During the festival, the comedian mentioned the LGBTQ community, which some didn’t take lightly given Ghana’s anti-LGBTQ bill, which has significant political support.

While recently speaking with Rolling Stone about the Black Star Line Festival, Chance The Rapper defended Chappelle’s inclusion, noting the comedian meant no harm by his comments.

“I think it’s something that Dave was actually shining a light on,” the “No Problem” rapper said. “That’s where that conversation came from. Dave was making a comment about the comedy scene in Ghana when he said, ‘I bet gay jokes go over so well here,’ to which everybody laughed about. And he was making a point to say that in Ghana, you can make jokes about things that are about gay people, about trans people, about a lot of social constructs, just about anything in the world. But you can’t make a comment about the government there. That’s not funny and that’s not respected, and it can be dangerous. It’s the complete opposite where we come from, where we can speak about the government all we want.”

He added, “I can’t really all the way speak for Dave. I don’t want to say what he thinks or what he feels, but what I think I know about him is that he loves everybody, especially his people, meaning Black people, meaning Black people that are trans, Black people that are gay, Black people that are gender nonconforming, people period. And I think that in that space, I would say I don’t believe that he bashed trans people or gay people at all throughout the entire conversation.”

Over the past several years, Chappelle has continued to attract controversy for his remarks about LGBTQ people, which has consistently drawn ire in his stand-up.