The Wire has
come up in many a rap song since it hit the small screen in 2002, but
it looks the stars of the show were dropping beats too.
In a new interview with Details magazine,
Idris Elba - who played Russell 'Stringer' Bell in the gritty HBO
series - says that he and a few castmates would get together to lay down
some rap tracks.
'Me
and Wood Harris, who played Avon, and Hassan Johnson, who played Wee
Bey, we'd book out a studio and make records of us rapping,' the British
actor explained.
Dropping beats: Idris Elba said he used to record raps with his The Wire co-stars in the new issue of Details
'I'd make the beats and chords - just fun, freestyle stuff.'
As
well as enjoying an expansive movie career which has seen him nominated
for Golden Globes as Nelson Mandela and for his TV work in Luther,
Idris is also a DJ who will play in Ibiza this summer.
Disappointing: The actor said he's found it hard to find roles as challenging as Nelson Mandela
Back in the Big Smoke: Idris has moved back to London after 15 years in America
Filming: He's currently filming One Hundred Streets in London with Gemma Arterton
'You
know, I'd just played this iconic human being, and the scripts I got
afterward were sort of… disappointing,' the actor said.
'Look,
I know that I work a lot, but I'd prefer to wait sometimes because I
don't want to just do rubbish films anymore or characters that anyone
can play.'
He's
recently been filming on location in London, in One Hundred Streets
opposited Gemma Arterton, having moved back to his hometown after 15
years across the pond.
'It's
fascinating now, being back here,' Idris explains. 'It's a real
check-up, you know? I haven't lived here for 15 years, but there's a
familiar feeling I have from before I went to America.'
'This
is where my ambition started, you know? I fell in love with a
movie—some live-action Spider-Man at the Rio in Shoreditch.
Saturday-matinee situation, kids climbing' all over. But I was just
fascinated. I knew from age 10 that this was the industry I wanted to be
in.'
'It's a hunger to get there. I have it here. I feel it again.'
Read the full interview in the new issue of Detail magazine out now
