Kevin Hart Visits His First Philly Apartment, Thanks Landlords for Being ‘Cool as Hell’ When Rent Was Late

Kevin Hart lives in the lap of luxury these days, but the Philadelphia native hasn’t forgotten his roots, and he visited his first apartment in the City of Brotherly Love earlier this week.

“So many memories,” the 37-year-old funnyman wrote, along with a photo of him sitting on the cement steps outside the innocuous building, which has a stucco facade — and a big hole in the wall above the doorbell. “I stopped by my 1st apartment in north philly. I was 18yrs old & I wanted to be on my own. I was hype as hell when me & my roommate found this spot.”

He thanked his landlords for being understanding back when he wasn’t on Forbes’s list of the highest-paid comedians.

“Major shoutout & thank you to our landlords who were cool as hell for understanding our bullshit reasons for not having the rent on time sometimes lmao!!!! #PhillyForLife #GodIsGood”

Hart, who has Jumanji coming out this year, has been in his hometown filming The Untouchables with Bryan Cranston. He did a surprise show at Warmdaddy’s after visiting his old digs. While in his hometown, he’s also caught his 76ers play.

Hart, who was raised by his single mom (his sleeping quarters were a bunk bed in the hallway of the one-bedroom apartment that he shared with his mom and brother), has talked about growing up in “the hood,” as he called it, saying, “When you’re growing up in the inner city, it’s not a lot of options for a lot of these guys. Those who stay true to beliefs, upbringing, education, and the motto of ‘Get a good education, go to school, so you can do something with yourself,’ they do. That’s not the answer for everybody. Some people want the quick dollar, and selling drugs is the answer to that. And I was around that a lot, but I had a mother that was strong-willed, that made sure I didn’t participate. She kept me busy in extracurricular activities, and I saw no part of that life.”

Needless to say, Hart — who has given many large monetary donations to Philadelphia since he became rich — lives a more glam life these days: Private planes (with stairs that light up)…

A fleet of vehicles…

Courtside seats and the like…

He now lives with his “rib,” wife Eniko Parrish, and his two kids from a previous marriage in an opulent gated community in Tarzana, Calif. A writer for Rolling Stone set the scene chez Hart, saying that when he arrived at the mansion, there was a “black Mercedes SLS AMG out front, its gull-wing doors raised in an ostentatious overhead greeting. Pause to admire the white Ferrari 458 Spider in front of it, which, like the SLS, is being washed and waxed on this blazing June day by a team of guys in matching gray polo shirts. Walk up the home’s stone pathway, through the heavy wooden front doors, and try not to stumble over the luggage — Goyard, Vuitton, Givenchy — piled in the marble-floored foyer. Wave to the saleswoman from Cartier, who’s made a house call with an array of Love Bracelets and other jewelry in tow.” Inside, Eniko was “riding a $1,500 motorized plastic plank called a PhunkeeDuck across the dining room floor. There are several large portraits of Hart’s heroes on the walls: Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappelle, Jimi Hendrix.”

Not that his new glam life isn’t without problems. Last summer, the mansion was broken into and some $500,000 worth of watches, jewelry, clothing, and other personal items were stolen.

Those are the kinds of things he definitely didn’t own in his Philly days, when he was struggling to pay the rent.

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