell Betzy Torres that I went home,'” she dished.
The 50th-anniversary party has been pulling out all the stops, even throwing a massive show at Radio City Music Hall. Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer brought back their hilarious middle school music teacher characters, Marty and Bobbi Mohan-Culp, crushing it with pop songs including Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.”
Want to see Steele spill more tea? Check out her full interview below.
