Ain’t no thing as halfway crooks, you’re scared to death, you’re scared to look, son, you’re shook.

A couple weeks ago, I had the great fortune of sitting with the talented Evan Ross at one of those Beverly Hills coffee shops that de la is always complaining about where a cup of Joe costs a cool $16. Again I was here to sell, but I never want to sell. I didn’t become a salesman for a reason – then I found out the hard way that everything in filmmaking is geared around selling. Everyday, you’ve got to sell yourself, your vision, your film, your cast, your words, your images, your product… and here I thought I was becoming an artist. Naïve me.

My pops has been inflicted with a real ill cancer that is literally eating away at his body on the daily. He never wanted to be a salesman either.

Last Friday was a strange, but productive day to say the least. After much jockeying and many schedule changes, I finally got an opportunity to sit with our first choice to play Baby - young Sticky’s mother in the film.

When I sit with an actor, I have a finite amount of time to convince him or her that the film, the character and the cause are all undertakings worth putting life on hold for. Now, I’ve never been a salesman, but I have always been able to firmly believe in my own roots. I know why something appeals to me, why it’s important in a global sense, and I’ve always been able to talk about things from that perspective in an honest way. I’m no seducer, like most directors, producers and Hollywood movers, but I am real. And, that’s what I tried to convey to Taryn Manning on Friday.

She said one simple, magical word back to us: Yes.

Ladies and Gentlemen: May I introduce you to Baby.

We are hyped. Taryn is another authentic piece in the puzzle of truth that we are building here. We’re moving those stones, people: BALL DON’T LIE is coming.

“Either everything is working or you’re working for everything.”

-ED OG-

There is a contingent of haters out here in the message board universe/blogisphere that grumble from keyboards that we are on a mission to nowhere. They beat their chests and declare with proud voices that we will never get financing, that this film will never see the light of day, that we are simply chasing a pipe dream. On the one hand, I appreciate the honesty and the freedom of opinion – at least there is a view – but, on the other hand, I never really understand where hating on people trying to make moves derives from. Why declare this? Why say it can’t, it won’t, it doesn’t? What does one gain from that?

Listen, I’m going let you in on a couple secrets.

Piss off the old purists who cry for a return to fundamentals. The ones who’ve lost so much vision they’re blind to the dance of it all.

BDL p. 45.

Got the Shawn Lee remix of the Nick Drake classic “River Man” bumping out the speakers. Dark Venice streets come at me like asteroids floating across an old school computer screen. Sodium vapor lights pool beams down on dusty parked whips. A layer of fog rolls in from the beach a block away. A stray dog with too many sleepless nights zips across my path. Stillness: Alive.

There’s nothing like LA just before Dawn. You can own this city, even if it’s just for an instant. These are the moments when folks like Crazy Ray, Dallas and Dreadlock Man roll through Venice alleyways with a sense of empowerment, a feeling of ownership. All land belongs to them. They are, for a fraction of an hour, the original man, the natives on this soil, the mayors of big bad Los Angeles while normal, out-of-towners sleep, dreaming of stardom in the bright illuminations showcased by the city of Angles.

There’s no real mystery to who this is… It’s Dania Ramirez - the actress featured in, among other bigger flicks, the short film we made with Pharrell The Ecology of Love. She’s got fans out here in internet land, so here is another still from Ecology.

My man Bnice brought up an interesting casting question a couple days ago on de la’s page, so I put it to you, the people, should this woman be our Carmen in the film?

The Kid was shook.

p.35 BDL
If you don’t know, now you know… read the book.

I went against all odds and got an even steven
Proceed to read and not believin everything I’m readin
But my brain was bleedin, needin feedin, and exercise
I didn’t seek the best of buys, it’s a lie to textualize
I analyze where I rest my eyes

-Common: Resurrection -

Conspiracy theorists on a street corner near you are as certain as rain that Tupac is still alive and breathing on the mic. So, in their honor, on this, the anniversary of his death, I offer a resurrection.

Fess promised that I’d drop a casting gem on y’all Monday… Well, I’m two days late, but hopefully not a dollar short. Say, Biz, drop a Beatbox drum-roll please… In order to unearth the perfect actor that can hone the grace, truth and purpose of Dante’s character, we had to go to the grave and resurrect one Stringer Bell. After all, is there anyone more perfect to bring to life the tested veteran who coined our 3 Stones Back mantra than Idris Elba? My answer is a simple no. He is the real deal, like Dante.

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