Movies
Rex Features
The Do The Right Thing director's latest movie Passing Strange follows the story of a middle-class man forced to pretend he is from the 'ghetto' to succeed.
Lee told the New York Daily News: "I think what we talk about really applies more to rap artists. I always thought about this experiment: two rappers who have the same, identical skills lyrically and rapping, trying to get a label deal.
"One says, 'I graduated Harvard', and the other says he just got out of Rikers (prison). The label will sign the guy that just came out of Rikers."
He added: "A lot of these cats come from middle-class backgrounds, but say, 'I was on the corner, slinging, caught up for gun possession', making s**t up literally. It's crazy, this whole gangsta mentality. If you're college-educated, you're trying to be white, talk white."
Lee recently declared that his long-discussed biopic of James Brown "will happen".
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At the Movies
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Box Office Charts
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