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Benny Hill is a British icon whose television show, The Benny Hill Show, captured the hearts of the nation for over three decades with hilarious sketches. What you might not know is that the comedian, who died in 1992, was highly thought of by a number of American rappers, including Snoop Dogg. Of all people, it was Benny Hill who kick-started Snoop’s interest in London. The Long Beach rapper called him a “bad motherfucker” and declared how much African-Americans adore him.

“You know what was an attraction of mine, to London, as a kid? It was to meet Benny Hill, right?” he told the Evening Standard. “Because Benny Hill was a bad motherfucker in California. He was funny as fucker, too! And we loved him.

“Like, I don’t even think y’all know how much he meant to the African-American community. He meant the fucking world to us. The shit he was doing on TV, they would never do in America.” Dr. Dre, who was also part of the same interview, agreed with Snoop, saying, “Benny was the tip.”

On another occasion, Snoop Dogg gave Benny Hill credit for combining music and comedy. “The way Benny did it, he was just amazing,” he said. “Just seeing how he put songs together and comedy and the timing and the sketches. He was way ahead of his time.”

The West Coast giants aren’t the only ones who call themselves fans of Benny Hill. On the East Coast, Busta Rhymes also has glowing remarks, calling him a “superstar” and noting his charisma. “The British guy that used to be the superstar back in our days was Benny Hill,” he said. “Benny Hill was our favourite back then, to this day, I don’t think anybody is as funny or as charismatic as Benny Hill.”

For those who don’t know, Busta actually has family based in England and spent a couple of his summer holidays overseas during his childhood. His auntie, Velma, lived in the northern seaside town of Morecambe and actually did some of his schooling there. “I went to karate school [in Morecambe] and we illegally went into nightclubs to make a little money breakdancing,” he said. “At those times, Boy George was cool, Wham! was cool, the shag haircut that’s low up-top and thick in the back, that used to be cool.”

Busta Rhymes has always spoken fondly of England, recalling some of the old memories during an interview with GQ in 2022. During the conversation, he spoke more about his experience breakdancing in nightclubs when he was underage.

“We didn’t live in England. My mother’s other sister Aunt Velma, she lived in Morecambe, England at the time, so we went down there to spend two summers,” he said. “One summer when we went down there I was 12, my brother was eight, so my aunt made sure that we actually went to school in England. Regular school and then we went to karate school too.”

He continued, “We also were on some breakdancing that was so crazy, we ended up actually getting work to breakdance in clubs as minors. And our cousins used to run us around and they used to advertise us as TJ and Paul because my government name is Trevor Junior. We actually got memorabilia still from then, we got the flyers, a couple of newspaper clippings.”