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The brother of the wannabe rapper arrested for allegedly attacking Dave Chappelle on stage claims his sibling has no prior beef with the comedian and insisted he isn’t the type to “just lash out.”
Isaiah Lee, 23, was nabbed just moments after he tackled the 48-year-old comedian on stage at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday while armed with a bizarre gun-like knife, authorities said.
His older brother, Aaron Lee, 31, told Rolling Stone that he was in shock and still struggling to understand the younger Lee’s motive for the caught-on-camera attack.
“He doesn’t have any type of animosity toward [Chappelle] that I know about,” Aaron reportedly said.
Aaron said his brother has lots of transgender friends but couldn’t say for certain if Chappelle’s history of making controversial trans jokes would have spurred Lee to attack him.
“Yeah, it could have definitely been a factor, but I really don’t know,” Aaron told the outlet.
He added that his younger brother, who is originally from Brooklyn, has been in and out of Los Angeles homeless shelters for the past decade and struggles with mental illness.
“I don’t understand how this happened. He’s a gentleman. He is a kind, humble, nice person. Maybe if he was getting picked on, maybe he would defend himself. But I don’t understand why he would attack anybody. That doesn’t make any sense,” Aaron said.
“He does have a history of mental health issues. He does take medicine. Maybe he missed out on taking his prescription. But he’s not the type to just lash out. I don’t understand.
“He’s not the type of person to attack you for no reason. But if he’s not on his medication, and if he feels everyone is against him, maybe that’s it.”
Lee, who raps under the name NoName_Trapper and has a verified Spotify account, put out a song in 2020 with the title “Dave Chappell.”
But his older brother insists “that song wasn’t even about Dave Chappelle.”
“It’s just that Dave Chappelle has a world-recognized name,” Aaron said. “People are searching Dave Chappelle all the time, so he hoped it would help him get more attention, more attraction, so people could find it.”
He added, “I don’t have anything negative to say about Isaiah. He’s a performing artist who tries to stay as positive as possible.”
Neighbors who used to live next door to the Lee brothers in Redondo Beach, California earlier told The Post that the siblings used to blowout arguments with each other.
Former neighbor Russell Taylor remembered Lee as someone who could be “set off with a word.”
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