New Hip Hop News

It’s Judas and The Black Messiah season and we’ve been hearing much more from, and about, the film’s stars. The Black Panther biographical drama has received global praise as viewers believe that we have an Academy Awards contender on our hands, and it’s another hit film in the bucket for Daniel Kaluuya. He stars as assassinated Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, but during a recent interview, he revisited the breakout role that made him a household name in Jordan Peele’s Get Out.

He may have brilliantly starred in the 2017 film, but according to Kaluuya, there was a reason he was absent from the movie’s world premiere at the coveted Sundance Film Festival. “On the Sundance world premiere, I was in Atlanta because I was shooting ‘[Black] Panther,’” explained the actor. “I was chilling, I cleared my schedule. I was like, ‘I really wanna do it.’ And then just didn’t get the invite. I wasn’t invited.”

“So I was just in my bed—someone texted me, ‘It’s done really well,'” he added, laughing away the awkwardness of the situation. He explained “that’s the industry,” before stating, “You don’t wanna be in a place that you don’t feel wanted.” There’s no love lost about the incident because it’s been recently reported that Kaluuya and Keke Palmer are slated to star in Peele’s forthcoming, yet undisclosed project.

Watch his interview below.

Following his eight-year tenure as the President of the United States, Barack Obama has been a busy man. He’s shared photographs showing his highlights of family vacations, continues to give speeches worldwide, has written a memoir, and now has a podcast, Renegades, that he co-hosts with music icon, and good friend, Bruce Springsteen. During a recent episode, the two men talked about racism and Obama shared a story of breaking a classmate’s nose after being called a “c**n.”

“Listen, when I was in school, I had a friend. We played basketball together,” said the 44th president. “And one time we got into a fight and he called me a c**n… Now, first of all, ain’t no c**ns in Hawaii, right?” Obama added, “It’s one of those things that—where he might not even known what a c**n was—what he knew was, ‘I can hurt you by saying this.'”

With a laugh he continued, “And I remember I popped him in the face and broke his nose. And we were in the locker room.” The former president recognized the power play being implemented by his friend. “‘I may be poor. I may be ignorant. I may be mean. I may be ugly. I may not like myself. I may be unhappy. But you know what I’m not? I’m not you.'”

“That basic psychology that then gets institutionalized is used to justify dehumanizing somebody, taking advantage of ’em, cheatin’ ’em, stealin’ from ’em, killin’ ’em, raping ’em,” said Obama. “Whatever it is, at the end of the day it really comes down to that. And in some cases it’s as simple as, you know, ‘I’m scared I’m insignificant and not important. And this thing is the thing that’s going to give me some importance.'”

Listen to the episode of Renegades below.

It was important for Lee Daniels to share Billie Holiday’s story. The acclaimed filmmaker has directed The United States Vs. Billie Holiday starring Andra Day, a movie about the government’s undercover narcotics sting plotted against the “Strange Fruit” icon. She would later die of cirrhosis not long after police raided her hospital room and handcuffed her on charges of drug possession. Billie Holiday’s struggles with substance abuse are well-documented, and Daniels wanted to convey her story to those who may not be privy to the jazz-pop singer’s life. Daniels also identified with Holiday’s battles as he revealed to The Guardian that he once faced drug abuse.

“Part of the reason I wanted to tell Billie’s story is, I understand addiction and the artist. I also understand the feeling of a lack of self-worth, thinking that you aren’t talented. When your father tells you things like that at a young age, no matter how old you get, that voice is in your head,” said the director. He added that as a youth, he saw how drugs affected those in his community: death or prison. Yet, the sweeping AIDS epidemic in the 1980s put a sense of fear in Daniels as he watched many of his friends lose their lives.

“I didn’t understand why so many of my friends were dying, who were far greater people and nicer than me, and they were just dropping dead,” he said. “So I think I began taking drugs to anesthetize the pain, and that spiraled into a dark place, and it took me a long time to get out of it.” It would take a phone call in the wee hours of the morning with Patti LaBelle to set him straight.

“Patti LaBelle was the cause of my sobriety. I called her one night at 3am – it was when I was doing Precious [in 2008], and I kept rambling at her, just rambling. Ha!” recalled Daniels. “She said to me, ‘You know God and you know Jesus,’ and I said, ‘Are you really gonna ruin my high now? What are you talking about, lady?’ But I said a prayer and that was the beginning for me.”

His road to recovery isn’t something that he typically speaks about openly, but all things considered with his most recent film, he thought it necessary. “I’m a little nervous talking about it. But it is important because it affected Billie, it affected me, and addiction is real. Unless I am talking about it, I am not going to stay sober.”

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People have been speculating about Zendaya’s sexuality for some time. Personal information of a celebrity’s life is, essentially, no one’s business, but the more popularity one obtains, the more their fans are determined to take to memory all of their life’s details. Recently, Zendaya caught up with Vanity Fair for their “Proust Questionnaire” series and answered 35 questions in rapid succession. During the interview, she was asked, “What is the quality you most like in a man?” Zendaya answered, “I most like in a person, how about that?”

Jamie McCarthy / Staff / Getty Images

However, she proceeded to answer. “This is…it’s such a big question. What is a quality I most like in someone? I would say like, kindness is kind of like, not the best way to describe it, but some people are just good people and you can just feel it,” said the Malcolm & Marie star. “I don’t know how to explain that, but there’s like this little spark they have or this little special thing that they have that just—you feel safe and happy around them. I don’t know what that is but some people have it and it’s special.”

She was then asked a follow-up question which was the same as the last, except the publication wanted to know what she most like’s in a woman. “Well, I guess that’s the same answer,” answered Zendaya. You can check out a clip below and read through fans discussing the star’s recent interview.

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