Spike Lee has hit out at music executives who encourage rappers to pretend they have a criminal past to boost their career.
The filmmaker's newest movie Passing Strange follows a middle-class man forced to pretend he's from the ghetto to succeed.
Lee insists the trend has become a common practice among rappers desperate to earn respect from urban audiences.
He tells 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 (University),' and the other says he just got out of Rikers (Island, prison). The label will sign the guy that just came out of Rikers.
"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."
Tagged in Spike Lee