Joe Budden, SZA, and more shared some beautiful messages about their late friend, Jas Waters, also known as Jas Fly, who passed away earlier this week at 39 years old. The news broke on Wednesday (June 10th) that Jas, a prominent hip hop journalist and TV writer for shows like This Is Us and Kidding, had died. Although her cause of death is still unknown, the news was devastating for those who knew and loved Jas. Many took to social media to pay their respects.

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Late Wednesday night, Joe took to Instagram to remember Jas. "Many of us are in a lot of pain tonight," he wrote on a photo of Jas, "and the person who would know the perfect thing to say to brighten our spirits has gone home..... i love you, trust you and will miss you.. Rest peacefully Queen Jas."

SZA also paid tribute to Jas on social media by retweeting one of her old tweets with a kind message. "You had a purpose before anyone had an opinion," Jas had written back in 2015. "Remember that. And when asked 'who do you think you are?' answer 'whom I was created to be.'" SZA quoted this wisdom with, "Thank you for your time here and honest perfectly put words. Rest in Love queen."

Nobody would have pegged Donald Trump as a fan of Issa Rae's HBO series Insecure. Not even Issa herself... However, the first and only liked tweet on the President's account is about how this week's show ended, which is causing confusion for a whole lot of people.

As the new episode aired, Trump liked a tweet that read: "This is how I wanted tonight's episode of Insecure to end...Damn Molly."

It shows a GIF of two characters in The Color Purple playing a clapping game.

Issa Rae is making sure the fourth season of her hit show, Insecure, starts off right by throwing a virtual block party to celebrate the season premiere. The creator and star of the HBO series announced the lineup of exciting virtual events all taking place tonight (April 12th) Instagram live and Twitter. To kick off the festivities, Issa and the cast of Insecure will be conducting a Q&A with fans at 8:00pm EST/5:00pm PST  livestream on the show’s official Instagram account. This will be followed by a DJ set from Atlanta native, Zaytona, at 9:00pm EST/6:00pm PST on the same platform. The watch party will then officially commence at 10:00pm EST/7:00pm PST, so be sure to live tweet your reactions to the premiere on Twitter. Finally, the evening will finish with a special live performance on IG live featuring a surprise musical guest.

“You are officially invited to the @insecurehbo S4 Virtual Block Party on Sunday,” Issa wrote on Instagram along with the official schedule. “Come thru! #InsecureHBO.” The “virtual block party” concept is actually a reference to a major plot point of the fourth season of Insecure that was teased in the official trailer. Fictional Issa is shown throwing a real block party in the show to celebrate L.A culture and black-owned businesses. Watch the official Insecure Season 4 trailer below to get psyched for the virtual block party tonight:

Two unlikely foes who had a brief beef last year were Lakeith Stanfield and Charlamagne Tha God. In November, Lakeith voiced his frustrations with black media outlets that he considered to be “anti-black” because of what and how they report. Charlamagne would later make Lakeith “Donkey of the Day” on The Breakfast Club, and some believed that Lakeith dissed Charlamagne in a song he released. The exchange was over as quickly as it began, and Lakeith recently shared that he has no gripes with the radio host.

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“Nah, we ain’t spoken. It ain’t really no problem,” said Lakeith in an interview with Angie Martinez. “I just say what I feel and sometimes people feel different and they got they opinions and platforms just like I got mine. And sometimes they diverge and go in different places but it’d be silly to have a problem.” Angie wanted to know how they can reconcile their differences.

“I don’t really know what there is to mend, I’m good,” Lakeith said with a laugh. “If he got some kind of issue, tell him that we can talk together and we’ll figure that out, but other than that, I ain’t got no issues whatsoever. Don’t even make sense to have issues about that. We both want the same thing. We just want each other to be great and we want all black people to be great and fill the space. I think that’s what’s trying to come out but sometimes it comes out in messed up ways.”

Angie mentioned that some things are often lost in translation because of social media. Lakeith added, “We also gotta have integrity on how we’re reporting and how we frame things. Have responsibility for like, the honesty and truth and integrity in things. Or, we can be sloppy. You got the decision to make on your platform.”

Watch Issa Rae and Lakeith Standfield’s interview with Angie Martinez below.

If you take a glance at Lil Rel Howery’s IMDB page and see the list of projects he has lined up, it’ll become immediately clear that he’s one of the busiest actors in Hollywood at the moment. The next project we’ll have the opportunity to see him in is The Photograph, a romantic comedy/drama that arrives on Valentine’s Day. Issa Rae and Lakeith Stanfield star as the movie’s leads and it will not be their first times working alongside Lil Rel – they all appeared in the music video for Jay-Z’s 2017 song, “Moonlight”. 

Lil Rel served as the guest on the latest episode of Complex’s “Watch Less” podcast. He was asked about his experience shooting the “Moonlight” video and he revealed that Jay-Z could have gone with a more humorous alternative. The final product was a word-for-word reenactment of an actual Friends episode by a cast of black comedians. However, according to Lil Rey, before they shot this version, the cast – which consisted of Jerrod Carmichael, Issa Rae, Lil Rel Howery, Tiffany Haddish, Tessa Thompson and Lakeith Stanfield – had improvised their own sitcom skit. “There was one rehearsal where we all talked like how we wanted to talk,” Rel explained. “And it was funnier than that episode of Friends.” He also said that the actors had even requested to go with that idea for the official video, but they ultimately opted for the remake. 

When Stanfield spoke about the music video on The Tonight Show, he confessed that he had never seen an episode of Friends before participating in that project. 

The internet was in a tizzy last year after news circulated that actress and filmmaker Issa Rae had planned on revamping the 1996 classic film Set It Off. The bank heist crime thriller starred Jada Pinkett-Smith, Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, and Kimberly Elise, and when people heard that a new version would be making its way to the silver screens, not everyone was on board. Especially not Vivica.

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“It’s a classic, leave it alone,” Vivica told ET Live back in November. “There’s absolutely no reason to try to redo it. It’s been done, and we did it so well, that people are absolutely going to compare it to that and I think that’s her taking on a tremendous chore because that film has become a cult classic and some things are just better left like, create your own franchise.” She added, “If you want to do a new film of girls robbing banks, create your own thing.”

While promoting her recent film The Photographwith Entertainment Tonight, Issa was asked to speak on the Set It Off remake rumors. According to the actress, she’s clueless about the gossip. “Oh, I would never remake a classic,” Issa said nonchalantly. “I don’t know where that came from.” When the rumors started, it was said that Issa was in the early stages of developing the remake, so the backlash could have contributed to the halt. We’ll never know.

Lakeith Stanfield has blossomed into one of Hollywood’s premier and most sought-after talents over the past half-decade. His lead performance in the “Teddy Perkins” episode of Atlanta was an unforgettable experience and he proved he has the ability to carry an entire film with his performance in Sorry To Bother You (2018). Now, with some major film credits under his belt in the form of Uncut Gems, The Knives Out, and The Photograph, the actor/rapper believes that he has the acting chops to embody Batman’s archnemesis, The Joker. 

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During a recent sit down with late-night television legend, Jimmy Kimmel, in promotion of his upcoming film, The Photograph, starring Issa Rae, Lakeith Stanfield spoke on his experience of ditching acting school for modeling school, his experience working with Adam Sandler and Kevin Garnett on their film Uncut Gems, love, and more. However, things got really interesting when he revealed that we would be interested in playing his own version of the Joker after praising Joaquin Phoenix‘s performance in, Joker (2019). 

When asked about showing up to the premiere of Joker dressed as the DC Comic villain, the Atlanta actor had this to say:

“I just like dressing up and I also love the Joker, so there you go. You got both things.”

Kimmel then asked if Stanfield would be up for the challenge to play the popular villain stating:

“I’d love to play the Joker. That’d be beautiful.” Stanfield continued revealing he makes his home movies proclaiming, “That makes me go ‘Wait till they see me do it.’ Also, I make my own Joker movies at home with my own personal camera. All you gotta do is dress up and make your own. Why not? I still had the makeup on so I was like, ‘Let me just keep going with it.'”

As a creative introvert, Lakeith Stanfield is one of the greatest runs in recent entertainment history. Check out Lakeith’s interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live! below and check out The Photograph starring Lakeith Stanfield and Issa Rae in theaters this Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14. 

Issa Rae is always up to something whether it’s an anticipated film or television show and since announcing just yesterday that season four of her HBO series Insecure will be arriving in April, today another trailer for a film with her name on it has arrived. Issa and Kumail Nanjian star in The Lovebirds and play a perfect, in love couple whose life gets turned upside down during a car ride. 

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In the clip below, Jibran and Leilani are seen driving down the street when they accidentally hit a cyclist. Within minutes a man who calls himself a cop takes over the steering wheel and ends up killing the man, leaving them with the car and the police on the way. “Initially they were written for white people which, plot-wise, would have been a different story,” Issa said of the movie. “It’s not a story about race but we wanted to acknowledge our race and the fact that we’re an interracial couple.”

“The aspects I love the most are the rare moments of sweetness between the two leads,” Kumail said of his favorite moments. “They spend so much of the movie bickering that the hints of what they used to be are my favorite.”

The film hits theaters on April 3rd. 

The time has finally arrived. After months of anticipation, Issa Rae has come through to announce the season four release date for her beloved HBO series Insecure. Taking to Instagram, Issa showcased a clip of her character doing he usual mirror motivation rap, this time ripping her skirt leading her to be happy since it means her booty is getting big. ” It’s 2020, soooo… Season 4?‬ @insecurehbo is back April 12th,” she captioned the clip.

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We do know that the new season will now have 10 episodes as opposed to the previous installments that only had eight. Issa also expressed how all the characters in the show are based on individuals in her life and all events have some truth to them. “All of them are based off of real people that are in my life and real situations that have happened,” Issa previously stated. “Also, a lot of the stories come from a predominantly black writers’ room. There are people and stories from there that we just put in the show.”

It’s been over a year since we got an update on the show since Issa’s movie and other television jobs have gotten bigger and better over the course of time. Peep the teaser and let us know if you’re tuning in come April.

The 2020 Oscar nominations were unveiled this morning and, of course, people are pointing out all of the Academy's disappointing decisions. You could compile a lengthy list of them, but the most glaring one is that no women are nominated in the Best Director category. The Oscars have been overlooking female directors since its inception and Issa Rae could no longer hold her tongue on the matter while she was presenting the list of nominees early Monday morning. 

“Congratulations to those men,” Rae quipped after the five male nominees were named during this morning's livestream. The directors that are being recognized include Martin Scorsese (The Irishman), Todd Phillips (Joker), Sam Mendes (1917), Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood) and Bong Joon Ho (Parasite).