The man behind President Obama’s anger translator is back on the air with his hit Comedy Central series Key & Peele, and now, he has more influence than ever.

President Barack Obama (right) stands next to comedian Keegan-Michael Key (left) playing Luther, Obama's anger translator, at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in Washington, D.C., on April 25.

Yuri Gripas/ AFP / Getty Images

Keegan-Michael Key has been playing Luther, President Obama's fictional anger translator, for three years on his hit Comedy Central sketch show Key & Peele. But in April, he had the chance to actually put his deciphering of the mild-mannered commander-in-chief into practice when he stood next to the president onstage at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. It was a huge opportunity for Key, and one he couldn't believe was happening.

"I don't know how to quantify at this moment what kind of life currency it gives me," the comedian told BuzzFeed News on the phone from New Orleans, where he's filming his latest project Keanu. "The big thing is, [I] get to be part of a larger conversation. When the special prosecutor in Baltimore said, 'I guess I needed my own anger interpreter…' that's when you look at something and go, Oh my god. This thing is in the zeitgeist. [I] have a responsibility. We have 70-year-old white women and 16-year-old black boys that are fans of our show. And why? Because [we're] touching something human first."

Key and his comedic partner, Jordan Peele, have taken that responsibility seriously in the three years since their series debuted and drew more than 2.1 million viewers, making it Comedy Central's most watched premiere in years. The two biracial comedians and actors have continuously sparked conversation about contemporary race issues, and might even be helping to change minds or at least open them, a notion that, Key said with a laugh, is overwhelming.

"It's still so staggering, I'm not even sure how to unpack it," said the comedian, who can't help but think about race, deeply and constantly. "I literally will think about somebody's skin tone in a sketch. I'm like, Well, we can hire somebody who has this skin tone or that skin tone? And ... maybe this is provocative of me to say, but I want to see more women — African-American women — who have darker skin in roles. You just don't see them as much," he said passionately. "Now, I'm not just going to cast a dark-skinned black woman. She has to be brilliant and fantastic and touching and wonderful and talented."

Keegan-Michael Key (left) and Jordan Peele (right).

Ian White/Comedy Central

Because, for Key and Peele, it's about the human experience more than anything. In creating characters, their first step is to determine the person's psychological and emotional need. Are they trying to be someone they aren't? Are they afraid? Are they trying to provide for their family? Once they get there, they put a filter on top, Key said, and that's how they create someone as unique as Luther, who earned him that invite to the White House. It's a process through which they aim to do more than make people laugh; they want to make people think.

"The deepest part of a scene should be from a human place first so that anyone can identify with the character's plight," Key said. "I think it's effective to make everyone go, Oh, I didn't know black people could be like that! It sounds silly to say that, because you, in your mind, go, Some people don't understand other people's experience, so the experience is so alien to them that it's almost not human. You can make the humanness of it a touchstone, and hopefully it appeals to all people and it opens up dialogue amongst all people."

And nothing is off limits on Key & Peele, which the former MADtv castmates created after the long-running Fox sketch series came to an end in 2009. The comedians take on classrooms in the 'hood, Mexican gangsters, and a homophobic duo of not-so-vaguely gay Middle Eastern men, but are never overt about what they're trying to say. "The most effective way to make a racial point, the most revolutionary thing to do, is just to not discuss it while you're making the sketch or the movie," Key said.

That's something he has tried to do that this summer, during which he's appeared as a demanding music producer in Pitch Perfect 2, a comic book-loving robot in Tomorrowland, and soon, the perfect father who makes Ed Helms' character question his own worth as a parent in Vacation.

"When you pop up in movies, if you feel like you can execute a scene as best as you can, you really scoured the script, you squeeze every ounce of comedy out of it that you can, if people enjoy it, they go, Who was that guy?! Oh! It's that guy again! I saw him in blah-blah-blah!," Key said. "Then you build."

And build he has. Still though, the fact that he's being asked to bring his character to life for President Obama and the fact that people know who he is at all is still foreign for Key.

"Who are all these people yelling at? What are these people screaming at? It must be George Clooney, because there's George Clooney standing 15 feet away from me," he said, running through the thoughts he had on the Tomorrowland red carpet with his co-star. "And then I realize they're screaming [my] name, and [I'm] like, What is going on?!"

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This is the first time two women of color have been nominated in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series category. All hail Annalise and Cookie!

Viola Davis and Taraji P. Henson at the 81st Annual Academy Awards held at Kodak Theatre on February 22, 2009 in Los Angeles, California.

Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

Viola Davis and Taraji P. Henson made history on Thursday morning when they were both nominated for Emmys in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series — Davis for her role as powerhouse Annalise Keating on How to Get Away With Murder and Henson for hers as take-no-prisoner Cookie Lyon on Empire — making this the first time ever that two women of color have been nominated in the prestigious category.

But their feat is all the more monumental considering that in 2013, when Kerry Washington snagged an Emmy nomination for her work as Olivia Pope on Scandal, it was the first time in more than 40 years that a black woman earned a nod for heading up her own drama series.

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“You break tradition sometimes in order to take a genre and flip it on its head a bit, and make it a bit more appealing to all races,” Southpaw director Antoine Fuqua said in an interview with BuzzFeed News.

Jake Gyllenhaal and 50 Cent in Southpaw.

Scott Garfield/The Weinstein Company

The painful story of urban strife at the center of the new movie Southpaw feels distinctively black, but it's told through the prism of a white lead. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as boxer Billy Hope, following him on his rags to riches and back to rags journey in a sport that is largely dominated by brown faces.

It's the type of role that might have felt like business as usual should it have actually been given to a black actor. And that could have gotten into murky, stereotypical territory.

We've seen stories like Billy's before: A kid from the hood — abandoned or orphaned by his parents — grows up in the system and manages to get out and make something of himself in spite despite the odds being stacked against him, as it's happened before in The Blind Side and Annie and with many actual athletes and hip-hop stars. But Southpaw, directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Brooklyn's Finest), turns that trope on its head with its white leading man (and white leading lady Rachel McAdams; her character is also a product of the system).

So why'd Fuqua decide to make a movie that tells a dramatic story familiar to black audiences from the perspective of a white man?

The director smirked after being asked that question during a recent interview with BuzzFeed News one Sunday afternoon in Beverly Hills. Then, he pulled his smartphone out of his jacket pocket, and leaned in closer while enlarging an image on the screen.

"Look at that," Fuqua said, pointing to a photo of Denzel Washington sitting high on a horse for his upcoming Western. "Magnificent Seven. Who's the lead in that?"

Fuqua dropped his phone back into his pocket, before driving the point he'd made home. "You break tradition sometimes in order to take a genre and flip it on its head a bit, and make it a bit more appealing to all races," he said. "So Jake's going to be the fighter, the lead guy in the role that's the champ, and I'm going to let that fall on him. And then Denzel's going to be the lead for Magnificent Seven. He's going to be Yul Brynner, the Steve McQueen, the John Wayne. We're going to have our version of that."

Antoine Fuqua directs Southpaw.

Scott Garfield / Via The Weinstein Company

Fuqua is currently shooting the remake of the 1960 movie that starred Brynner, McQueen, and Eli Wallach. It won't hit theaters for another year, but it ties in with what the director hopes to achieve with Southpaw and his body of work as a whole. The race of the characters in his films is something that he's always conscious of. He wants to make movies that appeal to a mass market, and he doesn't want to be considered a black filmmaker who makes films solely for black audiences.

"I had a conversation with T.I. once, and he got a call to do this particular TV show, and he's like, Man, I don't want to do that, Antoine, because that's just stereotyping me. I already know how to be a rapper. I want to be a lawyer in the show. And I was like, There you go! He was like, How come I can't be the lawyer or accountant in the show?" Fuqua said, recounting his conversation with the rapper turned actor. "That's the point. Otherwise, you're always going to be seen that way. As a director, if I would have just made [Billy in Southpaw] a black lead, then what? I only make black movies and tell black stories? It puts you in a box, and the best thing we can do is break out of the box, but keep opportunity for everybody."

Even still, Fuqua actually did consider a black actor in the lead role after Eminem, for whom Southpaw was conceived, dropped out in order to focus on his music. The movie was written from the perspective of a white guy who had a tight connection with black culture, but Fuqua expanded his options. "I was like, Well, who's going to do it? Michael B. [Jordan] is doing Creed. Jamie Foxx and me had a long conversation about it, and I think he was trying to do the [Mike] Tyson story. Will [Smith] had already done Ali. I was like, Well, let's just stick to what was written and roll with that."

And then Fuqua found Gyllenhaal, who, the director said, brought Billy Hope to life in a way that exceeded his wildest dreams.

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The actor joins Queen Latifah and Mary J. Blige in NBC’s musical event, BuzzFeed News can exclusively report.

David Alan Grier

Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

David Alan Grier will soon be snarling and cowering as the Cowardly Lion in NBC's upcoming musical event The Wiz Live, BuzzFeed News can exclusively report.

A TV comedy veteran who first rose to fame on Fox's comedy sketch show In Living Color, Grier is also a three-time Tony Award nominee and will soon be seen in NBC's upcoming The Carmichael Show, which premieres Wed., Aug. 26.

The role of the Cowardly Lion was played by Ted Ross in the 1978 feature film's adaptation of the Tony Award-winning play The Super Soul Musical Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which itself was a soulful retelling of The Wizard Of Oz. The film boasts memorable performances by Motown acts Diana Ross and Michael Jackson.

Grier is the latest cast member to be named to the highly anticipated TV production, joining Queen Latifah, who will play the Wiz, and Mary J. Blige, who will play the Wicked Witch of the West.

Stephanie Mills — who starred as Dorothy in the original Broadway production of The Wiz — is set to play Aunt Em in NBC's live musical.

Dorothy will be announced Wednesday on the Today Show at 8:15 a.m ET.

The live show will be executive produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (The Sound of Music Live!, Peter Pan Live!, the Oscar-winning Chicago); and Tony winner Kenny Leon is the show's stage director and Matthew Diamond is the TV director.

The show will air live Dec. 3, 2015.

First he surprised attendees of the National Association of Black Journalists’ annual conference with an invitation to a dance party at his studio. Then he surprised 10 of us with an impromptu sit-down chat about streaming services, #BlackLivesMatter, and why he’s teaming up with Jay Z.

Prince speaks onstage during the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.

Kevork Djansezian / Via Getty Images

CHANHASSEN, Minnesota — The room was a bit too dark. Prince turned to a member of his staff and said, "Turn up the lights so the doves can see."

This was the beginning of an impromptu, informal, and certainly unexpected late-night conversation between 10 surprised reporters and one of the world's best-known musicians in the studio where he's been making music for more than 30 years. And if you're Prince, your studio is going to have a few birdcages containing live doves.

Last Thursday morning, Prince sent out a cryptic tweet, since deleted, that referenced the National Association of Black Journalists, of which I serve as Arts and Entertainment Task Force chair, in town toasting the organization's 40th year at its annual convention. He invited attendees to a dance party at his studio compound Paisley Park on Saturday night, where they paid $20 a pop, not including food, and had to flash their convention badges in order to get in — no idea why there was a fee or what it went toward. Nearly 900 journalists and lucky plus-ones enjoyed a soul food menu (macaroni and cheese and red beans and rice were among items for sale) and a DJ spun classic R&B and hip-hop hits until the wee hours of the morning.

After arriving at Paisley Park around 11 p.m., I was summoned by our group's outgoing president, and as we lined up to go deeper into the famous location, I assumed it was for a quick meet and greet. Far from it. His team — which included twins Naya and Mandy McClean — led 10 of us down a long hall, through what looked like a photography studio, to Studio A, where Prince was seated behind the console, dressed in a sparkly gold lamé pantsuit, his natural hair picked out Afro style. After shaking my hand, he looked behind me to see that perhaps the studio wasn't big enough to hold us all, and requested that we move to another location on the property, a conference room on another floor.

After we assembled in the new room, the singer came in minutes later and sat at the head of the table. No question was off-limits in the private chat, which included MSNBC's Trymaine Lee, NPR's Eric Deggans and ESPN's Mike Wilbon. We talked with Prince for nearly an hour about a myriad of topics — his religion, #BlackLivesMatter, and institutionalized racism. I don't think anyone in the room was exactly prepared for an interview, and Prince seemed to like that lack of formality. We were not allowed to bring cell phones or cameras to the party, and we weren't allowed to take notes — this is a long-standing caveat for his rare encounters with journalists. The singer said he much preferred having organic conversations like this one, and talked about how he wasn't aware of the event happening until fairly recently.

A friend of mine smartly took a photo of this now-deleted tweet — the tweet that set NABJ on fire on Thursday.

Kathy Chaney

Instead, it was a back-and-forth conversation — sometimes he asked the questions and we answered — about a litany of things. He talked about why he recorded a Baltimore protest song — it was organic and he detests police brutality, he said; why he will never push his personal religion on anyone else — he's a Jehovah's Witness, something musician Larry Graham got him into, he noted, but he believes that everyone should subscribe to some sort of religion; and his love of the black community — it pains him to see the social discourse taking place right now. He asked about the history of the NABJ. Then he launched into what concerns him most: the current battle musicians are waging with streaming services — largely Spotify, Apple, and even YouTube.

The money doesn't make sense, he said. He noted that The Beatles were paid some $400 million for their catalog, and that although he has as many albums, he wasn't offered nearly as much. A journalist asked if he thought it was because of the differences in race; Prince shot him a look and asked what he thought in a knowing voice.

His music industry concerns are nothing new. Last year he returned to his former label Warner Bros. after 18 years and regained ownership of his catalog. Prince had a high-profile split with the company in 1996, changed his name to a symbol, and lashed out against the major label system, referring to himself as a slave. Platinum records and poster-size pictures lined the hallways; the photo of him writing the word "slave" on his cheek is one of the first photos you see once you enter. He's still fond of the metaphor.

"Record contracts are just like ... I'm gonna say the word, slavery," he told us. "I would tell any young artist ... don't sign." Prince hinted that as huge an album as Purple Rain was, he didn't get a fair share of the pie — the label gets money, but not the people who created the music. (According to Billboard, the 2014 deal to return to Warner Bros. was a landmark one, even though financial terms were not disclosed.)

I asked if he'd be open to doing a proper sit-down interview to detail all of his concerns, and he said that he'd rather speak with his actions. The action we should pay attention to next: He's releasing his new album HitNRun Sept. 7 on Jay Z's much-maligned streaming service Tidal, saying that he has given Jay Z the master and it will live on the streaming site for a few years exclusively.

He said that Jay Z sank $100 million into his new service, and that even if they only have 1 million subscribers, that is major. He thought the comparisons to networks like Spotify is unfair — he argued that just because Tidal has a smaller audience now, the deal for musicians is far better than other services, which is why he trusts it. Prince currently has a song on Spotify now and he says he's testing it out to see how well it does.

"Once we have our own resources, we can provide what we need for ourselves," he said of Tidal. "We have to show support for artists who are trying to own things for themselves."

Prince mentioned that he'd met with Jay Z several times about the issue of streaming systems not giving a fair payout to musicians, and said that they believe the artists are getting the short end of the deal when it comes to the new ways to listen to music. He also hinted that the two may be documenting their meetings but wouldn't elaborate.

About an hour into talking, he said we should wrap our chat up and actually enjoy our Saturday night; I replied, "I'm actually fine with how I'm spending my Saturday night right now." We all talked some more about bad deals and noncompete stipulations — for broadcast journalists and musicians alike. Prince also talked about the change in commercial radio, specifically pointing out Clear Channel and criticizing their dominance.

When we finally wrapped, we were led out — I said a silent goodbye to the doves near the conference room — and matriculated back into the rest of the group. My friends wanted to know every detail but they would get their own peek at him shortly soon enough.

At around 12:45 a.m., Prince briefly addressed the rest of the guests, who took a break from dancing. (Those who thought their $20 was going towards a private Prince show they could someday brag about to their kids went home disappointed.) He used the moment to also ask the NABJ conference attendees to support Jay Z's efforts: "He could really use your help and appreciation because he is trying to do something big."

Then, after a minute or two, he was gone. But his guests remained for hours, dancing the night away.

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In the long-awaited N.W.A biopic Straight Outta Compton, a young Ice Cube (played by O’Shea Jackson Jr.) sits at a press conference — long ringlets of his jheri curl hanging out the back of a black cap — and fixes his eyes on a reporter who’s just suggested that his group make music that glamorizes gangs and drugs.

“Our art,” Jackson Jr. (the rapper’s real-life son) replies in perfect Cube cadence, “is a reflection of our reality."

Cube’s reality involved being harassed by cops in Torrance, California, in the late ’80s while N.W.A recorded their major label debut, Straight Outta Compton. The rappers were profiled as gangbangers and forced to lie on the sidewalk, their food slapped out of their hands.

It was a common occurrence, and one that inspired Cube to write the song “Fuck tha Police.”

“It was just built up,” DJ Yella said in an interview with BuzzFeed News. “We're standing out there in Torrance, at a studio, and that's how they was. You know, ‘What are we doing here in this city?!’ It was crazy.”

Onscreen, Cube’s genius strikes immediately. Eazy-E, formerly the badass, Uzi-wielding dope man, is the one who’s hesitant. Can they really get away with saying the words Cube just penned?

"Fuck the police / Coming straight from the underground / A young n***a got it bad 'cause I'm brown / And not the other color so police think / They have the authority to kill a minority / Fuck that shit, 'cause I ain't the one / For a punk motherfucker with a badge and a gun / To be beating on, and thrown in jail / We could go toe to toe in the middle of a cell / Fucking with me 'cause I'm a teenager / With a little bit of gold and a pager / Searching my car, looking for the product / Thinking every n***a is selling narcotics."

N.W.A's debut album.

Priority Records/Ruthless Records

“It was more than just a song that was insulting the police. It was a revenge fantasy, like Inglourious Basterds by Quentin Tarantino,” Cube told BuzzFeed News. “I think that's really what made people feel scared [like] we was really wanting to fight the police, you know? It's just one of them things where that song was doing a little more than just expressing our anger: It was telling what we would do if you wasn't a cop, if we could have a fair fight. All these things just scared the shit out of people.”

So much so that the group was banned from performing “Fuck tha Police” on their first major tour in the summer of 1989 — and the only one with all of the original group members intact. In the film, this plays out with a dramatic scene where the group members sit outside Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena and get a talking-to from local police. Under no circumstances are they to perform “Fuck tha Police.” In real life, that happened at just about every show on the tour. It was the one song that was off-limits.

“Every city we would go to, the police would come backstage, and they would read us all these obscenity laws … they would read us any ordinances they had regarding profanity onstage,” Cube said. “They probably used to tell Elvis Presley [the same] when he performed. … The promoters said flat out, ‘The tour is not going to happen if you guys perform that song.’”

By the time the tour reached Detroit, three N.W.A members had had enough: How can you be an act that dares to tell you the realities of their streets, police brutality chief among them, and not perform the song that best illustrates that life? Ice Cube, MC Ren, and Dr. Dre went rogue and hatched a plan to play the one song everyone wanted to hear — the song that had government officials shaking in their boots.

“We got fed up in Detroit; we was just tired of them coming backstage. We was tired of outside forces trying to dictate who we were and what we was going to do. And then we was just like, ‘Tonight's the night,'” Cube said. “When we started the song off, we heard what we thought was gunshots. Then we saw these undercover police rushing the stage. So we just took off running. They gaffled us up and tried to really lecture us on what we can do in Detroit and what we can't do. They just wanted to wreck the show.”

And they did. Yella said the group never got paid for that performance.

MC Ren and Eazy-E perform during the Straight Outta Compton tour at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1989.

Raymond Boyd / Via Getty Images

Eazy-E, the charismatic leader of the group and the head of its label imprint, Ruthless Records, didn’t want to have any of it. He was furious the guys defied the order they all agreed to, according to Cube. They’d anticipated that, which is why they left him out of the potentially game-changing decision.

“We knew Eazy would veto us performing because he was so business-minded,” Cube said. “Me, Dre, and Ren, we were like, ‘Yeah, we should do “Fuck tha Police” tonight.’ You see it onstage. Everybody like, ‘You ready? You ready? Let's go! Let's do it. Let's do that shit! Do that shit!’ It was mayhem after that.”

In the cinematic version of events, a group of plainclothes cops slowly walk toward the stage, brandishing badges and reaching for what we’re to guess are guns. The sound of gunfire erupts. Frantic concertgoers scatter in various directions, and the rappers stop performing and run backstage, where they’re met with a line of Detroit police officers before being thrown in a police van.

“It's a pivotal moment because it's one of the many moments where they stood up and they had the courage to say, ‘Freedom of speech applies to everyone in America, and we are not going to take this abuse. We're just not going to do it,’” said Straight Outta Compton director F. Gary Gray. “It was a pivotal moment in their brotherhood, it's a pivotal moment in American history, and it just showed how unfair things are.”

instagram.com

Twenty-seven years after the Straight Outta Compton album was released, not much has changed. N.W.A’s music — and “Fuck tha Police” in particular — felt like a foretelling, drawing a direct line to the way that black kids were being treated in major cities. Cube, who wrote the song when he was a teenager, is now 46 years old, yet he can’t say he’s surprised to look around and discover that the social discourse committed to tape back then is still relevant now.

It cements the importance of rappers who made an album that gave a voice to a population nobody seemed to care about: kids in the ’hood.

For better or worse, “Fuck tha Police” still works today. Lyrics written nearly three decades ago feel contemporary as activists assemble in places like Ferguson, Baltimore, and Cincinnati, taking on local police and demanding answers for the body count of young black men at the hands of police officers.

“Nothing has changed with their behavior with our community. That's why it's so poignant, like the song was written yesterday. It's really up to us as a society to hold these dudes more accountable and get them indicted and prosecuted and arrested and thrown in jail for breaking the law,” Cube said. “We got a movie about history that feels like it's present day. I don't want, 20 years from now, we look at this movie and say, ‘Damn, this was predicting the future.’”

Cube paused, letting those words sink in.

“Now is the time to put our energy into getting these dudes prosecuted,” he continued. “It's always been sad. It was sad in '89, you know? It's sad now, it's uncalled for in a lot of cases. For all the statistics they have on crime, you still got a majority of people in the ’hood that don't do crimes. So stop painting us all with the same brush and treat us like law-abiding citizens that most of us are.”

The rapper hopes that the film will emphasize the lack of progress that’s transpired all these years later. In Straight Outta Compton, he thinks it’s clear why he wrote “Fuck tha Police” and gave voice to the kids who needed it most.

“We wanted to highlight the excessive force and … the humiliation that we go through in these situations,” Cube said. “So the audience can know why we wrote ‘Fuck tha Police,’ and they can feel the same way.”

Director F. Gary Gray transformed a group of newbies to perfectly bring N.W.A’s story to the screen. They talk to BuzzFeed News about how it all came together.

O'Shea Jackson Jr., Jason Mitchell, and Corey Hawkins star as Ice Cube, Eazy-E, and Dr. Dre respectively in Straight Outta Compton.

Macey Foronda / Via BuzzFeed News

While the young cast of Straight Outta Compton was filming their first scene as N.W.A performing at a nightclub, the actors decided to give director F. Gary Gray something he hadn't quite seen before.

Before they launched into "Dope Man," they clutched their mics and contorted their faces into rappers the world has been familiar with for nearly three decades. They went slightly off script, and riffed lines that the actual group very well may have said during a live performance — and in that moment, it was evident that the actors weren't just resembling the men who rattled the government with their polarizing lyrics about police brutality and street life; they had actually molded themselves into Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, MC Ren, and DJ Yella.

They were N.W.A.

But it wasn't easy to find the actors who were capable of that feat. "It took years and a lot of training, a lot of consultants, and intense boot camp to mold them into N.W.A," Gray said in an interview with BuzzFeed News.

When it came to cast the biopic about one of hip-hop's most notorious groups, the creative team behind Straight Outta Compton agreed that they needed new faces only. "The story is so strong, that if you cast a celebrity mimicking another celebrity … you end up distracted," said Gray, who got his start as a music video director, most famously for Ice Cube's "It Was A Good Day."

His team took nearly two years to find the right actors for the lead roles of Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell), Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins), and Ice Cube (O'Shea Jackson Jr.). The remaining two members of the group, MC Ren and DJ Yella, are heavily featured in supporting roles that casting director Cindy Tolan knew she'd find along the way.

"The casting directors … did an amazing job," Gray said. "They took my shit the whole time, demanding perfection and finding our groove. People [will] say, 'Wow! They look like N.W.A!' But that wasn't even my focus. My priority was performance." After finding their stars, Gray created an eight-week boot camp that had the actors gaining weight (Mitchell), losing weight (Jackson), working with a DJ coach (Hawkins), and re-recording N.W.A's debut album, Straight Outta Compton, in order to help transform them into the world's most dangerous music group.

By re-recording that album, Gray said, "They are able to live in the character's skin. You start to take on the nuances of the group by studying what they rapped about, and how they performed. By the time I put them in front of the camera, and onscreen and onstage, they pulled it all together."

And here's how they got there.

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Black-ish creator Kenya Barris told BuzzFeed News that the potential series would be the first in a new three-year deal he recently inked with ABC Studios.

Chrissy Teigen and John Legend attend the 2015 Billboard Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Jason Merritt / Getty Images

The love story and day-to-day lives of singer John Legend and model Chrissy Teigen have captured the internet's attention and now, their relationship may be coming to the small screen — sitcom style.

Black-ish creator Kenya Barris, who just inked a three-year overall deal with ABC Studios to develop new projects, told BuzzFeed News on Friday that his first effort will be a sitcom loosely based on the marriage between the Grammy- and Oscar-winning singer and Sports Illustrated supermodel.

"It's inspired by them — they're both super creative and super effusive and I'm just fans of them and everything they stand for," Barris said in a phone interview of Legend and Teigen, who are working as producing partners on the project. "I'm really excited about it."

The show's tentative title, Ordinary People, comes from Legend's 2004 Grammy-winning track of the same name. "I feel that song serves a thematic background for the show," Barris said.

The sitcom is in early planning stages, but Barris said that it "will be about an interracial couple. We don't know what's going to be what. But it will be a part of the show in terms of showing those two world's colliding and coming together — their issues and their obstacles that [happen inside] their personal relationship."

If the pilot gets the greenlight, Barris said they'll start filming in February.

"Hopefully, it will become something we can all be proud of," he added.

Morris Chestnut and Sanaa Lathan tell BuzzFeed News that despite announcing a release date, details — and deals — for the third film have yet to be worked out.

Taye Diggs, Morris Chestnut, and Monica Calhoun in The Best Man Holiday

Universal Pictures

Sanaa Lathan in The Best Man Holiday

Universal Pictures

Fans may have to wait a little bit longer before a third The Best Man film is released.

Stars of The Best Man and The Best Man Holiday say that while writer/director Malcolm D. Lee has completed a script for The Best Man Wedding and Universal announced a release date of April 15, 2016, they haven't even begun working — and they're not even sure when they will.

The problem? After the success of the 2013 sequel, The Best Man Holiday, which earned more than $71 million, surprising box office watchers everywhere, just about everyone in the ensemble cast has been busy with other high-profile work.

"Taye Diggs is working on his series. Terrence Howard has his series. We're all on series now, so it's harder to get everybody free at the same time," Morris Chestnut said in an interview with BuzzFeed News. "But all I can say is that we are definitely working towards that, and hopefully we'll have some good news soon, saying that we're going into production."

But even Chestnut's busy schedule is proving problematic as he stars in Fox's new drama, Rosewood, and co-stars alongside Sanaa Lathan in the upcoming thriller The Perfect Guy, out Sept. 11. "There were some really talented actors in the movie, and luckily we came and we made some noise at the box office, so fortunately we were blessed in that way, and we are reaping some of the benefits of that," he added.

Lathan, who co-stars in the Best Man franchise as Robyn, the wife of Diggs' character, said "I don't know why they came out with the release date. The blessing is that everyone is working. But the curse is that we can't get everybody together. And everybody also wants to be paid."

The original film revolves around a first-time novelist (Diggs) who is nervous when his tell-all book, inspired by his friends' lives, gets passed around his college clique during a wedding weekend. The sequel brought the college crew back together to unravel more secrets and deal with the death of one of their own.

The holdup doesn't mean the third film is dead in the water, Lathan added. "We shall see. I think that we all feel like a family and we would love to do it, but who knows … it's a scheduling thing," she said.

Chestnut, who played Lance Sullivan in the The Best Man, added that he loves the new script and revealed that fans will find it to be very funny, a bit of a departure from the last film's serious note which saw a beloved character die of cancer.

"Lots of laughs," he teased of the new script, "… if we execute it the way the director wants."

Universal did not immediately respond to a request for comment by BuzzFeed News.

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♬ “Do you know where you’re going to?”♬ Here are 70 of the most iconic black films, through the year 2000.

Carmen Jones (1954)

Written by: Harry Kleiner, based off of the stage play written by Oscar Hammerstein II
Directed by: Otto Preminger
What it’s about: It’s a version of the opera Carmen, set in World War II.
Why you need to see it: It stars Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte (Diahann Carroll is also in this!) and it was a major studio film that featured an all-black cast. Also, it’s one of the most amazing musicals ever. Ever.

20th Century Fox

Imitation of Life (1959)

Written by: Based on the novel by Fannie Hurst, adapted in 1934 and 1959 by Eleanore Griffin and Allan Scott
Directed by: Douglas Sirk
What it’s about: A black domestic’s lighter-skinned daughter rejects her mother and passes for white.
Why you need to see it: It’ll make you cry — hard — and it will be the source of great conversations because everyone else in the world has seen this film many, many times. So should you.

Universal Pictures

A Raisin in the Sun (1961)

Written by: Lorraine Hansberry
Directed by: Daniel Petrie
What it’s about: A struggling black family awaits news on an insurance check that may very well change the course of their lives.
Why you need to see it: It’s written by Hansberry, who was the first black woman to write a play performed on Broadway. And it stars Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee, two of Hollywood’s greatest and most celebrated actors.

Columbia Pictures

Shaft (1971)

Written by: Ernest Tidyman and John D.F. Black
Directed by: Gordon Parks
What it’s about: One of the most well-known films to come out of the blaxploitation era, this tells the story of John Shaft, a black detective who takes on the Italian mob.
Why you need to see it: It’s one of the first black action movies and it made a star of Richard Roundtree. The film also features one of the best film scores ever, by Isaac Hayes.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

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It may have a nearly all-black cast, but the new Screen Gems film — starring Sanaa Lathan, Morris Chestnut, and Michael Ealy — is not about race. “If it’s a good movie, it’s a good movie, regardless of our color,” Lathan told BuzzFeed News.

Sanaa Lathan in The Perfect Guy.

Sony Screen Gems

Sanaa Lathan just wants to make movies.

Not necessarily black movies, or worse — she gulps for dramatic effect while making air quotes — "urban" movies, as many tend to categorize films with predominantly black casts, regardless of the content or storyline.

"I was reading about Straight Outta Compton, and it's interesting how the journalists talk about it. The way that they talk about the success is very marginalized," Lathan said. "It's like, 'This is a specialty film.' No, it's not. This is an American film about American history. Hip-hop culture is world culture now. It is universal."

And that gripe is, in part, what inspired her to go behind the camera and begin to produce what audiences have been begging to see onscreen for decades — movies that star people who look like her, but are about more than being black.

Her first film as a producer is the highly anticipated thriller The Perfect Guy, in which Lathan, who emerged as a leading lady 15 years ago with her breakout role in the fan favorite Love & Basketball, stars alongside heartthrobs Morris Chestnut and Michael Ealy. Her character, lobbyist Leah Vaughn, has everything: a fantastic career on the upswing, a house that could be photographed for the cover of Architectural Digest, and a dreamboat boyfriend, Dave (Chestnut), who seems to be equally successful in life.

And they just happen to be black.

From left: Lathan, Chestnut, and Ealy in The Perfect Guy.

Dan Mcfadden/Sony Screen Gems

Even in 2015, seeing successful black characters at the center of a film can still be foreign. And though The Perfect Guy showcases educated black people working in executive offices, Lathan points out that some are still miscategorizing the movie.

"I have heard people talk about this film as an urban film because we're black," she said. "The truth is … all races love watching us if it's a good story. But it's almost like this Hollywood doesn't want to write about that. I've had middle-age white men come up to me, and be like, 'I love Love & Basketball!' 'I watched Something New!' It's universal, just like I watch When Harry Met Sally. I love that movie. I want to see a great story. I want to get lost in the journey. And if it's a good movie, it's a good movie, regardless of our color. We're brown, but we're just making movies. We don't have to comment on our race."

And The Perfect Guy does not. In the film, Leah's idyllic world comes to a crashing halt when, after a few years of dating, Dave reveals he's still not quite ready to jump the broom and start a family, a nightmare for Leah, who's looking for that traditional I Can Have It All fantasy. She leaves Dave and soon begins dating Ealy's Carter Duncan, who appears to be able to offer up what her ex couldn't. But the fairy tale doesn't last long: She quickly notices a violent streak in him after he beats up a stranger at a gas station, gets scared, and breaks up with him. Then, he snaps — he stalks her and his actions force her to change her phone number, get the police involved, and, ultimately, reach back out to — and resume a relationship with — her ex-boyfriend.

Yes, we've seen some version of The Perfect Guy many, many times before; we've just rarely — if ever — seen it done with brown faces.

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After seeing the first three episodes of the Fox hit’s second season, we’re (drip) dropping some hints about what’s to come from Cookie and co. this fall.

The season premiere taps into the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

The show picks up three months after Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) was arrested, and it opens with a #FreeLucious concert in the park. Real-life hip-hop producer Swizz Beatz emcees the show and talks about the 1.68 million black men who are incarcerated in the U.S. Fans want Lucious to be released, and the event is peppered with activists holding up signs calling for his freedom. It’s Empire’s way of channeling the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

Chuck Hodes/Fox

And Bill and Hillary Clinton are some of those Lucious Lyon fans.

We actually don’t see former U.S. President Bill Clinton in the crowd of the #FreeLucious concert, but he’s there. Mostly, Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) smartly surmises, to stump for his wife and presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton. “He needs to be if he wants his wife to get elected," she says.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Michael Loccisano / Getty Images

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“The biggest problem is a reluctancy to admit and accept that there is a larger diversity issue at the school and at the theater,” Rita Chinyere said in an interview with BuzzFeed News about Upright Citizens Brigade.

Rita Chinyere / Via Instagram

The Upright Citizens Brigade is a prestigious improvisation training center created by Amy Poehler, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh that serves a direct pipeline for many alumni to shows like Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show. But after dedicating six years of her life to studying at UCB in New York City, Rita Chinyere suddenly quit a few days ago, citing the school's lack of commitment to expanding diversity as the reason behind her exit.

And she didn't go quietly — using interviews she conducted with other students of color and statistics about the school's racial composition, Chinyere penned a long essay about UCB's lack of diversity. In her post for Medium, she wrote, "As someone who is not a current performer at UCB and likely never will be, I have nothing to lose. I will gladly sound the alarm. UCB does not care about black people or minorities. It does, has done and will continue to do the bare minimum when it comes to maintaining diversity not unlike the entertainment industry at-large."

Elaborating on her essay, Chinyere told BuzzFeed News in a phone interview, "I think the biggest problem is a reluctancy to admit and accept that there is a larger diversity issue at the school and at the theater."

Chinyere wrote that 12% of performers at UCB's New York location where she was based are people of color. She went on to cite that one of UCB's highest profile performance teams — Characters Welcome — currently features zero actors of color (Chinyere clarified to BuzzFeed News that those numbers are inclusive of all people of color, not just black students).

She decided to write the post — titled "Why I'm Quitting UCB, And Its Problem With Diversity" — to give voice to several students of color who wished to remain anonymous out of fear that speaking out would hurt their futures at the institution and in comedy at large.

"The final straw was taking a step back and recognizing that in my fifth year, nothing had changed," Chinyere told BuzzFeed News. "In the past couple of weeks, some guy got hired to write for SNL, someone else with Seth Meyers – a bunch of openings came up. Out of nine openings, not one person of color got on? That was striking to me. That was the nail in the coffin."

Chinyere said that students of color have spoken with UCB administrators for years, complaining about the lack of diversity initiatives to no avail. After her post went up and circulated through the comedy community, she spoke with UCB officials, including Besser — the two went back and forth on Twitter about her concerns — and she concluded that there truly was a lack of awareness about the school's diversity issues.

Besser was not available for comment and his representative referred BuzzFeed News to this statement he made to Splitsider.com: "We agree that there is a problem in the sketch and improv community where in general there should be more interest from a more diverse sampling of our society. That is precisely why we do have diversity scholarships and why we've put together a diversity program to try to figure this problem out. I think it's pretty awesome we just gave out 300 diversity scholarships this last year in NYC alone. And best of all, nothing we are doing is written in stone so we have an open door at the UCB, where a new Director of Student Affairs is here to hear any suggestions or issues."

The lack of diversity in the comedy world has been under the microscope since late 2013 when SNL cast member Kenan Thompson failed to explain why there weren't any black female comedians on the show and creator Lorne Michaels said he hadn't found a black female comedian who was "ready" for the sketch spotlight. Not long after, UCB alum Sasheer Zamata joined the nearly all-white line-up and comedian Leslie Jones soon followed.

Despite exiting UCB, Chinyere remains hopeful that change will — eventually — come.

"They're very much aware that diversity is an issue in ... comedy overall. They're not blind to that," she said. "I've received a note from the artistic director – we had an exchange. It ended with her wishing me the best and [saying] she was sad about my decision. I spoke to one of the co-founders of UCB and it seemed like there was some disconnect. There's a receptiveness to do something to bring about change, but talk is cheap. Let's see some action before I start making any sort of distinctions on whether or not this has worked."

Creator Kenya Barris talks to BuzzFeed News about the controversial storyline. Plus, check out an exclusive clip from the episode!

Kelsey Mcneal / Via ABC

ABC's Black-ish has tackled the n-word, homophobia in the black community, and black Republicans. And this week, the comedy is taking on yet another divisive topic and giving it a humorous spin: gun ownership and gun control.

It's a timely debate told through the prism of a black family living in a predominately white, tony neighborhood. And Black-ish creator and showrunner Kenya Barris told BuzzFeed News in a phone interview that the topic came about organically in the writers' room.

"I was literally in the process of buying a gun, and it shocked a lot of the room. They were blown away," said Barris. "[I was like], This isn't crazy. I'm not buying a gun to kill someone. But it split the room down the middle. For me, that's always a good sign that there's a story in there."

In the episode, titled "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Gun," the Johnson family deals with the aftermath of a neighborhood break-in, and patriarch Dre (Anthony Anderson) wants to buy a gun so that he'll feel safer. Predictably, matriarch Bow (Tracee Ellis Ross) doesn't want a gun in the house, and believes there's a better way to protect their family.

"The notions and ideology of gun ownership has a lot socio-economic and cultural reasons behind it," Barris said. "We're not a political group. And we don't want to … start taking real hard stands on things that people have the right to have different opinions on. We want to have the filter of the family reflect different opinions and do it in a fun and funny way. That's what we try to do with each episode."

Here's an exclusive sneak peek of Bow and Dre's debate in the Sept. 30 episode of Black-ish.

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“I definitely did think about some of the jokes,” Palmer told BuzzFeed News. “Ultimately as an actor, you have to try to find a way to not be personal.”

Keke Palmer in the "Chainsaw" episode of Scream Queens.

Hilary Gayle / Via FOX

Zayday Williams is Scream Queen's pork rind–loving, Oakland-hailing college freshman, raised by an iron-fist-ruling grandmama who imparted this knowledge to her before she left on scholarship to attend Wallace University: "If I really, really applied myself, I could get out of Oakland and grow up to be the first black woman president."

Yes, the lone black pledge in the Kappa Kappa Tau sorority on the new Fox hit about a serial killer–stricken college campus does exhibit some racial stereotypes, but Keke Palmer, the actor who plays Zayday, wants viewers to know her character is anything but one-note.

"I love that she's from Oakland. I also love that she has attitude, she has kickback. She's smart. She's not a one-note character. Yes, she has funny lines, one-liners, but ultimately, she is the one that can obviously see that something is not right," Palmer told BuzzFeed News over the phone from Scream Queens' New Orleans set. "Being the only African-American female that's part of the sorority, I think as an actor, it's up to me to be honest about what I am comfortable with and what I'm not comfortable with. I get to work with people every day that respect my opinion just as much as they respect everybody else's. That plays a big part in why I was not offended by any of that. I knew it wasn't coming from this place. For me, I hadn't found any moments where I looked at my script and said, 'Whoa! This is not something I want to say.' Because ultimately, it's up to me on how I deliver it as well. As an actor, that's your job, to gauge it. You talk to your director: 'Hey, this line feels a little bit one-note.' And then maybe they'll tell you another way to do it that maybe you hadn't thought of yet."

FOX

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“‘Battle Cry’ is a super-passionate song,” Jussie Smollett told BuzzFeed News. “It’s just so beautiful and fits perfectly with the scene.”

Fox

Fox

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Laz Alonso stars on NBC’s The Mysteries of Laura as the Afro-Latino Detective Billy Soto. “People are becoming a lot more sensitive and aware that there are different kinds of Latin; there are different kinds of black people,” the actor told BuzzFeed News.

Laz Alonso as Detective Billy Soto on NBC's The Mysteries of Laura.

Christopher Saunders / NBC

Laz Alonso never saw anyone quite like himself on TV. That changed 15 years ago when he decided to give up a career on Wall Street to become an actor.

Now he's the person other Afro-Latino viewers can see themselves in from their living rooms: Alonso stars on NBC's The Mysteries of Laura as Detective Billy Soto, partner of the titular character (Debra Messing).

Unlike the majority of American black people who largely share a Southern heritage, Alonso's parents immigrated from Cuba. His family is Afro-Cuban — Cuban with West African ancestry — and Alonso grew up in a Spanish-speaking home.

But black Latinos were foreign when he was growing up in Washington, D.C., and Alonso found that those around him didn't quite understand his cultural background.

"I was only a Latin person in my house. Anytime I went outdoors, I was African-American. My entire life, I grew up in D.C. and there were no Latin blacks," he told BuzzFeed News in a phone interview. "You had to play the part. I wasn't white, so naturally, I was black. And that's what it was — totally living those two identities, and living it, not faking it. Identifying as an African-American … and also dealing with everything that comes with that. Nobody said, 'Oh, we'll give you a pass because you speak Spanish.' No. Nobody cared. Anything that anybody else had to deal with, I had to deal with it too. I had to overcome it too, and I had to experience everything — both good and bad. ... And I thank god that I did, because it just gives me such a rich background and experience to draw from when I play characters. Playing them from a very real and authentic place. I'm not faking it — I'm not faking an experience, I'm not faking a reaction, I'm not faking a feeling. I'm actually authentically drawing from some place that I know intimately, from my own life and experience."

Messing as Laura Diamond, Janina Gavankar as Meredith Bose, and Alonso as Billy Soto in The Mysteries of Laura.

Paul Sarkis / NBC

And if Alonso, a Howard University graduate, didn't see his two worlds overlapping in real life, he certainly didn't see it onscreen. Hollywood often represents Latinos as looking like Jennifer Lopez, Sofia Vergara, or George Lopez. But on The Mysteries of Laura, Alonso gets a chance to flex his cultural background — his character will even slip into Spanish when the case he's investigating calls for it. Soto's heritage has yet to be explained or examined on the show — though later in this second season, viewers will meet his mother and dive more into his life. Even more powerful than the fact that this character exists is the fact that there's never been a quizzical reaction moment; there's no "How's a black guy like you speak fluent Spanish?" at all. Soto just is who he is and in the process, he helps represent a more diverse part of New York that we hardly ever see on TV or in film.

"[Hollywood] is becoming aware that these actors exist; they're not just lumping all Latinos into one box," Alonso said, taking a break from shooting The Mysteries of Laura in New York. "Like, 'OK, you have to look like Jennifer Lopez, or you can't possibly be Latino. There's no possible way that you can be Latin.' I think the landscape has changed, and people are becoming a lot more sensitive and aware that there are different kinds of Latin; there are different kinds of black people. I just think it's beautiful to show that diversity within our race. I think we're seeing a lot more of that now."

From the beginning, Soto was conceived as Afro-Latino, specifically by executive producer Jeff Rake, who adapted the show from a Spanish television series of the same name. After Alonso was cast, he and Rake sat down in his office to talk about what Rake envisioned for the character, and Alonso was pleasantly surprised by his desire to push racial and cultural boundaries in this very subtle but significant way.

"It was part of our attempts to create an authentic feel in our New York City precinct. My goal is for people to be able to turn on the show and see themselves represented on the screen," Rake told BuzzFeed News in a phone interview. "For a long time in television, a cop show only had certain archetypes in the ensemble. I think television has made incredible strides in recent decades to better represent what modern society looks like, what modern-day law enforcement looks like, and in our case, what modern-day New York City looks like. We are trying to do our small part to present a cross section of real-life New Yorkers and real-life New York cops."

And though Soto was Afro-Latino from the beginning, Alonso's enthusiasm for the character took it even further. "Because he was an excited, willing participant, that gave us the added luxury of being able to craft the character around Laz, the actor," Rake said. "I was fascinated to learn about his Afro-Cuban background. I thought it made a lot of sense for the show, because New York City is as much a melting pot as anywhere else in the universe."

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Miles Brock and Milan Christopher on Love & Hip Hop Hollywood.

VH1

Miles Brock and Milan Christopher have created one of the most authentic storylines reality TV has ever seen.

So often, viewers see that-can't-possibly-be-true twists and turns that reek of faux drama. But on Love & Hip Hop Hollywood, the story of Brock, a closeted rapper who feared what his family and industry would think of him, and Christopher, an openly gay producer growing more and more frustrated that his boyfriend of two years — the man he wants to marry — won't publicly acknowledge his presence, was undoubtedly real.

Monday night's episode saw Brock come out to his former childhood sweetheart, Amber Hunter. Their complicated relationship has been a central part of the series' current second season, and fans have watched Brock grapple with telling her the truth. He worried that she would remove him from her life and he'd lose a longtime friend and a daughter (Hunter has a child from another relationship whom Brock has helped raise as his own).

"It was me figuring out, How do you tell someone who loves you, who's still in love with you … How do you tell them that?" he told BuzzFeed News in a recent phone interview. "Even though we haven't been together, Amber is my best friend, and we are around each other a lot. Even though Amber has been in her relationships and I've been in mine, she has a tight-knit relationship with my family and I have one with hers."

Therapist Stacy Kaiser sits down with Hunter and Brock on Love & Hip Hop Hollywood.

VH1

But Brock finally built up the courage to tell her that the man she’s been in love with for years and was hoping to romantically reconnect with is in love with another man.

When he actually said the words he’d mustering up for years, Hunter dropped her head to her lap and sobbed uncontrollably while a therapist looked on, trying to counsel them. And when Brock finally couldn’t bear breaking the heart of the woman whom he calls his best friend, he jumped up and ran into the bathroom. Then, Hunter ran out of their therapy session and collapsed to the ground, prompting a producer to step in front of the camera and rock her back and forth.

“I’m not about to sugarcoat it. That moment was everything that I imagined it would be. It was my biggest nightmare,” Brock said. “It was definitely the hardest thing that I’ve ever done in my life. Seeing her crumble made me crumble. … There is never a right way to tell a woman who loves you that. There was a lot of sadness that day.”

It was a lot to watch and especially a lot to endure, but he wouldn’t change one bit of his experience. Had it not been for the show, Brock, who identifies as bisexual, is not sure he would have come out to Hunter — at least, not now. When he signed up for Love & Hip Hop Hollywood, he knew he’d eventually have to. VH1 producers helped him figure out an approach, mapping out various scenarios and figuring out what might be the best — and in some cases most sensitive — course of action.

The world that Hunter, who is also a rapper, and Brock run in is relatively small, and the Angelenos know a lot of the same people. In one sobering moment during Monday’s big episode, Hunter told the therapist that she’d like to, at some point, make a phone call to a friend of Brock’s named Milan, whom she knows is gay.

Viewers didn’t get to what happens with that conversation this week, but Brock said that he and Hunter are still the best of friends. Hunter has yet to speak publicly about the experience — though VH1 said they will make her available to press as her storyline rolls out more. She also didn’t participate in the special that aired after Monday’s coming-out episode about homophobia in the hip-hop community.

Brock and Christopher on VH1’s special LHH: Out in Hip Hop.

VH1

Brock said coming out to Hunter was so hard for him, he had no plans to watch the episode.

But viewers most definitely tuned in to see a male rapper come out on one of Black Twitter’s most favorite franchises.

“I really didn’t think how monumental having an openly gay person, and a person who is coming out, on reality TV was,” Christopher said in a phone interview with BuzzFeed News. “But … there’s never been a couple like us. As time progressed, I started to realize, Oh, this is going to be huge. This is going to be huge for the community, this is going to be huge for hip-hop, this is going to be huge for reality TV.”

It also would be huge for their relationship, as Christopher anticipated answers to the questions that had long been plaguing him: Was his boyfriend’s reluctance to come out because he was involved with someone else? What might he find out once the cameras started rolling and almost nothing could be disputed?

“I had been dating him for so long, and I got to thinking, The reason that you’re not coming out and we’re not doing this thing, is not because of what society thinks — because you see that I’m successful and you reap all the benefits of my success — is it because you are still in a relationship with Amber where you guys are messing around, or something’s going on?” Christopher recalled. “I was like, Aha! This is when I’m going to find out the truth! That part of my relationship I wanted to explore because it was things that I didn’t know. And I wanted to be married to this person, and I wanted to bring our relationship to the next level, and I couldn’t do that not knowing what was going on with him and Amber.”

Christopher gets the answers he was looking for — and he said watching his partner’s experience unfold on TV reminded him of his own coming-out story. Brock hopes to get what he was looking for too: to be an example — a chance to give people, especially other closeted men like himself, a courtside view at the beauty of being in love and the pain of keeping such a secret from those closest to you. He hopes that it’ll help viewers understand the process of coming out — including the fear of potential fallout with family members and friends — and trying to gain acceptance in an industry that is hardly known for being welcoming to men in same-sex relationships who want to rock the microphone.

“At the end of the day, I hate the label ‘gay rapper.’ I’m a rapper who happens to be open about who he lays with. I go to the studio, I listen to music, I put the pen to the paper, and I create. I’m an artist. I’m a writer. I’m a rapper. And sometimes, I’m not always telling my story,” Brock said. “Snoop or Dre, they may be talking about living in the hood and driving around in a drop-top with hydraulics in ’em, and they haven’t done it in years. We’re all artists and we write and we create and it is what it is. This is the exact reason why I didn’t want to tell, because I opened up one small niche of my life, next thing is they look at me under a microscope.”

Brock is determined to figure out how he can continue to be a part of a world that prides itself on being as authentic as…well, his storyline on the reality show, but one that also hasn’t been accepting of LGBT people. After all, we’ve yet to see a male rapper who identifies as gay or bisexual break out in the mainstream.

“You got to be hard. You got to be dank. You got to be good. Or you got to get away. And with me telling who I lay with … [the hip-hop world thinks] you’re feminine or you’re being soft, or being a punk. They run from that,” Brock said. “The backlash has definitely been hurtful. I’ve definitely had some hard days, but I just put my phone down. I knew it was coming, and now it’s here, and I’m just dealing with it a day at a time.”

Love & Hip Hop Hollywood airs Monday nights at 8 p.m. ET/ 7 CT on VH1.

Bryan Steffy / Getty

What do Lionel Richie, Spike Lee, and Sean “Diddy” Combs have in common? All three entertainment icons are Oscar winners (check out Diddy’s 2011 documentary, Undefeated), and all three started out as undergrads at historically black colleges or universities.

HBCUs, as they’re commonly known, are rich in black history and seminaries for future stars. Empire’s Taraji P. Henson, Black-ish’s Anthony Anderson, and The Game’s Wendy Raquel Robinson were classmates in Howard University’s drama department, where legendary actors like Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee served as mentors.

BuzzFeed News asked some of the most talented and successful people in the entertainment industry why an HBCU was the only choice for them, and heard the campus stories that set the course for their storied careers.

Sean "Diddy" Combs
Rapper, producer, actor, mogul, inventor of the remix
Howard University

It was important for me to go to a school where I would be exposed to new things, and meet new people. But I also wanted to be part of a community that understood my life experience. Howard offered all of that, and more.

I still remember my first day at Howard. I walked up the hill, past the Quad, through the main gate. I made my way to the Yard and my mind was blown! Growing up, I rarely traveled outside of New York. I had never heard so many different accents. I had never seen so many different types of people.

It was my Howard professors who supported my decision to take a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and work at Uptown MCA Records under the legendary Andre Harrell. The lessons I learned while on campus, and the connections that I made, are part of my life and career every day.

And Howard became my family. It gave me a second home. When I couldn’t afford a place to live, it was my Howard friends who let me sleep on their floors. It was my Howard family who looked out for me when I didn’t have any money for food. When I started my career in music, many of the people I met at Howard — like Harve Pierre — came with me on my journey.

Anthony Anderson
Actor (Black-ish, The Departed)
Howard University

Howard University was the only college I applied to, because of the history of their fine arts department. The likes of Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad and Roberta Flack had come through those doors.

I go back and I meet students and I go to homecoming. I talk about how great it is, and I’m like, well, you know, there was never really a better time at Howard than when I was there.

I understand that every generation has their time, or whatnot, but we had Puff, we had Ananda Lewis we had AJ Calloway, we had myself, Wendy Raquel Robinson, we had Wendy Davis, we had Carl Anthony Payne, we had Marlon Wayans, we had the group Shai — Taraji P. Henson! And I say, "You look at all the people that I have named, and how we've become successful in our own fields, in our own right. Just imagine all of that creative energy on the yard at the same time. The hype that you're feeling right now isn't the same as what it was once when we were students there."

And then they understand, they say, "OK, you may have a point. You may have a point. But, you know, Howard’s fly as hell right now."

David Banner
Rapper, producer (Lil Wayne), and actor (The Butler)
Southern University

I never planned on being Student Government Association president. Two things that I don't trust are preachers and politicians. Both of those positions are designed for regular people to rise to the occasion. As soon as you get done with it, you go back to being a butcher or whatever you were in society. I don't like that you now have professional preachers and professional politicians. Whenever you have a constituency that pays you, you can never be for the people.

But being Southern’s SGA president taught me something. It showed me that you can do something right. That was the first time in my life that I did something all the way right and didn't cut any corners, taking advantage of the position. I didn't take no money, I actually wasn’t even sexually active with any woman on campus while I was SGA president. (I did go over to Louisiana State University, though!) I didn't want anything. I worked every day for eight hours a day in the office. It gave me a microcosm of what my life was going to be, because I was a star on that campus, for the most part.

Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

Wanda Sykes
Actor and comedian (The Wanda Sykes Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm)
Hampton University

My brother went to Norfolk State, my father went to Virginia State. I knew I wanted to go to a historically black college, and so I said, "You know, I should go to the best, the real HU!" Though at that time it was the Hampton Institute.

My aunt Dolores, she was teaching there, so I was familiar with the school. I was going away to college, but I was still in familiar territory.

Really, I was just like, OK, I have to go to college. I should make it as fun as possible!

Loni Love
Actor and comedian (co-host, The Real)
Prairie View A&M

I spent like a half a semester at Western Michigan University, and I just felt lost. I didn't understand college because nobody in my family had gone to college. I just didn't understand the whole process. I felt alone. I was in a room with a whole bunch of people that didn’t look like me, and being a girl from the projects, that was a culture shock. Everybody around me was not African-American.

I ended up getting a job at General Motors — I had a friend who was an engineer and he said, "Well, why don't you try a historically black college?" I didn't know anything about it. I ended up finding a college that graduated the most engineers, and that happened to be Prairie View A&M University.

I was broke, so I was up in a bar one night and they were like, "Well, whoever can tell the best story will get 50 bucks." I needed the 50 bucks and I got up and I just told a story, just made it up, and that's what made me realize people get paid to tell stories. I kind of always said that was my introduction into stand-up.

I became a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, and I did a sorority event called "The Wanda Winfrey Show." Oprah Winfrey was just starting to ramp up, and I played her sister, Wanda. My talk show addressed the issues that affected the campus; it really became a hit.

Jamie Mccarthy / Getty Images

Stephen A. Smith
Sports journalist and television personality (ESPN2’s First Take)
Winston-Salem State University

I was in a critical persuasive writing class, and the professor for the class was the editorial page editor for the Winston-Salem Journal. He read an essay of mine and said, "You are a natural born sports writer. Let's go out to lunch." He took me straight to the Winston-Salem Journal and introduced me to the sports editor, who hired me on the spot as a clerk.

My career just essentially went from there. The guys that I worked with on the copydesk were all white, and they were absolutely fantastic to me. They treated me like family and literally taught me the business: how to write, how to go about pursuing a story.

One day the sports editor, Terry Oberle, asked me to write a feature about Wake Forest soccer, which was ranked No. 3 in the nation. I had never watched a game of soccer in my life. I walked up to the coach and I said to him, "I know nothing about soccer whatsoever, but I want to be a sports writer. Is there anything you can do to help me?" ... He called the whole team over, and he said, "Give him complete, unadulterated access to the next three days. Whatever he wants, give it to him." The coach taught me the game of soccer … over the next three days. I wrote a two-page feature and the sports desk ran it in the Sunday paper. Terry called me into his office that Monday and said, "Congratulations, you're the new lead writer for the Wake Forest soccer team."

DJ Premier
DJ and producer (Gang Starr, Nas, Jay Z, Notorious B.I.G.)
Prairie View A&M

My dad was a biology professor on campus and a dean, so I was always at Prairie View A&M. I was actually doing parties on campus before I started going to Prairie View. And I had all the latest records. People would be like, "Man, he has everything." We didn’t have CDs back then. There was no such thing. It was all vinyl.

We did big parties at the Newman Center — it’s not there anymore. That started to transcend to step shows. Back then, they were called stomp shows. One thing led to another and all of the sudden the Kappas are calling me to do a party, the Ques are calling me to do a party, the Alphas are calling me to do a party, AKAs are calling me to do a party, the Sigma Gamma Rhos are calling me to do a party, the Wisconsin Sleepers are calling me to do a party. It just kept going.

The stuff you see in Drumline with the bands playing all the funky stuff and doing all the ill drum patterns, Prairie View has been doing that, even back when I was in junior high. As a kid, it was amazing to see a black marching band get down. It was normal to see that, and I felt like there was no other place to go but Prairie View.

My dad said he wanted to see us be as on point as any other race. He wanted us to be at a high level. That was always the Prairie View motto: producing productive people. That carried into me being a producer and a businessman. I didn't graduate because I stepped out to see if I could get my music career off the ground. It was totally my instincts and my belief in myself that made me say, if I get a shot at it, I’m going to go do it.

Jason Merritt / Getty

Lionel Richie
Legendary top-selling soul singer, songwriter, and musician; father of Nicole
Tuskegee University

I was born and raised on Tuskegee University’s campus. It was probably one of the greatest things that ever happened to me in my life. All of the things that black America stands for today were actually built into my growing up. It was a part of the lesson plan.

It was one of the greatest decisions I ever made to return to Tuskegee and attend the university. Going to that school gave me the confidence of basically knowing who I am and where I am in this great big world that we live in.

I think the part that I loved the most was who came through Tuskegee at that time. We had some of the greatest leaders and controversial subjects of our time. From Malcolm X to Martin Luther King to H. Rap Brown to Stokely Carmichael to Odetta to Hugh Masekela, the Temptations to James Brown and every other wonderful artist. It was just a cultural mecca. I should say James Baldwin! Dick Gregory.

It was just one of those wonderful times in history when everyone would come through. Not to mention the fact that I was born and raised in and around the Tuskegee Airmen. The community and the environment — it just raised me. It raised me to who I am today.

Rickey Smiley
Comedian (The Rickey Smiley Show, Dish Nation, Rickey Smiley for Real)
Alabama State University

You go to a black college, you're really going to learn a lot about your culture. You're going to have an appreciation for the people that came before you because those professors are not going to let you forget what you came from. At some schools you might be just a number, but I know at Alabama State, and different HBCUs, teachers know you by name, and you have a relationship with these teachers.

I absolutely love Alabama State. But I love Alabama A&M as well, even though Alabama A&M is our main competition, because A&M was the first college to put me up on stage and pay me to perform.

They would book me for homecoming. I would jump in my '77 Cutlass and drive over to Huntsville with some friends. I remember my first check. I got maybe $400. I'll never forget it. That was a lot — that was like four grand now. Talking about '89, '90, $400 is like four grand. You can do a lot with that!

When I couldn’t afford a place to live, it was my Howard friends who let me sleep on their floors. — Diddy

Wendy Raquel Robinson
Actor (The Steve Harvey Show, The Game)
Howard

There was a college counselor who came to my high school and was recruiting for several schools. He asked me what I wanted to do, and I told him that I wanted to act. I wanted to dance, I wanted to sing. And he was like, "Who is your favorite artist?" Right off the top of my head was Debbie Allen. And he was like, "Debbie Allen went to Howard. Have you ever heard about Howard?" And I had never even heard of Howard University, but I knew who Debbie was and she was always — she was, and still is — my role model. I put all my effort into going there.

At Howard, there was a passion for what we were doing. We didn't have all of the bells and the whistles and the state-of-the-art technology. We were forced to really, like, hang that lighting instrument with a shoestring and some bubblegum and just make the best of it. When you don't have everything, you have to work even harder and you appreciate it.

The class sizes were so small. That's one thing that I love about HBCUs. You're not just a number. You are a person. You're individualized, you're not a number in this massive roll call of students that are on campus. We all had relationships with our professors, in addition to each other. We knew our professors.

Andrew H. Walker / Getty Images

Spike Lee
Director (School Daze, Do the Right Thing, three Denzel Washington films in the '90s)
Morehouse College

My father went to Morehouse, my grandfather went to Morehouse, my mother went to Spelman, and my grandmother went to Spelman. I took a class at Clark with my film professor Dr. Eichelberger, who is still there teaching at Clark AU. He's the one that really said that I should try to pursue filmmaking.

School Daze, very simply, is my four years at Morehouse and the impact of the homecoming weekend. The good, the bad, and the ugly. I remember the man directing the coronation my senior year and that was a big success that left me with confidence. Those coronations at Morehouse, they're like Broadway productions!

Not just Morehouse, but I think black colleges are very essential to our education of young black minds. Being black in this country is never going to get old. There's an understanding, a nurturing at HBCUs, that you might not get elsewhere.

Kenya Barris
Showrunner and screenwriter (Black-ish)
Clark Atlanta University

I picked Clark Atlanta University because of Spike Lee. Lee actually went to Morehouse, but his mentor was a guy named Dr. Eichelberger who was a teacher at Clark. Morehouse doesn't have a film program, so kids would come over there. I'm basically doing what I'm doing because of Spike Lee. I think — for a lot of people my age — he was the first time I saw a dude do something that felt like he had a voice that I could relate to, but at the same time, crossed over and spoke to a lot of other different people. It felt like a genuine voice, and when he did School Daze and showed black colleges, I was like, oh my god, I want that experience. I’m from L.A., and coming from here, we had nothing like that.

LaTanya Richardson Jackson
Tony-nominated actor (A Raisin in the Sun, Sleepless in Seattle), met husband Samuel L. Jackson, a Morehouse alum, in college
Spelman College

I think Spelman chose me. I’m from Atlanta, and I knew I was going to be a theater major. One of my schoolteachers — Georgia Allen, she was a great actress — put on children’s theater at Spelman, so I was always in something. When applications came for colleges, Dr. Baldwin Burroughs, who was the head of the drama department there, said, "You filled out your application?" And I said, "Oh, do I have to? I’m here!" "No, you still have to apply."

I was in school in '68 into the '70s. We were part of a very political faction, the post–civil rights generation. I was very conscious thanks to people who graduated from the school — like Marian Wright, who is my mentor and dear friend. But what was my responsibility, and what we considered part of a contract that you sort of have with Spelman, as a graduate, was that I would choose to change the world and want to do something about it. It was a very rich experience for me, one that I don’t think I could have had on any other campus, because I saw every day that I went there who was in charge of me — and they were African-Americans.

Kevin Winter / Getty Images

Morris Chestnut and Anna Konkle in the "Policies and Ponies" episode of Rosewood.

John P. Fleenor/Fox

Just about everyone is talking about the visual presence of blackness on primetime television: Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard on Empire, Viola Davis on How To Get Away With Murder, Kerry Washington on Scandal, Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross on Black-ish, and now Morris Chestnut on Fox’s surprise hit of the season, Rosewood.

When it comes to black Hollywood, 46-year-old Chestnut has been a constant — his longevity, success, and relevancy are impressive. Yet, after 25 years in the industry, he's only just now getting the chance to star on his own television show.

Sitting in his private room near set in early October, Chestnut surmised that he’s finally in this position for two key reasons: his patience and a renewed desire from studios to present diversity in primetime television.

“In terms of African-American actors, I think for a long time, playing leading roles, we primarily only had the opportunities in film,” Chestnut said in between bites of his lunch. “Prior to Black-ish and Empire, and probably Power, there were no black male leads on television.”

And for the past quarter century, Chestnut has been a mainstay in film. The actor first exploded on the scene as Ricky Baker, brother to Doughboy (Ice Cube), in John Singleton’s 1991 debut Boyz n the Hood. Ricky was looking to break out of South Central L.A. with a football scholarship so that he could do better by his family. And the character struck a nerve — Ricky’s heartbreaking death scene is one of the single most talked about moments from the film.

At the time, Chestnut was a fresh-faced 22-year-old with only one small acting credit to his name (a one-off role in an episode of Freddy's Nightmares, the A Nightmare on Elm Street TV series, in 1990). But he used his role in Boyz n the Hood to make a name for himself in Hollywood. He went on to appear on a short-lived NBC series with Patti LaBelle and Vivica A. Fox in the ‘90s. And from there, he racked up impressive roles in films like G.I. Jane, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, and of course, 1999’s The Best Man, in which he played Lance Sullivan, another definitive character that proved Chestnut’s could be a leading man in Hollywood. Even still, as an established frontman, he happily accepted bit parts where he appeared in a mere scene or two, a la 2013’s Identity Thief, as long as it gave him an opportunity to grow professionally.

“I've always taken ego out of the equation and looked at a situation to see how it's going to help or influence my career. A role like Identity Thief was a situation where it was a top producer in Melissa McCarthy. She and Jason Bateman [were] … top box office draws. It was a chance for me to be exposed to a [different] audience,” Chestnut said. “At that time, it was a string of movies that I did, and … I like to keep building upon momentum. This was an opportunity for me to be involved in another big project to keep people talking, to keep the industry talking, to keep the people who are making the decisions on who they're going to cast talking, to keep social media going. A lot of people who have been leads in movies say, ‘I don't want to be a supporting role,’ but sometimes that supporting role can be the thing that jump-starts your career and gets you going in a more positive, fast-momentum direction.”

This feels like a moment. Even though he’s co-starred in films that have nabbed No. 1 at the box office — like the recent hit The Perfect Guy — Chestnut said getting the attention and weekly feedback from his work on Rosewood feels like a career culmination, especially since it has outpaced the network’s expectations. Rosewood averages 7.8 million viewers each week, and Fox gave the series a full season order in mid-October.

Boyz n the Hood.

Columbia Pictures

And the timing couldn’t be better. Chestnut said even if he’d gotten the shot to do a show like this years ago, he wouldn’t have been ready.

“I have matured in the industry; I’m a better actor. You want people to identify you in some type of way — that's how you get opportunities. But what are you going to do with those opportunities when you get them? The Best Man Holiday, I'm not really sure if I could have pulled that off in the late ‘90s. And when we did The Best Man in the late ‘90s, it just wasn't as such an emotional demand on me as a person and as an actor,” he said. “I'm not sure I could have played Rosewood 20 years ago. I don't think that I was ready, I don't think that I could have done it.”

Rosewood creator Todd Harthan said this role was perfect for Chestnut because the show needed someone with his Hollywood credentials in order to pull it off. And it seemed logical that the actor’s box office magic would translate to the small screen.

“We needed somebody that checked a lot of boxes. We needed him to be intelligent, charming without being arrogant. We needed somebody that men would show up and want to watch and want to hang out with, and women would swoon over. It was a tricky piece of casting,” Harthan said. “We also needed somebody we could market and put on a billboard and would look amazing. Morris was the guy, and he filled all those categories. He has been working so consistently in film ... So why now? Hopefully because he was waiting for that thing, a show that he could put on his back and carry. He will tell you that it's grueling to be the face of a show … just the day-to-day being in almost every scene. I think maybe he just wanted to wait for the right time, but luckily it was on a show that I had something to do with.”

And during an October visit to set, it was clear how well suited the actor is to play Dr. Beaumont Rosewood Jr., an in-demand pathologist in private practice. As he did take after take of the same scene on the Manhattan Beach set that’s doubling as Miami Beach, where Rosewood takes place, it was hard not to notice how thoughtful he is. Sometimes he delivered a line with a bit more punch, another time he injected more sarcasm, but gauging by the director’s enthusiasm each time, he nailed it.

The Best Man.

Universal Pictures

Chestnut said he’s especially pleased because with this role, he gets to show off and play to his talents — an opportunity like this doesn’t come around often, he noted. Tension comes both romantically — it’s clear that ultimately, Rosewood and Jaina Lee Ortiz’s character, a detective he’s often paired up with, will cross that line — and dramatically, as the character has a medical condition that doesn’t have a good prognosis.

“We have a mix of comedy, and they always allow me to get back to elements of drama. I have some great scenes with Lorraine Toussaint, who's incredible, and where we really bring a lot of emotion and some pretty deep scenes,” Chestnut said. “He’s smart, he’s intelligent, witty, compassionate; I wanted to be able to play a character like that. Rosewood is much closer to myself than Lance from The Best Man or even any of the other movies I’ve done.”

But the role — a black doctor in a primetime series — is bigger than Morris Chestnut. And he’s well aware. If Rosewood continues to do well, perhaps the next Morris Chestnut doesn’t have to wait quite so long to get here...not that Chestnut is complaining about his own long wait.

“Hopefully we can stay successful and the show becomes successful,” Chestnut said before polishing off the last bit of his lunch. “And hopefully then, it will open up the doors for other people.”

Rosewood airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/7 CT on Fox.