Plot

Eddie Murphy portrays real-life legend Rudy Ray Moore, a comedy and rap pioneer who proved naysayers wrong when his hilarious, obscene, kung-fu fighting alter ego, Dolemite, became a 1970s Blaxploitation phenomenon.

In 1970s Los Angeles, Rudy Ray Moore (Eddie Murphy) is a struggling artist working in a record store, trying to get his music on the air in the in-store radio station. At night, he moonlights as a MC for Ben Taylor (Craig Robinson) and his musical group at a club. He asks the owner of the club for some time doing comedy, but the owner turns him down. At the record store one day, a homeless man comes wandering in and begins making loud, rhyming proclamations; one of which includes the name "Dolemite". Moore gets the idea to create a stage persona telling these stories at the club he works at. Dressing in pimp attire and brandishing a cane, Moore takes the stage at the club as Dolemite and launches into a crudely humorous and foul-mouthed routine entitled "The Signifying Monkey". Taylor and his group join him on-stage to back him up. The crowd applauds.

Moore asks his aunt (Luenell) for money to record a comedy album entitled "Eat Out More Often". He gets his friend Jimmy Lynch (Mike Epps) to record him at his home in front of an audience. After making several copies of the record, Moore begins to sell them out of the trunk of his car. The record proves to be very popular, obtaining the attention of a record company who agree to market it to record stores. Moore offers to go on tour through the Deep South to promote the record. While in Mississippi, he meets a single mother named Lady Reed (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) and convinces her to join him as part of his tour.

Moore and his friends celebrate the success of the tour by taking in a movie, The Front Page. The majority white audience of the theater finds the film hilarious but Moore and his friends do not enjoy the film. Moore gets the inspiration to make a film starring himself as Dolemite. After being turned down by a film executive (Tip "T.I." Harris), Moore asks his record company for an advance on royalties from his album to fund the movie himself. The record executives agree to do so, but warn Moore if he fails that he will be in debt to them for the rest of his life.

Moore gets in contact with playwright Jerry Jones (Keegan-Michael Key) and, despite initial reluctance, agrees to write the screenplay. Moore and Taylor go to a strip club and find Rosemary's Baby actor D'Urville Martin (Wesley Snipes) and offer him a role in their Dolemite film. Martin is offended by their offer until Moore gives him the opportunity to direct the film himself. Moore and his friends convert an old, abandoned hotel into a makeshift soundstage. Martin invites a group of white film students from UCLA to work as the film's crew, including Nicholas Josef von Sternberg (Kodi Smit-McPhee) as cinematographer.

Moore, Martin, Jones and crew begin filming Dolemite, a kung-fu-themed Blaxploitation film. Moore's lack of knowledge of karate and predilection towards camp frustrates Martin. Despite much of the cast and crew having a lot of fun making the film, Martin leaves the crew after filming is completed, proclaiming the film will never be seen by anyone. No film distributor Moore contacts will agree to purchase the film. He decides to return to touring, though with much less enthusiasm. In Indiana, Moore is asked about the film's release by a local DJ (Chris Rock) and remains noncommittal about whether the film will ever be seen. The DJ says that he could premiere the film in town with the right amount of promotion. Deciding to take him up on the offer, Moore promotes the film single-handedly all around town. Though he spends a lot of money on four wall distribution, Moore is pleased to see a massive crowd waiting outside the theater and the audience greatly enjoys the film.

A Hollywood film executive (Bob Odenkirk), whose studio Dimension Pictures had turned down Dolemite previously, finds out about the premiere in Indiana and contacts Moore with the promise of purchasing the film. Moore arrives at Dimension Pictures dressed as Dolemite along with Lady Reed and the crew dressed up as well. The executive says that although Moore could continue promoting the film himself, he would not see profits right away. However, Dimension Pictures could put the film in theaters and everyone would profit. Moore agrees and begins working on promoting the film professionally. En route to the Hollywood premiere of the film, Moore and the cast read critical reviews of the film that lower their spirits. Upon arrival, however, the group is astonished to see an even bigger crowd of people cheering for them outside the theater. While the cast and crew go inside the theater to see the film, Moore stays outside to entertain the crowd who have to wait for the next show.

The film's epilogue notes that Rudy Ray Moore continued to tour and star in sequels to Dolemite until his death in 2008. He is today considered to be the "Godfather of Rap". Footage from the real Dolemite is screened as well.