Mos Def wants you to play with his ding-a-ling.
Don’t worry – no need to call the cops. That’s a roundabout way of saying that the talented and under-rated rapper/actor (certainly under-rated as an actor) has signed on to play rock’n’roll legend Chuck Berry in Sony’s currently-filming Cadillac Records.
The movie, written and directed by Darnell Martin, tells the story of Chess Records, the legendary 1950s record label that launched the careers of Berry, Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, to name but three.
Def joins an excellent cast that already contains Adrien Brody – who will play Chess who, along with his brother Phil, started selling records out of the back of a Cadillac (hence the name) – Jeffrey Wright (who’ll play Muddy Waters), Beyonce Knowles (as Etta James) and, also signing on today, Gabrielle Union, who will play Waters’ girlfriend, Geneva Wade.
For those of you who may not know, Berry was one of the pioneers of rock’n’roll, with tunes like You Never Can Tell, Maybellene, Roll Over Beethoven and Johnny B. Goode doing much to popularise this new and controversial musical movement. And yes, the old stager – whose cousin, Marvin, once played at the Enchantment Under The Sea dance with his band, The Starlighters – is still going strong today. To read more on Berry, click here.
As for this casting, we like it. Def is most definitely a fine actor, but a lot of his performances thus far have been quite laidback. We imagine that the energetic Berry might draw a different kind of performance from Def.