CHRIS ROCK TALKS BROOKLYN & GOOD HAIR!

Some of Chris Rock's first memories are from a barbershop in Brooklyn. "I grew up in Bed-Stuy, and always went to one barbershop on Howard Ave. and Chauncey St.," says the comedian. "These were the pre-Dinkins days, when crime was rampant. I remember guys actually sitting in a barber chair and getting their hair done with a coat on because they knew that if they hung up the coat someone would run out of the barbershop with it."
If Chris Rock is anything, he's a pure-bred New Yorker. His hometown courses through his standup. It co-stars in his TV series "Everybody Hates Chris," based on his childhood in Brooklyn. And now it plays a role in his documentary "Good Hair," in theaters Friday. In the film, Rock explores issues of self-image for African-American women, by turning the camera on barbershops across the world, and in particular in Harlem.

"Just from growing up in Brooklyn and seeing my mother and aunt get their hair done, I knew a little bit about black women's hair," Rock says. "But I didn't know that black hair was this multibillion-dollar industry. You would never know that just from sitting in a hair salon in Harlem or Bed-Stuy."

The 44-year-old comic has come a long way from his days in Brooklyn. He has two daughters. A multimillion-dollar career. Three Emmy awards. Courtside seats for the Knicks. He throws out pitches for the Yankees. He's hosted the Oscars. But just because he's all grown up, it doesn't mean he's outgrown his hometown. Not by a long shot.

HIS BROOKLYN

The comedian does not sugarcoat recollections of his former neighborhood. "There were no real restaurants around back then," he says. "The McDonald's that was close by actually went out of business. You know you live in a poor neighborhood when your McDonald's is abandoned. Here's some advice, if you are ever walking down the street and you see an abandoned McDonald's or KFC, just run."

Rock has seen his old neighborhood change a lot since he was a kid, for better and for worse. "There are white people everywhere," he laughs before lamenting the proliferation of CVS stores and Starbucks. He fears it's making Bed-Stuy "just like every other neighborhood."

He also can't get over the price of houses in a community that was once crime-ridden. "It's weird to think that this was once a ghetto," he says. "The streets might have been crazy, but the houses were brownstones, and rich people love brownstones."

Rock now lives across the George Washington Bridge in Alpine, N.J., but he often comes back to Brooklyn, where he still owns a house, to help his wife work at a Salvation Army in Bushwick. But as the years have passed, he barely knows anybody in his old neighborhood anymore.