LL Cool J will take the stage at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas next week. Other hip hop icons Public Enemy, Ice Cube, and Doug E. Fresh will join LL for what promises to be a hot show. “It’s just going to be really authentic and just a lot of energy,” LL told VIBE.  “It’ll be generational. You’ll see parents bringing their kids and people who are seeing some of us perform for the first time, along with people who are seeing Public Enemy and Cube perform a thousand times. It’ll be a nice mixture of people.”

Tonya Lewis-Lee, wife of director Spike Lee, will follow in her hubby’s footsteps  by jumping into the movie biz for the first time. Lewis-Lee will produce a screen adaptation of the novel The Watkins go to Birmingham, a story based around a Flint, Michigan family visiting Birmingham during the 1960s.

Nick Cannon will put his family-friendly image aside to portray drug kingpin Ricky Ross in a biopic about about the notorious drug lord’s life. The film, which rumor has it will be written by “Blow” screenwriter Nick Cassavestes is still in the planning stages, but Ross is said to have handpicked Cannon to play him in the movie. Ross told All Hiphop  not to expect a film glorifying the drug lifestyle, but instead will be a true look at the inner workings of the drug trade and how it destroyed children and families in the 1980s. Ross and Cannon will also work together with his non-profit organization, the Freeway Literacy Foundation.

Twin moms Tia Mowry-Hardrict and Tamera Mowry-Housely don the cover of Essence Magazine’s April issue while showing off their sons—Tia’s Cree, 20 months and Tamera’s Aden, 3 months. The two dish inside the magazine on marriage, motherhood and their reality show, Tia and Tamera. “I’ve always wanted to be a mother. I’m a nurturer, a girly girl,” says Tamera. “I know my priorities: God, family and work … When those things are in check, the work will flow.”