Morgan Freeman is opening up about how he was tapped to become the narrator on 21 Savage and Metro Boomin’s Savage Mode II album.
In an interview with GQ, the legendary actor says he took the opportunity to be featured on the LP to break out of his “nice guy” image. “What happens is you sort of get locked into a position,” the Lean On Me actor explained. “Henry Fonda was in it, Spencer Tracy was in it, James Stewart was in it, even though he played a couple of bad guys. You don’t really don’t want to be cast into a mold, but after a few years, it’s bound to happen. Every [offer] that’s outside of what you consider [your] mold is fun to do. I got to jump at it.”
Freeman read the script and said it was in line with how he thinks. “I read the copy and was like, ‘Wow, there’s some wisdom in here,’” he continued. “I think this is the way I think. It’s basically saying don’t suffer fools and when you want something go for that,” he said, adding, “If [21 Savage’s music] is a young people thing, then this is stuff they need to be aware of. So, it’s a good thing to do.”
Savage Mode II dropped on Oct. 2 and is projected to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart — beating out Bryson Tiller’s Anniversary and BLACKPINK’s The Album. The project is slated to garner 21’s strongest numbers to date.
On “Snitches & Rats (Interlude),” Freeman detailed the difference between a rat and a snitch. “A regular citizen who reports seeing a crime isn’t a snitch or a rat,” he said on the track. “The criminals were just sloppy. Snitches and rats are not the same thing. Let me break it down to make sure y’all see what I mean.”
He continued, “A snitch is someone minding other folks’ business. To find information they can sell for a price or trade for some other form of compensation. A rat is a traitor, a conceiver, planner or physical participator. He doesn’t sell secrets for power or cash. He betrays the trust of his team or his family hoping to save his own cowardly ass. The difference is, at least a snitch is human, but a rat is a fuckin’ rat, period.”