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Azealia Banks, RZA Have a Musical Drama Coming Your Way

Azealia Banks. Photo: Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Coachella

RZA’s directorial follow-up to The Man With the Iron Fists will be much different: The Hollywood Reporter writes that the rapper turned helmer is making an inspirational musical drama with Azealia Banks, Common, and nobody with iron fists. It’ll be called It Doesn’t Have to Rhyme and will feature Banks as a female rapper who signs up for a college poetry course and develops a passion for slam poetry. Common is supposed to play Banks’s mentor; they’ll be joined by Jill Scott, a professor who reportedly believes rap and slam poetry can’t exist together, and Lorraine Toussaint, the rapping student’s mom. THR notes that the movie will be similar in tone to 8 Mile and will begin production this week in New York. Does that mean this will be a depressing, semi-autobiographical, rags-to-slightly-better-rags-and-then-riches kind of story? Does that also mean there could be a rap battle between Banks and Iggy Azalea? It’s all unfortunately a bit unclear right now. Either way, get ready for dramatic brooding and writing scenes on public transportation, as well as some super-intense mirror rehearsals.

Azealia Banks, RZA Have a Musical Drama Coming