RZA to Appear in Vanessa del Rio Biopic

RZA has signed on for a movie honoring a legend in a very different lane. The Wu-Tang Clan sensei will appear in a biopic on iconic adult film star Vanessa del Rio. In Vanessa del Rio, RZA plays a burlesque club doorman who secretly uses the club’s audio gear to record his own music. The film is based in New York City during the 1970s and ’80s, and directed by Thomas Mignone.

Read it at Shadow and Act.

Gabrielle Union Says Hollywood Wants Black Actresses “Shuckin’ and Jivin’ ”

Gabrielle Union has played her share of uptight women on the big screen. From Daddy’s Little Girls to Deliver Us From Eva, she’s appeared in films for years as loose variations of the same role. And frankly, she’s tired of it. After showing a bit of her sense of humor in Chris Rock’s Top Five, Union sat down with Angie Martinez and expressed her frustration about the lack of nuanced comedic roles for Black women.

“There’s not a lot of smart comedies where they want a Black woman,” the 42-year-old actress said. “They want us shuckin’ and jivin’ and cooning—that’s where they’re most comfortable having a Black woman. So to get… smart, edgy, more cerebral humor, they’re going to get Tiny Fey. They’re going to get Amy Poehler, they going to get Rashida Jones… that crew. So I just got to get invited to Judd Apatow’s house, and hopefully I’ll make myself at home.”

Read it at Clutch.

Juicy J Talks A$AP Rocky, Recording Usher’s Single

It’s been two years since A$AP Rocky dropped his dope debut album Long.Live.A$AP, and the anticipation is peaking on his sophomore LP. Fortunately it’s in good hands, thanks to the overseeing of Juicy J, who’s been announced as the project’s executive producer. The Three 6 Mafia rapper, who appeared in Rocky’s “Multiply” video, spoke to Billboard about his contributions to the as-yet-untitled album. “I was there from the beginning,” Juicy said. “Executive producing, it means picking out the best songs, beats—making everything the best.”

It’s not the only much-craved album that Juicy is working on. The Memphis native provided his strip club anthem expertise to Ne-Yo’s “She Knows” and Usher’s “I Don’t Mind.” He revealed that he recorded Usher’s chart-climbing single in a hotel room. “[Dr.] Luke was trying to get me on it, but I was on tour,” the 39-year-old rapper recalls. “I was trying to go to a big studio to do it, but he was like, ‘You did ‘Bandz a Make Her Dance’ in a hotel room, right?’ I was like, ‘Yeah—I did it in a closet.’ So I went to a hotel room and recorded it on a cheap-ass $200 mic. Usher loved it, but later on, I went to a studio and redid it.”

Read it at Billboard.