RZA Directing Common, Azealia Banks in New Rap Film Coco

Wu-Tang Clan mastermind RZAand rapper Azealia Banks are teaming for the upcoming musical drama Coco.RZA will direct the Lionsgate/Codeblack Films feature, which stars Banks as a twentysomething female rapper named Coco.The Brooklyn-set film which co-stars Common, Jill Scott and Lorraine Toussaint has already begun shooting in New York.

In the film, Banks protagonist dreams of pursuing a hip-hop career, but is persuaded by her parents to finish college. In a poetry class, she is transfixed by the power of the spoken word, developing a verbal strength that ends up propelling her toward her rap goals.

Im extremely excited and vigorously inspired to be working with Azealia Banks in my new directorial installment, RZA said in a statement. Producer Paul Hall and I have assembled a cool and eclectic cast to surround Azealia. Our story, which is set in todays contemporary youth culture, will bring a new voice to cinema that needs to be heard.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that Scott will play a a professor who believes that rapping and slam poetry cannot co-exist; Toussaint will reportedly play Cocos mother, and Common will appear as a mentor figure.

Banks released her debut LP, the bold EDM-rap hybridBroke With Expensive Taste, in 2014. RZA made his directorial debut in 2012 with the Seventies Kung-Fu homageThe Man With the Iron Fists, which he co-wrote wrote with horror director Eli Roth.

In December, a fully reunited Wu-Tang Clan releasedA Better Tomorrow, their first album in seven years. Three months later, RZAteased a group of 200 listeners withthe first, the last, the only public listening sessionfor the groups near-mythical seventh album,Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. There is only one copy of the LP,which will be sold on auction sitePaddle8.com and RZA claims hes already received offersup to $5 million.