The Golden Globe recipient shared he used to be Dave Chappelle’s weedman during the early stages of his career in order to earn some cash to fund his acting career in addition to working as a DJ. "In that time period, I did a lot of things that I'm not proud of. But I did a lot of the things,” the Sonic star explains during his earlier years when he first moved to America. "I used to sell weed. It wasn't [legal] back then. I did that for a little bit just to pay the way. Dave Chappelle remembers me 'cause he used to buy weed from me. Anyway, moving on. But yeah, I did all kinds of things, to be honest."

In May 2021, Chappelle was a guest on The Joe Rogan Show and identified the British actor as one of his weed suppliers according to Hot97. “Idris Elba, the famous actor, used to be a security guard at Caroline’s [comedy club]… I used to buy weed from him,” said the comedian. You can watch the full clip of Idris discussing his past on SiriusXM below: