By Edem Latsu Nukafu
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio has showcased his hip hop fandom in various ways in the past, but this weekend he put it on display by emphatically rapping Gang Starr bars at his birthday bash.
The Titanic star was 49 years old over the weekend and celebrated with a star-studded party in Beverly Hills on Saturday (November 11). Per E! News, attendees included the likes of Beyoncé, Hov, Snoop Dogg, Lil Wayne, Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga, Salma Hayek, 2 Chainz, Chris Rock, Rita Ora and more — and the playlist was equally as phenomenon.
In the course of the event, DiCaprio took the microphone to spit Greg Nice’s verse from Gang Starr and Nice & Smooth’s 1992 classic, “DWYCK.”
“I say Muhammad Ali, ya say Cassius Clay/ I say butter, you say Parkay/ It’s alright if ya wanna make a sway/ I’m a way Uptown, took deuce to the tre!” Leo can be seen rapping in a clip from the party.
Watch the clip below:
Clearly a ’90s Hip Hop fan, in 2021, Raekwon disclosed he’d earlier met up with Leonardo DiCaprio at a pizza spot in Brooklyn to chat about making a Wu-Tang Clan biopic following the success of N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton.
“We had a great time, eating pizza, telling stories, laughing and shit,” he expatiated. “Then we started talking about the possibility of a Wu-Tang movie and I told Leo I’d love to see him play a role in it, anything he wanted to do. He talked about his production company and all the directors he thought might do a great job — and these were big names and people he’d worked with.
“He was super open to the idea, and after that meal, he had his production company executives reach out to me. We took it to the next level with them. They were very interested, so we got the ball rolling, talking real numbers, with the goal of an even bigger release than Straight Outta Compton.”
The Purple Tape emcee couldn’t wait to “blow RZA’s mind” with the news that providing that all Wu-Tang members were on board, DiCaprio was prepared to raise all the money for a movie. Despite agreeing to meet with executives, Raekwon reports that RZA appeared uncomfortable from the start.
I’ve known the guy for years and seen him act all kinds of ways, and in that moment, I saw him playing a role,” he said. “He sat there, taking it in, watching to see how far I could get. At the end of the meeting, without emotion, he just said, ‘Okay, I’ll get back to you,’ and Leo’s people left. I sat there with my index finger to my temple, elbow on my armrest, leaning back in the chair, staring at him.”
Raekwon attempted to convey to RZA the significance of the opportunity to him and believed they had concluded the conversation on a positive note. They arranged a new meeting that could possibly close the deal, but he sensed that RZA’s attitude had changed.
He barely said anything and seemed to be going through the motions, nothing more,” Raekwon said. “I could tell he wasn’t going to agree to do it, and my instincts told me why: my guess is that he was already in bed with a production company, deep into developing the scripted series for TV, even though none of us had signed off on it.”
RZA reportedly argued that a series would be a more effective means of presenting their story, as it would last longer, and that streaming would be the preferred option over movie theaters. And a few years later, Wu-Tang: An American Saga started showing on Hulu.
Writer’s email: edemlatsu093@gmail.com
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