8 Things We Learned From John Singleton On The Breakfast Club
Today’s generation will never truly appreciate John Singleton’s contribution to the culture, but we do. The OG filmmaker who’s responsible for 90’s cult classics such as Boyz N The Hood, Poetic Justice, and Higher Learning, has been quietly doing his TV thing and continuing to add to his already impressive repertoire.
Today (March 28), the LA delegate stopped by The Breakfast Club and reminisced on a bevy of things including the deal he made with Tupac, Ice Cube not wanting to star in his romance movie, and his thoughts on why Nate Parker’s Birth Of A Nation didn’t get the love it deserved.
Here are the 8 things we learned from John Singleton on The Breakfast Club.
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Photo: Power 105
Photo: Instagram
1. Tupac
John Singleton had a deal with Tupac where Tupac would teach him how to write songs and make music, and in exchange he’d show Pac how to direct movies.
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2. Ice Cube
The male lead in Poetic Justice was supposed to be Ice Cube but Cube didn’t want to star in a romance. So John cast Tupac to star opposite Janet Jackson.
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3. That Poetic Justice Rumor
John says the rumor that Janet made Tupac take STD tests before their kissing scenes was just an onset joke. It wasn’t actually true.
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4. Remember The Time
John says that he and Michael Jackson came up with the idea of having Eddie Murphy in the video for “Remember the Time” and added Magic Johnson after he announced he was HIV positive.
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5. Empire
Lee Daniels recruited John Singleton for Empire so he could “Show these white people what this show can be.”
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6. Birth Of A Nation
He loved Nate Parker’s Birth Of A Nation. He feels that the events during the 2016 Black Lives Matter rally that in Dallas where a gunman killed 5 police officers ultimately hurt the release of Parker’s film. He also says Black people fell for the okeedoke.
7. Baby Boy
John says he was actually trying to “offend Black people” with Baby Boy by having a good-looking dude (Tyrese) doing all these bad things but it didn’t work.
Photo: Instagram
8. Passed On The Wire
He actually turned down working on HBO’s classic The Wire because he didn’t think they were going to get the “urban stuff right.” But he says that they got it and made it “culturally specific.”
