‘The Perfect Guy’ Actress Sanaa Lathan Disses ‘Emotional’ Men on Singing Debut
Over the past 15 years, Sanaa Lathan has been an in-demand actress, co-starring in several urban dramas – The Best Man Wedding, Love & Basketball, and Brown Sugar. As she unveils her latest film, The Perfect Guy, this weekend, she also reveals that she is also a talented singer.
On Friday, she released a song “Emotional,” produced by Detail, who also helmed Beyoncé’s “7/11” and “Drunk in Love” as well as hits for Lil Wayne, Ray J, and Wiz Khalifa. Inspired by Michael Ealy’s jealous boyfriend character in The Perfect Guy, the song complains about needy and insecure men. Sanaa sings on the rhythmic, piano-ballad, “Baby why you call so early / Always trying to check up on me / Sending all these messages to me / Keep it up you’ll never know me.”
Detail developed the song’s concept as a joke after Sanaa screened The Perfect Guy trailer for a group of friends. “I was looking at the trailer and I said, ‘Wow. That’s an emotional n—ga,” Detail recalls. “Everybody started laughing and Sanaa said, ‘Exactly.’” Detail suggested that they turn the concept into a song, and she agreed.
“The song came out so good,” Detail continues. “We just got excited and she said, ‘Hey, I want to make this a woman thing.’” It was also Sanaa’s idea to feature rapper Dej Loaf on the song. “We sent it to Dej Loaf and she went crazy like, ‘I love this record.’ She recorded it when she came out for the MTV VMAs. This was like 14 days ago.”
Though Sanaa is a new recording artist, she impressed Detail. “When she got in there like the first time, she did very well,” he says. “She got the melody and everything together, the whole run. It was amazing.”
Last year, Detail and Sanaa were introduced by mutual friend French Montana.
