The comic stars as a performer like himself who went from the streets to the world stage.
Chris Rock must have called in a lot of favors because his new movie features the likes of Cedric the Entertainer and Kevin Hart, plus cameos from Jerry Seinfeld and Whoopi Goldberg among others.
But there's another character in his movie: the city.
The guy from Bed-Stuy who found fame as one of the funniest men of his generation gathers a whole group of his fellow comedians together for a film that makes us laugh out loud, as we learn so much about his life, in Chris Rock's native city.
"My character kind of moves in and out of different worlds in New York, and I hadn't seen that before so I thought it'd be interesting to see that to see a guy navigate the 5 or 8 different New Yorks there are," Rock said.
"We're in Union Square. We're in the projects. We're on the train. Like everything about it just seems and feels like New York and as a New Yorker myself I really appreciate that," said Rosario Dawson.
She plays a reporter interviewing Rock's character for a newspaper profile. The film's title, Top Five, refers to everyone's love of lists.
"Your top five foods or music artists or whatever, it says a lot. It reveals a lot about you," said Gabrielle Union.
Chris Rock reveals a lot about himself here. As the writer, director and star, he has loaded his film full of truths drawn from his real life.
"My older brother kind of drank himself to death," Rock said.
So addiction plays a part here and so do the burdens of being famous and black.
"Sometimes you get asked questions as a black entertainer you'd never get asked as a white, you know, 'what are you doing for the community?' Nobody's asking Brad Pitt for whatever the hell he's from," said Rock.
A bittersweet story? Sure, and that makes his comedy more worthy than most, but Rock's ability to get top talent to be their funniest is what makes Top Five one of the most entertaining movies of the year.
And Tracy Morgan is so funny. His part filmed before his accident, and that adds an extra measure of poignancy to all this.