Black America Breaking News for the African American Community
Related Articles
Lifetime has found a way to piss off another former spouse of hip-hop royalty.
Faith Evans is mad as a Mickey Fickey about Lifetime’s new documentary Hopelessly In Love: Biggie and Faith Evans, detailing her life with late rap kingpin, Notorious B.I.G.
The Grammy Award winner revealed to Page Six’s Carlos Greer that she got hoodwinked into participating in the “sensational” project, which is set to air on Jan. 10 on the same network that is seemingly bleeding out its award-winning Surviving R. Kelly franchise this weekend.
“I feel upset that I’m attached to it,” Evans confided.
“I was told that it would be a positive piece with a little more of my personal background,” she continued. “It wasn’t pitched to me as a story rehashing the sensationalized events that took place.”
The female-centric network came under criticism from Kelly’s ex-wife, Andrea Kelly who alleged the network exploited the women who participated in the first Surviving R. Kelly docu-series. According to TMZ, the former dancer said she is pursuing legal actions against Lifetime for misleading audiences by promoting that she’s in the new round of the dream Hampton-produced series.
A trailer for the two-hour film — a part of the network’s three-part series also featuring the mismatched romances of late TLC frontwoman Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes and former football star Andre Rison, and late Playboy model turned reality star Anna Nicole Smith and her manager Larry Birkhead — describes Evans and B.I.G.’s relationship as “the most controversial love story in hip-hop history, told by those who lived it.”
“I am beyond that and have no need to open old wounds, damage repaired relationships and, above all, soil the legacy of Christopher Wallace a k a the Notorious B.I.G.,” she said.
In marketing materials, the series promote that “Faith Evans is ready to confront her pain and revisit the most intimate moments of their relationship . . . from their whirlwind engagement, to Biggie’s ongoing affairs with Lil’ Kim and Charli Baltimore, to the East Coast-West Coast rivalry that led to Tupac and Big’s deaths.”
Evans is calling foul about how the finished product has turned out – and how it’s being sold to viewers.
“The Tupac stuff, the different women — how many times are people going to talk about that? It was supposed to be a love story, and it turns into cheating and [Lil’] Kim. We’ve come so far past that. [Lifetime’s] all about drama,” Evans said.
The “I’ll Be Missing You” songstress– who recently starred in Mona Scott Young’s wildly popular Love & Hip Hop franchise — is a co-administrator of the late Bad Boy Records rapper’s estate and the mother of their son, budding actor Christopher Jordan Wallace.
Currently married to producer Steven “Stevie J” Jordan, Evans claimed the Entertainment One-produced documentary uses a lot of old footage edited to ramp up the drama.
She told Greer that Voletta Wallace, B.I.G.’s mother, is not happy with the project either.
“Ms. Wallace is pissed. Everyone was blindsided. She has worked very hard for his legacy to be acknowledged in a more positive light. He’s nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. This [doc] is taking steps backward.”
Although she’s listed as an executive producer of the project, Evans said she won’t promote the episode.
“It’s about my morals. I would never do business I’m not proud of at this point in my career. I’m not happy,” she said.
B.I.G. was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles in the early hours of March 9, 1997.
His murder remains unsolved.
Also known as “Biggie Smalls,” the Brooklyn native’s legend has lived on in pop culture, with music, television and film projects.
In 2017, Rhino Entertainment released The King & I, a collaborative album pairing new recordings by Evans with previously recorded tracks from B.I.G. and featuring Lil’ Kim, Snoop Dogg, Jadakiss, Busta Rhymes and Lil’ Cease.
In 2019, Very Smart Brothers ranked him as #1 on their list of 50 Greatest Rappers Ever Alive.
A rep for Lifetime didn’t respond Page Six’s requests for comment about Evans’ criticism.
Source link
