Don Cheadle’s Miles Davis Biopic Finally Gets Premiere Date

Don Cheadle’s long-gestating biopic on late jazz icon Miles Davis is finally set to hit the public. The 50-year-old actor and first-time movie director will breathe new life into the legendary musician in his passion project Miles Ahead, which will make its world premiere October 11, as the closing night of the New York Film Festival. The film focuses on the portion of Davis’s life when he reemerged in 1980, following his so-called “silent period” in the late ’70s. Cheadle crowdsourced more than $350,000 to help get the indie flick created. “This is the type of project that I had dreamed of,” he wrote last year. “It’s not a biopic, it’s an adventure, it’s a drama, it’s a love story; it’s about the core of human experience… I knew that we had to find a new way of telling a story that was different from what people expected, just like Miles kept changing his music.”

Read it at Billboard.

Funkmaster Flex Airs “10 Bands” Reference Track, Noah “40” Shebib Defends Drake’s Pen Game

Funkmaster Flex is fanning the flames of Meek Mill’s accusations that Drake uses a ghostwriter. The bomb-dropping DJ released a reference track from “10 Bands,” allegedly penned by Quentin Miller, who is rumored to have greatly contributed to Drizzy’s lyric sheets. Flex said he received the track from a member of Drake’s camp, who added that Miller earns $5,000 per month to remain on retainer. “If Drake does write everything, everyone owes him an apology,” Funk Flex said. “If he doesn’t, I go on the record as [saying] he’s a fraud.”

After Drake’s musical soulmate Noah “40” Shebib got wind of the accusations that shook the rap world, he dropped a series of tweets defending his rapping/singing wingman. “Drake is maybe the most personal rapper ever,” 40 commented. “You’re smokin that sh*t you say you selling if you think someone wrote that sh*t.” He called Miller “very talented,” but estimated the amount of time they’ve shared a studio at about a half hour. “No one is as talented as Drake. It’s not worth my time. I need someone who understands songwriting on a higher level… Don’t ever question my brother’s pen.”

Read it at HipHopDX.

The Roots Executive Produce a Broadway Musical

The Roots are going from Broad Street to Broadway. The seminal hip-hop band will executive produce the original soundtrack for Hamilton, a hip-hop musical about the life of late president and U.S. founding father Alexander Hamilton. The show opens August 7 at Manhattan’s Richard Rodgers Theatre, while music will be released through Atlantic Records this fall. Black Thought has called the soundtrack a “valid and credible” introduction to the genre, while Questlove considers it a “sucker punch.”

Read it at XXL.