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Memphis Bleek has revealed that he was up for the lead role in the 2002 film Drumline which eventually went to Nick Cannon. Memphis expresses that JAY-Z, was mad when he turned it down.
Bleek made the revelation on Drink Champs on Saturday (September 23), where he confessed that he’d have accepted the role had he known how big of a deal it would be.
“Oh, man. If I could go back — y’all n***as don’t know this, I never told this story,” he said. “I turned down Drumline. He wanted me to do it and everything, and I was scared.
“He [Chris Robinson, director] wanted to put me in acting school and all that, and I was afraid. Remember, my career had just started working and I’m saying to myself, ‘I’ll do this movie as a drummer and then it don’t work, how am I gonna go back to the hood and tell n***as we out here getting this money, we real n***as?’”
He continued: “You know what’s so ill? Me and Nick [Cannon] had the same management […] Nick wanted to be a rapper so he used to be in Marcy with me back in the day. And Nick took the role and here we are.
“But that’s one thing: if I could rewind time, I would have did that. I was on some, ‘I’d rather to do this rap shit.’ Almost like Ja [Rule] did with the Fast & Furious shit. I super fucked up with that.
“Hov was mad at me! I remember Hov was super-steamed at me. Like, ‘Why you ain’t do it?!’ And I remember telling him, ‘Bro, I was scared. I’ve never acted.’ […] And I remember Hov, he paid for acting classes for me.”
“Rap was everything to me then. Hip Hop, it saved my life, so I didn’t want to jeopardize that,” Bleek concluded.
Memphis Bleek says he turned down the leading role in the movie 'Drumline' because he was scared, and Jay-Z was angry at him for it.
— The Art Of Dialogue (@ArtOfDialogue_) September 24, 2023
He also says rapper Sticky Fingaz hindered his rap career by taking a role in the movie 'Next Friday.'
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