Katt Williams is putting his life on the record just as he turns another hard chapter into promotion. The comedian has been recording the audio version of his memoir, Nine Lives, No Wives, and 69 Concubines, in October in South Florida while preparing to launch an original Netflix podcast.
That timing matters because Williams has spent decades as one of comedy’s most watched combustors, a performer whose feuds and takedowns can travel as fast as his punch lines. He has also been busy enough to keep moving: he had already cranked out 14 stand-up specials and, years earlier, won an Emmy in 2018 for his guest appearance in FX’s Atlanta.
The memoir title fits the arc he has spent years building in public. Williams sold flowers to help make ends meet earlier in his life, then turned himself into a comedian with a long memory and a sharper tongue. He has been known for viral beefs for decades, and his recent comments show he is still willing to revisit the people who helped define that reputation.
He did not dodge everyone. Williams said Rickey Smiley is now “funny” and called Kevin Hart “a nice guy,” adding that he had “always felt like my life was a race against time.” He also said, “The statistics will show nine out of 10 times, no matter who it is, I’m going to find something wonderful to say. Because if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all.”
Steve Harvey was the exception. Williams offered only that Harvey is “a cautionary tale,” a remark that lands differently because the dispute between the two has lingered in the background of Williams’s career for years. When the subject came up, he cut himself short with “Well, this took a turn,” then added, “But in this case …” and stopped there.
That refusal to expand is the point. Williams is promoting a memoir about his life while leaving one of its most recognizable feuds half-said, even as he frames the book as a search for something sturdier than gossip. “More now than ever, truth is really at a premium,” he said, which is a striking line from a man whose public persona has often been built on provocation.
The unresolved part is what the memoir will actually reveal. Williams has acknowledged legal troubles and public fallout in the past, but he has not yet laid out every episode in the new book. For now, the clearest answer is that he is using the memoir rollout to control the story himself, on mic, on tape and, soon enough, through a podcast meant to keep the conversation going.
