Joell Ortiz Explains His Sanaa Lathan Crush, "She Would Have Mad Fun With Me On A Date"

Slaughterhouse's Joell Ortiz has explained the recent motivation behind his Sanaa Lathan romance tribute "Letter to Sanaa" and how he fell in "love" with the movie actress.

According to Ortiz, he has had a crush on the Hollywood star since the early 2000's.

"Sanaa first got my attention from her performance in the movie Brown Sugar," Ortiz revealed in an interview. "The music, the story the script and most of all the performances were all incredible. It was part of my inspiration to write 'Call Me.' [Brooklyn lounge Bembe] has a live Congo player that plays along with whatever the DJ spins [and] if she were up to it I'd teach her the little Salsa I picked up from hanging out at Copa as a kid. I may not be a Hollywood Rich guy but one thing I know for sure, Sanna would have mad fun with me on a date."
Rhyming over Wu-Tang Clan's "Our Dreams," Ortiz's record details his feelings toward her.

"I've been feeling like this for a while, I ain't even gonna front," he says on the intro. "This is my baby girl right here. If you only knew....You may not know this, but baby you're my Brown Sugar, play me one-on-one, my hands gonna put a foul to you/I'll let you score every basket 'til it's all over/Love & Basketball made you more of an orange soda/You might Crush, sweeter than maple syrup, I got a chance to meet your dad while I was playing Europe..."
Aside from romance, Ortiz recently exposed his issues with record label E1 Music.

"little known fact-E1 also jamming me up from doing a major, major deal as part of Slaughterhouse. so they aint getting FREEAGENT," he wrote Sunday (March 21). "E1 is f*cking c*ckblocking us from doing something monumental for our fans and our careers. I dont give a f*ck who gets mad. its the truth im sick of the behind the scenes politics. Its time to expose certain bloodsuckers to some light. enough is enough. E1 steady telling me I suck cause I dont make DJ Khaled music at the same time they try to block me from eating elsewhere. @AlCaponeJBTV yes but they got me jammed up for another album so they saying I cant record as part of the collective anywhere else this week, I go in. Mark my words. E1 holding good brothers up cause of my agreement. its not fair to Slaughterhouse It's all bullsh*t. they told me it would be cool to do whatever if we gave em Slaughterhouse album. they slept on slaughterhouse movement. Im out. Manager calling my fone like crazy. someone musta said something...lmao. SNITCHeSSSSSS!! yoawa to be fair, e1 is not the only people blocking theres another bozo involved. one."
Last October, Joell addressed the rumor of Slaughterhouse being in talks to sign with Shady Records.

"Man, that would be a blessing," Joell said about bringing his team to Shady Records. "It would be a blessing [to have] a deal with someone of that caliber, someone who gets it. Eminem is a hip-hopper, hardcore. He would be one of the few guys that would 'get' [and understand] Slaughterhouse. It would be [fitting.]"
Check out Joell Ortiz's "Letter to Sanaa" below: