Dolemite Makes Right

"I have become their idol," says Moore, rousing himself to immodesty. "Like, Busta Rhymes has called me twice to come to rap with him, and Big Daddy Kane and Eric B and Rakim, I made a trip to do things with them. Snoop Dogg has had me to Hollywood to rap with him on his records, and the 2 Live Crew brought me to Miami and wined and dined me to make a record with them. And Eazy E, I did a record with him, and I was sampled by N.W.A. I've been sampled at least 71 times. Me, James Brown and George Clinton, we're the ones who've been sampled the most."

Still, Moore hasn't gotten rich from hip-hop. For instance, a snippet of Dolemite 4 President can be heard on Dr. Dre's mega-selling album The Chronic, but Moore was paid a lump sum of $8,000 for the rights. "After I took the money, I was told I should have gotten more," he says. "But it was for a record that was dead at that time, and the thought that I made that much money on it -- I thought it was right. I didn't know."

Dolemite, out of sight: Rudy Ray Moore.

Details

8 p.m., Saturday, May 4
$16.25, 303-380-2333

Gothic Theatre, 3263 South Broadway

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• Rudy Ray Moore
• Rudy Ray
• Petey Wheatstraw
• 2 Live Crew
• Hip-Hop and Rap

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The recent revival of interest in Moore -- the CDs, the DVDs, and so on -- gave rise to The Return of Dolemite, which he says should debut at theaters in New Orleans next month. There's even a chance of a big-budget remake of the original Dolemite, to star LL Cool J. "That was something that was in the air, oh, eight or ten months ago," Moore says. "The company, from what I can understand, backed out after that, but a couple weeks ago they put it back on the drawing board, and they asked me about helping them do it. But right now, it looks sort of shady."

No matter what happens on this front, Moore remains proud of his legacy -- although he's a bit worried that the masses don't recognize exactly what he's accomplished.

"I want people to see how positive I am and see the greatness of the performances," he says wearily. "I don't just do a bunch of X-rated words just to be doing them. My structure has an art-form flow, and I do what I do as a form of art. I'm a ghetto expressionist, not a dirty old man."