‘Big Grams’ Update
Outkast’s Big Boi and Phantogram’s Josh Carter have been talking for some time now about their collaboration on a record called Big Grams and, according to Carter, the work continues. “I’m doing a lot of the production,” he says, adding that one thing he likes about recording with Big Boi is “there’s no formula or barrier with how we work. We’re just letting things flow.”
Queen Latifah Plays Bisexual ‘Empress’
Does Queen Latifah enjoy toying with media interest in her sexual orientation? At the 2014 Grammy Awards, she officiated a mass wedding with gay and straight couples during Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ performance of “Same Love.” This spring, she’s starring in and executive-producing HBO biopic Bessie about “The Empress of the Blues” Bessie Smith, whose bisexuality was an open secret in the ’20s and ’30s. The movie made an under-the-radar splash at the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 23 when HBO hosted an intimate dinner at Table One in Park City, Utah, to celebrate it. Guests — including the film’s director Dee Rees (Pariah), HBO Films president Len Amato and Bravo’s Fashion Queens host Bevy Smith — buzzed about a buffed-up Mike Epps in a nude scene.
Wu Wooing Iggy?
Iggy Azalea was dissed by Snoop Dogg, but Wu-Tang Clan may have her back. Rumor has it Ghostface and Raekwon wanted to perform with Azalea at her sold-out show at Billboard‘s Winterfest at Sundance but their schedules didn’t allow it.
Additional reporting by Alex Gale.