You know Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o. Now meet Troublemaker, the rap alter-ego she introduced during a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
In the clip uploaded to YouTube on Monday (October 7), Nyong’o revealed that she secretly raps under the moniker which Common had given her. “I was baptised Troublemaker by Common, so I feel like it’s legit,” Nyong’o told Fallon. “And [rapping] is something I do in the car.”
Later, after much prompting from Fallon, Nyong’o gave the audience a preview of her skills on the mic with a freestyle where she name-dropped Beyoncé and Jay-Z. “Much love to the Carters / Hov and Beyoncé / They always big me up in a big way / I’m a brown skin girl so that means a lot / Hov said we made it, got an Oscar for my props,” she rapped.
“I am a fraud,” Nyong’o joked after her performance. “I feel like in my past I’m supposed to be a rapper, but I’m not. I just do it for fun. I like to play a rapper, but I’m really not one.” Check out her freestyle below:
This isn’t Nyong’o’s debut as Troublemaker. In 2016, the actress demonstrated on Instagram her impeccable flow over an instrumental of Nas’ ‘N.Y. State of Mind’, proving she could handle a beat. In 2018, she also posted a car freestyle with her Black Panther co-star Letitia Wright.
Recommended
Elsewhere in the Fallon interview, Nyong’o revealed she was surprised to learn that she was referenced in Beyoncé’s lyrics for the song, ‘Brown Skin Girl’, which featured on the pop star’s ‘The Lion King: The Gift’ album.
Nyong’o is currently promoting her new movie Little Monsters, which is expected to premiere in the UK and Ireland in November.