My Life is Like A Movie

“Flyer than Sanaa Lathan”—Hova

Dana Dane appeared in the movie Brown Sugar. Maybe you heard of it. It stars Stan Lathan’s daughter as me the eic of XXL magazine. Hold on. Please let me explain. The movie was written by my former editor Paula T Renfroe’s baby’s daddy Mike Elliot and originally the character was supposed to be working for The Source. With all their legal nonsense going on at that time, the movie studio decided to switch her residence to the home of Hip Hop on a Higher Level.

Believe it or not Sanaa even came to the XXL cave to visit your boy YN. I thought she was gonna study the God’s character on some Bobby Deniro shit. But after a weird convo I recommended she holla at the sisters who were out there who knew what it was like to run a magazine (including my future wife).

The most memorable moment of our chat was her inquiring by the mass of mixtape CDs on my desk. “So you listen to mixtapes all day in your office?” she asked. “Yeah I do,” I said. “Then I’m gonna listen to mixtapes in my office!” she exclaimed. It was all I could do to not chuckle in her face. She even asked me to get her some mixtapes she could use for the role.

At the time, I remember thinking: Doesn’t ole girl go out with Omar Epps who’s a wanna-be rapper his damn self (Wolfpack, bitches!). She doesn’t know about mixtapes? Still I trekked to Canal St and got doubles of all the current CDs I had in rotation. Put together a nice lil package and messengered it over to her hotel. Just like she asked.

And what did I get for my kindness. A peck on the left cheekbone. A thank you note. A box of chocolates. Nope. Nothing. Nada. Zero. Zilch.

The first time I fell in love with hip-hop? When was the last time YN watched that wack-ass flick? I don’t even remember. I try to pretend the whole thing never happened. I give it: Two thumbs down.