Issa Rae
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Bernard Smalls / @PhotosByBeanz83
Issa Rae confirmed that she has no interest in working with Amanda Seales in a recent appearance in New York.
It looks as if there will be no future collaborations between Insecure star and writer Issa Rae and former co-star Amanda Seales, based on comments Rae recently made. The Breakfast Club aired comments that were recorded at an event for Viarae, the star’s prosecco brand, which was held in Brooklyn, New York. In the clip, Rae was asked if there was anyone whom she would never work with again. “I mean, anybody who’s on a podcast to talk shit about me,” she responded at the 2:03 mark, adding: “I’ve had great experiences with everybody I’ve worked with though. So for the most part, like, I’m always grateful when people come back.”
The audience immediately went into a frenzy, realizing that Rae was likely referring to Seales, who in her appearance on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast in April said she was done protecting Issa because she felt she wasn’t vested in the best interests of Black women overall. Seales referred to the 2019 incident between her and Rae’s publicist, Vanessa Anderson, when Anderson requested that Seales be removed from an Emmy Awards party Rae was hosting. Seales then recalled that Rae called her directly to express that the ejection was not her doing and arranged a phone call between Anderson and Seales to patch things up.
Seales would go on to state that Rae’s failure to promote her show, Get Your Life (which was under Rae’s HOORAE Media) and Anderson initiating a “smear campaign” against her that Rae didn’t intervene in left tensions on the Insecure set heightened and made her feel unprotected while there.
“They keep saying, you know, that I’m this mean girl on this set, that I harmed these people on this set,” Seales said. “I just want to point out something very basic. How can I be a mean girl on a set that ain’t my set? How? It’s your show. You are my boss. I don’t even have the capacity to be the mean girl here because you can fire me,” she added, continuing: “So there’s no way for me to be a mean girl in this situation. And I know some people that may buck up against, like, the confirmation bias that they’ve created, but it simply is the truth.”
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Tasos Katopodis / Getty / Keke Palmer / Issa Rae
Keke Palmer and SZA in a buddy comedy produced by Issa Rae? Sign us the hell up for that.
Deadline exclusively reports the four-time Grammy winner will make her acting debut alongside Palmer in a buddy comedy film that Rae will produce under her HOORAE banner.
ColorCreative’s Deniese Davis, Charles D. King, James Lopez, and Poppy Hanks from Macro Film Studios will also produce.
Rap Sh!t director Lawrence Lamont will sit in the director’s chair for the project, with his Rap Sh!t teammate Syreeta Singleton handling the script.
The news comes after Keke Palmer and SZA recently teamed up for an episode of Saturday Night Live with Palmer hosting while SZA was the night’s musical act.
Deadline notes the film’s plot remains a secret and that the film was a product of the CoCre lab at Sony Pictures.
The lab was created by a previous pact between ColorCreative and Columbia Pictures to find and raise emerging diverse screenwriters and help them develop and write their first studio feature using original ideas.
This Role Was An Opportunity SZA Couldn’t Pass Up
SZA was considering numerous projects before joining the buddy comedy because working alongside Palmer was an opportunity she couldn’t say no to.
As for Rae, she has been the talk of the internet lately after her Insecure co-star, Amanda Seales, mentioned their lack of a relationship on a recent episode of Shannon Shape’s podcast, Club Shay Shay.
It looks like Issa Rae is just focusing on rooting for everyone Black, putting people on, and ignoring the outside noise.
For Palmer, this latest project follows her stellar performance on Jordan Peele’s NOPE, as well as her other successful endeavors like her Emmy Award-winning self-created project Turnt Up With the Taylors, and her gameshow hosting gig, Password, which also earned her an Emmy.
We love to see it.
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Stuart C. Wilson / Getty
The Hip-Hop world might be crushing something big on Ice Spice at the moment, but it looks like Issa Rae might be good on the Bronx rapper and what she brings to the table.
During an interview for Vanity Fair in which Rae quizzed her Barbie co-stars about how well they know her, she asked the likes of Margot Robbie, Kate McKinnon and America Ferrera “Who would sing/rap the theme song to my life?” After her co-stars emphasized that it would “obviously” be herself, Rae admitted that she can’t actually rap. Continuing to guess who the artist would be, America Ferrera threw out Ice Spice. Taking in a deep breath and seemingly annoyed with the choice of artist, Rae simply said, “America, no.”
Truth be told, we don’t think Ice Spice’s style nor lyrical content is up to par with what Issa Rae represents and embodies as a self-made woman. Just sayin’. She did point out that she wouldn’t mind artists like Cardi B, Nicki Minaj or Megan Thee Stallion doing the honors, but Ice doesn’t seem to be resonating with the Insecure star.
TikTokers were quick to comment on the reaction from Rae and professed their support for artists like Megan Thee Stallion (makes sense) with many repeating “America, no!” Seriously, America, no.
Whether or not Ice Spice reacts to Issa Rae’s reaction remains to be seen, but we can’t be mad at anyone for having their specific choices in artist they feel represents them the best. That’s just part of the game.
Check out Issa Rae’s Q&A with her Barbie co-stars below and let us know your thoughts on the video in the comments section.
HipHopWired Radio
Our staff has picked their favorite stations, take a listen…
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Alicia Vera/HBO Max / Alicia Vera/HBO Max
Issa Rae’s hit series Rap Sh!t is returning to MAX.
The Hip-Hop show inspired by the lives of City Girls rappers Yung Miami and JT is coming back for a second season, according to Deadline.
The eight-episode second season will debut with two episodes on August 10, followed by one episode weekly, leading up to the season finale on Thursday, September 21.
The series which made a big splash last year, tells the story of two friends, Shawna (Aida Osman) and Mia (KaMillion), who were estranged after high school but reconnect to form a rap group.
Throughout the series, the girls have been forced to decide if they will stay true to themselves or conform to the demands of the music industry.
Yung Miami and JT are co-executive producers of the series, along with Kevin “Coach K” Lee and Pierre “P” Thomas for Quality Control Films, and Sara Rastogi and Jax Clark for Hoorae Rae’s Audio Everywhere Company, Raedio, handles music supervision for the series.
“We’re so excited to be back this summer!” showrunner Syreeta Singleton told Complex about the second season. “Everything is heightened. The girls are on tour, tensions are high, and they’re quickly finding out how much they’re willing to compromise for success.”
Sarah Aubrey, Max’s Head of Original Content added, “We are so excited to continue this journey with Shawna and Mia and the incredibly fun world of Rap Sh!t.”
Check out the teaser trailer:
[embedded content]
HipHopWired Radio
Our staff has picked their favorite stations, take a listen…
-
Pages