Azealia Banks will make her big screen acting debut in a Brooklyn-set drama that will be directed by Wu Tang’s RZA titled, “Coco.”
Banks will play the lead character who is described as an “aspiring twenty-something rapper who wants a career in hip-hop but is torn by her parents’ dreams that she finish college,” according Deadline.
In addition to RZA, Banks will star alongside Common, Jill Scott, Lucien Laviscount, Lorraine Toussaint and Hana Mae Lee.
RZA will direct from a script penned by Nicole Jefferson Asher (“Flyy Girl”). No release date has yet been announced.
The provocative 23-year-old hip-hop artist studied at the LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts before dropping out to focus on her musical career. She had a small role as a singer-dancer in the 2005 documentary/musical “The American Ruling Class.”
Banks debut studio album, “Broke with Expensive Taste,” was released in 2014. She stunned fans when she posed nude for the April 2015 music issue of Playboy.
“I love getting naked,” Banks explained in the interview. “It’s so funny, every time my manager arranges a photo shoot, I’m like, ‘Let’s do a nude photo!’ And everyone’s like, ‘Oh, Azealia, you’re always trying to bring your butt out.’
“Posing for Playboy was a no-brainer,” she continued. “I was like, ‘Yes! They want to see me naked.’”
The outspoken rapper also made some controversial remarks about race and America:
“The history textbooks in the U.S. are the worst if you’re not white. “The white man gave you the vote. He Christianized you and taught you how to speak English. If it weren’t for him, you’d still be living in a hut.” I could write a book about why black people shouldn’t be Christians. Young black kids should have their own special curriculum that doesn’t start from the boat ride over from Africa. All you know as a black kid is we came over here on a boat, we didn’t have anything and we still don’t have anything. But what was happening in Africa? What culture were we pulled away from? That information is vital to the survival of a young black soul.”
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(Photo Source: Azealia Banks Instagram)
