Pop culture references have always been pervasive in hip hop. Movies and TV shows in particular provide great content to flip into witty bars. Logic has a song named after Keanu Reeves. Benny The Butcher channeled the spirit of iconic Joe Pesci characters for a track. J.I.D. has a whole two projects that pay homage to Leonardo DiCaprio. When you think of rap songs that reference actors though, Migos' "Forest Whitaker" will likely come to mind pretty quickly. The Atlanta trio did a stellar job sticking to theme, delivering rhymes that played on Whitaker's well-known roles and notable physical traits.
"Forest Whitaker" dropped back in 2016, but we're only now getting its namesake's reaction to the shout-out. The actor appeared on MSNBC's The Beat with Ari Melber to promote the new TV series he's starring in, The Godfather of Harlem, and the opportunity finally arose for him to address the Migos song. Whitaker explained how he found out about it from his daughter and was surprised to hear it. “The first time I think I heard it, my daughter called me from school, and told me they’re playing this song, and I listened to it. It’s really pretty brilliant how they took all of these films I’ve done and put them together in this amazing song, that’s quite surprising actually,” he said.
Swizz Beatz is curating the soundtrack for The Godfather of Harlem and has already called upon some heavy-hitters to make some original songs for it.